Evening Star Newspaper, July 17, 1897, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1897—24 PAGES. FOR OUTDOOR PLAY Children’s Costumes That Are De~ signed to Stand Hard Use. OF BLUE DENIM AND COOL LINEN Should Be a Leading Feature in Their Summer Wardrobes. ATTRACTIVE AND SENSIBLE — Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. HETHER THE children are going to the country or will play all summer in the back yard at home, their mothers will be interested in the little costumes designed this season especially to stand hard romps and mud- pie making. They are the most strik- ing feature of the summer wardrobes @splayed by the children’s outfitters, and averybody is wondering that they were not thought of before, as they solve the vexa- hous problem of keeping the little folks trim and fresh looking without sewing one’s self to death. With six of these play suits forseach child, the rest of the ward- robe can be made to last the whole sum- mer through without replenishing—a bliss- ful state of affairs for the mothers. First on the list is the workingman’s suit of blue jeans for the restless little lads of four to nine. It is full, but not baggy and awkward, and is made in one piece, with long trousers. The tody is cut out 4 around the neck, buttoning at the back, and has shoul- der straps. Best of all there are two large square pockets on the outside to a: hold sand, shells and other treasures plck- ed up in play. These little overalls may be slipped on over the inary clothes to protect them, or they may be worn with a shirt waist as the Tegplar suit. In them the little man can run about to his heart's content until it is time to dress for dinner, never minding tumbles in the dust or splashes of mud. Denim is very cheap and is as strong as a board—laundering beautifully For the wee little boys is a dress of cool blue and white checked linen. It is made very much like a pinafore, with wide cir- cular skirt, two box pleats down the front, a round collar and a belt. Another was shown of brown denim. It had a very scant blouse and gored skirt, both sewed to a belt and buttoning at the back. Two rows of flat white and red braid trimmed the skirt, collar, sleeves and belt. The third suit, made of brown nen, had a gored skirt and Russian blovse. The skirt buttons to the un- jerbody, the long, loose blouse being drawn n at the waist by a scarlet leather belt. Either wide brim hats of white duck or cartwheels of light straw, with blue or scarlet ribbon bands, may be worn to shade king of hats, a whole chapter might be written about the sun hats and bonnes for the Ii Gingham, pique, in fact, has been pressed into The sunbonnets are very pictur- 4e, but if a child has a tendency to per- spire the sunshade jould be chosen in prefere: The simplest are made in two pieces, ‘owt buttoning to the brim, thus facilitating laundering. In the case of thin materials like gingham the brims are either corded, or are of several thick- nesses stitched in rows and starched stiff- istic should be used instead of tle ngs, as they are very uncomfortable in weather. Blue Denim. The little maid in figure 3 has on a play gqwn of blue denim. It is gathered to a band in front and to a straight shallow yoke at the back, fastening with threo pearl buttons. This little gown has polnt- ed epaulettes at the shoulders, and is to be worn with a long sleeved guimpe of white or colored pereale. The skirt has a four-inch hem, the denim being turned over to form a border of darker blue and head- st hot ed by a row of white braid. It will be equally attractive made of brown or red denim, and is a good model for any of the stout linens so popular. Another comfortable and practical de- sign for a little girl under twelve was shown made up in the same serviceable denim. It, also, is to be worn with a guimpe. The skirt 1s gathered to a short painted yoke, and fastens on the shoulders with straps. Green Line A cool and pretty gown 1s worn by the little blonde in figure 4. Her gown ts of green homespun linen—a fabric that comes in three colors; dull blue, green and deep ecru, and costs but fifteen cents a yard. This green gown has a square-necked waist and full skirt, separated by a two-inch belt. A deep shoulder frill 1s added by way of finish. The sun hat, of the linen, has a box pleated brim and puffed crown. Sailor suits are also popular models for play gowns, those made after the En- glish style, with little man-o’-war’s jack- et, being especially liked, as in stiff ma- terials like denim and linen they are easier to do up than the blouses. When the children are going to spend a day in the parks or in the woods, these little costumes are a genulne boon. They obviate the necessity of hanging the gowns up @ tree and letting the children play around in their petticoats or taking an ex- tra supply of raiment, so the ilttle ones will come back to town looking presentable. Bathing Suits. Along with the play clothes were shown bathing suits, all made of light-weight wool, in white, navy blue and red. A cunning little white serge suit for a toddler was in one piece, with low neck and short elbow sleeves, the trousers ending in a frill. “A Ravy blue serge suit for a girl bf sight had @ short skirt that buttoned to a row cf buttons sewed at the waist. The blouse was full enough to be comfortable cnd bad puffed elbow sleeves. White braid was put on in poimts. Another similar Hitle xuit had the braid sewed on to form an- chors. A dainty white flannel had a short skir¢ trimmed in scarlet braid. The waist was box pleated from a pointed yoke, out- lined with braid. To wear with this suit pre scarlet hose, white canvas ties and a Green Linen. white duck hat with peaked crown. The boys’ suits, in navy blue-and red, were all! made