Evening Star Newspaper, July 24, 1897, Page 17

GREAT MEN AT PLAY Leading Lights of the Country and Their Various Recreations. HOW THEY SPEND SUMMER MONTHS Statesmen and Financiers Who Are Fond of Outdoor Sport. FISHERMEN AND HUNTERS —_+——__ Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. NEW YORK, July 21, 1897. HE GREAT MEN of the country are doing all kinds of queer things this summer, things which exhibit them in a new Hght and form a striking contrast to their existence as public characters. Take, for example, Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley, three living men who have been honored by the American people with the highest positions in their gift. Mr. Cleveland's hours of recreation are generally spent in duck hooting or in fishing, according to the sea- ron of the year. Mr. Harrison ts an ardent sherman, and the present President of the United States is an enthusiastic horseback rider. The public eye is fixed so ardently upon these men that it requires more or less maneuvering on their part to escape from @ position in which they are more or less compelled to pose. Mr. McKinley is having a busy and trying summer of It, if it can alied that. Last year the brief trip up all he allowed himself. therefore, the President's axation is horseback riding or . and the figure of the chief mag- istrate, mounted on a well-groomed steed, COk STRONG © briskly along the shady strects ital, is one that has become fair- residents of Washington nt that Mr. McKinley during the few m has occupied the White House. What Some Will Do. fam Jennings Bryan, who might have been Presi not been against the will of the J eople, dees not spend his spare as many © cones He is a man who work verish activity and wonderful appl for long stretches, and when he dee likes to seek a quiet plac his . perhaps, or the house of a . are involve B. that ce, David of the in watching a spirited cont ary Navy Roosevelt likes to watch the ing of muscle and skill in kind of sport that involves this healthy cupation, whether it is a boxing bout, struggle or the pursuit of game found In the west. t Seth Low of Columbia College sistant Secret nkly | su me ther gentleman of athletic taste; in S outing. however, Mr. Low is fond of ing instead of hunting. When he got s latest crop of graduates off his hands >w hurried away to a New Hamp- trout stream, where he will spend the mmer mor The present mayor of TAS A EDISGY r unusual fashion, though rather from ty than choice. Mayor Strong is a of «out, and every year with the of July he eds away to the for a four weeks’ revel in daily aths. One month spent in this way D2ER WS ceRESTKE TESLA ‘fF y suffices to reduce the gout he has ulated = durin the other eleven Mayor Harrison of Chicago is nthusiastic bicyclist, and spends most his summer wheeling about the country. is said, fm fact, that Mayor Harrison It owes his election largely to the fact that he w an enthusiastic wheelman. A Trio of Billiardists. Genius ts not bound by rule and routine in its playful moods any more than when charming the world’s senses or solving its Geep riddles. Nikola Tesla, who tingles THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY," JULY 4, 1997224 PAGES. 17 with electrical energy, is an enthusiastic Dilliardist. In this he is at one with Pad- erewski and Jean de Reszke. Tesla’s great rival in the electrical field, Thomas <A, Edison, spends his spare moments in an unusual manner. It is said that he is fond of telling stories to boon companions, when the latter are to be found; otherwise,reading trashy novels, with something of a delight, too. He obtains a great deal of diversion, however, in watching the progress of his New Jersey iron mine. He spends al! of his summers in the town which is named for him. It would seem that the great men of this country, at some time in their lives, be- come enthusiastic fishermen. So we have Jo Jefferson, Rev. Henry Field, Dr. Van Dyke, Lyman Abbott, Joseph Choate, Jas. Cc. Carter and Wm. Brookfield, all of whom will pursue the finny inhabitants of trout pools this year. Rev. Dr. Rainford of New York is a thorough sportsman. The study of his New York home is fillled with his trophies of the chase. There are heads of Rocky Mcuntain goats, antelope, moose and almost every form of big game that can be found in this country. And every trophy has some kind of story attached which the worthy doctor willing to relate to his friends on occasion. Dr. John Hal! regularly spends his sum- mers in his native place in County Armagh, Ireland, in the house that has been in his family for at least six generations. Finencicrs and Business Men. The great financiers and business men take the widest range of variety in their re of recreation. J. Pierpont Morgan s a bit, does a little yachting and s some time in fashionable summer resorts, but he never goes beyond the licker and the telephone. All the Goulds are enthus stic over yachting. The Rocke- “T- ROOSEVELT fellers find bucolic pleasures on their Tarry- town estates. The late Theodore Have- meyer was a golf enthusiast, and owns part of the honor of introducing that di- '§ game into this country. Herman irichs is one of the best amateur swim- in the country, if not in the world. y Clews gains much recreation from his business, and is a famillar figure at the opera in winter and at Newport in the summer. Thomas C, Platt is too much of a olitician to stray far from the scenes of is triumphs, and generally passes the summer at the Oriental Hotel, Manhattan Beach. Dan Lamont is an enthusiastic