Evening Star Newspaper, July 10, 1897, Page 13

—————————— oe THE EVENIN? STAR. SS PUBLISHED DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAY. AT THE STAR BUILDINGS, 1101 Pennsylvania Avene, Cor. Lith St, by ane TE ACPA ree New York Ofice, 49 Potter Building. gaceres peat hee ‘The Frening Star {s served to subscribers in the eity by carriers, on their own account, at 10 cents per week. or 44 cents per month. Copies at the counter 2 cents each. By mail—anywhere in the United States or Canada—postage prepald—60 cents per month. Saturday Quintuple Sheet Star, $1 per year, with foreign postage added, $3.00. (Entered at ths Vost Office at Washingtoa, D. C., §s second-class mail matter.) €> All nail subscriptions must be paid in advance. Rates of advertising made known on application. Part2. Che Fy ening, | Star. Pages 13-24. WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, JUL¥ 10, 1897-TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. If you want to buy, sell or exchange anything, it will pay you to announce the fact in the advertising columns of The Star. They are closely studied by more than three times as many people as read any other Paper. Qaeda An Open Letter to 25 to 33 1-3% prices that are, a w 108 N. Eutaw st. Pe a i os Oe ee se Ss i se Oh Ok hk kh a a hh he ae —by making your Jewelry purchases here. offer you the largest and very best collection of Diamonds, Watches and Jewelry to select from that can be found in the country, and we quote you we said, 25 to 33 1-3 per cent less than the prevailing figures about the country. We guarantee everything we sell. is backed up by the cast iron guarantee of a house that has been in business over fifty years. ish it we will be pleased to open an account with you for any bill of goods you may desire. Castlebers's Nat'l Jewelry Co., 1103 Pa. Ave., Next to “Star” Office. Balto. store, Soedonteetocgondeetectontons Senators and Representatives. Before you leave town there are lots of little presents you will want tc take to the folks at home. Nothing is more acceptable than Jewelry coming from the capital city of the nation it will be appreciated twice as much as if bought at home. There’s something else to be considered. — and can be saved We Every sale If you Established 1846. Srintntntntetntetetetetetet hetetertolelololeteiolotetetiotletolpteatetioloteleteheletololy $ A STREAM OF GOLD Wider and Deeper This Year Than Ever Before. NEW MINES AND IMPROVED PROCESSES Something About the World’s Many Sources of Supply. CAUSI OF THE INCREASE ighted, 1897, by Frank G. Carpenter.) n for Tue Evening Star. HE GOLD MINING convention at Den- ver this week will give the public some idea of the enormous amount of the yel- low metal which is now being dragged from the mountains of the west. The in- crease is going on steadily. There was never anything like it before, and the prospects are that It will be even greater in the future. We are having a flood of gold, not only from the United States, but from -all other gold I get this information from the tor of the mint, and it is based upon s reports which come in regularly from arts of the world. The director of the t has confidential relations with the big smelting establishments and reduction works of the United States, by which they” send him as to the amounts of gold and ch they receive. They report whence the metals come and where they go. He gets also reports from the officers of the mint In different parts of the United States, and his mail brings him reports monthly from the gold regions of Africa, Australia, Russia, South Ameri- ca and elsewhere. The reports given by the smelting establishments are of gold actually melted up and sent into circula- tion. They are not the rosy estimates of prespectors or mine owners, but are made up of figures as reliable as any you will find in the Treasury Department. It is through such reports that the director of the mint knows from month to month just how the stream of the world’s gold is ris- ing or falling. Sitting in his office at the ‘Treasury Department he can watch this golien river and its branches as it flows throughout the world and can estimate its and the directions toward which it is Og. was by appointment with Director on that I called at the Treasury De- I found him in the mint bureau with sal “I think that the gold product for 1897 will amount to more than $20,000,000. There is a big increase going on in nearly every gold region of the world, and the amounts in sight are now greater than ever. In 1892 the gold product of the world amounted to $150,000,000. In 1895 it had reached the $200,000,000 point, and this year it will rise at least $30,000,000 more. More Gold From Everywhere. “In what part of the world is the big- increase, Mr. Preston?” I asked. We find that more gold is being mined everywhere,” replied the director of the mint. “South Africa will turn out more than ever this year. My reports from Aus- tralasia indicate that there will be a great increase there, and the United States will have one of the biggest outputs of its his- tory.”” . “What part of the United States do you refer to?” c “To zlmost every gold region of the