in one piece, low necked,-and the | majority were sleeveless. Every child should have a bathing euit, even if it only, goes down the river sev- eral times during the summer. No matter Hl how carefully its Ah clothes are tucked or rolled up, the aoe chances are that it will get wet wading. Every one knows how injurious it for a child to play all day in semi-wet . clothing. The little suits need be neither —= elaborate nor expen- = sive. A ciece aes woolen skirt, careful- ly sponged and pressed, will furnish the material. Trimmed with a little. braid they will be pretty as well as sensible, saving the children at least the foundation of en illness. They will add.very littie to the lunch basket’s weight, but a good dcal to the health and comfort of the children. lS Grape Culture for the Amateur. From $he Boston Evening Transcript. The grape is so delicious a fruit, and it offers the gardener such wide choice of size, color, flavor and time of ripening in its numerous varieties, that few things af- ford a more interesting field for the atten- tion of the amatevr. It Is well worth his while, therefore, to give some special thought to the care of his vines and to see how much the size and quality of their product is capable of improvement through intelligent treatment. The grape likes best a high, dry location, with a hght calcareous or siliceous soil, but these things being borne in mind to be taken advantage of so far as occasion of- fers, it may be added that any good garden soil can commonly be made to produce a good crop of grapes. Should it be too stiff with clay, it can easily be lightened by the addition of eitner sand or sifted coa! ashes. Grapes have generally great vigor of plant and need severe pruning in order to reduce the growth of wood and increase the fruit product. Young vines should be confined the first year to the growth of a single shoot, trained upon a stake or wire in an upright position. About September first the end should be pinched off to check growth and induce a thorough ripening of the wood before winter. Ordinary garden culture after this is, to cut the cane back in the spring to two buds, and allow the srowth of two shoots from these in the same way the second year, which the fol- lowing spring are trained upon a trellis horizontally. These will each send up bearing canes from their buds which may be allowed to fruit sparingly for this year, and a little more each season as the vine increases in size. Those, however, who prefer to secure a few very choice clusters rather than a larger quantity of mediocre fruit, will cut closer even than this, and keep the vine for several years to the sin- gle shoot, which may be tied to a stake set at ap angle of about forty-five degrees. Pinch the few bearing canes allowed cloge- ly, and confine their fruiting to a single bunch each. As the vine gets older this bearing serface may be very gradually ex- tended, but the vine-dresser will have learned much by that time of the capacity and needs of his vines, and will not require particular directions. What is known as “summer pruning” of the vine consists in pinching, with the thumb and finger, the tips of each bearing cane when it has made three or four leaves beyond the fruit, and of all “later- als,” side shoots which then shoot out, aiter they make one or two leaves. This is absolutely essential to the production of fine fruit. Wood ashes, unleached, and ground bone are among the best fertilizers for vines of bearing size, from five to seven quarts of ashes being a fair dressing for a well-established vine. ——-- -+e0e_____ Drinking in Hot Weather. From the Brooklyn Eagle. On the whole exhortations to avoid cold drinks are in order, but the advice is just as useful as the advice to keep away from the fireplace when your toes are half fro- zen. The temptation to a man who has a little silver in his pocket to cool himself, though but for a few minutes, with a beaker of frothing beer, or a glass of soda or mineral water, or one of those inven- tions of seraphs, that contain straws—this refers to the invention, not the seraphs-- and slices of lemon and sugar and a berry and curious red or brown or yellow fluids and perhaps a bit of mint; this temptation is to be resisted only at cost of a struggle that leaves a sr weak, crushed and more in need of something to drink than before. Now that exercise is more popular than it used to be, now that people who used to scorch their soles on the pavements scorch the country roads on bicycles, the desire to drink, if not the need, is more urgent than ever. Road houses have gone up by hun- dreds along lately solitary highways, and their proprietors wax comfortable on their vendings. They protrude signs from their doorways with the deliberate intent of bringing the wheelman to ea sudden realiza- tion of the warmth of the day and the ab- sence of needed fluid in his tissues. Spiegel- meyer’s beer and the Half Bottle Bottling,| Company’s birch beer and sarsaparilla and So and So's soda,to say nothing of cold milk and iced tea, are advertised these re- sorts, and the advertisements is very hard to pass at 3 o'clock on a summer afternoon with the birds gasping on the trees and the thermometer cracking in the yard. Yes, it is vain to preach against the use of cool- ing liquids in hot weather, but one may still advise moderation. Never drink when you are heated; never drink when you are exercising, never drink when you are think- ing, never drink when you are thirsty. Where's the office boy with that ice water? ————+e- He—“They say that wedding rings are go- ing out of fashio: She—“Oh, I don’t care. If you wish to dizpense with the ring, dear, it will make no difference with me. But why didn’t you give me some warning of what you were about to say? This is £0 sudden.” Then he thought of home and mother, but it was too late.