Evening Star Newspaper, December 25, 1897, Page 23

en nnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEE———eee “ANDREE'S EXPEDITION ‘Some of the Difficulties Encountered in a Balloon Voyage. + DR. ERHOLM’S IDEA OF THE RESUL The Balloonist Not Likely to Be Heard From Till Next Summer. ees THE PROBABLE COURSE From the Pittsburg Press, - Dr. Ekholm recently lectured on Andree’s polar expedition before the Stockholm Ath- repological Society, and I submit in trans- lation a brief resume of his lecture, which I think may prove readable even to the American public: The greatest difficulty during a balloon Voyage is to keep the balloon at a proper altitude. The temperature of the hydrogen as increases materially when the balloon is exposed to the sun, an increase which ™may, in some cases, amount to 50 degrees Celsius above the temperature of surround- ing air. The balluon thus will expand to the greatest possible extent, ascending to a reat altitude, which entails loss of gas. ‘When the balloon again slightly cools off, ft descends éyen clear down to the ground. To make it rise.again ballast must be con- sumed. One way to regulate uneven mo- tions of the balloon and joss of gas is to provide the balloon with drag ropes, a way proposed in France already fifty years ago, but first practicaliy realized by Andree. (This is Herr Ekhoim’s statement. English authors seem to credit Mr. Charles Green, dead JS7¥, with the urst use of drag ropes.) Herr Andree figured on a possible tempera- ture difference between the hydrogen and air of 40 degrees Celsius, although 3u de- grees very likely would be sufficient, and arranged the drag ropes accordingly. Drag Rope Navigation. ‘The drag rope system seems to be the only practical system of balancing a bal- Joon. But it has several drawbacks, chief of which is that the weight and friction of the ropes retard the speed of the balloon, particularly when the atmosphere is humid and the balloon traveis low, the ropes drag- ging on the ground to a considerable ex- tent. To travel as fast as the public im- agines, the Eagle should go about two cr three kilometers above the ground, but the loss of gas then would be great enough to prevent the bailoon from floating more than three or four days. As it actually may be expected to travel, it would require about ten or twelve days to reach the pole, going fs “the crow flies." But as the balloon is only partially divergible and thus only slightly can deviate from the wind curves, this time may easily be extended to three or four weeks. When the bailoon ascended above the shed, the photographs show that the gird to which the rudder was fastened had teen loosened and pulled out of place, iikely by Violent contact with the remaining wall of the balloen shed. The balloon, after that, proceeds majes- tically above the sea, the broken rudder showing itself in the next photograph, and the remaining part of the drag ropes (part of which was lost during the ascent, as we know) leaving a wide ripple on the water's surface. The damage to the rudder ap- Paratus may have been reparable. But through the partial loss of drag ropes and consequent high altitude to which the bal- Joon rose from the start, about 500 kilo- grams of gas may have been lost in a few hours, an amount which should have been sufficient for several days. In a Cyclonic Gale. The balloon journey during the following two days, until the date of the pigeon mes- Sage, may be explained considering the ‘wind conditions in arctic regions, as Herr kholm had been able to observe and cal- culate those conditions. Herr Ekholm ex- hibited a meteorological chart, which he jained. ‘The balloon had foilowed a ey- clonic gale frum west to east. In a few pessibly, the balloon had passed into > storm center, Where slow and change- Winds existed, and remained there for twenty-four hours, between 82 and grees, north of Spitzbergen. This should therefore explain the remarkable fact that the pigeon message was not dated at a higher latitude. During this lull in the age, Herr Andree may have had time to air the balioon rudder, which we also infer trom his words, “All well on beard.” Atter that the balloon, likely, had Passed into another storm center, clc the other, and finally traveled & But this cannot have lasted long, according to Herr Ekholm's chart. A fresh south- Western m ave got hold of the balloon and thrown it very near the pole or possi- bly right to the pole. At any rate, the bal- loon adventurers no doubt have ad favor- as been win para if the even lo. ab. voyage According to the of the balloon dur- ing the two days preceding the pigeon mes- Sage, it would take thirty days to cross the herth pole. In this connection. Herr F would have to touch upon a ten ect—the permeability of Andree’s bal- known, the balloon never had ely sati8factory in this ect, -d the measures adopted for im- rendered satisfactory results. Leakage