country,” said Director Preston.” “We shall produce at least $60,000,000 worth of gold during the coming year, and it is a ques- tion with me as to whether this will not be the biggest gold yield of our history. It was estimated that we produced $65,000,- 006 in 1853. That was when the early gold s of California were at their best, means of estimating the amounts taken out were not-as good then as they . and i think that sixty-five mill- probably an over-estimate. Our in 186 has been about $6,000,000 over that of 1895, and we will have consid- erably more of an increase during the still coming y: “Does California yield a large I asked. replied the director of the mint. amount of gold?” “¥es,” “It produces more than any other state in the Union. It is steadily increasing its and it will turn out something 0,000 worth of gold this year. ‘The people there have reduced mining to a science. They can, I am told, get the precious metals out cheaper than the miners of any other part of the world. They do even better than the operators of the famous Treadwell mine of Alaska. Much of their gold costs them less than fifty cents 2 ton. Large sums are invested in mining operations, and the work is done cn such a big scale that the cost is cut down to the minimum.” “From what part of California do we now get the most gold?’ , “The most of it comes from the Mother Lode,” replied the director of the mint. “Phis has always been the chief mining region of California. It runs from north to south through the state in the mouin- tains back from the sea coast. There are a number of different regions along this lode which are bcing worked at a great profit and in all sorts of w: Hydraulic mining is being resumed. For a time the laws were against this, because the debris made by washing down the mountains was carried by the rivers over the wheat fields, destroying them. Then a commission was organized by which the waste was so taken cet of that anes iors fields were saved. pre are several hundr vd now being worked.” N8Graulle mines The New Mining Processes. “How about the new processes of mining? Do the Californians use them to any ex- tent?” “Yes,” replied Mr. Preston. “There are cyanide mills and chlorination works ell ever California. Many of the old dumps are being worked over, and old mines are being reopened. A number of the best of the gold mines were abandoned years ago on account of losing the vein at a certain depth. It was then thought that gold did not extend very deep into the earth, and when the miners had gone down 800 or 900 feet and lost the vein, it was believed that the end of the gold had come and that the vein had petered out. It is found, however, that by going down a little further the vein may be often rediscovered and some- times that it will be richer than ever. ‘This Was the case with the famous Gwinn mine. This mine was very rich. It had yielded fortunes, but the vein was thought to have played out. A new company took hold of it not long ago. They sunk the shaft a few feet further and another big fortune was opened to view. This is also the case with the Kennedy mine and others. “Another theory that has been exploded,” continued Mr. Preston, “is that gold can only be found in one or two kinds of rocks. They now find gold in everything. It oc- curs in sandstone, shale, slate and clay. It is often found in gravel, and you have seen the statements recently published about the vast amount of the yellow metal which is in solution in the waters of the sea. There is a man in Australia who has been experimenting upon this for the last five years. I believe he estimates that there is about a grain of gold in a ton of water, or between one and two hundred tons of gold in a cubic mile. One of his esti- mates is that if all the gold could be got- ten out of the ocean we would have more than a hundred billion tons of gold. This, is little good to the world, as no means has yet been discovered of getting the gold out. The new processes, however, are steadily increasing the possible supply from the regular sources. There is a vast deal of low-grade gold in the south. There is gold within an hour's ride by carriage ; the literateur. from where we are sitting, which by im- proved methods may some day be profitably The Gold of Alaska. “How about the Alaskan gold, Mr. Pres- ton? I understand that there will be a large yield from there this year.” “There will be some,” replied the direc- tor of the mint, “but not a very great amount. We shall probably have several tnillion dollars’ worth of gold from differ- ent mines of that territory. The Tread- well mine, in southern Alaska, is sure to give us a big lump of gold. This mine is one of the best mines of the world. It is merely a bluff on the edge of the sea, con- taining low-grade ore. The ore will not run over three dollars a ton, but the gold is so close to the water and so easily min- ed that it costs only a dollar and a quar- ter a ton to get it out. The mine has al- ready paid five or six miilion dollars, and it is worth a large fortune. It is operated, I am told, after the very best and most economical methods. It has one of the largest stamp mills in