—Cleveland Leader. eee A Compromise. From Harper's Bazar. “I at Reka as Paggirketl Losier! like know! yw to manage a fe. wife wanted to go to the mountains and I'y _ the seashore.” ed to go to y “How did it come ougg’ “We ee “On what?” “On the mountairs.” IT’S ALL HER FAULT Male Mosquitoes Do Not Send in Their Bills for Blood. THE FEMALES MAKE TROUBLE GALORE Something About These Buzzing, Humming, Aggravating Pests. ee gee FEARLESS AND VORACIOUS ‘Written for The Evening Star. T HE SCOTCH HAV a time-worn legend, used as a mental whip for unrtly chil- dren, which says the devil assumes the form of a fly when he sallies forth to wreak his vengeance. Similarly it might be said just now that his satanic majesty gads about in the guise of a mosquito, Ss * seeking the blood ot his victims. No one will gainsay the fact that of all the nestiferous creatures of the insect world, none 1s morc aggressive, more persistently industrious, more bloodthirsty than mankind’s universal enemy, the com- ‘mon mosquito. And yet she is a most in- teresting product of evolution. I write “she” advisedly, because the male insect subsists entirely upon the nectar of flow- mosquitoes comes from the numerous water tanks of the town. In defense of the fenson’k most popMar insect it must be copfessed (and Dr. How- ard champions the piatement) that not one mosqutto in 1. ever tastes blood; they feed ordinarily on plant juices, the female, ds before. stated, being the real disturber of our equanimity of mind and body. That on» a] of E common insect should be furnish by*nature with an elaborate blood-sucking apparatus is a mystery that even.tBe government bug ex- perts haven't solved. Male mosquitoes never enter the house: After the female has sufliciently surfeited herself through the night with human rejSshe usually es- capes in the mornit® attd files away to some small pool of still water where she lays from 200 to 400 eggs. Most Ami ‘ted Town. Of all mosquito-ridden sections of the United States Ss c ti, Tex., seems to be, for some ini pays Treason, the Tost afflicted. Dr. Schwarz’s description of the mosquito plague that recently set- tled down upon this Texan town is like the biblical narrative of the locust pestilence. It seems that the mosquitoes visit their favorite settlement whenever the wind comes from any other, direction than south. Under these conditions hundreds of thou: sands of millions ofthe insects (and this is a low estimate) -are blown in upon the unfortunate town. Whole herds of ca‘tle and jhorses flee, pain and panic stricken, before the living cloud in a wild effort to ‘get to water. When the direction of the wind changes, however, the winged cyclone disappears as hastily as it arrived. There is no guarding against these onslaughts; nothing but the weathervane can forebode the approaching pestilence. Neither earth- quake, nor lightning, nor tornado fs ‘dread- ed half so much as the visitation of these sudden insect storms,the animated particles of which sting and buzz and fly in blinded fury into every nook and cranny. Throughout Florida and in the interior of North Carolina, as well as in the main woods and lowlands of Massachusetts, the mosquito holds high revel for at least six months of the year. The silent mosquito of Louisiana and adjacent states is greatly dreaded. The peculiarities of this species are its noiseless approach and sharp sting. THE MOSQUITO AS A FORCE IN THE COUNTRY. ers and is harmless to both man and beast. Curiously enough, the female’s inordinate love of blood is not a natural, but an ac- quired, taste. At last we have some accurate scientific knowledge of this terrible insect. . Howard of the government bureau of entomology has devoted years to the con- scientious study of the mcsquito, and now mak¢s some interesting statements con- cerning the “humming bird of the swamps.” His revelations are calculated to increase our respect for the tiny winged things. He recently made a comparative study of the various species of mosquitoes native | to this country. Dr. Howard's investiga- tions show that there are no fewer than five genera and twenty species, and that no locality has less than eight species of the culicidae. How much of an American the mosquito really is can best be decided after learning that there are altogether but 150 known species of the family in the world, of which only" thirty have been | found in Europe. At the same time the mosquito is cosmopolitan, and while flour- ishirg in greatest opulence in the tropics manages to live comfortably in the cold- est climates, as every arctic explorer will attest—indeed the fact is established that no extreme of cold can kill a mosquito, which Is entirely contrary to common belier, but a scientific fact, none the less. In the Arctic Regions. No people suffer more from the small blood suckers than do the Eskimos who live in the neighborhood of the arctic cir- cle. In the extreme northern regions the bricf summer becomes a season of tor- ment because of the countless swarms of mosquitoes that oblige even the reindeers and polar bears to seek refuge from their tiny annoyers by traveling far inland. Usually tke mosquito affects low-lying countries, although the testimony of all travelers proves that tkey are frequently seen end felt upon the highest peaks of the Alps and are not uncommon in the Adironda at an altitude of 8,000 feet above the sea level. According to Dr. How- ard, the great cyclops of the whole mo- squito race is the Anopheles quadrimacu- latus, a muscular insect, as fearless as it is voracious. It is a late breeder, and makes its appearance in the autumn. Other species bear such disagreeable names as Culex