Evening Star Newspaper, October 2, 1897, Page 23

ATHLETES’ HEALTH An English Writer Says the Trained Man is Really Delicate. HE 18 MUCH LIKE A RACE HORSE Sensitive to Any Change From His Rigid Routine. CONSTANT CARE NEEDED a From the St. James Gazette. Is the athlete healthy? Many people would no doubt be inclined to treat such a query with undisguised contempt. They would, perhaps, point to some muscular, strapping young giant who has wen fame on the cinder path or on the sliding seat; and, bidding cne notice the bloom on his cheek, the fire. in his eye, and the elasticity gait, scoffingly echo, “Is the athlete But the question is not one which can be thus summarily dismissed. Only a few days back the untimely death of that sterling young earsman, Mr. E. R. Balfour of University College, Oxford, was announced; a few short months axo was recorded the equally regrettable and un- timely death of Mr. Y¥heodore Stretch, whom Balfour sueceeded at No. 5 in the Leander beat for Henley this year; and be- fore that young Cotton, the captain of the Oxford University Beat Club, died after a very brief illness. The death of these young nen proves little; neither does the fact that one succumbed to pneumionta, another to peritonitis. They are but iselated cases, and it would be absurd te attempt to gener- alize from them. But as a matter of fact, they give point to the conciusion which has been arrived at after very careful and com- prehensive observation and a good deal of thought. That conclusion is that the athlete, in the vast majority of eases, is not ealthy as the average man leading an average life. Health and Training. By “athlete” is meant the “trained” man; lhe who undergoes special preparation for a certain object. Of course, an untrained man may be an athlete, but the word is generally used fi the more special sense. ‘Therefore, under this category will not be included those who “go in for exercise” as distinguished from “athletic: And now what is it to be “healtny?’ It is easier to say what it is not than what it is. A man may be a fleet runner, a fie oar, splendidly muscular and agile, yet need not be “healthy” as the writer understands the word. It sounds like a paradox, but a man may be able to lift tremendous weights, to put on a terrific spurt at the end of a long and punishing race, to in nis left” with amazing force and ity, and yet be absolutely delicate short, physical strength and health, often as they have been considered as synony- have very little to do with one an- at then do we mean by being 2 Briefly, it may be said that the system is that of which all the in perfect harmony. Such a parts w system requires a very great shock, in- deed, to throw it altogether out of gear; E reat recuperative powers, which dto make up any deficiency caused by ss or disease. good deal more than the ab- ; it 1s emphatically an ac- ing sign it ; soundly and wakes up per- ¢ moraing, who easily re- i ad hardsmp/ who is not perm tly upset by even a violent de- pérture from his erdiaary course of life, who does net tremble much about what he eats and drinks, so long as it ts wholesome; this is a healthy man. Oursmen Brenk Down. To return to the athlete. Can any one who has any real knowledge of the subject deny that, judged by ihe standard which has been taid down, the athlete will, as a rule, be found wanting? Let us take the oarsman “s typical of the amateur athlete. To look xt the young ‘varsity oar is to get an impression of a man thoroughly harden- ed to wind and weather, to whom such things as colds and chil But ‘s it eften do incapacitated is being temporarily some trifling mis- through or indisposition? And especially is this when he is a tittle clder and has raining regularly. If one casts ore’s memory back through the years, how T™any ouce brilliant athletes can we call to mind as having broken down and died un- ety deaths? We can think of many, but ames of those who have not died, but jing through long and painful ill- is legion. Allusion is not here made to specific complaints—such as heart dis- ease—brought on by over-exertion, ul-+ though this is not infrequent. But what is meant is zather the general weakening of the system, the loss of that “spring” and energy which are so essential to a man who has to fight against illness. After all, one need not go far to discover the reason. What the athlete is to the or- dinary individual, that is the race horse to the member of the same family seen drag- ging a load about the streets. The race herse, as we know, has an exceedingly delicate organization. He {a very suscepul- ble to cold. his food has to be selected with the utmost care, and his habitation must be choice and free from a suspicion of csmpress. He fs trained for speed. He {s leautifully develcped and has a muscle, but there is little real stamina in him. Expose him for a single day to the Wet and eold im which the eoarser-vred ani- mal thrives, and he would probably die. He cannot Living by Rate. While he fs in training he lives accord- ing to rule. He rises at a certain hour In the morning, his diet is prescribed within certain very definite lines, he takes about the same amount of exercise every day, and goes to bed at the same hour every aight. When he fs at practice he is very carefully watched to see that he comes to no harm. Say he ts an oarsman. After Towing 4 course he probably comes in Sweating profusely; he has to tub, rub down. get into flannels again, and take par- Heular ere to avoid catching cold. “Cold,” indeed, is a veritable bugbear to the trained wan; never did old maid show more fussi- ness about changing her wet garments than does your man in