Evening Star Newspaper, October 30, 1897, Page 27

AN ENORMOUS SUM Value in Pounds of London’s Banks and Buildings. WHAT CROWN JEWELS WOULD FETCH Value of the Museum, Art Gallery, Parks, Churches and Bridges. UNTOLD GATHERED WEALTH SS Prem Tid-Bits. “Have you ever thought what London is worth?” remarked a valuer to the writer the other day, “and will you believe me when I tell you that all the money in the world, piled up in one enormous heap, would rot buy the treasures on which Londoners may gaze at will every day of their lives?” was “copy” in the idea, and I took luer friend round London on valuing We started a week ago, and the urney is still incomplete, but the figures overwhelming that to total them up ald be impossible, and the only way to ent them to the public is to pick out a pre few typical items in the account, and leave the curious reader to calculate on them to ent. town on the underground. ards of this railway,” ‘cost £2,000,000, or, if you it so, £0 an inch. If you this bit now, you would Sked £5,000,000 for it. There another ale mile on the same hne which cost you something like £2,000,000, having a d of a million to lay down. But that is comparatively moderate. If the tric rallway were put up to auc- tion, you were fortunate to get it at cost price. you would need the wealth of aires to buy it. These three nd a half miles of railway are worth quite 000,009, as prices go nowadays. Worth Millions. zet out at this station and look at the nument. You would not buy it for £20,- In five minutes you will be at the ion House, which cost a mere £70,000 build, but now worth nearer £750,000. al Exchange, as a building of bricks 200,000, but it stands Not long ago land vod was sold at the rate te The B and moriar, is worth jand worth £2,000,000, e. of England would probably in the market, but as there Ss £20,000,000 worth of gold in the cellars, its standing value is about £24,000,- 000. Go westward over Holborn viaduct, 1 remember that that short stretch of is worth over £2,000,000, You ant nearly buy the gen- ou have just passed, ith the land on which £2,5000,000, 1 stand for en Waterloo bridge. The rty you see here would make dozens ur friends millionaires at a strc Two million pounds weuld not buy those wo hotels, and Somerset House, at b only, is good for half a million bridge you are standing on was a dis- rous failare when it was built, but it Is h now more than th nully cost. There ther side of you, which cost b is alv cost E een nem over £4,000,000. The tunnels under- wth the river are worth millions as a nmercial property, and the Embankment now worth probably double the £2,000,- ous which it cost to make. St. Paul's and Westminster. “If St. Paul's were private property, you might Induce the owner to sell it for £19. »40W), but the likelihood is very remot tattered ban’ which you have so often wouil 2rouse pretty keen ns at the sale 1 if you got one for yon ourself extremely value; it is be botight. what give us some idea > treasures are worth i I should not be surpr put up in lots—realized £ putting a ticket on Jacob's royal iombs! admired the magnificent ex- jor of the houses of parliament and the ndid interior, but you will perhaps be . xi you could not erect for £5,000,000, St. i the Albert. Em- aicng the front of it, are worth t r £1,000,000, and the bridge lene 1 £250,000, “Pe ps you have never reflected what - you enjoy In being able to visit ces free. The British Museum, an see for nothing, could not be bought up by all the millionaires in America. it were absolutely empty it woukl be worth £1,500,000, and it is full of collection alone »,00). The National It cost, with the 00 to build, ar or the “You have ard bas one pic and thirty-eight others which a piece. The Nelson column clos worth £50,000, and the . George III, a little way-down Pail Mall, cost £4,000. The bill for the Albert me- morial was {1 Money Here. Albert Hall and Royal Aquarium th worth about a quarter of a mil- lion, but the Crystal Palace cost more than three times" the value of both these, the bill for the palace being £1,500,000. Earl's Court, the great show rivaling the palace, has millions’ worth of treasures which can see fer Is. and even when it is dens and Imperial rm Institute you might_buy for £17 ounts are hope! y involved, - block of government offices overtook- the Horse Guards would cost vou a lion. If you had £3,000,000 in 3 pocket, you might take a cab to the ‘Tower and buy th» crown jewels there, but you would have nothing left to pay ihe cabby with ins Yound half The hotels and public houses could not be bought up for £4 say nothing of the land on which they stand. Two of them pay £150 a week be- tween them in ground rent. Buckingham Palace is not very gorgeous, but 1¢ is worth £1.000,000 as it stanas, and if you wanted to rent it privately you would have to pay £1,000 a week for it. Devonshire House and House. in Piccadilly, you £1,000,000, but you would’ not ex- the picture galleries thrown in at this ‘They are worth hundreds of thou- would pe pric sank The Parks. “You have often taken a stroll in the parks, but you have never spent a thought on the cost of laying them out. If Hyde Park were sold at the rate at which land is sold in the city the bill would run every bank in the kingdom dry. Battersea Park cost over £300,000 to lay out, and the mere entrances to Hyde Park cost almost as much as this. Nearly £300,000 was spent in laying out New Oxford street. The value of e churches and chapels, whose min- isters will tell you they are very poor, will .8stonish you. The Metropoiltan Taber- nacle is_werth £30,000, St. Martin's Church (£26,000, St. Pancras Church £80,000, and the Memorial Hali £100,000. Four of the cattle markets cost £2,000,000 between them, and beneath you as you walk through London are 2,300 miles of sewers, worth £4,000,000. “There are many surprising items which you would come across in a valuation of Lonion. If you were asked to bid for that stained-glass window tn St. Margaret's, you ‘would probably reckon its value at £20, but