Evening Star Newspaper, November 20, 1897, Page 21

rer ERE Ty Sn atin ce THE EVENING STAR SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1897-24 PAGES. 21 quality, the Alaska gold discoveries are. a good | row seven vessels scattered along the Yu- the sun has grown wan and chill again. N EW GO LD Fl ELDS thing for us.” »*s*. 3) kon sa ei ae ag ~ A L H aoe a a ae a bit more in- The Gold Mines of Washington. that the cannot venture 7 sistent and persuasive than ever before; it S t_ there is something hike 3,000 tons of has something of an oratorical “How about the gold mines of your own | Hrovisions lying along the Yukon. There with the sing-song peroration and. period state, cenater? developments | are 850 tons at Fort Yukon, 325 miles below e employed by the camp meeting preacher. 3 - Senator Wilson Talks of Some of the | been made lately?” . Dawson City, Much of this will be taken | Those Familiar Figures Along the| As to the outcrying ‘characters of the = KEARSARGE 1: TWO NEW DEFENDERS Will Add Greatly to the Strength of the Navy. THE KEARSARGE AND THE KENTUCKY Profiting bythe Lessons of the Bat- tle of the Yalu. —-—-. --—_ FLOATING FORTRESSES} So ete irene (Copsright, 1897, B. Written for The Evening Star. HE BATTLE SHIPS arge and Ken- y. now half com- pleted, will be ready for launching in a very few weeks, and in the record-making time of oniy two years from the date 6f aWare of coniract. ‘These great vessels are the first of our | ¢rdft to bear the di- reet impress of les- sons learned in the famous battle of the Yalu—the deciding struggle between the Japanese and the Chinese—and are interesting examples in Many ways of what actual modern war- fare has shdWn to be. needful in the ship that must bear the brunt of future fights. The Kearsarge and the Kentucky are floating fortresses of a ponderous order, and have possibilities such as even their designers. can express only in ‘Abstract terms. Each vessel has a water line length e. | one every ten seconds, and to pound their | way through the average protection to similar guns. It was the dire effect of just such guns that opened the eyes if the naval world after the battle of the Yalu, and it is in response to that awaken- ing that they have been placed on these ships, and, too, their method of prote?- tien is the result of another lesson learned then. The six-pounder, one-pounder and gatling guns have not. been included in this estimate, because their positions would, in all probability, become untenable in a hot engagement. One naturally ques- tions how an antagonist could stand against such frightful fire, and the answer is, “He couldn't if he came near enough to be hit with reasonable frequency.” In the coming actions, ships will fight at a range of two or three miles at least, and the chance of hitting with the guns effec- tive at that distance would*be hardly more’ than one in four. If they should steam into close action and then fire—well, roth- ing could res the might of those murder- but it is safe to say that ill never ppen till one or the other has been seriously crippled by a cance shot. Down fn the magazines and shell rooms of each of these ships will lie 500 and more tons of ammunition, to await the coming of a foeman worthy of that powder and hardened steel, and then to be husbanded with care till every shot will add its we'xht to the certainty of victory. Ponderous Armament. Defensively, a modern battle ship is real- ly a monitor in principle with a ship-shaped form built about its heavily armored por- tions for the sake of added accommoda- tions and seakeeping qualities. As the small sketch of the distribution of armor shows, the ends may be shot away, but so long as the armor rémains substantially in- tact the craft will float, and so long as her guns remain unsilenced she will be an an- tagonist to be dreaded. In these ships this hull protection consists primarily of a 7%-foot belt of hardened steel running from the after barbette forward to the stem. has a maximum thickness of 16%% inches tapering at the botiom to %% At the normal draft, 3%‘feet of this belt will above the water. At each end of the thi est part of this belt an athwartship bulk- head turns squarely inboard and ends against the heavy column of tie neighbor- ing barbette. Forward, this bulkhead is 10 inches thick, aft it is Flatly, on top ARMOR DISTRIRUTION. of 268 feet, a maximum beam of 5 fnehes and a draft of 3% feet 6 inches upon a normal displacement or total weight of 11,525 tons. When fully laden for service in time of war—ie.. with # full supply of e d of ammunition on board—they ve a maximum displacement of | > tons and will then draw but % feet of water. This moderate draft assures their entrance into any harbor of im- portance along our coasts, makes them less difficult of docking, and would enable them to carry on in aggressive warfare beyond the reach of retaliatory approach. There are no European ships of like power of Offense capable of acting efficiently in such [ot the four