the world. It is lighted by electricity, and something like a million dollars have been spent on the works connected with it.” “What is being done tn the Yukon dis- trict?” “My information,” said the director of the mint, “ts that the people have been pouring into the Yukon region for some time, both on sledges and in boats. The mining season there is just beginning, for the men can work only in the summer. So far the only mining done on the Yukon is placer mining. The gold has to be washed out of the river bed and the land along the streams. The soil is frozen the greater part of the year, and the only time that gold washing can be done fs in the hot months of the summer. In the winter the men dig up the frozen earth and lay it in piles on the banks of the rivers, so that they can work the more quickly when the summer comes. It is very hard work, but you know men wilt do anything to get gold.” “You say, Mr. Preston, that~this is all placer mining. I thought that placer min- ing was pretty well played out, the world over.” “That is a great mistake,” sald the di- rector. “Gold is being washed out in al- most all of the gold districts. There are meny placer mines in the different islands of Alaska. They are washing out gold all atong the northern Pacific coast. There are placer mines at Cripple Creek, Colo. you can find the gold miners washing out gold near Leadville, and the greater part of the gold which we get from Siberia is produced in this way. Much of the Rus- sian gold is made up of dust and nuggets. washed out of the dirt and sand." South Dakota. there much gold left in South Dako- I asked. “Yes, indeed, there is,” replied Director Preston. “At least we get a lot from there every year. It comes from both the placer mines ‘and the quartz mines. Some of the biggest stamp mills in the world are in South Dakota. ‘The Homestake Mining Company has a six hundred stamp mill which pounds away day and night, year in and year out. This mine is one of the most valuable of the world, and still its ore is of a very low grade. I understand that the Rothschilds have tried to buy it time and again, but that the company which owns it will not sell.” “How about the Colorado mines?” “Colorado is now one of the richest min- ing states of the Union. It is nearing California in its yearly output and its pro- duct is steadily increasing. The Cripple Creek miners claim that they are turning cut a million dollars’ worth of gold every month. I believe they overestimate their output, and I doubt whether they are pro- ducing more than $850,000 monthly. This, however, is an enormous product from a new region. The big mines there seem to hold their own, and new ones are being discovered.” “Is Stratton still the owner of the Inde- pendence mine?” - “Yes,” replied the director of the mint. “He is, I believe, working hard to keep his income down to $100,000 a month.” “How about the Leadville mines?” “The mines there are holding their own. The ‘Little Johnny’ of Leadville is one of the richest mines of the world. it keeps on producing vast amounts of gold every year. Just now a great deal of gold is being gotten from the Breckinridge district, which is about fifty miles from Leadville.” Other Good Gold Regions. “How about the Utah mines?” “They are very rich. There is a great deal of low-grade ore in them, which is be- ing gotten out by the cyanide process. There has also been a decided increase in the gold preduct of Nevada. You had best keep your eyes on that state. It will come to the front in the near future. It pro- duced last year nearly two million dollars’ worth of gold and a number of new mines ure now being opened. Both Montana and Arizona will increase their product this year. We are getting a great deal of gold from Washington and Oregon, and, in the gold is coming in from everywhere. “What is the cause of this increase? “One resson is the low price of silver. Though I believe there is money in mining silver at the present prices. If not why do they work the mines? One of the chief reasons for the increase in the product of gold is the new processes of reduction. Gold can be gotten out of the rock cheaper than ever before. The old dumps are be- ing worked over, old mines are being re- opened and tkere is an army of prospectors Inoving about and discovering new ones. It is a strenge thirg, but men walk right over good gold fields again and again when Prospecting and it is sometimes years be- fore a rich find is discovered. This was the case with the Cripple Creek district. The men who went to Pike’s Peak years ago walked over the Cripple Creek fields and fortunes lay there undisturbed with- in a few miles of Denver for a generation.” “How abcut the Australian mines?” “We get a vast amount of gold every year from Australasia,” replied the di- rector of the mint. “Some of the best man- aged mines of the world are in New Zea- land. The gold is reduced there to some extent by the cyanide process. There are gold mines in Tasmania, and gold is now found in many different parts of Au: tralia, which were for years considered worthless. Some of the best mines are now in western Australia. They are very difti- cult to