stimulars, Culex punctor, Culex pertubans and Culex excrucians. Hach spe- cies has its peculiar habits. An instance of this is found in the fact that the mosquitoes in the neighborhood of Cape May, N. J., are provided with a most powerful stinging apparatus, but no vocal abilities. This songless mosquito with the large appetite and a two-edged drill is commonly and erroreously called a “blind gnat.” Like all other creatures, big and little, the mosquito will flourish wherever the conditions are favorable to its propagation and growth; its numbers must decrease the moment the conditions are made unfavorable to its subsistence. The question then naturally arises. What are favorable conditions? While the ques- tion cannot be answered with absolute ac- curacy, yet there is no doubt that without water these troublesome insects could not exist, simply because water is their breed- ing ground. A To Exterminate the Pests. Dr. E. A. Schwarz of the entomological bureiu says that his observations have led him to the conclusion that as long as Dr. 1h | have been examined and classified. ; one specimen of every known family of the stream is not a rapid cne its other characteriatics are entirely immaterial as far as mosquito propagation is concerned. Swamp pools aad marsh ponds where the mosquitos breed are rendered entirely bar- ren of that unwelcome crop by the intro* duction of a few carp, perch or other ac- tive fish. An effective plan for extermina- ting culcidae is the one adopted by Dr. Howard, which was nothing more complex than the pouring of kerosene oil upon lar- vae waters. Two gills of oil will cover 15 square feet of water surface; the ofl form- ing a thick film over the water. The pupae or “wrigglers,” which are mosquitoes in their second stage of development, are !m- mediately suffocated. course this method could never be pursued in the ex- tensive sea marshes along the coast where mosquitoes breed in incalculable numbers; it serves chiefly for inland places where the supply of winged pests is derived frorn comparatively small swamps and adjacent pools. Purely salt water destroys mosqui- toes, while brackish water supports: them. It is less than a year ago that @ moaquito Leopyearlh: eaten Seach was abolishe: yy cutting a canal, which transformed a Before one is aware of ffs presence, blood has been drawn. This diminutive demon ig very black and very 'ctumsy; the aggres- sive one is, of course, the female. In southern Mexico thé culex damnatorum— literally “gnat cf the damned’— has re- cently been encountered. This is supposed to be the biggest and most bloodthirsty of all mosquitodom, and is but rarely seen. Once met with, however, the culex damna- torum is not to be forgotten very soon. Its probing powers are equal to those of a young crab, and it ejects a venom that is said to be more deadly than the sting of a tarantula. It is probable, however, that these are more facts of tradition and fancy than of reality. Science accepts nothing but what can be proved, and the scientific study of mos- quitoes admits no species save those pone r. Howard has personally examined at least mosquitoes, and the collections, most of them rare and costly, of every entomolo- gist in the land has contributed its share to his curious knowledge. He has done for the neglected mosquito what Audubon did for our native birds, and what Agas- siz did in all departments of natural his- tory investigation—save that of mosquito- rology. Scme day Dr. Howard will put in a book all the interesting things he has learned about mosquitoes, and it will be a surprisingly large and engaging volume, and the savant’s contention that the mos- quito is more interesting than the elephant will be accepted at its face value. Their Natural Enemies. There are two ratural enemies of the mosquito, the dregon fly and the spider. The latter, as we know, wages constant warfare upoh all insect life, and where Mosquitoes ara plentiful they form the chief dict of their hairy foe. The dragon fly is a destroyer of mosquitoes In, at least, two stages of life. The larva dragon fly feeds upon the larva mosquito, and when fully developed the former dines constantly upon the matured mosquito. The dragon fly as a solution of the mosquito pest ques- tion is not wholiy satisfactory, for while there is no serious difficulty to be encount- ered in the cultivation of dragon files in large numbers, yet it is manifestly im- possible to keen them in the dank woods where mosquitoes abound, the hunting €round of the “darning needle” being among the flowers and dry gsrdens where the sunshine prevails. For this very im- portant reason the scheme of hunting one insect with another must be abandoned as impracticable. The only method by which the world may rid itself of the pertinacious and pertur- bating little creature is the dredging of every sluggish stream, the drying up of every stagnant pool, the draining of every Piece of sodden swamp and woodland. Un- til this herculean task be accomplished the breeding and multiplication of mos- quitoes must contirfite. One of the joys of the millennium will bé:the complete an- nihilation of the mesquite. Born of stag- nating waters, orig the foul demon of fever and nourished by deadly microbes, the mosquito presefits Uttle bill for payment consequent. w our neglect to drain off obnoxious sw; Jands and clear away the useless uderbrush in our for- ests. The mosquito, nbiquitous and mus!- cal, cannot be just}. come ctunes for per- 1 forming the naturz of mall existence. = riggs gd ‘i The Annual, Idiot. From the St. Paul Dispatén. 