watls formed by these two | bulkheads and by the amidship, inlaid, por- tions of the ime belt, is placed a protective inches’ thick, com- pletely roofing over and compassing the occupied by the “vitals, as the boilers, magazines and shell rooms are called. Forward and aft of the heavy athwartship bulkheads, this protective deck runs slantingly to the ends, and is in- creased at the sides to three and five inches. Five-inch armor, reaching from the top of the water-line belt up to the main deck line, guards the ship from the middle of the after barbette forward to the other barbette. This wall of armor is further KEARSAR GE 1864. shallow water—the run of them drawing quite 28 feet under like conditions. The fighting power of the ships will be centered principally in three batteries, con- sisting in each as follows Main battery -4 13-inch B. L. R. 4 S-inch B. L. R. 14 5-inch rapid-fire R. --20 6-par. rapid-fire 6 1-pdr. rapid-fire 4 Gatlings. 1 flela gun. To this force may be added the torpedo equipment, composed of four tubes, two on each broadside amidships, and a’ mining and counter-mining outfit, including the usual mines and their deadly charges of gun cotton. Secondary battery. Auxiliary battery. The Big Turrets. The thirtcen-inch and the eight-inch guns are housed in two novel double-decked turrets—the eight-inch guns occupying the upper half—and each can be trained through an are of 270 degrees. The eight- inch guns are sheltered by hardencd steel nine and eleven inches thick, and the thir- -inch guns are shielded by similar al ranging from fifteen to seventeen Inches. The upper and the lower guns point in unison, and are not susceptible of independent action Each turret: is sup- ported on a massive column of Harveyized composed of fifteen-inch metal, which from the solid foundation of the pro- deck. Within these sheltering wails turning, loading and controlling me- tectiv the chanisms are housed, and up through this armored passage the ammunition is safely carried to the guns. The five-inch rapid-fire rifles are placed on the main deck within the >ctagzonal superstructure, and are completely sur- rounded without by the eight walls cr six- inch steel. Within, each gun station is separated or stalled from the other by a ely iding wall of two-inch steel, that dam- @ge to one may not affect the others. This unbroken protection to the rapid-fire guns is uniqve, and promises to make the bet- tery extremely effective in action. The six-pounder guns will be placed forward and aft on the berth deck and up in the superstructure above the five-incn battery. They will be protected only by the small shields they carry, and their most efficient rvice will be against torpedo boats, for they could hardly be manned in action be- tween heavy ships. The one-pounders und gatling guns will be placed in the military tops, and .will have practically the same service that for the six-pound-rs. In a broadside action, either of these ships will be able to fire, in a minute's time, 8,700 pounds of powder and three and a Palf tens of hardened steel. In that min- ute the guns in the main battery will be able to fire but once, byt the five-inch rifles will be able to send their fifty-pound Projectiles with a destructive frequency of augmented by a band, within, of corn-pith cellulose and about ten feet of coal. The | chance of a shot boring its way through ; that armor and that coal and thence through the two and three-quarter inches of the protective deck down to the vitals is exceedingly slim, while, if it struck below the line of the protective deck and against the side belt, its chances would be even slighter. A double bottom, running nearly the whole length of the ships and reaching up to the lower edge of the water-line belt, doubles the chances of safety in case of grounding or moderate under-water injury. —_——_ __ The Spanish Soldier in Cuba. From the Westminster Review. The Spanish soldier is probably the best fighting material in the world. He is brave, wiry, easy to feed and house, and alwa uncomplaining. But as his disposition is excellent, so is his officer worthless, the Spanish aristocracy corrupt and good for nothing, the Spanish - plebs serviceable, obedient and ductile. The simplest ma- reuver is to the Spanish officer an un- known quantity. But the most deliberate and devilish evil of all is the dishonesty in high” places. The amount of money--the property of the Spanish people—misap- Propriated by the officers of the Spanish army must amouni to millions of pesetas ber month. “We know it,” sald an ex- minister sadly to me in Madrid, a week ago, “we know it even over here.” Dead soldiers are kept upon the Hated strength for month after month, and their Fay centinues to be regularly drawn hy their captains. Moneys that were destined for the commissariat are coolly perverted into regular sources of official income. A should-be-next-to-penniless captain, living like a lord in one of the costliast hotels of Havana, readily owned to me that he