if you look up the accounts of the dean and chapter of Westminster you will find that they paid §430 for it. You would not like to be asked £3,500 for the big beil at St. Paul's, but that is what it cost, and you would stare aghast if you were asked to Give £50,000 for a collection of stamps and ‘telegraph forms and such things, though that is the value of a collection in one of the museems. The chandelier at Covent arden would cost you £400, and there is en crgan in Stafford House for which £6,000 was paid.” a,- matters Httle what it is that you ‘whether a situation or a servant—e The Star will reach the Berzon who can fill your need. Ira N. Hollis in the Atlantic, Hult ran down before the wind to take a look at the stranger, and found him with his main topeail aback, waiting for the Constitution to come up. Both ships cleared for action, and when the Constitu- tion was still far astern the Guerriere be- gan firing at long range. Only two or three shots were fired in return, and then the American bore down upon the Englishman in silence. Nothing stows more forctbly the perfect discipline of the ship than this hour of waiting. with men standing at quarters and their comrades falling around them. Even Mr. Morris, the first lieuten- ant, found it hard to restrain his impa- tience, and he asked to be allowed to fire. Not till the ships were fairly abreast and within pistol-shot of each other was the word finally given. The effect was almost instantaneous as a whole broadside struck the Guerriere, followed quickly by a second staggering blow. Her mizzermast went overboard, and the Constitution was able to pass around the Guerriere’s bow, where she delivered a raking fire, which cut away the foremast and much of the rigging. In wearing to return across her bow, the Guer- riere’s starboard bow fouled the port quar- ter of the Constitution. It was while in this position that both sides tried to board, and Lieutenant Bush of the Marine Corp: was killed and Lieutenant Morris was dan- gerously wounded. Twe guns in the bow of the Guerriere were fired point-blank into the cabin of the Constitution and set fire to the ship. The danger was grave, but the wind and sea swept them clear, and Lieu- tenant Hoffman put out the fire. As the ships separated, the Guerriere’s foremast und mainmast went by the board, leaving her a helpless hulk in the trough of the sea. Captain Dacres’ much desired “‘in- terview"’ was over, having lasted, from the first broadside of the Constitution, just thirty minutes. He was wounded, seventy- nine of his men out of a crew of 272 were kilied and wounded, and not a stick was left standing on his deck. There was no need to haul down the flag; it was gone with the rigging, and Captain Dacres sur- rendered perforce. The Constitution had lost fourteen men and sustained compara- tively small injury. Within a few hours she was ready for another fight. The Guerriere was so cut to pieces that she could not be taken into port, and Hull burned her. The last act, after removing the prisoners and wounded, gives one a glimpse of the Christianity and chivalry of these two captains who spoke the same tongue and in whose veins flowed the same blood. Captain Hull asked Captain Dacres if there was anything he wouid like to save from his ship. He sald, yes, his mother’s Bible, which he had carried with him for years. An officer was sent to get it. Thus began a friendship between these enemies which lasted till Hull's death in 1843. Tra- dition has it that in this fight the Constitu- tion obtained her sobriquet “Old Ironsides.” When struck by a shot from the Guerriere, the outside planking did not yield, and the shot fell into the sea. One of the seamen shouted, “Huzza! her sides are made of iron!” ————_+ e+ —__ SUBSTITUTES FOR PRAYING. Parrots and Prayer Wheels Among the Kalmuck Tart: George Kennan in the Independent. Finally, if you spend most of your time, as I did, among the natives on the hufri- cane deck, your attention will be attracted by a third class of worshipers, namely, the Kalmuck Tartars, who live in felt tents or Kibitkas (kee-beet-kas) along the lower Volga, and who wander, with great herds of cattle and camels, over the steppes of eastern Europe and western Asla. These flat-faced, {ll-looking nomads are all Bud- dhists; and not only Jo they pray, but tney may fairly claim the cre: of having re- duced devotion to a science. Praying five times a day, as the Mohammedans do, or even twice a day, after the custom of the fire worshipers, seems to have been too Severe a tax upon the energies of the crig- inal Buddhists, and they set their inge- nuity at work to devise some means of less- ening the labor. The first expedient that occurred to them was teaching parrote to pray and then claiming the credit of the prayers thus said by proxy. This answered the purpose very well at first; but teaching parrots was troublesome, and besides that, the parrots, in spite of all precautiors, would “decasionally pick up scraps of pro- fane learning, which they intermingled with their devotions in a manner not at all edifying...So the Buddhists finally aban- doned the instruction of parrots and calling in the aid of applied science invented the prayer wheel. Nobody, it seems to me, but the laziest of Asiatics would ever have thought of introducing lavor-saving ma- chinery into the realm of ‘he spiritual; but the Buddhists not only thought of it, but put the idea promptly into execution. The prayer wheel used by the Kalmuck Tartars on the lower Voiga is a small wooden cy:in- der six or eight inches in length and about two inches in diameter, _urning upon a vertical axis, the lower end of which is ex- tended and thickened to form a handle. This cylinder is stuffed full of short, writ- ten prayers, and every time it is turned upon its axis all the prayers that it con- tains are regarded as uly sald. Cculd anything be more simple or satisfactory? There is no shutting of the eyes, no getting down on the knees in uncomfortable posi- tions, no facing in any particular direction. All