deep water fisherman, and is spending his summer at Bay Shore, L. I. Frev-W.5-RAINSTORD Americans are noted for their fondness for horses, and this seems to be character- istic of men who have heaped up wealth by their own exertions. Chas. T. Yerkes, the street car magnate, likes to hold the reins over a high-stepping pair. August Belmont and Spencer Trask are well known for their Hking for horse flesh. Chauncey Depew, when he takes a vacation, gener- ally includes. in it a European trip. Mr. Depew crossed the pond in time to attend the jubilee, and now is with us again. Takes No Vacation. Perhaps the only man in the country who never takes a vacation is Russell Sage, the king of “puts” and “calls.” The veteran of Wall street has not, within the recollection of the oldest broker, been absent from his office during the sweltering season. When his wife is at some of the near-by summer places, Mr. Sage sometimes spends Sunday with her, but he always gets back to the city on Sunday evening. in order to be at his desk bright and early Monday morning. Going out of the country, we find a grand cld man of England taking recreation as some people take medicine, and the statis- ties of the number of trees felled at Ha- warden would doubtless serve as an exact barometer of his physical condition for the last quarter of a century. It 1s lately re- ported that Mr. Gladstone rides a wheel. If this ts so, it merely shows that the spirit of progress is as much a part of his old age as it was of his youth. The grand old man of Germany {s another devotee of regular exercises. His walk and horseback rides have kept his form erect and his muscles tense, and have brought him a hale and vigorous old age. Vacation on a Wheel. But after all, the most novel form of ex- ercise is that taken by the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Frances Willard. Miss Willard, who be- Neves in systematized recreation, adopted the bicycle as the best means thereto twa years ago, and spends a part of her vaca- tion on the wheel, riding through New York state. But while this brings her pleasure, and recreation, she also combines business with her exercise by taking with her several stenographers, who also travel on wheels and take down over the handle | bars the bright things which occur to her en route. { {the animal than hav CLIMATE AND CRIME Effect of Changes in Temperature Upon the Evil-Minded. GREATER IN SOMMER THAN IN WINTER Conditions Under Which’ Murders and Suicides Are Most Common. AN INTERESTING THEORY Written for The Evening Star, D:=:: THE WEATH- er regulate suman conduct, and do a! mospheric conditions have a marked e! fect upen the crimi- nally inclined? ‘These are the start- ling questions which the meteorological experts at Washing- ton have been asked to grapple with and solve. The direct re- sults of their inves- tigations, so far as they have progressed, disclose some exceedingly interesting facts, which, shorn of their technical language, are here given. Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, who has vastly improved the inner workings of the national depart- ment of meteorology, is conducting a spe- cial series of investigations in relation to criminology. Elias B. Dunn of the New York weather bureau has been making a number of observations on his own ac- count. In so far as Mr. Dunn's invest gations of the effect of weather upon the weak minded or criminally inclined have been carried, he is in perfect agreement with his colaborers at the capital, who, in no uncertain language, affirm that atmos- pheric conditions have to a very considera- ble extent an influence upon the conduct of habitual criminals and persons of un- sound mind. That man’s mental functions are to a greater or lesser extent governed by his physical condition is a fact long ago dis- covered by psychologists. But to what ex- tent the shortcomings or evil doings of mankind are directly traceable to condi- tions of the weather it has remained until today for physicians, scientists and lay- men interested in such research to find out Irdeed, the majority of normal persons, whatever their occupation, are swayed in- tellectually and physically by the prevail- ing state of the weather, and the police records disclose a corresponding incr2ise or decrease of crime with the falling and rising barometer. And these statements are not haphazard, nor are they founded upon supposition; they are matters of rec- ord and scientific fact, vouched for by the best-known and most capable authorities of the land. A Criminal Barometer. When Prof. Emil Dauchney of Paris recently made the assertion that the rec- ord of murder, burglary and other crimes could be shown by a barometer mathe- matically constructed for the purpose just as accurately as the weather is now shown by the common lLarometer, the writer set out upon a little journey of inquiry among the meteorological sharps to ascertain just how much of truth and how much of the zeal of a scientific specialist was contained in Dr. Dauchney’s statement. In what de- gree the French savant was right can best be decided after a perusal of the facts in hand. The statistics of the weather bureaus prove, first, that men and women who live in high latitudes have in their men- tal and physical make-up much more of their brethren of the south, and im consequence, while tae southerner 1s easily discouraged and losing heart takes to suicide, the man who was born and lives 1m the north revenges him- self upon his fellow beings rather than up- on himself; and, secondly, that