had been able to send heme to his wife's keep- ing $6,000 in half a year. ————+e-______ The Extinction: of the Weaver, From the Springfield (Mo.) Leader-Democrat. The teaver is now aimost extinct in southwest Missouri, where once the indus- trious and cunning animal could be found in every stream. The presence of this in- teresting creature, whose fur has always been so much prized throught the world, caused the early settlers of the Ozarks to give its name to many streams that’ feed White river. South of Springfield the creeks were full of beevers a ago, ‘and now then a survivor of the disappear- ing may still be found, but trappers have c2ased to’ expect such a from the waters of this countzyiand Sate e waters of country, field fur dealers mak? a Gispiey ofa Ride when they eecure one. ays Recent Discoveries. LATE REPORTS FROM THE KLONDIKE The Puget Sound Country is En- joying a Big Boom. MILLIONS FROM THE SOIL ae (Copyrighted, 1897, by Frank G. Carpenter.) Written for The Evening Star.” ENATOR WILSON of Washington has just returned from Puget Sound, bring- ing with him won- derful tales of the prosperity of the Pa- cific northwest. He says the good crops and the Klondike have entirely chang- ed the condition of the states of Wash- ington and Oregon. Said he to me last night: “If you will imagine a man going to bed expecting the sheriff to set him out next morning and@ awaking to find his pockets full of money and everything free, you will have the condition of a large number of our people. A year ago the “times were hard. Now there is so much money tflat the people hardly know what to do with it. Our crops in Washington this year have brought us in something like $50,000,000: This means more than $100 for every man, woman and child in the state. On the av- erage it amounts to more than $500 a fam- ily. Think of a state where every family has an average bauk account of $500, and you get some idea of Washington today. in some of our counties the average is even higher than this. In Whitman eonnty it is estimated that the crops have brought in a sum equal to $750 for every man, woman and child there. This would be $3,750 per family. There are about 23,000 people in that county, so yousee what an enor- mous amount it is.” ty Million Dollars From the Soil. “Where does all the money come from, |. senator?” “The amount I have been speaking of is from the soil alone. A great deal of it came from wheat. I know one man who got $60,000 for his wheat crop. That man last year was thinking of selling his farm to pay the mortgages on it. He did not ex- pect it to bring much more than his in- debtedness. He has now paid all that he owes and has money in the bank. in the county of Sherman, Oregon, there are only Is of wheat this rt of the Pacific west which we call the “inland em- This comprises a part of Oregon, a rt of Washington and one or two coun- in Idaho. That region alone produced more than 42,000,000 bushels of wheat this summer, and it has all been sold at good, y about the other crops, senator?” verything has done well,” said Senator Wilson. “We have had big croj and ha for everything. Washington is, you know, one of the greatest hop-raising countries of the world. ‘The vines have been loaded and the crop has sold well.” Lumber in the Northwest. “How about the lumber market?” “The lumber men are making money all over the west. We have in Oregon and Washington the bulk of the best lumber of the country. We are now exporting millions of dollars’ worth of it every year. The lum- ber is shipped by sea to South America, Asia an1 Europe and around the Horn to the United States. Our shingle trade has never been We sent nough to ingles . or give five shirgles to every inhabitant of the United States. In the last nine months we have sent about seven times that many. As a result of the grain and lumber ship- the railroads have had more than py could do. There is no lack of work in shington row. I am told that $10,000,000 paid in wages for lumber men and wood workers this year.” A True Fish Story. “How about the fish? “The salmon crop this year has been ex- ceptionally large. We have pulled $5,000,000 out of the water, and Oregon has also done an enormous business of the same kind. There are salmon canneries on all the riv- ers about Puget Sound and on the Colum; pia river. There are so many salmon in some parts of the Columbia river that they to catch them. These wheels are something like the water wheels of a_ grist mill, save that they have wire basket nets attached to the outer rim of the wheel, so that they strike the water, and, going down, seoop_up the sal- mon which are rurning up the river. As the wheel turns it throws the fish into a chute which carries them off into a boat. mmetimes tons of fish ere caught in this , and I heard of one instance of a scow which was attached to such a fish wheel and left over nighi. In the morning it was found that so many fish had been run into the scow through the chute that the weight had sunk the scow.” “How