training. A twenty- mile walk he can enjoy as long as he can e home and at once have his tub aad ange;"*-but a two-mile saunter under a warm sun drives him almost frantic with anxiety if he has to remain in the same clothes. Training, far from being the hard- ening process which its devotees would have us believe, is in reality just the re- verse. The athlete—the trained man—like @ race horse, is pampered, and thereby sof- tened. in constitution if not in muscle. He Bets into a groove, and if he remains in it ieng enough the inevitable result is tha he loses that adaptability to circumstances pessessed in a greater or less degree by the untrained man. He is an exotic, and suf- fers if brought into contact with the rude blast He suffers most when com with the “half-trained” man, the man who is not really “trained” at all, but by taking plenty of exercise always ‘keeps in good condit:on—such as the man poem _ E> say and drinks and what suits fancy; he really does get hardened and strengthened by continuous exercise. He does not trouble to change MMs flannels directly his skin becomes moist. And he certainly manages to keep wt and hearty till well into middle age. But the “athlete,” when once he goes “out of training,” soon begins to merate. Of course, there are exceptions; but as a rule the running or rowing man is very little geod for anything which pro- longed “stay” and endurance when once past early manhood. A Russian Translation of Dickens. From Netes and Queries. ‘The quizzically expanded metaphors and idiomatic, slangy expressions in the spright- Jy comical parts of the book (“Dombey and Son”) have sometimes, naturally, proved too hard nuts for the honest for- tigner to crack. A lydéerovs instance of such 2 fiasco oceurs Im chapter 2, where Mr. Chick's matrimonial .bickerings with bis better half form the theme of eur in- imitabie humorist’s sportive and allegorical muse. oe when Mr. Chick seemed renderin; which I retranslate vé when Mr. Chick seemed beaten, he would start up from hie seat, catch hold of chairs, and make a clatter close to the ears of his astonished spouse, and fling about every- thing that came ready to hand.” Well, in- deed, might the elegant and ladylike Louisa’ show astonishment at such emphatic con- tributions to the debate. ——+o+—___. The Impending Deficiency of Bread- Stuffs. C. Wood Davis in the Forum. When we reflect that, though the world’s output ef wheat in 1897 is several hundred million bushels less than require- ments, acre yields have been but little be- low an average; that an average yield from the acres now employed would be 275,000,- 4) bushels less-than present needs; that the greatest crop ever grown would not equal present requirements; that require- ments for wheat and rye progressively in- crease, year after year, by more than 40,- 000,000 bushels; that not an acre has been added to the aggregate of the world’s bread-bearing area since 1884; that while yearly increasing needs in’ the seventies implied average yearly additions of less than 2,800,000 acres, they now imply addi- tions of more than 4,000,000 acres of wheat and rye per annum; that not in a single year since 188) have additions to the acre- age equaled the year’s increased reeds; that but for an “over average” production of wheat and rye aggregating more than 2,300,000,000 bushels since 1881, and extra- ordinary exports from Russia of more than 1,30,000,000 bushéls—because of declining unit consumption in Russia—the supplies of the importing nations would have aggre- gated some 3,600,000,000 bushels less in the last sixteen years; that the world can ex- pect no better than average acre yields, m0. matter what its necessities; that not even when the great valleys of North America were being developed did annual additions of bread-bearing acres exceed two-thirds present increases of annual requirements, and that an acreage deficit exists equal to the supply of as many “bread eaters” as have been added to the world’s population in the last twelve years, we can begin to understand the present situation. We can also realize the nature of the task before the world in an effort to eliminate an enor- Mous area deficit—which means that, sim- ply to meet each year’s increasing require- ments, it must annually add one-half more acres than ever before—and what ts likely to be the situation, respecting supply and demand, if the world should, as is by no means improbable, again harvest In suc- cession three such crops as those of 1879, 1880 and 1881—crops which gave acre yields rraterfally below that which now results in a deficit of one-fifth, or, possibly, one- fourth, the bread required. The Heredity of Acquired Charac- teristics. Prof. Cesare Lombroso in the Forum. I have found in my study of camels, Fowever, an example perhaps still more curious and significant. It is known that, with the exception of its stature, the camel is absolutely a Mama, its blood glob- ules being ellipitical, its teeth reptil- jan in form,- its rudimentary third and fifth toes permanent. It posses- ses, further, that mysterious pouch of the stomach for the storage of fluids, the same kind of callosity on breast-bone and knees, acquired by the camel through kneeling to receive loads. But the camel differs strik- ingly frem the llama in that it possesses the hump—that fatty mass, with a special cevelopment of some of the spinal process- es. For a long time I could not explain this hump. One day, however, a poor por- ter, having a complaint in his chest, came to consult me; and, on examination, [ found, half-way down his back, precisely where he was wont to rest his burdens, a tumor Jarger than a man’s fist, formed