Evening Star Newspaper, January 2, 1897, Page 20

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1897-24 PAGES, TYPES OF SPA SPAIN OF TODAY: - — A Backward, Undeveloped Country, | Rather Than a Decadent Race. ss | INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDED The Typical Spaniard Described as Industrious and Physically Robust. BA DLY of The Evening Star. MADRID, December i INSTEAD raising a million p prosecute in ¢ which every don 1896 © war of ita powerful nation. It might be, in the bet- tomorrow.” non of these the read! with cultcre, catching at a mselves and each other “decadents,” even ations under the oppro- No one is more ready to to his own people than a 4 no toiiers with the ave ever given a more discouraging re of their cwn people than have mod- sts like Valdes. They may ic. It may be more seasoa- more cheerful, to iook upon times of is or i possibilities than as a decadent is easy en to recognize upon the y Spanish city the types de- the realists; the irascible old ed in impenetrable pride in his ; the slender, pale young man sion in life fs to finger a guitar; hosts of petty officials, and the men i. eruel faces who bear in their all the cynicism of centuries of One even catches glimpses of of the novels, busy with the petty details of small gossip. as absurd to judge Spain by such types as to judge the United States by the city corner loafer. I know not what gicomy impression of America’s future might be drawn by a foreign student cf Tenderloin types in New York or a glance at certain of our periodicals. They Are Hard Workers. Spaniard is not a loafer. but hard at work from dawn That his work is not more pro- ductive ts partly at least the fault of about the worst government conceivable. There are several Spanish provinces in which good tobacco can be raised. In a single one of these the government has recently shown its paternal care of industry by rooting 4,000,000 growing plants. To raise n is forbidden in order that get money for {ts es from the import duties Havana. Without good roads. good hools or good tools. the wonderful results. ets of an Intolerably But it would be cultivated more than an nation except Russia. of farme Her people are like French peasa little ai ry nearly all t pack. even in level tricts where wagon roads mig proved; they use wood- Rom: pattern, which atch the soil without turning it; but lo work. Their beef and mutton are Fruit of many kinds is raised, © extensive plantations of olives 1 and gr for wine, and, except in ter of the country has plen- of resources to develop. re development {s taking place, it {s Eng’ capital. The finest ts preduced on property owned by as Englishmen’ control oduction of Portugal. re owned and run by lroads are partly own- sts. If the haughty r pesetas into addi- English re to put t oads iy into improving harbors at Zar Isewhere; into factories and is and moder: rm implements—the ‘ht be far better off than it is It ought to he as possible for as it was for Italy, de- ead Nineveh as re- of Open Air Life. trong peop! Span’ anything is possible, rds are strong. There are folk in has abandoned fi % for mining and manufacturing to s n extent that the typical Englishman man, but he who works with S$ rather small, pale and unde! in cities. The rural Irish- cker, as the records of en- © queen's army show. The @ is rather like the Irish- looking and well grown, 2 open air. But the rich Span- f will not compare favor- in physique with the splendid big itons who are the product of centuries ntiful food ond exercise. ves outdoors, while the little athes coal dust or cotton lint In Spain the poor man is strong and lives out of doors, whi In both it fs the rich man that one mostly about, and the corner loafer who is but it is the workingman who the rich man is pale and slight. countrie reads most visible counts, The True Race Type. Even in the south, where intermarriage the Moors was most frequent and the sun is hottest, the Spaniards are not all of the dark and sallow type. Many of the mest beautiful women of Andalusia have reddish-brown hair. In Castile, as Ameri- can readers will remember in the case of the Spanish Infanta Eulalia, pure blonde types are common, especially in the aristo- cratic familiss, The Gallegons of the north, ihe hardy mountaineers who alone in ali Spain were never con and who under Pelayo, bekan the Mocee? ® all knows to hopeless, the aniards were to t their attention to the development f their own country they might yet make | at, rich and | end-of- | ards as a splendid race with un-! up- | Spanish farmer | i into improving those | years ago; or Japan, | tages, after all, in being an agricul-| rich man fs big andi NISH PEASANTS. | mans and Moors. black-eyed, i strain, after ation, must have been considerable, traces of Spanish blood are seen on a de of the strait. The pure- tred Moor, even now. is ro darker than are hany Englishmen. ‘Othello on the stage reeds no burnt cork to be true to the Ife. The war in Cuba impoverishes Spain in another way than by diverting capital from i The draft of her country boys y leaves women to till the t as crossing tenders on the ‘ays, and to do other hard or unusual | work. For 1,500 pesetas—scarcely more than 25, as the Spanish notes have depreciated —the recruit can buy release from service. The cerner lounger of the city, who never would be missed, can generally raise the money. or claim’ some sort of exception. The country boy, who can il be spared, cannot get money. and is less shrewd at framing excuses. It is a half-grown lot of | cubs, ill-trained and iil-armed, who are | sen die in Cuba. | Some National Traits. | Whoever wants to see what Spanish sol- rs are like physically should see a gar- rison regiment at drill, or gather impres- | Sions of the splendid Guardias Civtles, than | Whom no finer body of men can anywhere | be found. And whoever wants to see Span- ish character and the Spanish country at | their best should not judge them by the squalor and destitution in sight from Gib- | rallar rock or from the limping and blear- eyed beggars who dog the tourist, but get cut among the real people. He ‘will find | them polite and kindly, not so reserved as Englishmen. as merry as the French, hon- t and reliable. He will find, if American, | Rot one trace of bitterness of feeling toward him on that ground. He will find a scmewhat inordinate nationa! pride, which | will serve its possessors well if it can be c made an incentive for them to bestir them- se]ves. Gut of this great national crisis good may | come for Spain. It may be that the Ices | of Cuba will sting Spain into getting along better without her. The national debt is | not as heavy in proportion as Italy's, and ; the natural resources of the country are | probably greater. There is recognition of | this fact by Spaniards. There is a project | afoot for developing a new port near Cadiz, | where ships can lie at wharves instead of | bemg loaded from small boats. It would cost millions. but that 1s a trifle compared with a war of ignominy like that now rag- | ing. More railroads are imperatively needed, and the existing lines should be double- tracked. It is rather absurd that between Madrid and Cadiz, capital and chief At- lantic port of the kingdom. express trains run in either direction only every other day. Experimental farms and agricultural colleges like those of the United States would do Spain a world of good by familiar- izing her people with the use of modern machinery and with better methods of | tillage. All this would cost not more than the government could easily spare. } , But this brings us face to face with the | fact that. more than all else, Spain need: something which she has not had for many years—a decent government. How to get that is, after all. the great problem. JOHN LANGDON HEATON. - Sere USEFUL TATTOOING. Suggested as a Practical Mark for Purposes of Identificatio: Why shouid we not ali of us be identified from youth upward by a tattooed mark? asks the Boston Home Journal. Men who travel have often found difficulty in getting | checks cashed in etrange places, and wo- | men who entertain are frequently taken in } by ‘‘distinguished guests” who prove to be any persons except the distinguished ones | €xpected. A tattoo mark, registered some- where and placed on record so as not to be , imitated without punishment from the law, | would be every bit as useful on human be- | ings as the brand fs on cattle. Human beings, when disassociated from their usual attire and surroundings, are dis- | tinguished from each other with even more difficulty than attends the picking out of a particular cow or horse from a large num- | ber. It was Thomas Hughes who declared | that a man would refuse to recognize his ; best friend if the latter was set down in | ragged clothing at a street crossing—and he was right. Men escape justice easily by such simple devices as shaving the mus- tache or growing a beard, and the lady in stageland who isn’t recognized by her own family merely because she puts on a dif- ferent colored dress is not unknown in real life. A Philadelphia man has been discov- ered with his name and address tattboed on | his arm, and he takes great pleasure in getting checks cashed at banks where he is unknown by merely exhibiting his arm. | Properly arranged, the name and address | of a fair debutante, with her family crest | and a few incidentals added, would not dis- | guise her above-glove arm, and similar markings would be very useful, for all the | boys who went in for athletics and who de- sired to be known to the world better than was possible through letters pinned on the back and bound to blow off during the first bit of wind. —-+0+ RACING IN MIDOCEAN. Three Square-Riggers Bowling Along, Yards to Yards. Frem the San Francisco Exam!ner. The crew of the British ship Inveramsay, that came into port last night, reported witnessing an exciting race between three | big ships in midocean. It was on December |1, while the Inveramsay was beating against @ head wind on her way from | Swansea to this port in latitude 12:30 north | @nd longitude 118 west, when the lookout warned the watch of these vessels on the | Weather beam. Just the top spars of three square-rigged vessels could be seen above j the horizon bearing down almost upon the | Inveramsey, with a stiff breeze aimost dead astern. As soon they came within speaking @stance they hoisted their signal numbers. | They were the American shi Puritan, the | Britsh ship Roes-shire and the British | ship Cromartyshire. The three vessels left | this ort on November 21, each with a cargo | of grain. The Puritan is bound for Hull, the Ross-shire for London and the Cromar- tyshire for Queenstown. They were bound | out to sea within an hour of each other, and a race to the British ports commenced. | The three ships have records as fast - | ers, and some idea of how evenly matehed | they are can be obtained from the fact that after rac.ng for cver 2,000 miles they were abreast of each other, and all of them | carrying all the canvas they could crowd on. The American ship was fiying her col- ors