about your towns and cities, sena- tor? Are they growing?” “I think they will begin to grow from row on. The smaller towns have been growing rather than the cities during the hard times, I live in Spokane. We put up 500 new nBuses there this year, ranging in price from $40,000 down.” Fresh News From the Klondike. “How about Seattle and Tacoma?” “They are both in a good, healthy condi- tion. The discovery of gold in the Klon- eike has put new: life into them. Three- fourths of all the men who go to Alaska get their outfits in these towns. Every steamship line which goes there has its headquarters on-Puget sound, and goods of all kinds are being manufactured there for the gold miners. Everything in the way of a vessel that will float has been loaded with goods and taken up to Alaska. Great preparations are being made for next spring, and these cities are having a prosperity such as they have never had before.” “Are there many people in Seattle who have not been able to leave for Alaska?’ “No. I think most of those who wanted to go have been able to get away some way or other. Such as have been stopped are row waiting the coming of spring in Alas- ka. We have a number of boats preparing to start out next year. One company of- fers to take a man to Dawson City from Seattle and to give him a full outfit, in- cluding ome year’s supplies, for $600. An- other steamship line advertises to leave Seattle about June 10, and every ten days after that. Passages are engaged on these boats. One Hundred Thousand Gold Miners, “Have you any idea how many people will go to the Klondike next year?” “Of course such an estimate would be to a large extent guess work. Still, from the letters we get at Puget sound we can form some idea. I think there is no doubt but that there will be 100,000. I have just heard that something like 15,000 miners will use fish wheels “New discoveries made right along all over the wit. } The variéus min- ing districts are bein! tked over and re- ected. I visited the old mining camp prosp: of. nce, Idaho, lgst, is not fat riom tne BoGRa Vachington. The gold them’ was.found) basin sugrounded by mountains. The- was just about as bigs am that of imgton: ¢ity. The gold was in the sha: uggets-and dust, and along in 192 more than fifty million dollars’ worth of metal was washed out of the grass roots. The-camp was then given up. Gold is now beingigeund much further down, It may exist for,g hundred feet be- Jow the surface, and 4f44.a vast amount of free gold’ wilt be ‘distbvdred. “In the Coéut @’Alene country, in’ Wéstern Washington, we'heve ‘valuable mines of lead and’silver: The Standard mime there is paying $75,000 a’ month in dividends. ‘The ‘Le Roy gold mine, in which Senator Turner is interest- ed, is paying dividends of $50,000 a_ month, and there, are. valuable, mines, on, the Gol. ville’ reservation. There is considerable placer mining. I am doing something of this myself on the Salmon river, in Idaho. We have there,aA@gcre: farm, the dirt from which we are ing“in the river to get out the gold. 3 pd-gbout 10 cents’ worth in every cubic yard, and can clean up from ten to-fifteen thousend dollars a year. This is not a great deal, but the Property costiti very little, atd'4t gives us a big percentage, on, the fhvestment.” Our Golden Empire of “Alaska. “I suppose you haye-good* facilities on Puget sound for getting. information con- cerning Alaska, Senator?” * “Yes,” replied Seviator.Wilson. “Our peo- ple talk little else thn gold now. I have met scores of Miei-Whd bave Just returned from Alaska, and a number who have pros- pected in other parts of the territory than along the Yukon. There is no doubt about the enormous amount of gold on the Klon- dike, but I believe if anything that there is more gold in Alaska than in British Co- iumbia. + Old. prowpectors-‘tell me that they have never-yet washed earth from an Alaskan stream which has not shown some color. Nearly all the beaches of the Alaskan Islands have gold mixed with their sand, On the big island pf Kadiak there are men who are always washing the sand to get out the gold, and they make.a good profit. The Alaskan Cofimercial Company. has mines ozone of the islands which pay them $30,000 a month. he great Treadwell mine keeps pegging along turning out more than half @million ‘dollars’ worth of gold every year, and there are,undoubtedly great quantities of gold abcut’ Juneau. ‘There is gold at Cook's Inlet’ and pn the Copper river, and you have “heard of the fécent new discovertes-in the Murtook region béeldw Fort Yukon. : “A SnéKané Mans Rich Find! “It. 1s a. question whether. southeastern Alaska will not prove, to be a bigger gold field than the Klondike. There is a man named Smith from my town of Spokane who has just come back, bringing a big lot of free gold with Lim. He has been pros- pecting along the Stickeen river, near Fort Wrangel, and he says he has’ discovered gold which will assay $100,000 to the toh. The gold is free gold. You can see it in Fis samples. The