almost wholly of adipose tissue. It sud- denly occurred to me that this lump—which not only caused the porter no inconveni- ence, but even aided bim in his werk— might perhaps serve as a clue to my mys- tery’ of the camel's hump. * * * T suc- ceeded in examining seventy porters of various occupations, and, to my great joy, I was able to find four more examples of this fatty tumor. What was of even gréater value in our inquiry was the fact that 50 per cent of the porters examined, although having no real hemp, yet presented an unusual protuber- arce of the spinal processes. Not Tall Enough. From London Tid-Bits. Just at the time when vague reports were beginning to creep abroad that Germany was meditating fresh extension of her frontier at the expense of Holland, a Dutch offictal of high rank happened to be visiting the court of Berlin, and among other spec- tacles got up to amuse him a review was organized at Potsdam. “What does -your excellency think of our soldiers?” asked Prince Bismarck, as one of the regiments came marching past in admirable order. “They Icok as if they knew how to fight,” replied the visitor gravely, “but they are not quite tall enough.” The prince looked rather surprised, but made no answer, and several other regi- ments filed past In succession; but the Dutchman’s verdict upon each was still the same: “Not tall enough.” At length the grenadiers of the guard made their appearance—a magnificent body of veterans, big and stalwart enough to have satisfied even the giant-loving father of Frederick the Great; but the inexorable critic merely said: “Fine soldiers, but not tall enough.” Then Prince Bismarck rejoined: “These grenadiers are the finest men in our whole army; may I ask what your excellency is pleased to mean by saying that they are not tall enough?” Dutchman looked him full in the face, and replied with significant emphasis: “I mean that we can flood our country twelve feet deep.” Arab Becoming Popular in England. From the London Live Stock Journal. There are not wanting signs to prove that the Arab is increasing in popularity in this country, this result being probably due in some measure to the value of his ser- vices as a polo pony sire. The demand thus created has no doubt caused the merits of the pure-bred horse to become more wide- ly recognized, with the result that more Arabs have been seen in the park this season than for many years past. The de- voetion of Field Marshal Lord Roberts for his favorite charger, which has carried him through all his recent campaigns without making a mistake, has also no doubt interested the public in the breed. Lord Roberts, indeed, is a most pronounced. Arab phile, and loses no opportunity of attesting to the otility and stamina of this horse; while it may not be generally known that the cherger alluded to above, which he rode at the read of the colonial troo} in the diamond jubilee procession, is the pesseascr of a war m¢ granted it by her majesty as a recognition of long and meritorious service in the No doubt, too, Mr. Wiifrid Blunt’s recent importation bluest-blooded Arab stock will cause increaged attention to be paid to the va- , which, if placed*in its proper posi- tion in the equine world, and not asked to a « ‘Phe Wheic Teutonic Race Scemingiy a ith the Habit ef = | October with his dolled «mite Gifted With the Habit ef Frugal — ee as ity and Forehandedness. ‘IT see the sumac’s hoods . In every fragrant, aisle. He vells his face th haze, Berlin Letter in the Chicago Record. In Germany the savings bank system is managed by the municipal governments, instead of the national authorities, as in England, France, Belgium, Italy and other European countries. .The system dates back for nearly a century, and, with the excep- tion of some unimportant details, is uni- form throughout the empire. German thrift is proverbial. There are nc other people in the world who can do without luxuries and things that they do not actually need with so great a degree of contentment. From the cradle the children are taught econ- omy. It is as much a matter of education as the catechism. In some of the schools the children are instructed to gather dur-. ing their play hours, and on their way to and from their homes, all such apparently valueless objects as old bottles, tin cans, refuse metals, etc., which are sold to the junkshops and the proceeds deposited to the credit of the child in the nearest sav- ings bank. The same epirit that inspires this economy has caused the number of depositors in the savings banks of the em- pire to exceed the number of households. it is often the case that every child and every servant in ee aoe: a a” own po count at the bank, which, when it amount 5 to a certain sum, is withdrawn for perma- eae she'd give all her leisure .__ Are there no dead forever there— No one despairing from life's ills? Do those that love have those they lore? Are there no partings franght with tears? Oh, tar blue hills! To you fs given Earth's common lot, no man may know & better country ’till he go Unto the farther hills of heaven. ~ANNIE LANDRETH PERKINS, ———_—. ‘The Proud Miss O’Haggin. John Bennett in October Scrilmer. od wealthy measure nent investment. The usual vate of interest paid by the "S02 tery municipal savings banks in y is 3 r cent, and, aithough their management When young Danny Gilligan is intrusted to the municipalities, the bank- Drives Ms e Mi ing inspectors of ‘he general government Pe ee bill agin exercise a supervision over them. There Socwes- usually a gencral office, with a director in chief at the city hall, whose principal duty is to receive remittances from branch offi- ces that are