that the prayer has to do ‘s to give his wheel a twirl and it srinds cut prayers with a rapidity amd fluency which leaves nothing to be desired. But from an Occi- dental point of view the whole performance is, of course, an absurdity. I could feel some respect for the prayers of the Moham- medans and of the fire worshipers, but the wooden wheels of the Kalmuck Tartars ex- cited only contemptuous amusement. (eer Blackstone Nowadays. From the New York Post. How does it happen that Blackstone is now depreciated, not to say underrated? A partiai answer to this inquiry ig found in the statement, which ts true though paradoxical, that the real Blackstone is rarely read even by professional lawyers. The practical utility of his work, and the reputation which it at once achieved, have detracted from Blackstone’s permanent fame. The original book, which derives half its charm from its literary perfection, has of necessity become obsolete as a statement of existing law. Hence it has been edited and re-edited, and altered and realtered, till it has been, as a work of letters, completely spoiled, and the stu- derts who think themselves to be reading Blackst6ne are in reality reading a treatise about as like the original ‘Commentaries’ as would be an edition of Gibbon’s ‘De- cline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ which skould have been not only edited but to a at extent rewritten, first by Milman and by Merivale, and then should have overloaded with an infinity of notes added by authors of very Inferior quality. We may, indeed, say that, in England at any rate, Blackstone's ‘Commentaries’ have been transformed into Stephen’s ‘Commentaries,’ and that this transforma- tion has been a public calamity; it has spoiled the work of two men of equal but of very dissimilar genius. Serjeant Stephen did not possess the literary gifts of Black- stone; the commentator was deficient in the lucid precision and the logical acumen of his editor. The Uterary beauty of the ‘Commentaries’ vanighed under the at- tempt to import into them a precise state- ment of the whole law of England which Blackstone never intended to provide for the students to whom he addressed his lectures, while the time and power spent by Serjeant Stephen on the rewriting of the celebrated ‘Commentaries’ might, if more happily employed, have supplied us the author of the celebrated “Treatise on Pleading,’ and could, in his day at least, Lave been produced by no one else. The'| first step to be taken by any one who wishes to apprectate Blackstone's genius is to read the ‘Commentaries’ as Blackstone wrote them, and, if possible, to read them unincumbered even by the notes of subse- quent editors. ————-e+___ Bermuda’s Hog Money. From the Chicago News. Hog money is the queer name by which the brass money which was coined in Ber- rauda in 1615 came to be known. On the face of it was a hog; on the other side a ship of that period. very his- ed by to Sobtate “WHE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1897-98 PAGES. RANDOM VERSE. x71 THE FUTURE OF JAPAN COULDN'T TALK TO THEM ‘A Little Boy’s Lament. But Bailiff Tolliver Hurried the Ver Islands. Tm going back to, "3, dict, "t <ome ‘more ~ = Te hear the about my feet ; This Field Affords Room Enough for They tay aauch id out my clothes, He Cussed the Government That Pre- Za : om Her Commerce Withoet Any Fee see tithes ‘joe 3 vented His Joining the Rush Cause of Friction. 1 nae hie to Dig Gold. Seitta wort Fer bu; BGvhen T iaid abe 0 hate: Count Okuma in the “Far East.” He said that ple Was fer boss, From the Chicago Record. Though her histcry is traced to very old BfT ont gee aie If the bailiffs in charge of the Luetgert times, Japan is quite a young country, so Ti turn pirate frst ygu know. jury had possessed a share of the inven- far as the experience of foreign inter- course and the development of material resources are concerned. Our forefathers, self-satisfied and confined within the boun- daries of the islands, had not the key to open the store and to take out the treasure beuntifully bestowed by heaven. The need- ed key was given us with the advent of fcreign intercourse. To show the resource- fulness of the country, it is not necessary to enumerate various branches of industry promoted in it. It suffices to notice that, extending for nearly thirty degrees of lat- titude from the north to the’south, facing to the Pacific ocean on one side and to the continent of Asia on the other, and be- ing longitudinally divided into two halves by a ridge of mountains, Japan is favored with a remarkable variety of climates and other physical conditions, and that the people have only begun to take advantage of those conditions by the use of scientific appliances. Though the new regime was tive genius of Luke Tulliver the people of Chicago would not have been obliged to wait for days for notping at all. Mr. Tul- liver was a court bailiff, a carpenter, a hay rancher and the postmaster in Teton City. When the judge who swung around the district which took in Uintah county came up to Teton to hold court Tulliver did the “oh, yes-ing” and kept things run- ning smoothly, One term they had a little one-horse murder case which to all the world, with the exception of the jury, was as clear as distilled water. But the jury, strangely enough, realizing its own im- portance, became strongly set in conflict- ing opinion, and in two days was tied in @ hard, complex knot. The townspeople were impatient, and the Judge was vastly annoyed, for he had been invited to speak at a banquet down at Raw- lins, and he wanted to get away. He calied the jury before him three times and lec- tured it as to its duty. He pleaded with He let me tske his shotgun, An’ Joaded it fer me; 2 ‘The hens flew up a tree. T had @ circus in the yard twenty other boys— Tm goin’ back to grandpa’s, Where they ain't afraid of noise, He didn't make me comb my hair But once or twice a week; He wasn’t kina ge fer words I didn’t orter 3 He told me stories *bout the war dot is ae a 'm " ipa’ for he