crime is generally premeditated in warm, cloudy Weather, while the deed itself is.executed under clear and bracing meteorological conditicns. The reports of the Depart- | ment of Agriculture on this subject, though | not as exhaustive as one might wish, are at one with English and French facts and figures of the same kind. Our native in- that during excessively hot there is a great deal of hu- midity in the atmosphere and persons per- spire most freely, when there is little or no relief for sweltering humanity, the mind becomes to a certain extent deranged and the commission of crime results. Dark Days and Murder. After a thorough study of the question, Prof. Dauchney says: “When very moist the atmosphere is a much better conductor of electricity than at any other time. Then | the natural electricity is drawn from the body, and this has a tendency to destroy vitality and so weaken the mental facul- ties. Dark days and muggy weather means an increase of murder, robbery, rape, arson and suicide.” Dr. 8. ‘A. K. Strahan, who, next to Lombroso, ranks as one of the foremost criminologists of the day, says, relative to the effect of weather upon those who are morally oblique: “The popular be- Hef is that the winter months, and espe- cially dreary November, 1s the season in which crimes occurred’ most frequently. Like some other popular beliefs, this has proved upon inquiry to be without foun- dation in fact. The examination of a large collection of statistics, although not estab- lishing a constant proportion for each sea- son, shows clearly that in all countries from which statistics can be obtained the ; maximum is attained in one or other of the spring or early summer months.” Dr. Strahan further states that it is when skies are lowering and there ts much hu- midity that the commission of crime is greatest. Another interesting fact is this: A man or woman who lives much alone is, in 50 per cent of the cases investigated, much mpre easily influenced by atmospheric changes than are others. So a person who has many troubles, and is constantly thinking of them, is much more susceptible to any sudden changing of the weather than one who is care free and light-heart- ed. The clearing of a storm or a single literal ray of sunshine would, in hundreds of thousands of cases, have prevented sui- clde and murder. In regions like New York and Boston, where there are so many and such sud- den changes of weather, the climatic in- fluence upon human character and action is a factor of no little importance. There is an annual rhythmic rise and fall which affects the animate nature. With the ap- proach of spring and the increase of tem- perature there is a general awakening from the winter's period of comparative rest. With this awakening every function is excited to its most vigorous action. This has a profound effect upon the whole or- ganism, which begins to work at a higher tension. Mind and body are more active than at any other time of the year. Upon the normal, healthy creature this period of activity has only the most benign effect, but upon the abnormal creature it acts as an incentive to unnatural acts. Hence dur- ing 1896 New York shows an average record of over 2,000 crimes per month dur- ing April, May, June and July, and the largest number of entries at the police sta- tion were made on the cloudy or rainy days of those months. What Mr. Dunn Says. In speaking of the peculiar effect of at- mospheric conditions upon the human sys- tem, Weather Forecaster Dunn of New York, who is among the best authorities in the world, gave as his observations upon the subject much interesting data. He says: “During the passage of a storm, when the temperature is excessive and the atmos- phere Is thoroughly saturated with mois- ture, such an atmospheric condition is bound to make more or less of an impres- sion upon a certain class of persons of sus- ceptible temperament. We all recognize the fact that on some days we feel ener- getic and capable of doing almost anything, while on others there is a disinclination to work or make any exertion. A person feels what is commonly called ‘out of sorts,’ is irritable, and, the chances are, ill-natured. Of course, different persons are differently constituted, and ere, in consequence, differ- medallion portrait. ently affected by outside cond! Those who are weak mentally or Th ily are much more easily affected ‘Weather con- ditions than others. In apd mugey weather, when there 181; @n:. excessive amount of humidity in the afmorohere, suicide ts very prevalent,.,) on the other band, more murders -are committed where the air is either dry,and hot or dry and cool. N i “In summer, when a low,barometer pre- vaile, all nature seems depressed) and mel- ancholy ideas appear to pervade suring hu- midity; inaclear, bracing atmosphere the animal part of man seems 40 predominate, and deeds of another nature appear to be more prevalent. A man who attempts to commit a deliberate murder; would plan it on a clear, cold day rather than during suicide weather. Burglary~would also be planned and carried out when the atmos- Phere is clear and bracimg reither than when it is heavy and deprestingy. It seems @ peculiar thing that in summer time pol- son and the bullet seem to be the favorite methods of both murder and self-destruc- tion, while in winter the rope and knife ap) to be the most populer modes of ending the existence of either self or an- other.’ Epidemics of Crime, Statistics of crime show beyond question A PARTIAL ECLIPSE Will Be Visible in Washington Next Thursday Morning. Bid BITE TAKEN OUT OF THE SUN An Interesting Though by No Means Uncommon Event. SOME SIMPLE ASTRONOMY —— Written for The Evening Star. Thursday next, July 20, between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. eastern standard the truth of Mr. Dunn's asse-tions relative | time, the moon, in the course of her month- to the undoubted influences of climatic changes upon crime. Not only are cer- ly round of the heavens, will pass directly between the earth and the sun. The con- tain crimes more frequently committed at | S®auence will be an eclipse of the sun, certain seasons of the year, but in certain | Which will be visible throughout the United countries the climate is especially condu- States, in Mexico, the West Indies, Central Give to such crimes. For instance, in south- | 4Merica, the northern half of South Amer- ern China, where a warm or humid temper- ature exists for the greater portion of the year, there is less regard for life than per- haps in any other portion ‘of the globe. Murders are every-day occurrences, suicides too common to even pay attention to, while theft, rape and all other crimes are innumerable. The history of crime shows that evil do- Cuba, passes north of Hayti, ing is subject to epidemics as well as dis. eases. We find epidemics of suicides, epi- demics of murders and epidemics of rob- berles. A careful study of the question re- veals the fact that these epidemics last un- til the weather changes, and an analogy between the conditions of the weather and the frequency of crime cannot but impress the careful investigator. This clearly ind cates that crime is, to a degree, contagiou: that a certain ethical influence or psychic influence is cast abroad, and that this in- fluence {fs to a large degree magnetic. Con- ditions of the weather which favor the in- duction of electricity, or magnetism, are capable of spreading these crime germs, if we may sv call them, so that they come in contact with those sensitive to such influ- ences, and a literal breeding of crime is the result. Just 3 certain atmospheric conditions of certain localities cause the air to be laden with the germs of malaria, so the air itself may be said to be laden with the psychic, but none the less potent, germs of crime. Those among us who are, 48 we say, ‘“‘ac- climatized,” escape the malarial influences; and equally s0, those among us who are morally acclimatized escape the evil psy- ohic germs that are sometimes among us. But the “‘sensitives,” either moral or phys- ical, fall under the dire influences, and these we call criminals. Who shall say that when science, advanced to that point where the reins of natural law ere com- pletely In control of man, and the weather is at his command no less than the func- tions of his own organism, wé shall not be able to preserve a perfect meteorological condition, and thus annihilate an external excitant to crime, if we have not long be- oF that time wiped out t&€-criminal him- self? ° —— Reminiscences of Hegrell. Edward Everett Hale in the Youth's Companion. Lowell had engaged himgeif té one of the loveliest girls who ever live@, Maria White, of Watertown. He was ‘always writing Poetry, and in the enthusiasm ‘of the new engagement he determined tor. publish a volume of poems. Mr. Higginson somewhere déscribes the interest which the Cambridge boys felt when it was known that “Jim Lowell” was not going to Ye a lawyer, but a poet. This may be sald to mark the period in New England life when literature began to be accepted as a possible profession. The book came out, and it was much better re- ceived than most books of love poetry writ- ten by young men of twenty-two. From that moment his career was-reaily assured. He himself tells a funny story of his first client, who was very probably his last® | The story dilates on the excitement with which he gave the man a chair, took his hat, and sat with his notebook to hear his story, and after this has been well drawn out, it proved that the client was simply the painter who had painted his sign and had come 1m to collect the bill. I do not believe that he ever was in court on any business whatever. His dffice was one of a group where literature was wor- shiped quite as much as law. George Still- | man Hillard, Charles Sumner, Charles W. Storey, George Washington Minns, Nathan Hale, James Russell Lowell were all in the building, then known as the Brooks build- ing, where the Sears building now stands. coo Napoleon and the Five-Franc Piece. From the Philadelphia Record. In order to induce the great public to buy their tobacco ingenious Yankee manu- facturers in the past frequently resorted to the plan of packing in money with their packages of tobacco. This scheme is not new, however, and none less than Napoleon I is said to have originated a similar idea. When he first introduced the 5-franc coins it was found that people did not take read- ily to the innovation, and in some cases acceptance of these coins was refusel. To overcome this antipathy the great Corsican, who knew the human character well, gave out that in one of these coins there would be hidden a small piece of asbestos with an order upon the Bank of France for 100,000 francs ($20,000). Ever since the demand for these coins is great, and they are but sel- dom returned to the treasury in any other way but cut in half. Although no one has ever found the asbestos fortune several thousand of the 5-franc coins from the first decade of this century are annually mutilated in this way. The writing of the