from the mizzen peak, while at her | masthead were the signal flags, |= and you will make port.” The Ross- shire was asking her two companions with her flags !f they wanted a tow, while the Cromartyshire “was signaling, with me and you will be all rig! Vaated Information. From the New York Weekly, Mrs. Grubber—“Well, well! What fools these editors be!" Mr. Grubber—“Eh?”" Mrs. Grubber—“Here I writ a letter to the editor of the Punkinville Trumpet askin’ what would be a proper an’ inexpensive thing to git = weddin’ present an’ quest of the country, are a tty pure} in the Celle race, comparable to the Wel or | bund: Highland Scotch in their traits. The mixture of Visigoths and Celts, Ro- then a delier.” JANUARY HEAVENS Central Figure Among the Oonstel- lations Called the Mighty Orion. REVEALING A VAST NEBULAR VORTEX Some Recent Ideas as to What Cosmic Dust is. ABOUT THE PLANETS = Written for The Evening Star. HE CENTRAL FIG- ure among the con- stellations on a win- ter evening {s Orion, the “mighty Orion,” as he was styled by iomer centuries ago; the “stormy Orion,” as he was habitually called by the Greeks and Romans of a later period. Every one is familiar with this imposing figure, which hangs in the hea «se a gigantic letter X. Tomor- row night at about 9 o'clock this prince of constellations will be found in midheavens toward the southeast. Orion is not only a splendid constellation, attractive to the ancient star-gazers be- cause of its striking and suggestive figure sort “has yet been discoveréd. The usual “nebula lines’ are but three in number, and though others are ‘found in some of the nebulae—that in Orion, for example—they are few at most. These lines indicate either Natural gases or vapors of elements that. are ‘volatilized_at a low temperature. Hydregen seems tbe present in-all of the nebulae. Respeeting a second element to which is due ‘ond 6f the three fines re- ferred to above, it isa question whether it is nitrogen or ma um. The’ entire ab- sence of the lines $f iron and other in- tractable substarce@’{s evidence that either these substances do-tiot exist in the nebula or that its temperature: is not sufficiently Ligh to volatilize them and render them luminous. % What ts the Nebula. Must we then give up the idea‘that the nebulae are “world stuff?” Mr. J. Norman Lockyer and those who accept, at least provistonally, his ‘‘meteoritic theory” say not. According to this view a nebulae is an enormous mass of minute bodies or small: particles of matter, similar to those which the earth is continually encounter- ing in its course round the sun, and which we know as meteors, or meteorites. These small bodies, floating in space as an enor- mous cloud of cosmic dust, would be in- visible but for the fact that they are in motion among themselves and are continu- ally colliding with one another, producing by their impacts heat and light. As long as the. meteors are sparse and their move- ments: slow, the collisions are infrequent and not violent, and only their more vola- tle constituents are vaporized and rendered luminous. The faint glow which in con- sequence envelops the whole mass is what we see and call a nebula. But this condition cannot last forever, according ta Mr Lockyer. The mass is slowly condensing under the force of grav- ity. The collisions are becoming more fre- quent and more violent. The temperature of the mass is rising. A time must come when it will have become so condensed and so hot that even iron and other metals will be volatilized. It will no longer be a nebula, but it will be looked upon by the astronomer as a star, though differing from most stars in giving a spectrum of a peculiar type. Such a star is Betelgeuse, A Planisphere of the Heavens, at 9 p.m. Showing the Principal Stars which are above ithe Horizon January and brilliant with stare, of which two are of the first magnitude, but it has also proved to be of especial interest from an astronomical point of view. Foremost among its attractions is its great nebula, an object which probably has received more attention from astronomers than any other in the heavens outside the limits of the soiar system. Unfortunately for us, it is in- visible to the naked eye, and is barely dis- cernible through an opera glass, but we can fix our eyes on the spot where it is—marked on the planisphere—and imagine, if we have not access to a photograph of it, “a light stain of indescribable glory, a vast volume of bluish gaseous material with hues of infinite softness and delicacy, here present- ing luminous tracts which glow with an exquisite Hght, there graduating off until it is impossible to say where the nebula ceases and the black sky begins.” It 1s true that this indescribable object is referred to by Prof. Ball, who is familiar with its appearance in the field of the great telescope of Lord Rosse. With no telescope, however, can this and kindred objects be seen as they have been depicted by photography. Thanks to its ability to look for hours at a single spot, and, unlike the human eye, to see more the longer it looks, the telescope camera has not only laid its grasp upon invisible out- lying portions of the long-known nebulae, and has seen in these mist-like objects an astonishing amount of structural detail— gaps, wisps, whorls of nebulus matter— which are quite beyond the power of the eye to discern in looking at the objects themselves, but it has also discovered other nebulae, which cannot be seen even now by direct vision through a telescope. This whole constellation has been found by this means