9° Brogan sas is Sh cerarens et ‘There, in m Spartments two, by four, he tries to take ‘While, fighting animaleding, mosquitoes, bugs and He hasn't room to take tite treath, but yet he tries to smile, In avaickly, sentimenta) way, for that's the proper * How is the climate?” asks. “ 2 a mage as & aut some one prtales he He wanders up and down the beach, reciting poems And looks down down on the other chumps as if thes He talks of boats ard rigging aad ‘the larboand and As if he wo : ie" been To ay mpresa folk that he'd sometime He hitches up is trousers Uke a sailor on the And prai It some one “How hot it ta!" he shouts, “You to small ‘schoo! tis of a very tender | >, MID HEAT AND DUST Where the Men of the Black Gang Have to Work. = HIDDEN BELOWIN THE ENGINE ROOMS Must Shake Up Steam and Shovel Out the Coal. ee A MODERN MAN-OF-WAR sos SS ON Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. OST SHIP VISIT- ors, boarding a man- >) of-war, fail, through G indolence or lack of 4m proper pilotage, to : “go below,” and by that failure they miss acquiring the full meaning and temper of the war- ship of today. The ship visitor of three or four decades ago could without much loss have foregone the visit below; for on the spar deck alone of the old’ man-of-war he could have seen all”that was worth seeing The propul- sion of the old ships was practically alto- gether in the hands of the nimble rigging- seramblers of the deck force—the bjue- jackets whom the ship visitor of other days studied as they sat tailor-wise on to’gallant fo'c’sle corking mats, sewing silken stars and anchors on shore sweet- hearts’ imitation sailor caps. True, there may have been a compound engine or so below, installed there chiefly for the pur- pose of turning over a propeller to shove the ship in and out of ports; once out of port and in the open sea, the propeller be- ing hoisted out of the water and cradled in the “well,” that it might not (the engines being “‘dead”) have to be dragged through the sea and retard the propulsion of the shrouds. For steam was then a make-shift or men-of-war, of the relative importance of the secondary battery on the warship of today. The sails were the thing; and the “black gang” formed an inconsidera- ble number of the oll man-of-war’s en- listed ship's company—men who worked below when the engines were being turned over, but who had aiso to be able to lend a hand to go aloft on sea watches when the ship was under sail alone, as it was ninety days in a hundred. With the Coming of Steam. But now, since the animating power of the ship has been transferred from spar deck to fire and engine rooms, the black gang—otherwire, the crew of the engin- eer’s departmcnt—is a body of men to be ccnsidered on the modern’ man-of-war. While a deck officer of the line could scarcely be expected to admit it, the black gang are the men who do most of the work on tcday’s ships of war. Theirs is not fancy sailoring. Only on Sundays and holidays do they “break out” their mus- tering shirts and caps. Except at quarters, they are uniformed in dungarees, and, seen during working hours, they are a grimy-locking lot, from chief machinist down to coal heaver. No ship visitor, seeing them at work, would feel incited to pucker his lips for the whistling of “A Life on the Oceun Wave,” for the man of the black gang has nothing heavy weatherish in his gait, manner, or looks. When the man below knocks off work for the day, he is generally too tired to do any- thing except to smoke. He earns his pay every day of the 365. He has not much use for the “deck hand,” whom he con- siders no sailor since the passing of the old salling men-of-war, but the merest “paint scrubber” and “bright work polisher.” In fact, the mutual jealousy that is so well known, through recent exploitation, to ex- ist between engineer officers and ‘officers of the line of the American navy, has ex- tended, during the past few years, to the enlisted men of the two main parts of the ship—the deck force and the engineers’ gang. The individual man of each force maintains that he is more essential than the other to the vorking of the ship, The introduction of the steel ships has caused this question to be unremittingly argued with heat and fisticuffs by the men for- ward of the two forces. It will probably never be decided to the satisfaction of the two contending gangs. What Would Happen. “If there weren't no men on deck to work the guns,” says the gunner’s mate to the fireman, “where in blazes ‘ud this bloom- ing hooker be if a sea war ‘ud happen to break out?” “She'd be standin’ on her nose in a thousand fathom of salt water, if there wasn’t no hands down below to shake up some steam to lug her out o’ the way— that’s where she'd be!” retorts the fireman, and thus it goes on forever, world without end—whence the term, “man-o’-war chaw.”” While in numbers the engineer's gang of the modern American man-of-war only comprises about one-fifth of the ship's company of enlisted men, the engineer's gang certainly does quite as much work as the whole deck force when the ship is in Port. At sea, the man of the black gang does about. five times the amount of work performed by the man on deck. Executive officers of the new ships have often to cud- gel their brains to find work enough to keep deck forces going from “turn to” till “knock off,” but no chief engineer ever has to lie awake nights to study up work to be done by the men of his department. He is more likely to lose rest wondering how he is going to get all of the necessary work he has mapped out done by his com- paratively small force. Scarcely ever does @ chief engineer descend an engine or fire room ladder that he does not chance upon @ dozen or so of urgently necessary jobs to be performed in connection with the machinery and boilers of the ship. The propelling gear of a big ship of war, strong and perfect as it looks and is, when in operation, and every trifling