reach, and what is known as the Coolgardie district is aimost in the desert. Prospecting in this part of the world re- s camels to carry the provisions and tools, and the camel there takes the place which the donkey has in the Rockies. The great trouble is the lack of water, which in some quarters is almost as costly as whisky.” The African Gold Fields. “How about the African mines, Mr. Pres- ton, what are they doing this year?” “There is a great increase going on in the output of South Africa. We get re- turns from there every month, and the amount of the gold product is steadily ris- ing. If the experts are to be believed there will be no falling off in the African supply for years to come.” “Speaking of experts, Mr. Preston, where do the best mining engineers come from?” “The Americans lead the world today as mining experts and mining engineers,” re- plied Mr. Preston. ‘You will find a large number of our mining engineers in South Africa. It was an American who first an- nounced what is now believed to be the correct theory as to the South African gold formation. This man’s name was Curtis. He was the son of George Ticknor Curtis, Mr. Curtis held that the gold reefs of the Transvaal were in the shape of an immense basin, which had been turned up as it were by the forces of nature. He said that he thought that gold would be found to exist down to a great depth. This has since been ascertained to be the fact. Some of our best informa- tion concerning the gold fields of South Africa comes from Mr. Hamilton Smith, the mining expert of the Rothschilds. Ham- ilton Smith is a Kentucky man, who has acquired a high standing as a mining en- gineer. He estimates that we shall see the day when the Rand district will surpass the whole United States in its gold output, and that at no diytant time it will turn out $60,000,000 worth of gold and upwards a year. Mr. Smith was sent by the Roths- childs to Africa to report upon the gold there. He figures that the amount that probably exists exceeds one billion dol- lars. He has also been sent to report upon the gold at Cripple Creek and other parts of the United States. “How about the English. Do they own many of our gold mines?” “Yes,” replied the director of the mint. “There is a great deal of English capital invested in American gold regions. They have mines,in nearly all parts of the west, and are on the lookout for more.” Advice for Young Men. “Would you advise a young man to go into mining, Mr. Preston?” I asked. “Mining is like everything else,” replied the director of the mint. “It requires capital and experience to succeed in it. The business grows more and more legiti- mate every year, and no man should think of puttirg money into the earth unless he knows that there fs some probability of getting it out. If a young man has but lit- tle capital, he should not invest before he has learned something of mining. He should study the business and seek the ad- vice of experts and be sure that the ex- perts are honest. None of the large com- panies ever put money into mines without sending out their experts. Take the Lon- don Exploration Company, for instance. They paid not long ago $1,500,000 for the ‘Tom-boy.’ They had it tested for four months before they consented to the pur- chase. Such companies have a number of e2perts, and they never invest unless the reports upon the property are very favora- ble. When they buy they usually pay ac- cording to the amount of gold in sight, ex- pecting to make their money out of that which is yet to he discovered.” “Where would you advise a young man to start if he wanted to go into mining?” “I_would not like to say,” replied Direc- tor Preston. “‘All of the gold states of the west have good properties and good pros- pects. Arizona and California are as good gold fields as any. I would only say that the man who does not understand the business, or who is not prepared to stay in the gold regions long enough to learn it, had better keep his money and remain at home.” ‘RANK G. CARPENTER. aoe Preacher is Found to Be an Earl. From the Chicago Tribune, It is learned that the Rey. John Sinclair, for several years past the pastor of a Pres- byierian church at Redwood Falls, Minn., is by right a Scottish nobleman, being the “¢ sixteenth Earl of Caithness. He yields a. revenue of $00,000 annually’ and is a revenue of A and comprises the finest castle in Scotland. Mr. Sinclair is forty years of age, a newspaper writer and a gentlemun of very high and varied attainments. respi idee ere “Want” «ds. In The Star they bring answers. pay because | LIFE ON BOARD SHIP | How the Officers in the Ward Room Spend Their Time,. ON HOME AND FOREIGH STATIONS They Both Dispense and Enjoy a Lavish Hospitality. A FEW OF THE DRAWBACKS Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. OULD ONE.OF them be miraculous- ly brought to life, it would be fun to ob- serve the open-eyed amazement of any deep-water, heavy- weather, salt-in- crusted officer of, say a seventy-gun frigate of the old American navy, in the progress of his inspection of the living quarters of officers on a mod- ern man-of-war of the United States. For instance, John Paul