to be so rich in nebulae, nebulous stars and “‘nebulosities” that it has been aptly described as a “vast nebular vortex.” The Spiral Nebu! The location and general form of the great “spiral nebula,” first brought out on a photograph taken by Prof. W. H. Pick- ering at Wilson's Peak, in 1889, and sub- sequently on one taken at Mount Hamil- ton by Prof. Barnard, is indicated by a dotted Hine on our chart. Beginning near e star Bellatrix it curves downward on the left to the star Saiph, and then, cury- ing inward and upward, seems to include the so-called ‘Great Nebula” in its vortex. Its general form is that of the figure 6. The nebula is exceedingly faint, utterly im- perceptible to the eye, and it does not ap- pear continuous through the whole length of the spiral, even on the photographic plate. But its general appearance is such as to render it highly probable that it is really continuous throughout, and it is, perhaps, the grandest object which has hitherto been discovered in the heavens. ‘The question has been raised whether the Orion nebula Hes in the midst of the stars which form the constellation or is merely in the same line of sight, either cn this side of them or beyond them. Among the reasons for thinking that it lies in the midst of thee stars, and that it has a close physical association with them, is the fact that many of the stars of Orion agree in having a certain spectrum line, which ap- pears to coincide in position with one >f the bright lines of the nebula, and which has been observed in but one star in any other part of tke heavens. This region, therefore, would seem to constitute, in a Manner, a distinct department of the uni- “the spectrosccpe has shown conclusively that the faint glow of a nebula comes from matter in a gaseous form, and not, as was formerly thought by many stronomers, from an aggregation of stars, invisible sep- arately because of their smallness or their remoteness from us. But while the spec- troscope has proved the existence of true nebulae it has at the same time necessi- tated some modification of the view of a nebula held by Herschel and La Place. The cld concepticn of a nebula was that it was a mass of gases at an inconceivably high temperature, containing in this form the material of future worlds. Condensed Into Planets. As this gaseous mass parted with its heat and contracted its dimensions {t would gradually be Lroken up under the operation of mechanical ferees and its revolving frag- ments would eventually cool and condense into planets, with their satellites, while the central poe of the mass, reduced by contraction to the merest fraction of the nebula’s original volume, would remain still glowing as a sun. Upon this supposition the great nebula out of which was evolved the solar syetem must have contained, in the form of luminous gases, all of the ele- ments row found in the earth's composi- tion, and which are also detected by the eropcape in Ihe stmospbere of: the Could it have been examined by the as: in the right shoulder of, Orion, which upon this theory has not yet, reached the condi- tion of a sun, but is.only a dense mass of red-hot meteoric stones. But such a mass will become still;more compact and still hotter. In time, it, will become wholly gaseous, and in the gourse of this pro- cess, as its temperature rises its color will change, It will become a yellow star, and finally a blusowatie @tar, such as Rigel and Sirfue. Then it will begin slowly to cool off. It will again become a yellow star, such as Capela and our own sun. Then, as it cools stilt farther, it will be- come a seccnd time a red star, its spectrum indicating strongly the presence of the carbon compounds in its atmosphere. Fin- ally {t will cease to emit light. It will be- come extinct as a luminary. Such, in brief, is the history of a world, upon the meteoric theory. The Planets. Mercury will be visible as an evening star low in the southwest during the first two weeks of the month. Near the close of the mcnth it will make its appearance as a morning star in the southeast. Venus now shines with her well-known brilliancy in the southwest, and is above the horizon for nearly three hours after the sun has set. She is near her great- est eastern elongation, and presents in a telescope the phase of the moon at about the first auarter. Mars, in the constellation Taurus,crosses the meridian nearly overhead at about 10 p.m. The planet was in “opposition” to the sun on the 10th of last month, but our nearest approach to it was made six days earlier, when our distance from it was, in round numbers, 52,000,000 miles. This is more than 10,000,000 miles greater than our least distance from It in 1894. All observations thus far reported are confirmatory of those made two years ago. The same seasonal changes, the same suc- cessive appearance and mysterious dou- bling of the canal have been wit- nessed this year as then. That Mars has vegetation upon it and very little water, and that the greenish color of those dark areas formerly supposed to be seas, Is due, in part at least, to its vegeta- tion, while its orange areas are desert reg- ions, except where traversed by canals or dotted with “oases,” seems now to be fairly well established. At the last opposition the planet’s south pole was toward us, and its north pole was invisible. At the present time the north pole is tilted slightly toward us, and the north polar cap, though not very large, ts distinctly visible. It is now about the ‘be- girning of April in the northern hemis- phere of Mars, and the beginning of