established in every ward. These funds he invests in government bonds or in securities of equal value. The latitude of investment is much greater than is allowed the postal savings bank author- ities In England and France. The funds tray be invested in gilt-edged real-estate mortgages, and even in the erection of buildings, but before this is-done the propo- sition must be submitted to the committee of the common council which has jurisdic- tion over the savings banks. This com- ittee, which is composed of practical financiers, bankers, merchants and manu- facturers and men who are in the habit of handling money, acts as a sort of board of directors for the system. In Berlin there are seventy-nine branch offices, with 483,000 depositors out of a pepulation of 1,800,000, and the total de- posits are a little mere than $40,000,000. In Dresden the savings banks show a still larger utility im prcportion to the popula- tion. Although the number of people in Dresden ts only about one-fifth as many as in Berlin, there are half as many depos- itors in the savings banks, and the depos- {ts exceed $22,000,000. In some of the other cities the proportion is much larger. In the town of Aix-la-Chapelle, for example, with only 110,489 population, there are cver 106,000 depositors, with credits of more than $20,000,000. In Altoona, a city of 149,- The Photogr Paul Laurence Dunbar jn the Bookman, See dis pictyah in my han’? Dat's a ‘Ain't she purty ‘Huh name ; Dat's de very way she be— Kin’ 0’ tickles me to see ‘Hab a-smilin’ back at me. dis photygraph he Set ae me ust e me My black cheek Feit somethin’ a-rounin’ queer; Bless yo soul, it was a tear Jes" fom wishin’ she was here, Often when I's all alone 1 eee at my orn = Sakie doar: ee How she dat I's hub beau, ‘An’ bit tickles me to know Dat de gal do love me so. Some bright day I's goin’ back, Fo’ de la! An’ ez sho’ 's my face is black, ‘Ax hub Fu’ de bi little miss Who's a smilin’ out o” dis Pictyab, lak she wan'ed a kiss! ————-ee. She sont me Love’s Beggar. From Hazper's Magazine. Who 1s not f life not at atl, And knows nbt efther Joy or. woos “h fa 000 people, there are over 130,000 depos- And lest such fate sybuid him befall itors, with nearly $20,000,000 to their credit. ae came 2, Dyeeay fh outing 1 eho The late Emperor Frederick was a great Seana 3 believer in the postal savings banks sys- tem, and if he had lived it is probabie that it would have been adopted in Germany long ago. In addition to the municipal savings in- stitutions, there has been a system of pri- vate associations, known as the Eberfeld banks, in southern Germany, for the last seventy-five or eighty years, which are managed on a plan very much Ike that of ordinary savings institutions in the United States, with some improvements. They are under the supervision of the govern- ment, and are inspected from time to time That she Drawn from file ry of ber eyes.’” ‘Who begs for live but wastes his speech ‘When far peu he implores; He sets too high di w hy And 80, thoug! A veil of hey visage bore; Indifferent to yers and praise, She turned the be bef Otte I prize, the ae a give, e was not overshrewd, re atiect dove heal made him blind; Not his to see #ichanging Ly Nc avoman's mind. Not his to by public officials. There is generally a for she on bis fate central office, at which deposits are re- Felt pity for the suitor spurned, celved and checks ave paid, and branch And pity turmed:to lave—too late offices at various convenient locations for | . ‘The beggar/netermene returned. the receipt of depogits alone. The amount. of deposits is limited by law to 5,000 marks. ‘The rate of interest is fixed annually on January 1 by the board of directors, and formal advertisement is made of that fact in the newspapers. At present it is 3 per cent. Under the rules of the bank not more than 200 marks can be checked out on any one day, four weeks’ notice must be given for the withdrawal of 1,000 marks and under, and six months’ notice of larger sums, although the board of directors can suspend this rule, at their discretion. The first bank of this kind was estab- lished in Frankfort in 1833, and during the first year there were 294 depositors, with credits amounting to 86,934 marks. At ihe last report there were 56,607 depositors out of a population of 229,000, with credits amounting to 38,215,697 marks. —____+«+_____ The Trend of Horticulture. From Lippincott’s. Untamed nature thinks only of the per- ‘Two sbail be born the whole wide world apart, And speak in differeat tongues, and have no thought Each of the other's being, and no heed; And these o’er unknown seas to anknown lands Shall crova, eseapihg wreck, defying death, And all unconsei shape every act And bend each Bebra to this one end— ‘That one day, out of darkness, they shall meet ‘And read life's meaning in each other's eyes. And two shall walk some narrow way of life SO ee ee eee ver so little space to left or r! They need must stand atknow! As With groping hands that never clasp, and Iii Calling in vain to ears that never hear, ae dis" uneiaed "am the eA le unsa' nated end the Asp, a. ee A Ballad ef the Fleet—450 B. ©, Frem the Pall Mall Gasette. petuation of its species. The wiid plants The soon, bung over tho masthead E above own: of ficld and forest, luxuriating in the warm. whee crated Pla ing rays of the summer sun, extract from ‘And the ined lay on = the soil the nourishment and vitality es- | Where the gray eyes of Glaucopis sential to the completion of fod little Were the eyes that followed me. round of life; and then, having passed the southl through thelr short cycle of existence, from | “Whore ine males re tnt ae