yellow specks stick out’ { 352 Skit Cok OOP Aht: alt over the chunks of dre. He says it lies in a five-foot ledge between walls of por- phyry ard slate, ard that the outcroppings cen be traced a distance of 300 feet. The Jedge;crops out on the side of a meuntaia. half.a mile above the sea. It is on Satmon creek, about thirty miles northeast of Fort Wrangel. ‘Is that a hard place to reach, senator?” “No, I think not,” replied Senator Wilson. “Fort Wrangel is on the main Alaskan route of the steamers plying between Seat- tle and Jimeau. It could be easily reached those vessels or by small schooners. ‘ording to Mr. Smith you could almost e to the gold region in a wagon, or, at it, wagon road could be made to it. that Salmon river has good placer ground all the way up to the gold ledge he has discovered, but that he could find no gold above this point. He made the discovery about the Ist of September. It had already begun to snow there, so he ced his claims and came back to walt until spring to work them.” “You were speakirg pf the Munook coun- nator. Where ig this?” NM that I know about it is from letters ¥hich I have read. There are a number of Washington people mining there, and among others Gcvernor McGraw. It is some distance down the Yukon river, below Fort Yukon, The steamer Bertha, which arrived at Seattle the last of October, brought scme gold from Munook. All sorts of claims are made about the region, one miner say- irg that it will be second to Dawson in richness. There are wow, I believe, 1,500 people at Rampart City, in that region, and this city promises to be the largest winter camp outside of Dawson City.” Recent Reports From Dawson. “Have you heard anything new as to gold discoveries in the Klondike?” “I understand that a number of big finds have been recently made. There was one about the middle of September on a side hill gn what is known as Skookum Gulch. ‘This®gold was discovered in a district that had been prospected again and again. Hundreds of miners have walked over it and passed it by. Now the whole country about has been staked off, and men are picking up lumps of gold worth from $ to $20, A single nugget worth $47 was found and two men picked up $00 worth of coarse gold in a day. The goid was almost on the surface of the ground, but there was something like a foot of moss above it, and former prospectors had failed to discover it. This is a sample of what may happen in any gold region at any time. Some of the best mines of the world have lain for years right under the eyes of the prospec- tors and cscaped notice. This was the case with the Cripple creek-mines of Colorado. ‘They are, you know, under the shadow of Pike’s Peak. Thousands of miners walked ever them looking for gold. Then Stratton discovered the Inde] pngence and the whole country. was founal be honey-combed with the precious metal. It now turns out millions_a_ year. ane mines, near Sat Lake City, Pee ee, by the late Senator Hearst, arcus Daly and the best miners of the ty and thought to be. worth nothing. ay, out millions. You cgnit {ll anything about gold, and in many cases-the tenderfoot is quite as successful as the old prospector.” “But, ‘senator, there must be an enormous” lot of failures among’ the men who go to visskert oR > “Yes, there are,” said Senator Wilson. “I have been told ‘that now turn’ $500 and upward. “This: ie condition about Dawson City, so®they say, and it must be worse in other of coun- up on sledges to Circle City, which is only eighty miles away, and it may be that by means of reindeer or by other kinds of re- Hef expeditions supplies could be carried from here to Dawson City. I see that Sheldon Jackson states there are something like 1,500 reindeer at the four stations in Alaska. These are widely scattered, but enough of them might possibly be gotten together to be of service. There is no doubt, however, that something should be done, and that quickly. FRANK G. CARPENTER. —_—_s——_ TRUST THE PEOPLE. The Question of Fortifying Federal Buildings. From the Boston Pilot. General Miles has made a suggestion that the federal building in Chicago be fortified with Gatling guns, whereupon the Spring- field Republican pertinently comments: General Miles’ recommendation that the new federal building in Chicago be fortified receives the derision it deserves in that city. The Times-Herald first mocks at it, and then makes sensible remarks about the United States government not relying upon an overawed populace in order to exist. Miles seems to have the notion that the government is afraid of the people, and that the people hate the government. He ought to know a great deal better. Rather than insult the American people by thrust- |- ing fortifications and Gatling guns into their faces at every public building, it would be far better to let them tear one or two down. When this republic reaches the pass Miles thinks it has, we will all turn in anc make him dictator. The Times- Herald also emphasizes a point that has not been made conspicuous