Jones, the barnacled eagle of the western ocean (which, man-of- war’s man’s patois, is the Atlantic), pass- ing speechlessly through the ward and mess rooms of the Columbia or the Olym- pia or the San Francisco or the later Brooklyn—one can almost see the stupe- faction engraven on the American Nelson's plastic countenance at the things he would see therein. Or hardy Decatur, punisher of bronze-hued barbarians, as well as trouncer of white oppressors, who was several times reduced to the use of powder on his victuals for lack of salt— Decatur sinking his soles in the padded oriental rugs spread inthe smoking room of a modern American Warship—he can al- mest be heard muttering.of sybaritism on such “& tour. Or silent} rugged Farragut, seaman of blood and -igon, stepping flush from the spar deck of his old flagship Hartford into the lthrary and reception recom of the ward room $fficers of the Min- neapolis—it would be worth while to see the surprise of a saiter, whem the sudden midnight assaults of ‘tremses could not surprise. For, in so farfas eomfort is con- cerned, the chief petty officers on an Amer- ican man-of-war of this day are better off than was Admiral Farragut, commander of the fleet, on his flagship, A ward room officer's three-year cruise on a mcdern Ameriean warship is fine yachting. All the space abaft the main- mast ef the man-of-war of today is a floating club. In a few of the great cities there are,-perhaps, macre guperbly fitted clubs than the quarters of naval officers on a first-class cruiser, but they are not many. The wonder is not grgatythat so many naval officers of this day seek practically perpetual ‘sea duty. © More Fun Than the Skipper. The ward room officer has a good deal mere fun than the skipper in his cabin— for the pall of solemn dignity rests upon the cabin of the commanding officer of a ship of wear; and captains of men-of-war have been known to secretly pine for a re- newal of ward room joys. A ward room officer, be it understood, is any naval officer who has jumped from the rank of ensign and who has not yet attained the rank of commander. Ward room officers range in rank from junior Meutenants to Heutenant commanders, the single lieutenant com- mander of the ward room being the execu- tive officer of the ship, the McGregor at the head of the ward room table, and the best man on the ship after the skipper. For the ensigns and practice-cruising ca- dets there is a miniature ward room, known as the steerage, unless the ship be small. of the third or-fourth class, when~ all of the officers, from cadet to “first luff” (Le. executive officer), live together in the ward room and feast together in the mess room, This is the reason why cadets and ensigns like to be assigned to small ships—“‘so they can associate with the men,” as one of them humorously puts {t. But this article ts concerned with the ex- istence of a ward room officer on a man- of-war of the first class. Now, if a cruiser of the Columbia tyne should be rammed and cut In two amid- ships in the middle of the night, after all hands had turned in, the officers would find themselves in complete possession of the after part of the ship, with never an enlisted man to turn a hand to help them out of the scrape, and five hundred and odd men up forward would tumble out ofetheir hammocks to find themselves unofficered. ‘This figure is employed to show that the after haif of the modern man-of-war is the officers’ half, a generous portion enough to be given over to the comfort of about one-fifteenth .of the ship's company; and that the “crew,” the enlisted men, that is te say, abeut half a thousand of them, live up forward of the mainmast. And (ex- cept at quarters and drill, of course) abaft the mainmast the bluejacket does not get in the course of a cruise, unless he happens to be an electrician gunner’s mate, a mess attendant, @ commanding officer’s marine orderly or a chief petty officer whose du- ties bring him into constant contact with the commissioned officers. In the Mess Room, The ward room is the general descriptive term applied io the living quarters of the ward room, or watch and division, officers. It includes all of the individual sleeping and dressing rooms of the ward room of- ficers, the-smoking rooms, the library—the space of the afterpart of the ship, where the ward room officers épend all of their time, when they are not om watch or in the mess room. The mess. room of the modern man-of-war is the merry-making room for all of tie .ward-room. officers. There is fun to be had in the ward room, but, for the reason that seme of the. of- ficers just off watch are asleep in the ward room’at all hours, it is fun of the sub- dued order; and it 4s, therefore, in the mess room, which is always a ‘good -dis- tance separated from the ward room on the berth deck, that the ward room officer may give vent to his greatest exuberance. On the old-time American war ship, the ward:room officer's’ imdividgal living and sleeping room was a. dingy enough little den, no greater in’ gize~than the “state room” on the wheezy-stern wheeler of the Missouri river. On the big modern cruiser it is of about the size,of an ample