detail has been attended to, is in need of constant tinkering on the part of the machinists of the black gang, in order to keep it in Proper shape. The machinery become: what the engineers call ‘‘fine-ladyish,” “tired” or “crazy,” at the most unexpected times, and the members of the black gang whose work is directly in connection with the machinery are always on the lookout for periods of “engine-sulking.” There is always a piston rod or stuffing box of a pump to be packed, a valve chamber to be examined and cleaned, a cylinder head to be removed and replaced, an air and circu- lating pump rod to be renewed. A modern man-of-war rarely makes a day's running that a score of minor things, to be attend- ed to as soon as the “‘mud-hook” is let go, are not developed. A Prodigious Task. The amount of station cleaning the mem- bers of the black gang have to attend to is prodigious—several times as much as that done by the whole deck force. The preser- vation of a man-of-war’s machinery from the injury wrought by oil and. rust is a mammoth job. Every man below, except the machinists, who are chief petty offi- cers, has what is called a cleaning station, which he must keep in the pink of condi- tion or stand the consequences of a charge of shirking duty. A list of these stations is hung in the upper engine room, and each station is numbered. The man of the black gang regularly cleans the station the num- coppersmith and one blacksmith. The ma- chinists are chief petty officers, and they stand commissioned engineers’ tehes un: der steam. They are kixh-class mechanics (the examination they must pass to get their billets being an exceedingly trying one), and a majority of them have served as locomotive engineers ashore, or as water tenders or oilers in the merchant marine. Chief machinists, of whom there are from three to five on American warships, accord- ing to the ship's rate, get $75 a month, and certainly earn every centavo of it. Machin- ists of the first, second and third classes are bluejackets of the black gang, and get from $# to $5 a month. There are not enough commissioned engineers in the United States navy to permit of their standing watch and watch, and it is for this reason that it is y for the chief machinists, who handle the throttle and reversing gear on the cruises, to be high-grade men. There is one chief machinist on watch in each en- gine room under steam, the senior being in complete command of all the working de- tails of the engineers’ department, under the direction of the chief engineer. The members of the black gang obey him as im- plicitly and with the same degree of alacrity that they obey any of the commissioned officers of the ship. When a break down occurs all the machinists (every one of whom is capable of taking a quadruple ex- pansion engine to pieces, setting it up again, or renewing or mending any broken or worn-out part_of {t) work together lke beavers to set the thing right. There is no enlisted man on a man-of-war, not ex- cepting the master-of-arms, whose position is so responsible as that of a chief ma- chinist. Watching the Boile The water tenders, of whom there are from three to five on American warships, are also an exceedingly responsible set of men, who earn their $37 a month with few words, but a heap of watchfulness. They are stationed in the boiler rooms, and have general supervision over the firemen. It is their business to get all that can pos- sibly be gotten out of the boilers in the way of making steam, and each of them must keep a shifty eye on the scores of water and steam cocks and rafety valves in the boiler room under his charge to see that no accidents occur. A water tender, for instance, who permits the water in his boiler to run low when under steam is in for trouble. The steam gauges under the eye of the’chief machinist of the watch tell him exactly how much steam each boiler is making, and if there is anything a water tender on a man-of-war particu- larly dislikes, and therefcre guards against, it is to hi the chief machinist of his watch stick his head into his boiler room with the inquiry, “What's the matter with your steam out here?” The oilers of the black gang, of whom there are frem eight to twelve, according to the size of the ship, are all men of the miraculous nimbleness of the genuine sailors of other days. They in order to go on living. It 1s hi to see these “greas name for them) crawling through tnextri- cable masses of machinery under full throbbing power, with their tightly-c! oll cans, dodging ponderous cros: blow from which would knock ingers” (man-ot- them into kingdom come, now throwing “fat” while they rest on one elbow and a foot, now lying flat to escape the return thrust of a piston plunger, and all the time seeming to the layman on the very verge of death, The oiler is perpetually pawing bearings to see if they are hot; and this looks as wan- ton to the man who understands not the’ need of {* as the idiocy of the boy who endeavors to see how close he can get his hand to a buzz-saw without losing some fingers. Notwithstanding the tremendous chances they are compelled to take, very few man-of-war oilers are ever injured on duty. The oller gives his services to Uncie a for $37 a month, and if any man earns 5 per diem, the man-of-war “‘tat-siinger” does. Feeding the Furnaces. Next after the oilers come the firemen, the bare-breasted, brawny men who feed the furnaces in foux hour watches. Theirs is labor to make a man think. Even in the Be-ing sea the heat cf a man-of-war fire room is no mere matter of coziness. But the desperate heat of such a fire room in hot latitudes—say, in the middie of the ed sea at Christmas time—is a thing that must be felt to be understood. The hottes? room of the Turkish bath