enough in this connection. People have the impression that Chicago is a great place for rioting, but the fact is that “the business section of the city was never invaded by a mob that a handful of policemen could not dis- perse.” And, moreover, “all the turbulence of 1894 took place in the sparsely popu- lated section on the outskirts of the town, and except for the presence of exceptionaily picturesque soldiers and the cries of the newsboys, no one who was not taken to the distant railway yards by duty or curi- osity would have Known ¢that there was a ‘great rebellion.” Most of the damage, the burning of cars and destruction of other prorerty, was done by roughs, who would never dare to appear in a part of the city where. the poiice are numerous. ything General Miles heard to the con- trary was an old woman’s tale unworthy of belief.” The’ building of great armories in Ameri- can cities and the ostentatious parade of holiday soldiers like the Pennsylvania Na- tions! Guard, who boast of treir prowess at Homestead and Hazelton, are an insuit to the law-abiding citizens ef the country. General Miles is a man of the people, not even a grad: ate of West Point, and he should never forget that the power of the government rests, not on its military arm, but on the hearty co-operation of its ci Napoleon III “Hausmatnized” Paris to make it especially suitable for that “whiff of grapeshot,” which his mighty uncle thought so efficacious for the sup- pression of disturbance, but when the cru- cial test came, the new boulevards, with ‘their straight lines so available for artil- lery practice, did not suffice to save the tin- sel empire. The safety of the republic lies in the loyalty of its people, not in the power of their temporary rulers. ‘The place for artillery defenses is on the fronticr, where only lies any danger to the country, ———_+ e+ ____ BISHOP GAINES OF GEORGIA. A Netable Colored Man and His In- teresting Theories. From the Kansas City Star. Bishop Gaines was owned by the late “Bob”. Toombs of Geogia, and the two men were descended from the same grandfather. ‘If the bishop could have had his say about the matter, it would have been his choice to have beer a pure African, but he does not disguise the satisfaction which he feels over the undoubted quality of the white blood in ‘his. vetns: Bishop Gaines is the author of a book in which he sets forth the belief that the solu- tion of the negro question in this country is the absorption of the black race by the {white. It ts his opinion that a few hundred years, at the farthest, will witness, by ad- mixture, the disappearance of the African in America. He is radically hostile to the scheme of Bishop Turner for deporting the negroes to Africa. “The place for the Afro-American,” says Bishop Gaines, “is in this country, and he is better off in the south than in the north. That is, he has better opportunities for get- ting on in the world. He can buy land cheaper and find more work. In the north @ negro aspires to be a barber, a hotel waiter or a Pullman porter. In the south he wants to be a professional man. He is eager for an education, and wants tu be ag nearly like a white man as possible: In my preaching I try to save the body as well as the soul. I tell my people that if they don’t get used to shoes here they needn't expect to wear any golden slippers in heaven. I say to them: ‘Get a home, and a bank ac- count, and a few bales of cotton, and it will hide your color.’ ” When asked about the faculty of the ne- sro for accumulating property, Bishop Gaines said: “When I began to preach in AUlanta in 1866 there was not a colored fam- ily in the town owning their own home. Now the negroes there pay taxes on two cr three million dollars’ worth of property, and I kuow colored men who have a dozen houses or morc to rent. The trouble about voting will be settled when the wegroes learn to improve their opportunities; when they become educated and acquire enovgh Property to obtain a standing in the com- munity.” Bishop Gaines has always preacned a policy of conciliation between the whites and the blacks, the responsibility of the negro as the architect of his own fortune, the necessity of patience in working out his destiny, and by following this course he has obtained support from the whites to the extent of $300,000 for the schools aud hurches which have been built through is efforts. ——+e+_____ Source of Color. From the Industrial World. The sources of color used in the arts is given as follows: The cochineal insects furnish the gorgeous carmine, crimson, scarlet and carmine lakes; the cuttle fish gives sepia, which is the inky fluid which the fis discharges when attacked; Indian yellow comes from the camel; ivory chips produce the ivory black and bone black; the exquisite Prussian blue comes from fusing horses’ hoofs and other animal mat- ter with impure pctassium carbonate; va- rious lakes are derived from roots, barks and gums; blue black comes from the char- coal of the vine stock; Turkey