Octo- ter in its southern. Jupiter, in Leo, now rises about 10 p.m. Already he ts in a good position for scan- ning with a telescope, and is a rival of Venus as an evening star. Saturn and Uranus, in Scorpio, rise at about 4 a.m. Neptune is in Taurus, some ten degrees east of Mars, but is, of course, far beyond the reach of the naked eye.” Minima of Algol convenient for observing ‘will occur on the 12th, at 10 p.m., and on the 15th at 7 p.m. Mira will probably have passsed its maximum before the first of the month. ‘The star's position is shown on the planisphere. ai A recent dispatch:from the Lick observa- tory announces that Professor Schaeberle has discovered a companion of Procyon. The discovery is of,especial interest, since Bersel nearly forty years ago explained a certain variability in this star's proper mo- tion on the supposition: that it had an in- visible satellite of considerable mass re- volving round it, as,Peters had already ex- plained a like irregwiarity in the movement of Sirius. The companion of Sirius was diecovered nearly ten: years later—in 1862— by Alvan Clark, while,testing a new tele- scope. It remains tp be;determined wheth- er the star seen by,Schaeberle is the body discovered mathematically by Bessel. It is ofthe thirteenth magnitude, and is, there- fore, about equal in brightness to the fifth satellite of Jupiter,;diseovered by Barnard in 1892. nos Satistactdry °Answers. From the Pittsburg Chronicle. “You are a producer of petroleum, I be- Neve?” > , “I would Mike to ask you a question or two.’ sells high it deal of activity in ‘Why is that?” sees drilling. “That. question is easily answered. We want to take all the advant we of We prices. That is Daiural oneugh ine “No doubt it is; but whén the price of off is ow sagt, ctors are abutting ee es nave, to i iengeoed 2.0 rE WEIGHT OF BRAINS ‘Some Recent Investigations in the Animal World. ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET Curious Details About the Habits of Nest Building Fish. ee ees TRA INING LOCOMOTIVES A PAPER, “PRE- liminary Studies Up- on the Brain Weight of Mammals,” Prof. Max Weber of Am- sterdam gives some very interesting facts regarding the abso- lute weight of the brain in different an- imals, and the rela- tion which the weight of the brain holds to the weight of the body at large. It should be said that Professor Weber's researches are the most extensive that have ever been made on the subject, and they correspondingly emphasize the value of his conclusions. He finds that in absolute brain weights man is surpassed only by the elephant’s and whale’s; but in relative weight—i. e., in the ratio of brain weight to body weight—he 1s sur- passed by the squirrels and mice, and by many forms of both old world and new world menkeys. It is found, too, as the result of a com- parison of the smaller and larger quadru- beds, that the brain weight does not in- crease In proportion to the body weight; on the cortrary, it may be accepted as a general rule, that within any natural or- der of mammals the brain weight dimin- ishes as the body weight increases. In other words, within any special group the smaller the animal, the larger as a rule is the brain. As a supplement to Prof. Weber's re- searches, it should be said that no abso- lute relationship has yet been determined to exist between the size of the brain and mental capacity, the latier being largely, or even principally, dependent upon the quality of the brain material; but, in a general way, it may be admitted that the larger the brain in proportion to the body, the greater will be the amount of brain force gererated by it. In tracing the evolution of certain life forms—the mammals, for example, it is interesting to note how comparatively small were the brains of the fish appearing species, and how steadily they advanced in size with the progress of time. In some of the Eocene Dinoscerata, for example, animals which nearly equaled the elephant in size, the brain was so small that 1t could have been passed through the neural arches of the lumbar or sacred vertebral. In the giant Jurassic reptile Brontosaurus, which measured probably fifty feet in length, the entire weight of the skull does not appear to have exceeded that of the fourth vertebra of the neck. Mediterranean Sen Level. ‘Two pecullarities have for many years been assumed for the Mediterranean basin; that it was practically deficient in tide, and that its surface was depressed a meter or more below that of the Atlantic ocean. ‘lhe first supposition has had seemingly only careless or imperfect observation for its basis, as it is now well known that the tidal oscillations of the water are consi erable and well marked at many localities. The assumed depression of the water level was seemingly grounded on accurate meas- urements, made at different times, and Was confirmed by Bourdaloue who in 1860 was charged by the French government to cerry a series of levels through France for the purpose of establishing datum lines in the interior dircctly referable to the mean level of the sea at Marseilles. A confirmation of the difference of levels was thought to be found in the steady in- flow of surface water through the Straits of Gibraltar, a condition that is well known to be antagonized by the counter currents which are found at no great depth beneath the surface. The cause of this low-lying level, as compared with the level of the At- lantic ocean, was considered te be the ex- cess of evaporation over precipitation and inflows due to a uniformly dry and hot climate, and