knows wot boys like best, He knew the early apple trees fraud within a mile, ‘ ‘was a dandy, ‘Ant was all the while, was “in it” I bet you grandpa’s lonesome, I don’t care what you say; I seen him kinder cryin’ mn you took me away. the members of it to get together. He established thirty years ago, the first de- ‘When you talk to me pf heaven, offered to explain any tangle. But the cade of the present era was still a time Where all the good folks go, twelve men were sullen and immovable. “Look here, your honor,” said Luke Tul- liver, returning after conducting the dis- putatious twelve to their room. “I can get @ verdict out of that outfit. Do you really want one?” The judge warmly declared that he did, and confided his canvasback and wine hopes to Luke. “I might discharge them,” he said, “but the cost of another trial would be ruin- cus.” “Don't you bother,” said Luke Tulliver. Twenty minutes later the jury returned a verdict. “How on earth did you manage it?” asked the court, after the jurors had fled in ex- cited haste, without waiting to inquire as to fees. “I cussed the gov’ment,” said Luke. “Did what? I don’t understand.” “Stood outeide the jury room door an’ cussed the gov’ment till further orders an’ regardless. Cussed it up an’ down, black an’ blue, this way an’ that.” “And do you mean to say you roused the Patriotism of these men? That—” “Judge, you're new. Them fellers don’t know they is sich a thing as the Declara- tion of Independence. The only Bunker Hill they know is Bunker Hill, Goss county, I guess I'll go to grandpa’s, An’ we'll have good tim ———_+ e+ of commotion. It is, therefore, only a score of years since our people: really be- tcok themselves to adopting the western civilization and to developing the resources of the country. 2 Tapan has not only rich resources in the irterior, but she has a wide field for her activity outside the country. The lands surrounding the Pacific ocean and the ccuntries of Asia constitute the best mar- ket for the future commerce of the world. There is room enough in this market for Japan to have a share without causing a friction with other nations. Geoxraph- ically, Japan is in a very favorable situa- tion, and the nature of her people is dif- fereng from that of western countries, so that ‘hat the nations of Europe cannot profitably undertake in these parts of the globe will naturally devolve upon our coun- trymen. Already the increase of our trade with countries of Asia and Australia has been remarkable. It is not our desire to increase the terri- tories. In a country without free outlets to the sea, territorial extension may be an absolute necessity for the growth of the nation; but that is not the case in a ccuntry surrounded by the sea on all sides. For the Japanese the ocean 1s the field of I know, ‘When I Am Old. From the Boston Transcript. Time, thou taskmaster, for each fair boon Dost claim thy due, and claiming dost destroy, ‘When thou hast re: the yellow grain of noon, When thou hast c1 the bloom of each young joy, When in the sky Ambition’s sun js set, And thou hast dimmed Hope's watching star; too soon Hast swept with dusk desires and dreams, Time, et Hold back one grace, one dear, enkindling power, For that dense night and that unyielding hour When I am old! Diminish or erase: But, when ‘tis dark, fires dead, I stripped of Miss, ‘With frosty breath on Memory’s glass come trace But this—alway—O Time, but this— prayerful image of a mother’s face. —_——-ee—____ 2 Love's Insolvent. From the Pall Mall Gazette. ‘Two things the gods in heaven may not undo— The past of all men and my love of you. Count each glad day with thee a thousand How deep in debt, sweet creditor, I'm found! Then take my bill’ of love and write fourscore— Iam thy debtor for as many more. And tho’ this bill you keep and never show it, I'm Love's insolvent, and all men imay know it. activity. This field is, as a matter of | Teareer in love alone Til bankrupt prove, Idaho. But, sir, them men knows the course, to be utilized in common by all the | and ever owe thee fealty and lov minin’ laws by heart.” nations of the world, only we hope to take pl gc a “Ves?” advantage of our geographical position. To be a factor In the development of the Pacific and the eastern Asia seems to be the destiny of our nation. As the future of these regions is full of hopes, so the fu- ture of the Japanese is promising. Why, then, should we be so pessimistic as to en- tertain anxieties about the present situa- tion, even if there be temporary difficulties in our way? But we must be always on the alert and make efforts with more energy than ever to continue and accelerate the progress we have begun. All our undertakings and en- terprises should be made with the eye to the future, and not according to the mere “Yes. An’ when I got up on my feet at the door of that jury room an’ cussed the President, the Supreme Court an’ the two houses of Congress for enactin’ a law that made it necessary for a court bailiff to stick to a fool jury while everybody else in town was chasin’ up to Burgo creek to file claims along the bottom where Tony Clare dis- covered gold, pounds to the ton, last night— when I made my few remarks just to no one in partickler, the door of the jury room opened an’ Pete Brewer looked out. ““Did you say gold had been struck on Burgo?’ says he. “I am not allowed to communicate any After Long Years, From Harper's Magazine. Dear, whom I would not know If I passed you on the street, So long and long and long ago Are the days when we used to meet, You may be glad to hear ‘That somewhere out of the blue Come vague sweet dregs that bring you near, ‘That I often think of you; ‘That now and then I thrill, At § Tustle im tho dade; = a wteps over the bil the fire-fly's ‘park me conv ti ot ¥ 3 convenience of the present. Special atten- | Somebody stepped of diy grave? Lae cara Re EET nee tion should be paid to the improvement of | Or someholy allpped iit of yours? looked out. * 5 5 intellect and aa ona tee of oe ek A bit of the love that endures. ere “What's that?’ says he. ‘Gold in Burgo? Pe nitenbe based enor other founda- —MARGARET E. SANGSTER. “I can’t talk to you,’ says I. ‘Neverthe- ——ser- “Survival of ‘thé Fittest.” “‘Nought but the fittest lives,’-1 hear, Ring on the northern breeze of thought; “To Nature's heart the strong are dea: less cuss an’ eternally, essentially an’ par- ucklerly cuss the gov’ment that obliges me to stay here while Ike Smart an’ Lefty aun is diggin’ out nuggets like perta- ers.” tion. It is particularly desirable to adapt our moral standard to the new conditions arising out of the development of foreign trade. Last of all, every means should be employed to secure the peace of the world in general, and of the far east in particu- | The weak must pass unloved, unsought.” Gaer Genes pS ea lar. Peace, above all things, is a necessary : oi oils seinkves anétmurs Wats waren talon sire cendition for progress. Even the war with as Maik er China introduced into our finance certain | Your mind's bes ; ee arth, rk. your heart's best choice, “Well, sir, your honor, they took a vote rt Shall stand with God abnormal states which have made men of for what they're worth. in less'n nineteen seconds, an’ them black pessimistic clerosinan quite uneasy. If = -T1s not the stron; along. pu irvives; streaks cuttin’ acrost the horizon is the take measures to improve our means o! ‘Truth. Beauty, Virtue. geattened. wide twelve good men an’ true breakin’ for national defense, it is in order that we | In tumble soll, bear noble iyes, - Burgo. They'll look right considerable may feel absolutely sure against all possi- | Whese fruits forever mist abide. - afore they'll find a strike in that cactus country, but we've got our verdict, you've got your dinner an’ the boys have got a hangin’ just the same. Oh, you can ac- complish most anythin’ by proper cussin’ of the gov’ment.” The judge told the story down at Raw- lins, but it was disbelieved. Se EMERSON AS A FATHER. ble dangers and that we may pursue en- tirely undisturbed our course of peaceful progress. Fe . FALLING ELEVATORS. Time's buildings are not, alt With fratlest fbers Nature as Her living webs from zone to zone, And what is lost she dafly wins. T fain would think,'limid the strife Between realities and forms, Slignt gifts may claim perennial life "Mid slow decay and sudden storms. ‘This tuft of silver hairs I loose From cpen windows to the breeze; Some bird of spring perchance may ‘use To build her rest in yorder trees. Is the Responsibility in Men or the Machinery? From Electricity. It often does seem that inanimate ob- jects are actuated ty motives such as are only properly attributable to sentient be- ings, and some one who has noticed this Propensity has written a book upon the natural perversity of inanimate objects. That bread will usually fall with the but- tered side down, and that a collar button will almost invariably roll under the bu- reau instead of toward the middle of the room, are matters of such common ex- perience as to be admitted on all sides. Fortunately the loss of life has been small, but that has been due to good-Juck rather than to good management, since the elevators that fell happened to fail when there were few passengers. It is customary in New York to place the management of these large office buildings He Wanted His Children to Ride and Dance. HB. W. Emerson im the Youth’s Companion. ‘A baby’s cry or its joyful little crow would instantly bring my father from his books or writing. Many men are rather afraid to take a little baby; the younger the better for him. His skill in handling and amusing them was great, and it was strange to see how this was divined in advance by those somewhat shapeless beings of whom Arte- mus Ward said: “How beautiful is babes; so like human beings—only so small!” They were pretty sure to stretch out their small, pudgy hands to him, The boy, natural, independent, enterpris- These pictures painted with an art Surpassed by younger sight and ‘skill, May pass into some friendly heart, Some room with nature's smiles ‘may fill. These leaves of light and earnest rhyme Dropped on the windy world, though long Neglected now, some future time lay weave into its nest of sung. “6. P. ora: NCH. ———~+-e. Only a day at a time. There may never be a to- jorrOW. Only a day at a time, and that we can live. We OW ‘The troable we cannot bear 1s only the trouble we orre And the trials that never come are the ones that fret us so. Only a step at a time. It may be the angels bend in the hends of some real estate man, and over us irg, acting on simplest motives, was always it often happens that one man or firm be- To bear us above the stones that wound our feet | looked at with sympathy by him—a relief comes the agent of a large number of these by the ws from the caution, the sentimentality, cant The step that is hardest of all 1 not the one just fore us, And the path we dread the most may be smooth- ed another ga, buildings and for all of them selects the help required. It is perhaps natural that such an agent should strive to keep the expenses of ad- ministration down to the lowest notch coim- patible with efficiency, and the temptation oftem leads to a further step—a reduction of expenses to a point beyond that com- patible with safety and efficiency. In several of the recent elevator acczi- dents the trouble has been directly trace- able to the employinent of engineers and others totally ignorant of the machinery they were called upon to handle; and tn other cases our investigation shows that the management of the building is in the hands of the janitor—a man totally inno- cent of mechanical knowledge or the abil- ity to discriminate between those who are and who are not competent in this line. Unfortunately the law does not require that the engineer of an elevator plant be an expert engineer, and incompetent men are therefore too often placed in charge of the lives of thousands of passengers daily visiting the building over whose ele- vators they have charge. This class of men are employed—why? Simply because they