order and the imbedding of it in a coin is said to have taken place in the presence of Napoleon Bonaparte, and a fund was set aside by the Bank of France to honor it should it be produced, but it has not ma- terialized as yet. —_—__+e-- ____ Prince Wore a Necklace of Pearls. From the St. James’ Gazette. The conver: t ica, over @ good portion of the Atlantic ocean and on the west coast of Africa. Along a line of about twenty-five miles in breadth, which begins in the Pacific ecean some thirteen hundred miles west of Mexico, passes through the cenier of Mexico, touches the northern shore of through the midst of the Windward Islands, strikes Cape St. Roque, in South America, and ends in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, the eclipse will be annular. At the time of the middle of the eclipse observers along this favored iine will see the moon placed centrally on the face of the sun, but not large enough to shut off its light entirely. A narrow ring of sun- light, surrounding the moon, will still be visible. On each side of this line, to a dis- tance of about twenty-three hundred miles, the eclipse will be partial, the portion of the sun concealed from view being smaller the farther north or south the observer Is. The northern limit, beyond which there The Eclipse as It Will Appear at Washington. will be no eclipse, is, in North America, at about the fifty-sixth parailel of latitude. At Washington and across the whole of the United States at points in about the same latitude as Washington—33 degrees, 50 min- utes—exactly one-half of the sun’s face (the lower half) will be veiled. In the eastern portion of the United States the eclipse will begin at from five to twenty minutes before 9 o'clock, and will end at from eleven to eighteen minutes after 11, its duration being less the farther north the observer is. Something Uncanny About It. A partial eclipse of the sun is a far less interesting occurrence than a total eclipse; still solar eclipses are not presented to us with such frequency that we can venture to be captious or refuse on this occasion to give to the spectacle its due tribute of ad- miration, simply because it {s not the finest of its kind. Colored glass and smoked glass will be in demand. Millions of eyes will watch the slow encroachment of the invisible lunar disk upon the brilliant disk ; ef the sun, Even for those who understand fully the cause of an eclipse there 1s some- thing uncanny in this partial blotting out of the sun at broad noonday, at a time when, to all appearances, its path through the heavens is entirely free from obstacie or hinderment. It is not to be wondered at that the occurrence should be terrifying to tae ignorant and superstitious. A solar eclipse 1s one of those celestial terrors of which science, happily, nas relieved the ¢! ed nations, though the savage still sees in it the effort of a demon or dragon to devour the glorious 3un-zod. Among the thousand and one questions which will occur to the eclipse observers, the most perplexing, perhaps, will be why the area over which the eclipse 1s visible should be limited, since the sun will be vis- ible at the time over one entire hemis- phere of the earth, and why the eciipsed sun should appear differently to observers in different Jocalities. The diagram given here will aid in answering these questions. An eclipse of the sun is a quite different affair from an eclipse of the moon. A lu- nar eclipse is caused by the passing of the moon through the earth’s shadow. It is visible from every point on the ‘earth's surface from which the moon itself is vis- ible at the time; that is, over one entire hemisphere of the earth. Furthermore, a lunar eclipse, whether total or partial, pre- sents one and the same appearance to every observer, no matter where he Is sta- tioned, whether in Boston or San Francis- co or Rio Janeiro, just as the shadow of a tree cast upon a house appears the same from whatever point of view it is looked at. A solar eclipse is caused by the pas- sage of the moon between us and the sun. To see it one must be so situated that the range is right, just as to see a distant house exactly behind some near object, as a tree, one must so stand that the tree is exactly in line with him and the house. If he moves from this line, to the right or the left, the tree changes its position with ref- erence to the house, and when he has moved to a certain distance it ceases alto- gether to range with the house. A Simple Explanation, In the case of a solar eclipse the sun is the distant house; the moon is the tree. Since this moon is a comparatively small bedy, only about 2,000 miles in diameter, tion given last night by the | while the diameter of the earth is nearly East India United Service Club, to meet | 8,000 miles, there is on the earth ample the princess and other Indian visitors now | Tocm for getting off the range when the in England, proved an essentially brilliant function. Crowds of well-dressed guests lined the staircase and filled the large en- trance hall, overshadowed by palms, witness the arrival of the queen’s Indian guard, many of the Hyderabad contingent moon is passing the sun. Thus, to an ob- server situated next Thursday anywhere on the twenty-five-mile iine above located, say at Havana, the moon will appear to to | pass directly across the sun's face, its cen- ter moving along the line marked on the ¢lagram “‘Moon’s Path,” in the direction in- dicated by the arrow. One circumstance and other finely built native soldiers with | only will prevent the