the passage across the basin of water-absorbing winds coming from the superheated African desert. Through the use of instruments of a high er degree of precision than had former! been employed, especially the medimare- meier, a differential registering contrivance devised by M. Lallemand, the present hea. of the “leveling commission” of France—it his recently been determined that the dif- ference in level which has so generally beén accepted and long figured as a teaching of all text books of geography, does not, in fact, exist. In other words, the Mediter- ranean sea holds the same level as the At- lantic ocean; furthermore, the concurrent results of observations made at different parts of the littoral Europe and Africa, as on the Danish, Italian and African coast: would seem to indicate that an absolutely (or very nearly that) uniform level is main- tained over nearly all parts of the Euro- pean seas. Who Invented the Alphabet. Working in the Island of Crete, where he has made a series of discoveries wh have shed new light on the origin of Euro- pean civilization, Arthur J. Evans, the em- inent English archaeologist, has discovered fragments of an inscription which carries back the discovery of writing for centuries beyond the date hitherto assigned. Not merely this, but the home of the invention, commonly awarded to the ingenious Phoen- icians, is transferred to another race, the mysterious and prehistoric Mycenaeans, whose remains now constitute the most in- teresting problem of antiquity. A year ago at the Oxford meeting of the British Association, Evans demonstrated the existence of prehistoric Cretan script, evolved by gradual simplification and se- lection from an earlier “picture writing” — akin to that of Egypt and Babylon. This script is first found in association with the curious seals and scarabs which the an- clents were fond of carving, and which have themselves served to trace the ad- vancement of art and proximately the his- tory of these early people. Succeeding this primitive script came another more con- ventionalized and often linear, revealing the progress made in the art. In his last explcring tour, however, Evans brought to light an inscribed historic relic far surpassing these in interest and im- portance. It consists of a fragment of what may be described as a steatite or scapstone table of offerings to Zeus, bearing a part of what appears to be a dedication of nine letters, with two punctuation marks, an- swerirg to the ime early Cretan script found in the sea! It was found in the Icwest level of Mycenaen stratum, contain- ing rumerous native objects, in the great cave of Mt. Dikta, which, according to the Greek legend, was the birthplace of Zeus. An Early Record. This early script precedes, by centuri the most ancient records of Phoenician writing, and supplies very close analogies to what may be supposed to have been the Pictorial prototypes of several of the Phoe- nician characters. It stands, on the other hand, in direct relation to the syllabic char- acters used at a later date by the Greeks in Cyprus. About half the characters used by the Cretans are believed sented in the fragment, and, if this be true, the Phoenicians, who borrowed this alphabet, added but little to it, since their own contained but sixteen characters. In the succeeding improvement, through Homeric times, the number was increased, with some changes and the addition of \ signs for the vowels, so that the alphabot of a mite bite rtwenty two to twenty-four characters, su tial- ly that which is ised by the Ei ROYAL The absolutely pure BAKING POWDER. ROYAL—the m ost celebrated of all the baking powders in the world—cel- ebrated for leavening strength purity. cakes, biscuit, bi etc., healthful, it ass its great and It makes your read, ures you against alum and all forms of adultera’ tion that go with the cheap brands, tion that they belong to the brilliant pre- historic race who developed the civilization and art to which the name of Mycenaen or Mykenacn is provisionally given. So far as excavations have yet extended, this race seems to Fave found its apogee in the city | of Mycanae, explored first by Dr. Schlie- mann, though its remains are widely dis- tributed from Hissarlik, in Asia Minor, the | the jrobable site of ancient Troy, through the Islands of the Aegean sea to Sicily and the coast of Italy. Crete, Cyprus, the Pel- oponnese—all were settled and at some | time ruled by the Mycenaeans, who appear to have been the Vikings of the antique | world A Remarkable People. It is probable that with them navigation arose, they were explorers and conquer- ors, they have left vestiges of their inter- courre with the valleys of the Nile and Danube, and probably extended their out- posts as far as Southern France and Spain. “It is rot improb: that the chief god of the Greeks, Zeus, was one of their earliest rulers, and from them many, if not most, cf the charming myths and legends which comprise ture the mvst r crigin eginning of Greek litera- have been handed down. Of than the civilization of Eu- | phrat le, they appear to have borrov. ec from these, until their own culture had reached a brilliant and in- dependent maturity. To trace the origin of this remarkable pecple, to reconstruct from scattered re- mains their history, their wanderings and achievements, and to find the causes of | their decadence and dispersal, is today the most fercinating field of antiquarian re- search. Yet, twenty years ago, there was not so much 4s a surmise that the Myce- naens had even existed—so rapidly does