is balmy spring by comparison. Yet for four hours, twice @ day, and oftener when the ship happens to he short handed, these huge-muscled, unwhimpering men reply to the belching, insatiable maw of the furnaces with end- less chains of shovelsful of coal and must ever and again add to their own burden of work by pronging the greedy flames with thirty-pound “devil’s_ claws,” that only make the hres to burn the flercer and to roar for more coal. Little three-minute in- tervals they may snatch to stand under the fire room ventilators for a breath of pure air or to grab a drink of tepid oatmeal water (for iced or even cold water would be their death in such heat), but most of the time of their watches Is a steady danc- ing of obedience to the relentless clamor of the fires. All this they endure for $35 @ month for first-class firemen (as oflicially rated) and $30 a month for second-class firemen, But of all the men of the black gang, or of the whole ship's company, in truth not excepting the unconsidered landsman, the poor coal heaver (pay $22 2 @ month) gets the very worst of it. A coal heaver died the other day during the trial of one of the new torpedo boats: perhaps few persons who read of the man’s death know much of the trials of a coal heaver on a man-o! war. The coal heaver “draws no water’ whatsoever on a warship, even the non- descript landsman on deck regarding him as a fool for performing such hard, bitter, stifling labor as he has to perform for so little money. He is ordered around by all hands, fore and aft, above and below. When the ship is under steam he has to work like a dray horse, with this difference, that the horse works in the air and in the broad light of the sun, which the coal heaver decidedly does not. On modern war- ships the coal bunkers are elaborately fit- ted up with incandescent lights, nine out of ten of which are smashed to smithere: ns every time the ship is coaled. It is prac- tically impossible to prevent this. The coal heaver has therefore to work in the chiar- oscuro light of his dust-covered lantern. A lantern does not illuminate a bunker to any large extent, but it enables the coal heaver to crawl around on his hands and knees without butting his brains out against steel bulkheads, Working in the Coal. The bunkers, when the ship is steaming, are always insufferably hot, and practically without ventilation. The coal heaver has got to get the coal out of the bunkers and run it in trolley buckets to the fire rooms, no matter how he does it. He has to work in all postures, according to the amount of coal in the bunker he is assigned to. He shovels coal while lying on his back, lying on his side, sitting down, half standing, leaning on one arm. He practically mines the coal all over again in the bunkers. He is often buried in an avalanche of coal. Big lumps of coal fall on his feet. His lungs be- come coated with coal dust. He is black from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. He can only scrub the superficial grime from his skin at the end of his watch. It is sad work, unquestionably, and yet the navy never has any difficulty in getting coal heavers. Nor, if the oppor- tunity were given to him, would the coal heaver exchange places with the deck hand. Why? Because in the midst of his paralyzing labor and misery he despises the idea of polishing a bridge railing under the direction of a chief boatswain’s mate, with @ little wisp of rag in one hand and of putz pomade in the other. He has the outset aligned himself with the black gang in its contempt for the deck hands, and suf- fers in silence, and purposes to so continue suffering for the sake of consistency, which he esteems as a jewel. can ef petty officer of the black gang besides the machinists is the chief en- gineer’s yeoman, who is paid $60 a month. He is the chief engineer's clerk. No clerk in civil life works so hard for $720 a year ay the ergineer’s y: on a man-of-war. Almost from all hands in the morning until Pipe down at night he is at his desk in the engineer’s log room. He has to make out smudged himself from head to foot In dish- ing out stores to the engineers’ gang to carry on their work. He is the storekeeper of the engineers’ department, and at an in- stant’s notice he must be able to tell the chief engineer how much plumbago. or sal soda, or cylinder oll, or red lead, or turpen- ine, there is on hand in the store rooms below. > AND A HALF MILLIONS A MONTH, TW The Income That Europe's Rulers Have to Worry Along On, From the Pall Mall Gazette The monarchial profession has its craw- backs and disadvantages, no doubt—still, it is not a profession which monarchs will willingly let die. The business fs, in fact, a fairly remunerative one. The monarch who would “cut up” best of all would appear to be the Russian autocrat. His landed prop- erty brings him in a yearly income of $12, 500,000. The output of his Siberian mines has been estimated at about as muc! nd his civil list is certainly not overstated at $5,000,000, Two and one-half millions a month ought to do him very well. The in- certi considered, however, the emolument does not seem so excessive. Certainly the sultan, whom consideration of this sort cannot choose but affect, is not nearly ro well off financially. He possesses real estate to the value of but some $4 100 0, and his professional emoluments amount to no more. And then he has a force ot 5.00 court officials to feed and clothe, and, at any rate, to owe salaries to. William = Katser's professional income y be given in the same figures as repre- the sultan’s. It is not unknown that William is also land owner on some- what extensive scale. Perhaps, though, he gets more out of his land in the way of Sport than in any other. And it must not be forgotten