of Gas. Among the different statements regard- ing loss of gas during the balloon storage in the Shed, Herr Ekholm-would consider records made by Gas Manager According to these records ihe bal- uring nearly eighteen days’ storage voyage commenced, had lost 050 ters Sas, Or an average of 53.17 meters in twenty-four hours. But toward the close of this time the leakage Was far in excess of the the average. During first twelve days the balloon lost an se of 47 cubic meters, and during the ve days even up to 70 cubic meters a This latter figure, which at least at not to decrease after the ascension, onds to a loss of SU kilograms car- power each day. Thus, after the as- cension, the balloon could float for, cight days without sacrifice of necessary stp- weighing 430 kilograms, and calcu- to iast the explorers ‘six months. a everything , the balloon could float 15'3 days. But ree would likely be wary of incurring n risks if he found himself above the 7 ice. Having found that the gas sup- would not carry him to Siberia or ska, he probably descended in time to continuing the journey lated Sacrificing these supplies This is Herr EF fac holm's explanation of the $ yet, know nothing of An- Herr holm thinks the de- ccurred somewhere between the pole ‘ph nd. In Franz Joseph on depot had been establish- er Andree would likely make At an te, there would be no re ing communication from ¢ until next summer or fall. + ee + FARMS IN ICELAND. that we EIDER DUCK About of Eiderdown Collected Annually. accounts I have read about elder ay that nests are robbed of their twice, the duck supplying It each m her own body; the third time drake gives his white down, ata this is allowed to remain. But I was told by farmers in Icelard that now they never take the down until the little ones are hatched. It has been found that the birds thrive be ter and increase faster when they to live as nature meant them now the poor mothers are no lenger obliged (to strip themselves of all their down to refurnish their despolled nests. Sometimes if the quantity is very great a litte may be taken, but cnough must be left to cover the eggs when the duck leaves her nest for food. A writer upon Iceland, in speaking of a Visit to one of the Isafjord farms, wrote: "On the coast was a wall built of large stones, just above high-water level, about three feet high and of considerable thick- ness at the bottom. On both sides of it alternate stones had been left out so as to form a series of square compartments for the ducks to rake their nests in. Almost every compartment was occupied, and as to do. i we walked along t! hore a line of ducks flew out, one after another. The house was @ marvel; the earthen walls that surround it and the window embrasures were occu- pied with ducks. On the ground the hcuse was fringed with ducks. On the turf slopes of the roof we could see ducks, and ducks sat on the scraper.” Abcut 10,000 pounds of eiderdown are gathered annually in Iceland, 7,000 being exported to foreign countries. 'Formerly the peasants used to receive over 21 shil- lings a pound, but the price has now fallen to half that amount. The peasants seldom receive money, and are obliged to barter their down for merchandise furnished by the Danish merchants at the little settle- ments at the fjords. A pound and a half of down is enough to fill an ordinary bed- puff. These very comfortable articles are fcund in the guest room of every Iceland farm, however poor and small it may be. After a long hard day in the saddle the traveler longs for warmth and _ shelter. These little guest rooms have never had a fire In them, and built, as they are, on the ground, there is a dreadful chill in them. Once tucked away in bed, however, and well covered with the downpuff, a de- hghtful sense of comfort follows, and tired bones lose their pains and stiffness. Seen THE TURQUOISE. VIRTUES OF A Number of Precious Stones Now Unknown. From Table Talk. The turquoise is especially rich in vir- tues. The Germans claim that by its varying shades it turns tell-tale on the caprices and moods of its wearer. Car- dau, the renowned Itallan physician and philosopher, asserted that turquoise mount- ed ard worn as a finger ring secured a horseman from all injury, and added with commendable caution that he had ‘‘a beau- tiful turquoise given him as a keepsake, but never tested its virtues, not caring for the sake of the experiment to risk his life." Shakespeare also gives these lines to Shylock: “He would not have lost his turquoise ring for a whole wilderness of monkeys.” An old book written by Ca- milius Leonardus tells much of interest about jewels, and names a number of stones that either are no longer found, else were creations of the author's imagi- nation, This is most probable when we read Leonardus’ description of the aleco- ria, which, he says, not alone renders a man invisible, but “being held in the mouth allays