are cheap. In fact, at the coroner’s inquest over the bodies of two men who had lost their lives by the falling of an elevator recently, the makers of the elevator which fel defended themselves solely on the ground that the accident was due wholly to tho ignorance or indirectness that his elders often showed. “See how well that boy rides bareback, and sticks like a burr!” ‘Look at that fine girl, simple and fearless as Iphigenia,” he would say, as he saw the children of the Concord farmers go by his window, and forgot his task in the pleasure of looking at them, Indeed, they were pretty sure to reappear in his books. When I, having no mother, and only older sisters for companions at home, and attendirg a small private school, Was naturally timid and slow in finding my place among the boys of the neighborhood, it troubled my father, and he called Tommy Hazel, the “naughty boy” of our part of the village, and promised him a quarter if he would work mé into the ball playing of the public school opposite the house—the game was ‘‘Feur Old Cats,” base ball in its modern form being then unknown. Today athletics and amusements perhaps get something more than their fair share of attention, probably because two genera- tions ago the body was neglected and the mind and soul alone were deemed worth training. But life is like a stool with these three legs—body, mind and spirit. For its perfect poise all three of these must be good. My father saw how much of real value he had missed in his boyhood, and that games, adventures, even fights are good schoolmas- ters, teach some things better than books, and must supplement these. oo Iu Autumn Day: Like voices in a roum where one is dying, Low with the awe that always comes with death, I hear the wi among the branches si; eh f As earth sits dreaming with abated breath. ‘The leaves are falling in a gorgeous shower Of gold and crimson on the hillside slopes, |, robbed all ruthlessly of summer's dower, ‘The trees stand grieving as o'er vanished hopes. The sky is tender as the smile a mother Gives to a child that o'er its losses grieves, And with her kind caresses she would smother tears that fall as fall the ripened leaves. No wonder earth 1s sad for sweet things dying, ce eeeee to oe naan Ug res ough she may call, will be no replying, so she mourns today, uncomforted. Be patient, earth. You have your time of losses, OP vanished brightness mad of things to miss, 50 the souls of men bear on*their crosses, Forgetting what may be in that which is, But unto you another spring returnis Will bring new indness; find to souls of men iil come that Spring for which each heart 1s ing. And. it which seemeth ALL Ly int = SATE AO, oe ees in charge, and = ego. = From Life. tax Because he had not learned to ride and ‘There are some agenis, however, who I didn’t intend kissing a dance and enter a company with ease, he employ none but the best men and who hadn't the slightest tatention wished all the more that we should. He take every precaution to render the use his fondly back. put me under the orders of our loyal Irish workman, an ex-dragoon, did not worry lest I be thrown off, but charged me, if I were, to be sure to get right on the same horse again, and I have always been most grateful that I was denied saddle and stir- rups until I had grown rather independent of such aids. of their elevators safe. These not only employ competent men to run their ele- vators and other machinery, but seme of them have adopted a methed of in- spection which is intended to still further insure safety. One such method is this: A committee of three of his =nust skill- ful employes is appointed to inspect period- ically all the buildings for which he is responsible. These three men make the rounds and examine everything, from the coal pile to the incandescent lamp, in- cluding the elevators, their safety catches, pumps and other accessories. In case any- thing is out of order, their report shows it and it must be put in order at once. Now, contrasting the results of these two diverse systems, we find that with the one accidents have been most frequent and in the end costly; with the other accidents have been rare, if indeed they have ever occurred. It matters not whether the ele- vator be hydraulic or electric, accidents are bound to happen if the penny-wise- pound-foolish system is employed, and they will be rare even with inferior machinery ant panera sue: the mueeey and sensible Policy of employing none but competent. is followed. men g Life 1s too to de intrusted to manufacturers but there was a pet of tea. “‘Tea,” he rea- “contains water, the rest is but accident,” and proceeded to pour out a cup. 27 ANDREE’S FLIGHT The Weird Balloon Journey Toward the Pole. . HOW TO WOO SLEEP. Various Devices to Ward of the Ter- rors of Insomnia, From the Spectator. As town life extends and intellect is aroused, the problem will be more and more that of too little, not of too much, sleep. Perfect, or nearly perfect, health is, of course, the first condition of sound sleep. But scarcely any one is quite healthy, and so we must aid the sleepless to acquire that which is lacking. The one great thing to do is to fatigue the attention; not only to tire out the body, but to fatigue the active mind, to quiet the vaso-motor center and so drive the congested blood from the brain. Quiet and regular habits, a certain monotony of light evening oc- cupation, will tend in this dtrection; while @ great variety of evening engagements is generally fatal to the victim of in- sommfia. It is unwise to go to bed on either an empty or a very full stomach; a sligat meal before rest is the wise course. A hot bath the last thing, taken under the fol- lowing conditions, is perhaps the very best aid to sleep: “As resommended by Eccles and others, the bath should be taken in a room with a temperature of 65 to 70 de- grees Fahrenheit. The patient should stand with his head over the edge of the tub, douching head and face with water at 100 The cooling of the body by the the hot sponging of the head