hall bed room, but very different, imeed, from the average -hall bed-room!:For the construc- tors of modern warships have an eye for the beautiful and the ornate, and they know the usé of white and gilt, and soft tints in green and blue; so that, even bare of other ornamentation, the ward room officer's state room on the cruiser of today is suffi- ciently soothing to the artistic:gense. Then, when the ward room officer posses- sion of his room, he procéeds to make it uote: than ever a bower f beau! the 1 but that it is always kept in a condition of | sptetecetestectestesrtesteseatesteshatestetentestetestostetesdestecetestese sete PPD } ‘Can You Read’ absolute spick-and-spanness, with no sword belt cast here, no glove thrust there, no sign of disorder whatsoever, and they inno- cently give the officer himself all the credit for the tidiness. They do not know that every electrical button in the ward reom is, tor tho | ward room officer, practically an Aladdin’s lamp, the mere touching of which brings servitors scurrying to him, the eer- vitors being rated as ward room attend- ants. Nowadays the ward room attendants, as well as those of the mess room are mostly Jap _boys—and the man-of-war Jap boy knows enough about orderliness and clean- liness to turn over a very large residue of his infermation even to the New England housewife. Jap boys are absolutely perfect club servants; and this says enough of their usefulness in the ward and mess rooms of men-of-war. The ward room cffi- cer’s young woman friends always notice with little cries of alarm and sympathy that the mattress on the poor fellow’s bed 2 sunk arpa a foot below the bed rails, fo prevent im from being tossed out on the deck in heavy seas. ‘3 i Long at Meals. The ward room officer, however, only uses this individual room for sleeping and dress- ing purposes. The officer of the deck’s ap- Prentice messenger boy, when he is sent aft to find a certain officer, knows enough to look first for thgt officer in the mess room —at sea, that is to say, for few enough | Ward room officers remain aboard their ships in port when they are not standing watches. The length of a mess-room meal on a modern man-of-war is sufficient to startle even confirmed civilian table- dhoters. Breakfast is purely a perfunc- tory meal, no ward officer occupying more than two hours at it, including the smokes to follow. One o’clock luncheon, however, is a little less rapid, it ordinarily lasts (at sea) until 4 or 5 o'clock. But dinner, serv- ea at 6 or 7 o'clock, lasts until long after ‘pipe down,” which, for the men forward, is the end of all things on a man-of-war Not that the officers occupy all of this time in eating. But the aftermath of the two last-mentioned meals is counted in the meal hours, and includes the consumption of tobacco and other spirit-upraising things, the recapitulation of the news of the world in yarn shape, and the singing in unison of songs, chants and ballads, ancient and modern, with the tarry “Blow the Man Down” as the invariable wind-up, to the accompaniment of mandolins, guitars, zith- ers, banjos and stringed instruments with- out names from Turkestan or Tifils. Every man-of-war dinner in the ward room is @ symposium. Any civilian “good fellow” (none other is ever invited) who has ever been entertained at dinner in the ward room of an American man-of-war will dilate for a long time afterwards upon the subtleness of the Chinese cookery, the sweetness of the tobacco, the “tang” of the wines, the excellence of the stories, the mellowness or the vociferousness of the music. Not all civilian visitors to ward rooms of men-cf-war have the luck which a certain citizen of this town rejoices over and talks about down to the present day— a succession of a dozen days and nights in the ward room of the old Adams, in Hono- lulu harbor, with Robert Louis Stevenson at the head of the table, smoking cigarettes and sipping Scotch whisky, the while he kept twenty uniformed men in a magnetic trance; but one rarely happens into the ward room of any American man-of-war, in any port, without finding there some man or other whose name has made a noise in the world. For American naval officers, without being provided, like the officers of other great navies, with enter- ‘taining funds, are nevertheless exceedingly kospitable entertainers. It is their custom, when they wish particularly to enjoy them- selves in informal fashion, sans flub-dub, as they term their official receptions, to in- vite one distinguished citizen or citizeness to their symposiums at a time; and such an invitee must be on his or her metal on such an occasion. Nothing could be finer or more instructive, for instance, than to see the late Kate Field seated at a ward room table, a solitary woman surrounded by thirty men, who knew their world as they knew their compass, yet mistress of them all in sparkle and brilliance, holding them now enchained and plunging them again in- to uproars of merriment. The ward room dinner test is one which few even of the cleverest men or women can get through with spectacular success. A Matter of Station. Yet. with the finest ship in the fleét, and the best