red is made from the madder plant, which grows in Hindostan; the yellow sap of a Siam tree Produces gamboge, while raw senna is the natural earth from the neighborhood of Sienna, Italy, and raw umber is an earth found near Umbria. India ink is made from the burnt camphor; mastio is ° found in the market. Chi- nese white is zinc; scarlet is iodide of mer- cury, and vermilion is from quicksilver ore. ———<+o-—____. Unique House in Yellowstone Park. From the Chicago Times-Herald. Avenue and F Street. ITINERANT MERCHANTS AND MUSICIANS Some of Them Could Doubtless Tell. Interesting Stories. BUT IT’S NOT AN EASY LIFE HE STREET CHAR- acters of Washing- ton are not so ephemeral as they are in some other Cities. They are mostly stayers— which is an implica- tion that they know @ good thing when they meet up with it. True, there is a floi- sam and jetsam of oddities who afford Washington street observers only fleeting glimpses of their grotesqueries, their afflictions, or their skillfulness In wheeling, and then pass out on the ever-flowing current and are seen no more, nor missed. But there js a stock of permanent characters of the capital's paves whom Washingtonians would unquestion- ably miss should they be borne onward by the tide of time either to another earthly or to a more mysterious bourne. For example, what, promenader of the avenue in the neighborhood of 4 o'clock in the afternoon would not experience a cer- tain indefinable sensation of something lacking should he not be accosted at some point of his stroll by militant “Evening Star Mary,” with the bundle of evening newspapers under her arm, the ready par- ry Gn Erin’s richest patois) for all the good-natured thrusts of customers she has served for years, and the long arm of wrath for newsboys who recklessly infringe upon her demesnes? It makes no difference: that “Evening Star Mary", has pre-empted all of the avenue territory from 11th street to 15th and F—she holds it all as of right; and the newsboys must take the middle of the street to pass-her, or tiptoc behind her and dodge beneath the old shawl that has sheltered her from so many rains and snows and sleets and wintry blasts. “Evening Star Mary” is as active and as obstreperously busy on her chosen ground today as she was when she purveyed Even- ing Stars composed of four pages. The old lady could not have been born very far from the Castle of Blarney. “Why don’t you retire on your income, “Star Mary.” Mary, and take a rest?” a young treasury clerk asked her. “An’ what wud Oi do without th’ soight av ye boys’ broight faces every avenin’? was her ready reply. “But you're rich, they say, Mary?” “An’ so is Cornalius Vanderbilk, but he wurruks for his livin’, doan’t he? “How much are you worth, anyhow, Mary?” “Moar thin ye'll iver be, me son, if ye go on wearin’ thim cabbages in th’ buttonhoie av yeez coat.” The Washingtonian who has lived here a long time, and who has the habit of taking a run down town o’ nights, would unques- tionably miss the perambulating bouton- niere fiorist with the vinous countenance should,ne suddenly cease to perambulate. He has been making his after-dark tours of the down-town hotels ever since men who are now paying plumbing, bills buying appalling quantities of children’s shoes were in knickerbockers; and many of these men are willing to make affidavit that he looks precisely the same today as he did then—the same extremely rosy coun- tenance, the same stubbly gray mustache, even, apparently, the same battered derb; hat and seam-showing overcoat; some sa! the same flowers, which seems hardly pos: sible, upon refiection. This _hotel-touring boutonniere man has during all these years been almost as silent as “The Man ‘n the Iron Mask.” He offers his goods by the slightest possible dip of his tray toward the prospective customer. He does not hold his flowers up singly for inspection, like the conventional purveyor of buttonhoie nosegays in trays; he simply walks among men who have dined in hotels, and attracts attention and does business by pure force of self-effacement. He is not seen at all during the hours of the day. He spends the hours of the day at his picturesque frame cottage in Anacostia, where he lives alone, and back of which are the nurse- fies in which he cultivates the flowers he sells at night. He is an Alsatian, whose grievance and migration to the United States date back to the Franco-Prussi wa: nd the cough-drop man—he knows a thing or two on the subject of the expan- sicn and beautification of this town; for he n here since the days when men figured upon the possibility of getting capital's streets, however, none of them is to be crmpared from a musical poini of view with the quecr-looking citizen wi one refrain consists in the three words, “Umbrellas to mend! This man, who is a living representation of Cruik- shank’s drawings of Samivel Weller, bas @ voice of such a pure tenor quality that his really sweet and musical utterance of his three-word refrain has occasionally excited the