first send blood to the brain, dilating its ves- sels. Then the entire body, except the head, is imnt ‘sed in a bath at 98 degrees, rapidly raised to 105 or 110 degrees; in a few minutes the bath is left, and the body wrapped in blanke:s, which absorb the moisture, and with the least possible ex- ertion the patient gets into his night clothes and to bed, with a warm bottle to his feet_and perhaps a little warm liquid food.” There is no better means than this for meeting the untold ills of insomnia, but the writer nas also found the good old 0 BE GONE PERHAPS A YEAR An Eyewitness Describes the Scene at the Start. MOMENTS OF SUSPENSE ——— ees Jonas Stadling, who accompanied Andree to Dane's Island and witnessed his depar- ture toward the north pole, contributes to the November Century an article entitiod “Andres's Flight Into the Unknown.” This is accompanied by a number of interesting photographs, including several of the bal- loon after it had been cut loose and had begun its flight. Mr. Stadling says: The aeronauts were impatient to start this year. They had decided to wait for really favorable winds until the 17th of July. After that date they were prepared to start with a less favorable wind. In my talks with them about the risks and dangers of their undertaking, they said at various times: “We have taken all into account. We are prepared to face whatever may happen. Proverb of walking a mile after the last | “Suppose the balloon should bur I meal useful. It goes without saying that | asked: “what then?” a late London dinner party meets with ab- | “We shall be drowned or crushed.” solute condemnation. On the other hand, | «Suppose you alight on tie pack ice, far we are glad to find the author very reuson- able about sending children to bed very early 2nd about early rising. Not a little harm has been done to mankind by forcing children to bed in broad daylight, und in routing people out of their warm beds to face the dank chill of an early winter morning. There is a mean between these applications of old “saws” and the cese of a celebrated French mathematician who, in the latter years of his life, spent twenty hours In bed. The object of sleep is to restore nervous tissue; as much sleep as is needful for that purpose is poth geod and necessary, but more is purely mis- chievous. The problem, the difficult prob- lem, of modern life is to secure enough. away in the desolate polar regions; what will you do?” “We shall do our best, and work our way back as far ¢s possible. Having during these last years thought, worked ana cal- culated in preparing for this expedith we have, so to 5; mentally live through all possibili ‘ow, we only de sire to start, and have the thing fins! some vay or other. While talking about home and the 1o' cnes their faces would assume a more se- rious expression, and a faint quiver of the voce might be noticed, but there was no waverirg of purpose. “When may we begin to hope to hear from you?” I asked. “At least not before three month: one year, perhaps two years, may © before you hear from us, and you may or day be surprised by news of our arri somewhere. And if not—if you never hear from us—others will follow in ov wake until the unknown regions of the north have been surveyed.” a — THE CZAR’S CURIOSITY. He Destroyed Hix Daughter's Doll See How the Mechanism Worked. From the Philadelphia Times. The heavy burden of autocracy has not destroyed all the boyish instincts in Nich- clas II's disposition, as the following anec- dote, heard at a dinner party given in honor of a gentleman of M. Faure’s escort in his late journey, proves. The president, after having searched all the best Parisian shops to find some toys worthy of the two little grand duchesses’ acceptance, and having bought the everlasting golden rattle for Miss Tatiana, was in despair for something out of the common to give to Miss Oiga. He at last chose two wonderful dof got up as an elegant lady, the other an over-dressed little girl; and, after much difficulty, a most complicated piece of ma- chinery was inserted, thanks to which, when wound up, the lady and her daughter begin a ludicrous bit of conversation,which finishes by the little girl crying because she is not allowed to ride a donkey on account of her gauze dress. ‘The baby grand duchess was delighted, but not more so than her father, who, it ap- bears, spent an hour on the floor with the child, listening to the squeaky dialogue be- tween the dolls. But the time came when the princess had to go to bed, which she did very reluctantly. As for the emperor, he remained an instant in the boudoir after her departure with the two clever artificial! ladies who had taken his fancy, while the empress, a Faure, and some ladies and gentlemen of the court Were. talging in the next room.” Siddénly a strange noise like that of an infernal machine was heard, followed by a loud ery of dismay, and ev- erybudy rushed to see what It was. There was the emperor, safe and sound, but with a dismal face, looking at the dolls, which he had partly undressed to find out the secret hidden in their bosoms; while the dolls were chattering away as if they would never stop. The empress, unable to restrain her temper, snatched up the car- peted board on which were standing and shaking the two precious ladies, and, after having crushed her husband with a wither- ing eye, she’ said to a gentleman near her, “Please, send this away; it is too bad, in- deed. The emperor spoils everything he touches.” But Nicholas looked so penitent, and the mishap was so funny, that she could not help laughing. ——— ss Egrets for Ladies’ Hats. From Forest and Stream, Thomas Jones pushes quietly into the edge of the nesting ground, ties his boat firmly within easy range of the tall snag he saw the day before, and takes out his rifle. There is an egret on the tall snag. Taking a steady aim, he fires, and the bird whirls down dead. One or two other birds start on their perches in the same tree, but settle back. One by one they, too, whirl out and lie in a white tangled mass at