cies; the bursting bud to the ripened fruit, they | We saw the daughters of Pharaoh droop and die. The mysterious operation of growth and death is repeated season by season, and one generation is but a redu- Plication of all others, modified slightly by peculiar conditions of soil and climate. The pattern of nature is spread out with glorious possibilities, but the individual ef- girls, forts of the plants to raise themselves bs above thelr kind are abortive. Thetr hopes | put eat or thins rose sed es are blasted in the bud, flower or fruit: the The message that.came to me limitations im] upon them prove in- ‘Was: ‘The gray eyes of GI surmountable barriers. Improvement and progressive develop- ment begin with man. The struggling plant | “*qujimes hen the night wind that has outstripped its kind and stands | And the sullen raindrop splashes, on the verge of decay, knowing that it will And a wet mist dims the stars, be replaced the following season by anoth-| At sight of their tearful beanty er whose feeble growth may neutralize all | whem, 0,8, harbor F Siancople the good that it has accomplished, sud-| “Are the chee’ thar weet mee denly finds itself lifted to more congenial surroundings. The mere struggle for a pre-| As oft in the summer starshine . carious existence instantly ceases to ab-| ~ We Jolter among the isles, sorb all its strength and powers. The arbi- fg eed trary laws of nature can no longer Umit | put behind them and beyony seom aeeelopneate ane bearer and ee plant A city I seem to wee, leisure and opportunity to cultivate the | Where the gray”eyes of Glaucopis . beauties and refinements of a new life. Are the eyes that beckon me. The flowers take on a fairer and more —— 290 —- delicate hue, improving in size and beauty by slow 1 processes; the follage in- tensifies in strength and color to form a fit- ting background for the blossoms, and the maturing fruits develop a sweetness and lusciousness heretofore existent only in a potential state. The plants slowly differ- entiate from their kind, pearances and ‘characteristics of a new or- retaining, however, enough of the ‘blood of their ancestors to drag them down to the level of their old primal stock if once freed from man’s contro! and left to their mutual selection. - +o The Salt Habit. Journal of Hygiene, New York. The use of salt as a condiment is so gen- | eral and so universally believed in as nec- essary that we rarely hear a word against its excessive use, but there are a multitude of persons who eat far too much salt—eat it on everything, on meat, fish, potatoes, melons, in butter, on tomatoes, turnips and squash, in bread and on a host of foods too numerous to mention. To so great an extent is it used that no food is which has not a salty taste and this hides more or less the real taste, which is often very delicate. Now, the amount of salt re- Autumnal Reficctions. Life. (By the Village Dressmaker.) has trimmed {te skirts with raf- as wilt 5 Dorple velras poner aes eneveng a roan quired in. the is tiv small, and if the diet has ‘beck "riahty Some of the excessive use of salt? They are to paralyze the nerves of taste, or to per- vert them so they cannot enjoy which has not a salty fiaver, and in tion there is a direct tax on both the skin Died Wheten in Temoving it from: the blood. Whether the skin is harmed by this tax we do not know. Possibly it is not greatly injured, yet we know that few People possess a healthy ee ee now “y well excessive tase of ait doos the kidneys in its [ E : F ei STAR, SATURDAY, OCTOBER Bakers Mark the Dough Nowadays With the Sign of a Cross Just as the Ancient Romans Did. From Household Words. It would he surprising, indeed, if there were not many superstitions about bread. ‘The one indispensable article of food is naturally in every nation a favorite sub- ject of folk lore. No French peasant be- gins a new loaf without crossing it with the knife. The English superstition that bread cracked in the baking portends mis- fortunes in the family has taken root in America. In Germany, too, the housewife still believes that cracks on the top of the loaf of bread indicate the death of some one in the household, er, perhaps, misfor- tune to a dear friend, while cracks on the lower side of the bread are taken to indi- cate a birth. As many of us know, our bakers mark the sign of a cross upon the dough before Placing it in tke oven. The feason for ing this sign becomes plain wher we know the origin cf the custom. Almost all our superstitions about bread date back to old pagan days, though they have been greatly modified ze as to conform to Chris- tian beliefs. With the ancient Romans, the baking of bread and cakes was often in- vested with a religious significance, espe- ctally the cakes offered to the gods and goddésses. The: kes were prepared in @ particular way, and after being marked with the symbol of the deity in whose hon- or they were offered, they were supposed to Possess supernatural virtues. The old domestic practice was modified when Christianity became triumphant, and, in place of a pagan symbol, the early Chris- tian housewife not only used to make the sign of the cross when she began to knead the dough, but she marked that sign upon her loaf before placing it in the oven. Why?