curiosity of musical people as to whether he is not really a Jean de Reszke in embryo. He pervades the town when the skies are overcast, looking like a bit of England when George the Fourth was king, and his one ¢lear call is as eff: tive aw the singing of colored lads on fine nights. Some impressario with an ear to genius may bring this umbrella man out some day. r Gets Along Nicely, The legless colored bootbiack, wh: tion is near 6th street and the avenue, is another etreet chara of Washing- ton who was polishing shoes, on no legs, Se sta- at the time of the grand review of the army. He gets along very comfortably with no legs, apparently, and, being as black a man as lives within sight of the dome, his perpetual grin is as infectious as his tecth are white. In his shoulders he has the strength of Herevies, and he has an art.in putting a glitter on shoes that the wanton, heedless rising generation of bootblacks wot not of. His horizon has but one cloud: the Italian booth is just beginning to insert his Washington. He distrusts the “Dey ahn't w'ite fo'ks guhs, an’ Ah cahn’t mek ‘em out,” is the legies bootblack’s comment on the Italian bootblacks. The one-lerged, ‘middle crutches who alterna’ lth to 14th and F streets, extending his pencils to passing shoppers with no word of pleading, has been in Washington for many y fact was quite acc: this crippled man, himacif dependent upon the whims and thoughts of passers-by for a subsistence, had a couple of years taken a boy waif of the streets to } humble shelter, and-has been proviiling for him and educating him ever sine the sto came out, Washington men a who else would per! ged pencil purveyor and fumble in chang: hey draw nigh the p ss station, The frightfully deformed man who sel! park curb als ts of twisted ils from the and near 12th street -and been a familiar figu Washington for mi New Comers. Of the comparative newcomers—the street characters who buve only-made their ap- pearance in Washington within the past year or two—the mulatto writer of visiting cards who varies the station of his tale in front of whatever vacant building in process of repair he “may tind along the north side of Pennsylvania avenue is nota- ble on account of the immense degree of interest and admiration hée excites people of his own race, who form clientele almost exclusively. They around his card-writing table with the mong his on} ing eyes, watching the flourishy movements of his pen, and they deseant upon his genius in audibl ors. “Smaht ne of them. Ah wuh ez smaht ez dat yalluh nigeuh, Ah wouldn't be a-sittin’ at no table on de street: h'd hev uh desk, wit’ nigguh’s t ansuh mah bell, in one o’ dese yeah w'ite gubmen’ buildin’s.” The nice-looking young man with no arms, who whistled on the streets ef Wash- ington last autumn and win reappearance here quite recently. Ws ingtonians who went to Atiantic City summer saw him down there, whistling on the board walk. Poth of his arms are re- moved close to the shoulders. He is smooth-faced and cherub-countenanced,and can hardly be more than twenty years old. He dr himself with the utmost neatness. His whistling is remark: forbears from .aflicting the outwor songs and beery ballads of the day promenaders, but tz a higher flight and he interest the best eb ft by whistling the melodious . of the best-known Italian operas. Nor is there any. slovenliness or evasion in his manner of rendering them. He whistles like a man who might perhaps have been able to bring effective music forth from some instrument before he los His backsheesh comes mostly women shoppers, whose vicinages he most- ly affects. The blind man with the fiddle (not violin) at the corner of Sth street and Market space has held that stand for more than a year. Criticism of a blind m: pe m- ance on a fiddle (not violin) is something na “Fiddle.” that should not be indulged in. But Wash- ingtonians who are interested in the great instrument which this.unfortunate man es- says to play*should really hear the music he extracts from it, if they.wish to form any sort of conception of the depressing mournfulness of which the fiddle er violin is capable. This blind man plays Moody and Sankey hymns to the exclusion of all other music. Moody and Sankey hymns simply cannot be played upon the violin or fiddle, any more than Berlioz’s “Pizzicatto” can be played upon a church organ—so that the blind man at the corner of 8th street and Market space throws a pall of gloom over the people who pass that corner even upon the most brilliant day. The advan- tage of this may consist in the fact that it makes passers-by reflect upon their fina: days upon earth, and thus charitable; for the sightless grasper of the bow at its middie seems to have many almoners. Excites Curiosity. The veiled woman who grinds out un- speakably doleful ‘sounds from a wheezy barrel organ in miniature near the corner of 13th street and Pennsylvania avenue has seen, and there is no method of determining whether she is a very young woman, bun- i t ih 7 a