thirst.” The alecoria, he further states, is to be found only in the intestines of a capon that has lived seven years. “When the stone has become perfect,” to quote this authority, “the capon does not drink.” However, it is never larger than a large bean. Again, he tells of the bo- zoar, a “red, dusty, brittle and light stene,” which is taken from the body of some animal, and is infallible against melancholy. He credits Queen Elizabeth with wearing a bozoar, and Charles V had four of them. The four rings, however, of most historical interest were those pre- sented by Pope Innocent to King John. The monarch was urged to note with ex- treme cars the shape of the rings, their number, color and matter. The number four, being a square, typified firmness of mind, fixed steadfastly on the four cardi- nal virtues. The blue color of the sap- Phire denoted faith; the green of the emerald, hope; the crimson of the ruby, charity, and the splendor of the topaz, good works. The rings themselves repre- sented eternity, with neither beginning nor gold, which was the matter, apd, according to Solomon, the most precious of metals, signified wisdom, more to be desired than riches and power. ————+e-_____ ‘THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY. Has Made a Martyr of One of His Op- ponents. Poultney Bigelow in Harper's Weekly. The government of the German emperor could not act with more political sagacity than it does if its avowed purpose were to bring about a revolution. Social democracy and all the forces of discontent have been strengthened since the sending to jail of the seventy-year-old Liebknecht, whose crime consisted in expressing sentiments differing considerably from those of the emperor's court. The power of this socialist member of congress was rather on the wane at the time when the courts pro- nounced him guilty. Now, of course, he has become a martyr, and Germans credit him with virtues which he never possessed. My friends confidently say that the em- peror is losing his reason. This is non- se. He has just as mych command of his faculties as ever had Napoleon. We are apt to think a man insane when he acts differently from ourselves. The emperor's trouble | in this, that he believes in the infallibility of a divinely anointed sovereign and has the courage to act upon it. He is a Protestant Pius 1X, with an army of half a million men behind him. He is just as sane as any of us, but he lives in a set of ideas compounded from those of his abso- jutist grandfather, William I, and the so- called Great Elector. When a man knows he is right, his duty is to punish those no do wrong. In this manner the Spanish Inquisition reconciled piety with thumb- screws, and by such reasoning must the German emperor reconcile nis conduct with his otherwise ge’ erous disposition. It is curious to note that the three Prussian monarchs who have locked up the largest propertion of their subjects for political crimes have been three men_ notoriously pious and Protestant—Frederick William Ill, Frederick William IV and William L Gur present William is acting as though he intended to beat the recard. Germans know this, but German editors know also that they would be sent to jail if they quoted the above paragraph in their papers, + e+ Men and Horses Killed in Battle. Frem Our Animal Friends In regular battles the proportion of loss among men and horses is quite close, and in hand-to-hand combats of cavalry, as well as in sharp artillery engagements, for every man killed or wounded there is also a dumb warrior entitled to a place beside him on the roll of honor. The Light Bri- gade at Balaklava rode in 660 (not 6X) strofg and lost 258 men, but of the 66U hors 160 were shot down by the Russian guns. Z In the fierce charges of the German Uhl- ans and Cuirassiers at Vionville, Mars-la- ‘Your, in 1870, 1,400 men and 1,600 horses were killed and wounded. In the fierce ar- tillery contests on the same field 730 me and over 1,000 horses fell around the guns At Gravelotte, soon after Mars-la-Tour, the artillery fighting was also terrible, and 1,300 horses were shot down around the baiteries, though the loss of the artil- lerists was less than 1,000. The Literary Atmosphere of Paris. From Scribner's. A certain exaggeration is the “note” of literary talks in Paris. You must not ex- pect the text to mean just what it reads to mean. The talkers do not intend that it shall be expected. They are “moving ideas" for the pleasure, hygiene, solace of the act, and doing so before an audience whom every intellectual audacity finds pre- pared, and besides prepared, tolerant. All this talk ends by making a density in the air which is almost to be felt, almost, you m‘ght say, visible and palpable; areal literary atmosphere, which envelops both the “arrived” and the strugglers in a com- mon medium, and has the effect of making other literary atmospheres seem, in com- parison, of @ rather chilly insubstantial i coe The Great Russian © From the Philadelphia Record. The Great Russian canal to connect the Baltic and Black seas will be begun in the spring. The minimum waterway is to have a depth of 28 feet 4 inches, a width at the bottom of 116 feet 8 inches, and a width at the top of 216 feet 8 inches. Its total length is some 1,000 miles, but only 125 miles will be an artificial channel. The route is from Riga along the Duna as far as Dunaberg. From that point to Lepal, on the Beresina, an expensive cut must be made. From the Lepel the course of the Beresina will be utilized as far as its junction with the.Dneiper, and then the line will follow the latter stream to Cher- son, on the Black sea. ——-——_ +e-+_____ To Keep the Streets Clean. From the Chicago Post. “After a great deal of thought and pa- tient figuring,” he said, “I feel that I can safely say that I Lave solved one of the great municipal problems.” = “Which is?” they asked him. “Keeping the streets clean,” he re] “How would you do it?” i “I would ussess the cost where it belongs —on the men who by means of handbills and circulars,” he answered. to great pressure it partially THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY,:DECEMBER 25, 1897-24 PAGES. AMERICAN HOLLAND Dikes in Skagit County, Washington, to Protect the Land. The Horses Wear Mud Shoes When Plowing and the Soil is , Tremendously Rich. Frcm the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In this great western country, where there is so much wild land, where miliions of acres of soil have never felt the touch of the ploughman’s shave or the keen edge of the woodman’s ax, it dees not seem that it would be necessary to reclaim land from the sea to obtain acres for cultivation. But that has been done, and in Skagit county, almost in the very northwestern corner of the state, can be found scores of the finest ranches in the world, lying behind dikes built to keep out the sea and the overflows of the Skagit river, the largest stream that empties into the sound. This is the veritable Holland of Wash- ington. In Skagit county are situated the famous Swinomish flats, the Beaver marsa, the Olympic marsh and the Samish flats, all surrounded by dikes ranging in height from 2 to 15 feet. There are tide gates along the sea shore which act automati- cally, and which drain the land so per- fectly that crops ave raised on land below the sea level with safety. And such crops! For ages the big river has been bringing down from the hills the richest sediment, and there is really no bottom to the soil. if a farmer in the east ploughs a little too deep he turns up clay or roc! if the Beaver marsh rancher holds his plow han- dies too high he simply digs up more of the rich loam that raises every year with- out fail such crops that the old ranchers of other sections cannot believe the stories. One hundred and twenty-five bushels of oats to the acre, a ton and a half of hops, or five tons of hay, are common yields, while all sorts of root crops give equally large results. In order to plow his land, which, of course, is soft and spongy, the ranchers often put “‘tuley” shoes on their horses, the shoes consisting of wide wooden blocks, to prevent the animals from sinking into the joam. There are at present eight diking districts in the county, and nearly every ranch of any size is in one or another of these dis- tricts. Fully 100 miles of dikes are in use in the county, and many of them-are used also as roads. Very picturesque are these embankments, in many places, as they wind around through the trees. When the Skagit is having a freshet, as has been the case this week, the people turn out to watch their dikes, and by repairing them, save their lands from inundation. Sometimes a very high tide will go over a dike and cover @ number of ranches with sait water. If the water does not stand too long, this does no particular damage. As there is nothing but sand and black loam to construct the dikes of, no perma- nent work has ever been done and cannot be until the river is so improved that it has a reasonably straight channel to the sea. Five or six forks or mouths discharge the water into the sound, and the delta thus formed is excellent farming land. If thee water should be confined to one chan- nel thousands of acres of land would be reclaimed, and the danger of overflow re- duced to a minimum. By this improvement a inagnificent navigable river, teeming with fish and flowing through a wealth of tim- ber and mineral land, would be opened up and would provide employment for count- less numbers of people. If any resident of Washington has never seen the verdent fields of the Skagit flats, Jet him go up and take a look at them. It will pay him if he wants to know all about the resources of his state. If he cannot afford to tuke that trip, and wants to see some of the products cf those diked fields