- Simply- because the sign of the cross is the Christian protect- ing mark against the attacks of evil spir- its, witches and the like. bread marked with the cross is supposed to be witch proof, will bake all right, not crack across the top, etc. Just as the Jews have Passover cakes, and otker peeples have had specially pre- pared {cod for their religious festivals, so Christians have cakes for certain seasons. Our hot cross buns on Good Friday are simply modern representatives of the cakes used at scme old pagan festival. In days gone by, the cakes and buns baked at Has- ter were su; to possess great virtue. Thus, it is an old belief that the observ- ance of eating cross buns on Good Friday insures, so to speak, the house from fire for the coming year. We still eat a certain kind of pancake on Shrove Tuesday. The practice is referred to in “All's Well That Ends Weil,” where the clown speaxs of a “pancake for Shrove Tuesday.” In “‘Peri- cles” they are called “flapjacks”—a term still used in country districts. In truth, to study the superstitions about bread is to take a wide lesson in folk lore. These superstitions relate to the kneading trcugh, the oven, bakers and bread. For instance, in many parts of France the “arche,” or kneading trough, is more than @ rude kitchen utensil; it is often a pretty bit of furniture. M. Sebillot, who has col- lected many of the superstitions of the French folk relative to bread, qugtes the story of a thief who entered the window of @ houee with intent to commit burglary, but refused to step on the trough still con- taining the dough, believing that to do so would be an impiety. This is similar to the American story of two hungry bur- glare who refused to satisfy their hunger with the meat which they found in a well- stocked larder because it was Friday. A writer in one of our magazines says that in Gottland the cross is still signed be- fore the oven fire is lighted or the dough kneaded. This practice is very common in the country districts all over Europe. In Brittany the housewife makes the sign of the cross with the right hand while she Places the left hand in the trough. After the dough is kneaded the lid of the trough is shut, and so is the door; for if a cat should enter the room’ the bread would ..ot rise. Ceriain charms or invocations are used to cause the bread to multiply itself. Thus, the peasant housewifa adjures the dough to imitate the leaven, the wheat, the miller, and to rise. She would be very angry if any one should sing or whistle in the room while she is making the loaf. In some parts of Europe the bake oven is almost a sacred object. - In certain places of Brittany, for example, it is dedicated with ceremonies; the wood is sprinkled with blessed water; the proper heat Is at- tested by the melting of a bottle, and, finally,_an egg is broken for luck. Besides, there are certain days cn which bread must not be bake Friday or dur- ed, as on Good ing the night of All Saints,when the ghosts would be sure to a1 it. The loaf of bread itself is connected with a large number of superstitions. Accord- ing to an old English superstition, if a loaf accidentally parts in tNe hand while an unmarried lady is cutting it, this may be taken to indicate either that she will not be married during the next twelve months, or, what is worse, that there will be dis- sensions of some kind in the family. Some folks have a fear of turning a loaf upside down after cutting it. Of course, it is ev- erywhere regarded as bad luck for a piece of bread tc fall on the buttered side. Final- ly, we may note the custom of carrying crust of bread in the pocket “just for luck” 7® practice which has not gone vut of fashion at the present day, and is alluded Herrick: 53 q E i ——+-o+_____ TROUBLES OF A CONDUCTOR. A Mix-Up om @ London Omnibus in the ? Matter of Making Change. From Jerome K. Jerome's “The Man Who All jerome 5 ‘es ways It was upon an omnibus that my own Personal acquaintance with him began. I was sitting beside two ladies when the con- ductor came up to collect fares. One of them handed him a sixpence, telling him to take to Piccadilly Circus, which was two- Perice. “No,” said the other lady to her friend, handing the man a shilling, “I owe you sixpence; you give me fourpence and I'll pay for two.” The conductor took the shilling, punched two twopenny tickets, and then stood try- ing to think it out. “That's right,” said the lady who had en last; “give my friend fourpence.” “Now you give that friend handed conductor did so. mee he had : ui I ‘u- done, themseives and one another. The florid max took it upon himself to put everybody } right, with the result that before Picca- dilly Circus was reached three passengers threatened to report the conductor for un The called’ a policeman and had Caken the names and addresses of the two ladies, in- tending to sue them for the fourpence which they wanted to pay, but which the lorid man would not alloy’ them to 4o), the younger: lady had become convinced that the elder lady had meant to cheat-iner ard the elder lady was in tears. ———_r2— Corean Civil Service Examinations. From the Popular Science Monthly. A gentleman will study classics in win- ter, composition of poetry in spring and in summer study those subjects which will fit him for official duties. The king appoints judges to examine candidates for office; the number appointed may be three, seven or twelve. The student for examination is locked up in a room for three days with- out -books. The subjects usually selected for examination are from ancient poetry and classics, as fdilows: 1. Long word poe- try of seven words. 2 Short word poetry of six words. 3. Problems in classics. 4. Clearing up doubta in classics. 5. Criti- cising famous men of olden times. 6. Con- sidering what system of morality is best to correct or modify bad customs. 