eclipse from being to- a profusion of orders on. their breasts. They were quickly followéd by several of the princes. Pertab Singh,.was clad in a red and gold striped habit, tal for that observer, and this is that the mcon, being now at very nearly her great- es’ distance from the earth, her apparent size is at its least and is less than that of with a light|/the stn. This eclipse therefore has no blue and silver turban, on:-which figured a | especial interest for astronomers, who con- and long jacket, with a black and gold tur- ban. With him was another Indian visitor in a long white satin coatreut as they wear them in the east. Another prince was ar- rayed in white satin with: rows of pearls about his neck; .a long ‘bar of diamonds clasping, not the lobe, but the entire ear, ; range. To him the moon, and magnificent diamond ornaments glit- tered on his soft silky yellow turban. A grand old nawab's coat was entirely com- His aid-de-camp was | cern in red and gold, dividedfes @ short skirt | eclipses. themselves nowadays with total For an observer at Washington the range will be different. To him the moon’s center will appear to pass along the line marked AB, 50 that its upper mb will just reach the sun’s center. An observer in about lat- itude 56 wil: be still farther off of the could it be seen, would seem to move along the line CD. Its upper edge would just graze the lower edge of tke sun in passing, and there would posed of cloth of gold, and, with his gray | be no eclipse. Much less could there be an whiskers curiously tied and large turban, he towered above all the rest. There were three Parsees in shiny black caftans, the elder Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. me Patient—“Hold off, there! hold of my tongue!” wi Operator (in anger)—“Who's a-doin’ this | from —say?"— eclipse for an observer still farther north. By No Means Infrequent. It is a rather curious fact that, though we are less often favored, in any particu- lar locality, with solar eclipses than with lunar, the former are really the more fre- quent. An eclipse, whether solar or lunar, can occur only when the moon is, at the time of the “new” or the “full,” within a certain short distance of one of the two points at which her path crosses that of the sun, and the adjustment of things is such that at least two solar eclipses must occur every year and four may occur with- in a single year, vistble in some parts of the earth, while an entire year may pass— the ‘present, for example—withont the oc- currence of an eclipse of the moon. In the last eighteen years there have been forty-two eclipses of the sun to twen- ty-seven of the moon. Of the solar eclipses eleven only were visible iu any part of the United State. Of these eleven the most in- You've got | teresting were the eclipse of March 5, 1886, was annular along a line running the west end of Lake Superior south to the mouth of the Mississippi river, and January 1, 1889, which was tctal running from about the same northern border of the states of Florida. The remain- visible only as partial some of them only just about unset, cn the east or west son that owing to a quite remarkable relc- tion between the very complex movements of the moon and those of the sun, this perlod—or more exactly one of eighteen years and ten or eleven days—constitutes a cycle within which eclipses, both solar and lunar, repeat themselves, occurring in the same order and under nearly the same cir- cumstances as in the preceding eighteen years. Thus the present year, 1897, has two eclipses of the sun, both ennular. In 1879, eighteen years ago, there were also two annular eclipses of the sun, which oc- curred, however, eleven days carlier, in each case, and, though visible in about the same latitude as those of this year, were visible at points further east on the globe. —_—> LINCOLN’S GENTLE CHIDING. His Reproof to Gen. Hunter Now Pub- Mashed for the First Time. From McClure’s. Another remarkable evidence of the great kindliness of heart of Abraham Lin- coln has just been brought to light in the form of a long-lost letter which the mar- tyred President wrote to General David Hunter in 1861. General Hunter was in command of the department of Kansas at the time this particular letter was written, says the New York Sun. It seems ‘he considered himself dishonored by an appointment to the rather obscure military post, and wrete to the President protesting against it. Lincoln's characteristic reply was as fol- lows: “Executive Mansion, “Washington, December 31, 1861. ajor General Hunter: ‘Dear Sir: Yours of the 23d is received, and I am constrained to say it is dificult to answer so ugly a letter in good temper. I am, as you intimate, losing much of the great confidence I placed in you, not from any act or commission of yours touching the public service up to the time you were sent to Leavenworth, but from the flood of grimbling dispatches and letters I have seen from you since. 