crowd of officers for congeniality and lack of friction, the ward room of- ficers’ happiness in cruising is largely a matter of station. Luxurious surround- ings and good shipmates do not atone for the lack of pleasant people ashore whom the ward room officer may visit. There is no consolation in it that his uni- forms are always well brushed, or his “mufti” or civilian clothes carefully press- ed by the ward room attendants: for the officer whose ship is anchored in the muddy Yang-Tse-Kiang, eight hundred miles up, with the dead bodies of celestials, con- stantly drifting by and becoming fouled with the anchor gear; for the officer whose ship is listlessly patrolling the west coast of Central or South America, where there is nothing to be had to eat, and in the ports of which yellow and chagres fever stalk impartially; for the officer whose ship is engaged in the chase of shifty seal Poachers in the unspeakably foggy and gloomy Bering sea, or for the officer whose ship is employed in surveying and chart- ing duty in Smith’s straits, with no ship visible from ashore except mummified bar- barian Patagonians in beach-combed plug hats and expansive smiles. On a bad station the cruising life of the ward room cfficer is not all cakes and ale and hilarity and mandolin music. Men who are cooped up together in the ward room of a man-of- war on a bad station for several years be- come pretty familiar with each other's characteristics, not to speak of each other’s stories, and, well as they ordinarily pull together, each of them has his hours when he would sacrifice a good deal for the sight of other countenances and the companionship of other men than his ward room shipmates. After two weeks, say, of sea, fair weather or foul—then a port wherein the men and women at least know how to dine with their forks, or a port from which the troops of girls come off in the steam cutters to traipse over the ship— this is something like the ward room of- ficers’ idea of it, and tennis ard tea ashore, and bicycling and buggy riding, and the fellowship of the clubs—any place where the mail is not a month or two in coming, and where the inhabitants of the “heach” do not all appear to be engaged in the bumboating business. Highly Prized Billets. All in all, the home stations are highly prized nowadays by both bachelor and married officers—by the married ones, be- cause they may see their wives and fami- lies once in a while, and by the bachelors because—well, there is Newport and Bar Harbor and Narragansett, adjacent Wash- ington, not too far removed from the coast, New York, with their girls and newspapers and English-speaking civilization, for the summer cruise on the Atlantic home sta- tion, with the turquoise skies of the West Indies to follow when the sun circles hence down that way in our winter, and then, on ‘the Pacific home station, there is San Fran- cisco and the Bohemian Club, and the flower fiestas of San Diego and Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, for the summer, and the curve down to the Hawaiian Islands (included in the Pacific home station) when the nights grow chill. But, as in the days of the old ites and the sioops-of-war, each of the foreign stations has its ward rcom adherents, the Mediterranean topping the list, naturally enough. The Jumps from port i port on the Mediterranean are a fact which commends that station pro- foundly to the engineer officer, but it is hospitality and the beauty of the Medi- —this Ine? If not you DON If you have Then bring it to the same glasses We're buildi business in town want it. | 4 | service”—“half prevailing prices OL EEEPE SAP EOSESSS SS SSA Need Glasses. Consult our Dr. F. Proctor Donahay, a gradu- ated scientific optician, and you'll be guaranteed the very best service on earth. your eyes absolutely FREE OF COST. T need Glasses he will say so. Glasses he will make the very best of them for HALF WHAT # TOWN WOULD ASK. He will examine If you If you need ANY OTHER OPTICIAN IN an oculist’s prescription, take it to any other opticianand get his price for filling it. us. We will give you identically tor HALF THE MONEY. ng up the biggest and best Optical just these things—‘“best of Credit if you on Castelberg’s Nat’l Jewelry Co., 1103 Pa. Ave., Next to “Star” Office. Established 1846, at all ports, spar-deck balls, here and there a fete or a carrival—the favoritism shown towards the Mediterranean station is not hard to account for. Yet it is an expensive station. Officers who stretch several points of influence in seeking assignments to ships on the Mediterranean station are genera bachelors who are not put to the dismal necessity, like the married officers, of send- ing three-quarters of their pay to their families growing up ard wearing out shoes and frocks in this country, or they are mar- ried officers with sufficient private means to have their families follow them over to that station to live at a port within rea- sonable distance of their ships. A Hospitable Cre The item of “mufti,” for instance, is a thing for the ward room officer attached to a Mediterranean ship to consider, for a good three parts of his time is passed ashore with the