knowledge progress in our da: A Nest-Building Fi: Mr. Bashford Dean, author of a recently published work on “Fishes, Living and | Fossil,” gives some curious and not less Interesting details regarding one of the very few fishes that are known to con- struct nests in which the eggs of the fe- male are deposited. The common stickle- back, which constructs a nest woven of a glutinous thread, is probably the best known type of a piscine having this habit. The fish whose methods Mr. Dean describes is the Amia calva, a ganold of the Ameri- can fresh waters. At the opening of spring, it leaves the deep waters of the lakes, where it has taken refuge during the cold of winter, and seeks to warm itself in the shallow waters of the border, telecting particularly the tufts of matted vegetation which abound there. With the advent of the depositing season the Amias resolve themselves into small bands, composed of a single female and several males. These troups, swimming around in narrow circles, press down and pull over the stems of vegetation, and in this manner build a nest much as a dog or cat would do in turning down the grass through their peculiar evolutions before finally placing themselves in position. The eggs are glued to the plants. Development preceeds very rapidly, and twenty-four hours after deposition the young have al- ready quit the eggs. During this time only one male, whose manifest duty it 1s to give fatherly instruction to the young, remains, caring for the progeny in various ways. He keeps company with the fry during sev- eral days, leads them to short distances, encourages them and protects them with considerable force and persistence against the intrusions or attacks of possible ene- mies. Finally, the association of fry dis. bands. Each animal seeks its own path of living, as does likewise the father, his spe- cial work having been accomplished. Training a High Speed Locomotive. It seems curious that a locomotive should have to be put through a course of training very much like that of a trotter in order to bring {t to the highest speed efficiency, but it is nevertheless a fact. From a fortnight to two months are required to bring one of the fine new locomotives, such as carry the Empire State Express or fly between New York, Philadelphia and Atlantic City, into perfect condition. When the engines are first brought from the shop they are in- clined to be stiff, awkward and refractory, in many instances, and if an attempt were made to run them at a speed of from sev- enty to ninety miles an hour the result would be apt to be disastrous in the injury it_would do the machine. So, for a short time, the new locomotive is first put on to a side run and worked up to a speed of thirty or thirty-five miles per hour. Then, if it does good work, it is put on to an ordinary run on the main line. This is not only to get its bearings worn down and its parts into properly adjusted relationship, but also to get it accustomed, 80 to speak, to the track. Any locomotive engineer will tell you that the engine seems to have a great many hu- man qualities—th: . it wiil have moods, and at one time run well, and another be per- verse and intractable. It is for this reason that, as a rule, the same engineer always runs the same engine. Usuaily there are two crews, one of which works the engine one day and the other the next, but the en- gineer himself always has his own engine. As a rule, when a new locomotive is put on to a road the engineer who is to take it when it Is put into fast service assumes charge of it from the beginning and does the breaking-in himself. This is done in order to enable the engineer to acquire the most minute acquaintanceship with his machine, so that he will understand its ca- pabilities perfectly. It is a curious fact that, of two engines built in the same shop, and with almost identical castings, very often one will exhibit a wide variation in action from the other. They differ almost as widely as engineers themselves, and by making the acquaintanceship of an engine early in its life the engineer comes to re- gard his machine as a sort of second self. Hlecirie Iron and Stecl Smelting. The all-pervading conquest of electricity seems likely within another year to take over yet another important branch of in- dustry. In this country, in France and in ‘Sweden, at least three well-known inven- tors have taken out patents for electric fur- maces for the smelting of tron and steel, ard; it is understood, that in the last- named country the process is about to be put into effect on a large scale. There Dr. De Laval has secured ore side of the Falls of Trolihatten, and has organized a large company to exploit his invention. At Uen- hausen ae io gg the daypntor: ot iy electric aluminum process, wn under his name, and under which the larger part of the aluminum of Europe is manufac- tured, has also devised an smel- ter, and claims to have secured admirable results therefrom, although no definite fig- | trically controlied power device | trodes, the governors com {to push the electrodes toward each other, | especially designed for localities where « | and coke are expensive and cheap | tion = = as supplied with a powerful current, the ore being driven between the latter by means of a rotary screw, and the smelted ma- terial caught in a plunger below. The body of the furnace is formed of refractory terial such as firebrick, and is provided with a vertical channel or hearth, open at the bottom and terminating at the top in a neck, leading to a feeding device adapted to