1 knew you were be- ing ordered to Leavenworth at the time it wes done, and I aver that with as tender a@ regard for your honor and your sen: bilities as I kad for my own, it never occurred to me that you were being ‘hu- miliated, insulted and disgraced,’ nor have I up to this day heard any intimation that you have been wronged coming from a: one but yourself. No one has blamed you for the retrograde movement from Spring- field, nor for the information you gave General Cameron; and this you could read- ily understand if it were not for your un- Werranted assumption that the ordering to Leavenworth must necessarily have been done as a punishment for some fault. I thovght then, and I think yet, the position assigned to you is as responsible and as konorable as that assigned to Buell—I know that General McClellan expected mcre important results from it. My im- pressicn 1s that at the time you were as- s:gned to the new western department it had not been determined to replace Gen- eral Sherman in Kentucky, but of this I am not certain, because the idea that a command in Kentucky was very desirable, and one in the further west undesirable, bad never occurred to me. You constant- ly speck of being placed in command of only 3.000. Now, tell me, is not this mere impatien Have you not known all the while that you are to command four or five times that many? “I have been and am sincerely your friend; and if as such I dare to make a suggestion, I would say you are adopting the best possible way to ruin yourself. “Act well your part, there all the honor lies.’ He who dces something at the head of cne regiment will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred. Your friend, as ever. “A. LINCOLN.” Nothing could have been better calcu- Jated to allay the feelings of personal wrong which must have possessed Hunter at the time. That he thought so himself is shown by the following words, written by the dissatistied general on the big yel- low envelope in which ihe letter had been rent: he President's reply to my ‘ugly let- ter.’ This lay on his table a month after it was written, and when finally sent, was by a special conveyance, witi the direc- tion that it was only to be given to me when I was in a good humor.” ———_+e-______ HOW MIND FAILED TO TRIUMPH. He Couldn’t Write D Foot. From the New York Tribune. “I tell you,” said one man, “there are some things which a man cannot do, and they appear simple at that, and they are just those things, too, in which you would think the mind would surely tri- umph. Now, you will hardly believe it, but I do aot think there is a man in the crowd who can go up to that wall and draw an imaginary letter D on it and at the same time keep his right foot moving around in a circle to the left.” “What's that?” exclaimed the champion of mind over matter. “Just say that again.” The speaker did so, and then the other said that it was so easy that he did not think it worth trying. “You may think so,” answered his friend, “but I will wager you a wine supper that you cannot do it.” “It’s a go,” replied the mind champion, and, taking a pencil, he started for the wall. The friends of the two men gathered about them, and a referee was selected to see that the trial was conducted fairly. “Oh, I can fairly taste that wine now, exclaimed the mind champion, as he twirl- ed the pencil between his fingers. “All right,” said the man who had the other end of the wager, “you will get the wine sure enough if you win it.” The mind champion poised the pencil in the air a moment, and at the same time lifted up his right foot and waited for the referee to give the word. The latter final- ly said, “Go!” and the mind champion started. He succeeded in drawing the down stroke of the capital D all right, at the same time keeping his right foot moving in a circle to the left. But when he start- ed to make the loop of the D, there was a sudden twitch in his foot, and, instead of continuing in a circle to the left, it de- liberately turned around and went the other way. The man hardly realized it on the first trial, until his attention was called to it by the referee. But when he tried it again and noticed the antics of his foot, he looked surprised. His friends began to laugh, and he tried it again, but with no better success. There was a pained expres- sion on his face by this time, but he would not give up, and made several more at- tempts, all with the same result. Then he got mad and declared that he would do It if it took him all night. “Go it, cld man! You'll get there ail right!” shouted one of the party. “I'll bet you a hat he Goesn’t,” said an- other. “Never say die!” yelled a third; “mind is bound, you know, to triumph over matter in the end,” he added, sarcastically. The mind champion stuck to his task for upwards of half an hour, bravely with. standing the remarks of the party, but it and Whirl His was no ise, and he finally had to ac- know! himself beaten. Later in the evening there was a jolly supper party in one of the uptown cafes, but the doctrine of the triumph of mind over matter had received a sad blow—one that had landed right in its solar plexus. HE EXCELLED IN THIS. Stories of Senator Harris a: Fancy for Poker. From the St. Louis Republic. “The best poker player Tennessee ever developed is dead,” said Major A. L. Tread- way of Memphis at the Planters. “I refer to Senator Isham Green Harris, who died at Washington Thursday. I knew the old statesman. intimately for more than forty years, and I never heard of his getting up from a poker game a cent loser. He loved the great American game as much as he loved politics. Few evenings slipped by during the last forty years when he didn’t indulge his fondness for the sport if it was at all possible to make up a game. He never played for high stakes; 25 cents was usually the limit of his games, and he was never known to go over § cents. He used to declare that poker was essentially a gentleman's game, but that when it was played for high stakes too severe a strain was put on gentility for the good of both the players and the game. “Senator Harris, you know, looked more like a Chinese mandarin than a Caucasian, and he seemed to be proud of it. It was probably his wonderfully immobile face that made him such a successful poker player. I have watched him by the hour while playing, and I never once saw the least change of expression on his face. When he was last elected to the Senate in January, 18! the opposition made a big demonstration to frighten him. He hurried from Washington to Nashville and assumed personal direction of his forc The pa- pers said so much about the fight being made on him that I became frightened, quit my business and went up to Nashville to help him out. When I arrived there I hurried to his room in the Maxwell House and found him playing poker. 