American colonies, and it costs a naval officer a pretty figure to keep bis civilian dress up to the standard of t average American colonist on the Medite ranean. On the Mediterranean station, too, the caterer of the ward room mess (elected each month sorely against his will and jibed and heaped with ridicule by all hands in the ward room during his entire incum- bency) makes mighty swoops upon his brother officers for entertaining purposes, for the hospitality of the people asho must be repaid, and no ship on that station in any port is ever without the frou-frou of dainty skirts and the cheerful chatter of many ship visitors. The ship, for in- stance, happens into port wherein lie half a dozen American steam yachts. Each of the yachting parties demands the attend- ance of all of the officers at the most elab- orate dancing and dining functions aboard its yacht, and, in turn, all of the yachting parties must be invited to the ward room Thus it is that the ward room officer wit out private means looks rueful when the caterer presents him with his little account, made up on the divisional and co-opera- tive plan, at the end of the month. Next in order among the stations abroad the naval officer picks out the China sta- tion, which includes also Japan (the best part of it), if he can catch the flagship or a ship that is tco large to navigate the Chinese rivers for missionary-protecting purposes, for a cruise on a gunboat on the China station is a thing to be dreaded. On the flagship or big cruiser the ward room officer on the China station is in glorious feather if for no other reason than the phenomenal cheapness of the thing. To go ashore in Japan—say in Nagasaki, or Hako- date, or Kobe, or even Yokohama—and be quite unable to spend more than the value of an American dollar in Japanese yen and to be perpetually entertained by as fine, cultivated American colonists as can be found in any of the European ports—this is what popularizes the China station with such a large number of naval officer: Mest of the other foreign stations are re- garded with about an equal amount of in- difference or dread, with the exception, perhaps, of the South Atlantic station, where the people ashore (especially those of Buenos Ayres, Rio and Mcntevideo) have of late years fallen into the habit of Being yery gracious Indeed to American naval of- cers. AN INK. Consul Fraser Reports on How It ts Manufactured. From the Manmufact | An interesting account of the manufac- ture of the so-called Indian ink, which is made only in the Anhui province of Chi is given by Mr. Fraser, our consul at Wu- | ku, on the Yang-tsze, in his last trade re- arer. port. It is more correctly called China ink {—enere de Chine—and from Anhui it goes to every part of China and all over the world. In 1895 about two tons of it, valued at , Were exported from Shanghal to foreign’ countries. The materials with which this beautiful black ink is mode are sesamum or coiza oil, or the oil expressed from the poisonous seeds of a tre te sively tivated in the Yang-tsze yall and also well known in Japan. To this var- and pork fat are added. The lamp- made by the combustion of these cc c d according to the ma- and the grade of fineness, and also ng to the time taken over the pro- ‘The paste made of this jlampblack has some glue added, and is beaten on wooden anvils with steel ham- mer Two good hammers can prepare in a day eighty pieces, each weighing half a pound. A certain quantity of musk of the muskdeer, or of Baroos camphor, for scent- ing, and gold leaves, varying from 20 to 160° to the pound, are added to give @ n.etallic luster. The materials thus pre- pared are molded in molds of carved wooed, dried. which takes about twenty days in i and with Chinese zild About thirty-two erage-sized sticks of ink go to the pound. The price varie: or less per pound much as € e being over a dozen Res. rly all writing is done atives throughout China, Japan, Torgking and Anam with this Chi ink, rubbed down on a stone ink slab, d applied with a paint brush of sable, tox or rabbit hair, set in a bamboo holder, and when not in use carefully covered with a protecting brass cap. The superior kinds of this ink appear to be used in China, and not exported. —-eee—_—____ Searchlights at Ningara Falls. From the Chicago Tribune. Visitors to the falls later on in the sea- son may enjoy what is now a rare spec- tacle of seeing the falls illuminated at night. It is proposed to add novelty to the illumination by using acetylene gas search- lights instead of the electricity which one would expect to be vsed at this great elec- trical center. This will be the first pub- lic demonstration of the illuminating pow- ers of acetylene gas on a large scale ever given in this country. It is proposed to erect twelve or more searchlights on Goat and Luna Islards, and the light from these will be thrown across the American falls and the rapids above the falls. Some years ezo, before the state took possession of the lands about the falls for free vark pur- poses, the falls were illuminated from Prospect Park, and at that time proved a delightful summer evening attraction. From Fliegende Blatter.