positively force the material to be «melt- ed into the hearth. Opening transversely into the hearth and substantially of the same width as the lat- ter are two flues, arranged diametrically opposite, through which the electrodes are thrust. These electrodes are of carbon and are carried upon roller carriages rurning upon rails. These carriages are moved to and fro by means of screws and an elec- The latter are a pair of electro-magnetic governors, operating in such a manner that when the resistance across the electrodes is abnor- mal, due to the burning away of the elec- into operation thus insuring the proper maintenance of the are at all times. This smelter, like both of the others from a waterfall or culmbank Is (o be had. At the present time the present seat of the iron and steel industries is approximately at the meeting-place of cheap fuel and | cheap ore, and notably where these exist side by side. Deposits of iron ore, however, very frequently occur at long’ distances from coal areas, and the cost of iransporta- naturally lessens the profit of the mines. It does not now seem probable that the electric smelter will come into general use where coal is to be had cheaply and in abundance; but it may prove an immense boom to other iron-producing localities where this is lacking. — | = “ THREE DAYS ON HER BEAM ENDs. The Plight of en From the The British ship Samoena came into port early this morning from Swansea, England, after a voyage lasting 150 days, well trimmed and in perfect order, little looking as though she had passed through storms that for nearly two weeks left her all but a wreck in the stormy seas off Cape Horn. For three days she was on her beam en: with her starboard rail under the water and bows buried deep in the seas, while all hands worked beneath her hatches trim- ming her shifted cargo. The gale commenced on October 1, when the vessel was in latitude 57 degrees south and longitude 17 degrees west. It was a shifting storm. In the course of a day it would swig around and come from al- most every point of the compass. All the while the storm kept increasing in vio- lence. On the third day several big waves in rapid succession struck the ship almost broadside, and, breaking over her decks, filled her to the rails. With the great body of water on ber decks a squall struck her square abeam and the two forces com- bined rolled her over till she lay almost on her side with her yardarms dipping in the water. It was an anxlous moment for the crew. Every instant the big vessel threatened to capsize. Then a huge wave struck her almost full astern, lifting the | Vessel till she plunged her bows deep under the water. At that moment there was a roar and a rattle from below her decks as her coal cargo shifted, and the big ship lay with her starboard rail under the water nd her stern pointing up in the air at such an angle that her rudder was almost out of the water. The only hope of the crew was to get into the hold and shovel her coal back from where it shifted and right the vessel hack on an even keel. For three days they worked, the cook among the rest, who could not even be spared long enough to prepare meals for the men. Hard tack was passed around to the sailors as they labored. With the vessel back on an even keel the men were given comparative rest, but it was not until eleven days after the commencement of the storm that the gales moderated sufficiently for any canvas to be spread on the ship's spars so that she could be headed on her course again. The long hours of work and the continual exposure to the weather had told on the men, and wher fair weather again favored the ves- sel eight of her crew were in the ship's hospital. Their legs and arms were swol- len. It was not until the vessel reached the warmer latitudes of the equator that they recovered sufficiently to attend to their duties. ———_+e+—___ Trying It on the Typewriter. From the Chicago Times-Herald. A young Chicago matron who ides over a charming home on the ng! Fide told me 2 characteristic story about Joseph Jefferson the other evening which deserves to be embalmed in print, “Several years ago,” sald she, “when Mr. Jefferson was preparing his autobiography, he was obliged to do a great deal of the work while on tour. A publishing house with which I was connected at one time recommended me to him as an amanuensis who had considera experience in the preparation of manuscript for publication and I joined the actor in St. Louts, Mr. Jefferson would spend several hours every night after the play in making notes of what he wanted to say. The next after- noon he would dictate to me. Usually he would bring in a great collection of memo- randa jotted down on envelopes and scraps of paper, and sometimes he would appear with a newspaper whose margins would be literally covered with queer figures and hen tracks. Walking up and down the floor he would dictate to me slowly in that cracked Rip Van Winkle voice of his, and I could follow h'm easily on the typewriter. “One day when we met, as usual, for work at the Southern Hotel, he seemed to have prepared more elaborate notes than usual, and instead of waiking about the room he sat down, quite a distance away from me, and began to dictate the chapter treating of his closing Australian experi- ences. There was a pathetic quiver in bis voice as he spoke of the many happy days he had spent in that far-away land, among comparative strangers, and added that he hoped his book would come to them as a sort of handciasp between friends who would never meet again in this life.