1 tried to set him to quit the game long enough to tell me what the situation was, so I could proceed intelligently and with some sys- tem. He dismissed me rather curtly with the assurance that he would see me in two hours. When the two hours were I went back to his room, and he was op jackpots with the same inter he played at first. I sat behind him and wld Inm of what appeared to me to be some @angerous inroads the opposition were making on him and urged him with all the force at my command to get to work and checkmate his mies. Finally he turned on me impatiently and : ‘Treadway, these fellows are the best poker players I have run up against since the war, and I would not quit this game while I am loser to be sent back to the nited States Senate.’ ‘How much are loser?’ I inquired. The senator counted chips carefully, and then said: ‘I am cents behind now and was only 20 cents be- hind when you came back. You have bothered me so much with your talk that I haven't been able to keep up with the game as I ought to. The sooner you get out of here the sooner I'll get even. Then I'll see what my enemies ave doing. “The game went on all that out interruption, and it was neasy Lreak- fast time before the senator got even. He showed up in the dining room, looking as bt with- fresh and vigorous as if he had had a good night's rest, and devoted the entire day to straightening out the senatorial tangle. At night he got the same party in his room again, and they resumed their game with the eagerness of gamblers playing for high stakes. I learned afterward that during the entire series of $5 changed hands. sames not as inuch as the Half Dollar Purse. From the Atlanta Constitution. The birthday of American independence was celebrated in Atlanta with a “nigger jubilee.” The town was given over to the darkies, and the principal streets wore the aspect of a wiregrass town in the turpen- tine regions on Saturday afternoon. There were many strange = where the darkies had gathered, and the strangest of these was the watermeion duel, which was witnessed at noon just in front of the Kimball House. Here a traveling sales- man had gathered a lot of excursionists from Athens. He proposed to giv dollar and furnish the fruit to who could cat the most watermelon in t minut There were three entries. The negroes were each given a melon to start on and were allowed to cut it as they wish- ed. The word “go” was given, and the three men began to devour me h the ferocity of a am engine. of the men had cut his melon in circular form. These he would break into segments, which he would appear to swallow, rinds a, Another darky, with a ca mouth, had his melon in h al slices. He would grab > with lightning-like speed, swipe it quickly across his mouth, allow- ing the seeds to escape on side and the husk to come out at th: er At the end of five minute of the contestants had called “enough.” Each one had eaten four melons. The other darky continued until he declared that he could eat no more. He had been going into the red meat for seven minutes and had scored six melons. It was a remarkable record, and the half Gollar was awarded to him. This the negro put in his pocket and walked off, appar- ently feeling better for his huge meal. “Dat nigger sho’ am in heben,” said an old darky who had been watching the contest. “Dem seben millions am ernuff ter gib him religion de res’ uv his nacherl life. BELA T SE Applying X-Rays to Mi From the Los Angeles (Cal.) Times. To apply the X-rays to mining is a novel idea which has just been developed by Dr. F. E. Yoakum of this city. He has fixed the X-ray upon a piece of quartz, whose exterior showed no indication of gold, and has imprinted upon a photographic plate the shadow of particles of the precious metal within. On June 30 the physician was photo- graphing a tumor. There wi @ vacant space on the plate, and just for luck he placed there a bit of gold-bearing quartz. When the plate was developed there stood forth upon it the outlines of rock, with specks here and there showing the pres- ence of gold. Since then he has taken a number of pictures of valuable ore. The X-rays pass through the quartz easily, but the gold stays their prog so the ray photograph shows the presence of gold distinctly. It is not necessary to take a photograph. It is possible to hold ore in one’s hand and by looking through the screen toward the rock the shadow of the gold is visible. Dr. Yoakum believes this discovery will be of service to geologists and mineralo- gists in studying rocks. He ihinks per- haps it will be possible to use X-rays in mining ore. SPORES Sree “Yes, Miss Ethel, if your sister had ever allowed me to kiss her before we were engaged I rever should have asked for to become my wife.’ “Oh, she knew that well enough; she bad it played on her too often before!”— Brooklyn Life. From Life. QUITE VISIBLE,