the foot of the tree. An egret raises herself up above the rim of the nest on which she sits, and the tiny _ bullet pierces her. She whirls down, lying white and motionless. The little ones gape and cry, but no food comes. The father was killed on the tree near by. One by one out of the nests, off the limbs of the trees, here, there, anywhere—for the birds are all about, and so stupid with the breeding fever that they will not leave—the slender Precaution: Those who think the expedition a feat of foolhardiness should remember that, hu- manly speaking, all possible precautions were taken toward securing a safe voyage. A new and larger balloon might have been made during the previous winter, but An- dree preferred to enlarge the old one; be- sides, a larger balloon would have been till more difficult to handle. After a sound sleep during that night (July 10), we were awakened the following morning with a joyous cry, which rang out in chorus from the younger members of the balloon expedition: “Southward! A strong and steady south wind!” We rolled out of our beds, jumped into our clothes, and ran up on deck. Andree had already gone ashore. I hurried after, gave the car- rier pigeons food and water, and went to the balloon house. Andree, who the night before had said to one of the younger members of the expedition, “I feel that it will not be long before we shall go up,” looked a trifle more serious than usual as he walked about inside the balloon house and locked up at the balloon. After a few moments’ consultation, was decided to wait for an hour, during which time the three aeronauts wers to finish their correspondence and all private preparations. The fated hour passed; an- other consultation was held on tep of the balloon house. Besides the aeronauts, M. Mechuron of Paris, the nephew of M. La Chambre, the balloon manufacturer, took part in this consultation. Andree asked each one separately to give his opinion. All were in favor of starting, althouch the strong wind made the start somewhat risky. Then they came down. Andree as he went on board the Svensksund seemed to be more pensive than ever. Getting Of. The next morning Andree told the cap- tain of the gunboat, Count Ehrensvard, that he had decided to start. Immediately the order was given to make the final prep- arations. This was 10:45 a.m., on the 1th of July. Then followed a few hours of intense work and great suspense. In less then an hour the northern side of the bal- Icon house was pulled down, and in a little over two hours more the balloon had been raised a few meters, the fastened to its place, and everything eise belonging to the last preparations accom- plished. All being ready to start Andree called me aside and told me that he had decided to call his balloon the Eagle (Ornen), and authorized me to publish its name: he me some messages and salutations to nis relatives and friends, whereupon he, Mr. Strindberg and Mr. Fraenkel, smiling, and without ceremony, warmly shook our hands and bade us farewell. Then Andree jump. ed into the basket and called out tri berg! Fraenkel!”’—each jumping quick'v into the basket as they were ordered. The extra sacks of sand were then unfastened by Strindberg and Fraenkel and the bai- loon was held only by three strong ropes manned by a number of sailors. Andree .ow instructed the sailors to cut the ropes when he should say, “Three!” There followed a few moments of suspense and painful waiting for a favorable mo- ment when the wind should not blow so it ¥ hatd. Exactly at 2:30 in the afternoon snag, has ylelded twenty: victims, vod | Andree called out. with calm and st has not moved from his boat. He has over | VCice. “Cut—one, two, three!” A taneous snap, and the gigantic t rose majestically out of its prison, w Count Ehrensvard shouted, “Lefre dree!” (“Good luck to Andreé”), Away She Went. Then fcllowed a strong Swedish fovr- fclad “Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!” while the daring aeronauts shouted back from above “Hesla gamla Sverige!” (“Sa- lute old Sweden!) as the balloon lifted and started before the strong wind, on its way to the unknown regions of Ultima Thule—a voyage more daring than any since old Pytheas more than twenty-two hundred years ago sailed out of the port of Massilia (Marseilles), steering toward the unknown regions of the north, As the balloon was being cut loose I ran upon the side of the mountain behind the balloon house, from which point I saw it ascending, and took a number of pictures of it as it started. With its weight of about five tons the gigantic balloon rose majestically to a height of about six bhun- dred feet, then it suddenly descended unul the basket touched the surface of the water. This depression was no doubt caused by the great resistance of the three heavy guide ropes, each measuring more than nine hundred feet, and which in some ‘way or other must have caught upon some- thing during the ascénsion, for it was found that a large part of them had been severed from the balloon and left on the Notwithstanding this mishap— which, it is hoped caused no injury, since to the balloon were attached eight ballast ‘mes, each two hundred and fifty feet Yong, which might be used to lengthen the guide ropes—the ascension 200 birds down. He can tell by his car- tridge boxes, for he rarely misses a shot. It is easy shooting. After noon he gathers up his spoils. A cut of the knife and the clump of plumes is off. Two hundred car- casses of egrets are left lying. That many more tomorrow. Many more than that the next day, for by that time the ‘ling of the dying young of the first day’s vic- tims will have ceased. From then on, day by day, increasing in three fold ratio, the harvest of death goes on steadily, pitilessly, on the sowing grounds of life, out tn the silent wilderness where the birds have tried to hide their -homes. In less than a month it is over. The long white lines no longer cross the country going to and from the feeding ‘There Was One. From Tid Bits, “Is there a man in.all the audience,” de- c j i ilk