that he ts the father of a family which evinces a marked dispos ‘tion to Increase, and that he has probably the most tremendous tailor’s bill in Turope It may de doubted whether his neighbor, Austria, who sticks to the same w uniform at home and the same suit of serge abroad, and whose practice is worth an annual million to him, is not half a million better off by comparison The Shah of Persia is very well-to-do. He has a personal e: of $20,000,000 and a professional income of $2.5 This 4 tument ngland, which seems to y¥ run, all things considered, reasonable terms. In Por- n Greece, a monarch gets but a $250,000 per year. In Greece this is provided as to $200,000 by the tax- Payers of the country. The remaining 000 is furnished, in equal proportions, by those of England, Fr and Russi Of the leading monarch presidential, he of France draws $120,000 as pay, another $60,000 for incidental expense nearly $500,000 better than the of monarchy i dent of the ates the austere virtues of republic upon @ oo, On the wh : profes. sion has no reason to complain. - see RAISING A BIG BELL, It Weighs Ninety-Eight Tons and ta Over Twelve Feet High, From Londen Sketch, For some time past there has been a sort of dead-heat between the two biggest bells in the world, the one at the cathedral in Moscow and the other at the unfinished pagoda of Mengoon, India, north of Manda- lay, across the river. If the former was the bigger of the two, it was cracked, and therefore useless as a bell, while the latter, though whole, has dragged its supports down till it rested on the ground and would not emit any sound. Now, however, it has been reswung, and can claim attention as the biggest bell, in working order, in the world. In 1896 the Burmese community decided to have the bell raised, and employed the Irrawaddy Fiotilla Company, limited, to d> the work. The rim of the bell was first supported by huge baulks of timber wedged in all round, and a tripod erected over it to fosten the shackle to and keep it upright. The old supports having been knocked away two large iron columns, twenty-five Teet high, cast by the Irrawaddy com- pany, were erected, with concrete founda- tions. A large steel cross-girder, with a distributing girder on the top of it, was then passed through the shackle, an@ the bell was raised by screw-jacks all round the wedges of timber, until the cross-girder could be placed on the pillars and riveted in position. The screw-jacks were then eased, and the bell left swinging, with its lower rim about 2 feet 10 inches from the ground. The weight Is about ninety-ejght tons, the circumference at the base being fifty-one and one-half feet and at the top twenty-six feet. It averages over a foot in thickness. The bell itself is over twelve feet high, and the shackle, which was intended for logs of timber, about twelve feet. The pin in the shackle has a diameter of sixteen inches. The bell was cast about the beginning of the century by King Bodawpaya as an accompaniment to the huge brick pagoda which he never finished. It is said to have been cast on an island and rafted across. No proper means yet exist for striking the bell, but when hit with a heavy piece of wood it gives out a ‘deep vibrating boom. ——_—__+ + —__—__ Benefit of Fogs. From the Chicago Record. Fogs are said to have a very beneficial effect on the health of districts where they, are prevalent, as they are great purifiers of the atmosphere, and evep the sulphur, which makes the Londen fog so pungent and irritating, is credited with effecting quite an appreciable limitation of preva- Maur lent infectious diseases. Prof. is now of the opinion that smoke may be turned into a hygienic ally, and under some circumstances be made capable of preserving the public health to a degree little imagined. The dust collected from the smoke of some Liege furnaces burn- ing coal raised from the neighboring mines produces, when ¢@issolved in hydrochloria acid, a solution from which considerable quantities of arsenic and several other metallic salts may be precipitated. It is now suspected that this breathing of ar- senic ard other minerals in a finely di- vided state may account for the singular immunity from epidemics enjoyed by cer- tain industrial districts, such as that of St. Etienne, and medical authorities in those regions and elsewhere are asked to throw upon the subject what light they can. It is suggested that the ventilating effect of the numerous chimneys in {ron- making and other industrial centers has its due share in constantly driving off the vitiated air and replacing it by fresh quan- tities of pure air. It was noted that when pestilence was raging in an English town, an elevated and apparently salubrious resi- dential district, its inhabitants migrated to a low-lying cnd murky parish in the adjacent town of Bristol, where the air wes biack from the smoke of numerous chimneys, while the mortality was lower than that of the fashionable quarter over- looking it. ————-eee. Died Picking Blackberries. From the Atlanta Corstitution. Patsy, a little negro girl, at Wilming- ton, N. C., a fiend at berry picking, who was employed to pick blackberries by Pink Morrison, picked herself to death today. She found a flush brier patch, and, not- withstanding the “ny 3 heat of the sun and the entreaties of desist on account of the heat, Patsy con- tinued to pick berries until the sun killed eh “For fifteen years my daughter suffered terribly with in berited Eexema. She wed the best modical attention, was given wany patent medicines, and used various external sppli- cations, but they bad no effect whatever. 8. 8. 8. was finally given, and it prompt- ly reached the seat of the disease, so that she is cured sound and well, ber skin is perfectly dear aes