7. Sug- gesting what kind of ymilitary organization is best to defend and control the country. In these various examinations it is claimed that poetry reveals one’s nature, that problems in classies show one’s knowledge, that clearing up doubts in classics demon- strates one’s powers of decision, that criti- cising famous men indicates one’s know!l- edge of persons, that judging the best sys- tem of morality and deciding as to the best kind of military organization displays one’s mental attributes. The swindling and thieving character of Corean officizis, their torturing and mur- deriug subjects without trial and the degradation and helplessness of Corea to- day, stand in curious contrast to this en- nobling list of studies and examinations, and indicaie a depth of hollow pretense and hypocrisy which is simply appalling. —_—___o2______ Am African Thorn Forest. From “The New Africa," by Dr. Aurel Schulz, A bad thorn forest had to be passed through here, composed principally of the Waaeht een beetje thorn trees, whose hook- ed thorns, arranged in opposite curves on the same branch, catch the unhappy pas- ser-by in their tolls whichever way he moves. The instinct, when caught by a thorn, is to halt and loosen one’s self care- fully, and then try to avoid the repetition of the occurrence. The Waacht een beetje, however, with diabolical accuracy, when- ever it has “hooked” a passer-by, renders such attempts futile, for as soon as one has got free in one plaee, the thorns set in the opposite direction on the same branch invariably hook into some fresh part of the cicthing, and at each move the neighbor- ing prehensile branches, set in motion by the-movement, seem to hook on from above and below, until apparently there is only one possible way out of the difficulty, and that is to wrench one’s self free at the _x- pense of one’s clothing, and a succession of very pronounceé and ugly scratches. Added to all this, the plant, with its light green foliage hiding the vicious thorns in their friendly appearing verdure, seems to invite the touch by an outward display of at- tractiveneas, never exposing on its exterior any sign of its disagreeable nature. Many a_hard-pressed giraffe or buck owes its Nfe to the friendly intervention of the Waacht een beetje tree, past which the hunter, all unsuspecting, has brushed in the hurry of the chase, to be held fast while the game vanishes over the belt. — Japan’s Next Emperor. From the Pall Mall Gazette. The Temps has an interesting article on the succession to the throne of Japan. His Imperial Highness Yoshihito Jhinno Harou no mya is suffering from lung disease and cannot recover. Prince “Spring”—to give him a more manageable title, which is the translation.of Harou—is only eighteen. He is the son, not of the empress (who ts ¢hild- less), but of one of her ladies-in-waiting; and he-was proclaimed heir by ‘an article in the constitution granted by the em- peror in 3889. He is the last male descend- ant in order of primogeniture of a dynasty which has reigned for 2,600 years, and traces its origin to a female incarnation of the sun—the Goddess Amatera. This ge- nealogy is accepted without difficulty in a country which knows all the latest im- provements in electricity and representa- tive government. The nearest approach to a serious religion which the Japanese have would seem to be their cuit for the imperial personage as embodying in some sort the traditions and the ‘spirit of Jupan. Conse- quently, there is not likely to be any trou- ble over his arrangements for the succes- sion, which, according to the constitution of 1889, passes, in default of his own direct descendants, to the heirs male of Prince Arisugava Taruhito, who died in 1895 dur- ing the siege of Wei-hai-Wei. His son, Prince Takehito, who was made vice ad- miral during the war, is, therefore, at pres- ent the most likely person to succeed to Prince the throne which poor Spring will hardly live to occupy. Bravery. ‘Theodore Roosevelt in the Century. Early in our term we promoted a patrol- man to the grade ef roundsman for activ- ity in catching. a burglar under rather Peculiar circumstances. I happened to note his getting a burglar one week: Apparent- ly he had fallen into the habit, for_he got another the next week. In the latter case the burglar escaped from the house soon after midnight, and ran away toward Park avenue, with the policeman in hot chase. The New York Central railroad runs under Park avenue, and there are a succession of openings in the top of the tunnel. Find- ing that the policeman was gairing on him, the burglar took a desperate chance end leaped down one of these openings, at the risk of breaking his neck. Now, the bur- giar was running for his liberty, =nd it was the part of wisdom for hii to imperil officer trotted around to the station house, and a week afterward he was it upon careful promoted, appearing, investigation, that he was sober, worthy and strictly attentive to zis duty. could be seen with babies in thelr arms | 4 i ry Ht 7 al ! i HE WAS AGENTLEMAN Traits of the Old Time Southerner That Still Abide. HE DID NOT WEAR A MUSTACHE In All Things He Held His Word of Honor Precious. HIGH TRUST IN WOMAN ee H. S. Canfield in the Chicago Times-Herald. “No gentlemen will wear a mustache.” That was the dictum of Gen. Montfort Wells, over whose quiet rest in the heart of Louisiana magnolias have drowsily nodded for many windless summers. He belonged to the old regime—the clean-shaven regime, the ante-bellum regime, the slave-holding regime, the dancing, singing, fighting re- sime, the aristocratic regime. Fors non mutat genus, said the Latin—chance does not change the kind. His type exists in the south today. It is not anywhere else, and, most of all places, not on the stage. Look- ing odd times at the black-mustached, swaggering caricature who treads the mim- ic boards and says “sah” and “‘suh,” I long for three things: To kick the actor, to kick the dramatist to find some man able and willing to tell the people who and what a southern gentleman js. He is dis- linet enough to be painted, cnd I believe that his painting would pay. It is ti that we had him cs he Is—a creature esse tally different from the buffoons of Hoyt or the serlo-comic fiasco given us by Clay Clement. The southern gentleman was, and is, a man above the middle height, with clear- cut features. As in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he has not a drop of foreign blood in his veins, he-looks like a trans- planted Englishman—an Englishman modi- fied by some centuries of climate and ethe- rialized by a less commercial mode of life. Long contact with nature has made him @ man of broad views and of healthy in- stincts. He does not know the value of a dollar so well as he ought. but, to balance that defect, he is utterly unacquainted with the many shady ways of getting a dollar. He ts well educated in a literary way and is not infrequently a linguist. He carrics himself unobtrusively and leaves the ewag- ger to the negro out for a Sunday holiday. He Loves the Open. He and the New Englander, who is his antithesis in many things, speak the best English to be found on this side of the At- lantic. The accent is somewhat soft and slurring, and there is something too much ef vowel elision, but it has a pleasing sound, and he does not burr his “r’s” until they rattle like castanets, as is the case in Many parts of the west. The southern gentleman comes of agricul- tural stock. He is used to woods and fields and horses and dogs. He ix devoted to the chase, and he is a good shot. Except in cities he does not bestride the bicycle, but he sits his saddle with a sure grace: he has the huntsman's seat—toes in i he rides from the knee, not from the stirrup. Woodcraft he esteems as a noble craft, and the art of venery as one of the fine arts. His physica! and mental appetites are born of the fresh air and they are sound. He has poetry in him, as what country-bred people have not?—and he finds much of it in animated nature. The song of birds, the clear belling of the deer, the saddening cry of wild fowl in the night, all speak to the soul of him. Though its liquid and varied notes have been familiar to him since in- fancy, he is never tired of the mocking bird, a music that pours from green thrones through all the moonlit nights. Host, host- ees and guests in a southern home will fre- quently drop all conversation and move to the front veranda to listen to the wild trills and roulades and bravuras of the match- Jess minstrel in gray. The southern gentleman is honest. It is a boast handed from father to sen that his werd is as good as his bond, and surely there could be no prouder boast. All of his recent education in a commercial way has not been able to grind this out of him. Instances are not infrequent of the sur- render of homesteads in payment of debts, in proof of which existed only verbal obli- gations. The horrestead, it should be re- membered, is protected from execution by law in every state of the south. The south- erner regards an execution proof debt as he regards a gambling debt—one that must be paid at any sacrifice since it is not re- coverable by legal process. Where the honor of a family is involved women will sell their jewels to wipe out the obligation. Herote tn inens, Business in the south is transacted in great degree by word of mouth. There are such things as promissory notes, but they are not common. I am speaking here of the country communities, and not of the large cities. There is no marked differ- ence between the business methods of At- lanta and Boston. Indeed, since the close of the war and the insetting of the immi- gration tide the south has been much com- mercialized- The type has not changed. That would be a work of centuries. But methods of life and modes of thought have undergone modification. This may be bet- ter for the country at large. We hear much of the glory and beauty of the “new south.” But I doubt that it is better for the upper classes of the people. A happier man than the old southerner never breathed. “Mark Twain” declares that Walter Scott is responsible for the civil war. He means that much reading of “Ivanhoe” and “The Talisman” made the young men mad. They dreamed of riding with visor down and lance in rest for the honor of the name and the rescue of beleaguered damsels. He is mistaken. The popularity of Scott was an effect, not a caupe. The poems and prose vf the wizard of the north were popular the southerner is by birth and breeding chivalric. He was so before Scott was born and will remain so while the same blood is in him. At least I hope he will. This chivalry finds its most notice- able outlet in the southerner’s attitude to- ward women. The female of his species is p weeny ees Fe ann Sen Jo ew ath y8 she struggled vely to”get down, but he would not let her. He objects to the new woman, not because he fears her queer mixture of passion and respect. He regards her as something to be loved, to be cherished, to be protected. He cannot get over the belief that she ts fragile, and he cannot be convinced that she is able to withstand hard knocks. To him all women are pure until demonstrated otherwise, and they are to be treated with deep respect. are made of finer clay, and are, in fact, @ superior order of being. iInva- occur. A simply —- quiet. Se we ay Fe “It ought to be easy to draw him, but in books many’ tunes. ‘We, hore re on the go. "hore “Acres” ts a have had the true wrsteraee, sltnougn Bret Harte tr not ts with us f ti