let him ge down among the commission houses in Seattle and look at the hay and oats which are brought from that favored region in steamboat loads. The only failure of crops ever known there is when the dikes break and the growing grains are ruined with water. ———_+ e+____. CAUSED A SENSATION. The First Introduction of Catnip in the Chicngo Zoo. From the Chicago Times-Herald. An armful of fresh green catnip was plucked from tne golf grounds of the Ex- moor Club at Highland Park and taken to Lincoln Park to try the effects of the green stuff on the feline members of the zoo. ‘This herb, which does not grow, so far as is known, in the haunts of the cousins of the cats, created a great sensation at the zoo. The scent of the plant filled the whole place, and as soon as it had reached the parrot’'s corner the two gaudily attired ma- caws set up a noise that drowned thought and made for the side of the cage, poking their beaks and claws through. When the catnip was brought near them they became nearly frantic. They were given some and devoured it, stem, leaf and blossom, with an avidity commensurate with the noise of their voices. The keeper and the catnip carrier then made for the cage of Billy, the African leopard. Nov, Billy, so far as is known, had never before smelled or seen a leaf of the pant Before the front of his cage was reached he had bounded from the sheif whereon he lay, apparently asleep, and stood expectant.’ The man with the catnip purposely waited a few minutes before he poked any of the green leaves and yellow- ish-white flowers of the plant through to the big cat. - Finally a double handful of catnip was passed through to the floor of thé den. Never was the prey of this African dweller in his wild state pounced upon more rapidly or with more absolute savage enjoyment. First Billy ate a mouthful of the catnip, then he lay flat on his back and wriggled his sinuous length through the green mass until his black-spotted yellow hide was permeated with the odor of the plant. Then Billy sat on a bunch of the catnip, caught a leaf-laden stem up in either paw and rubbed his cheeks, chin, nose, eyes and head. He ate an additional mouthful or two and then jumped back to his shelf, where he lay, the very picture of satiety and contentment. In the tigers’ cage there is a very young but full-grown animal, captured within eighteen months in the jungles of India. When this great, surly beast inhaled the first sniff of the catnip he began to mew like a kitten. Prior to this the softest note of his voice had been one which put the roar of the big-maned South African lion to shame. That vicious tiger and his kind- ly dispositioned old mate fairly reveled in the liberal allowance of the plant which was thrust into their cage. They rolled about in it and played together like six- weeks-old kittens. They mewed and purred, evidently discussing ‘the question as to what this stringe plant was which gave them a variety of pleasure never before experienced. They tossed it about, ate of it, and, after getting about as liberal a dose as had Billy, the leopard, they likewise leaped to their respective shelves and blinked lazily at the sun. The big lion, Major, was either too digni- fied or too lazy to pay more than passing attention to the bunch of catnip which fell to his lot. He ate a mouthful or two of it and then licked his chops in a “that not. half-bad” way, and then went back to his nap. The three baby lions quarreled over their allowance and ate it every bit. ——___-e-__. Why Ice is More Slippery Than Glass. From the Brooklyn Times. Ice has the property—peculiar to bodies which expand on freezing—of liquefying un- der pressure and solidifying again when the pressure has been removed. Conse- quently the weight of any body moving upon a sheet of ice causes the formation of a thin layer of water, which separates! it from the ice, and thus, by reducing the friction to a minimum, enables it to move smoothly over the surface—ie., makes the ice more “‘slippery.” On glass, on the con- trary, this Hquid medium is wanting, so that the two solid and unyielding bodies come into actual physical contact, causing a friction, which, in spite of the smooth- ness of the glass, considerably retards the motion of the body. If two smooth sheets of glass be taken and a few drops of water sprinkled over the one and the cther placed about it, a thin layer of water will be formed, and until this layer has been pressed ont the upper glass move on the other as smoothly as if on peculiar property of ice is due to is E f pressure in lowering the of water, so that whenever toe ; RANDOM VERSE. Remember, Ye; the Poor! Written for The Evening’Star™ Across the frosty Christypai-tide a mighty chorus rolls, Clear as the peal of churcl bells ringing over mead and moor, % 9! Hymned by the myrind Beavehly horts of stved and gladdened souls:}. {1 “Remember, at this givg Sime, remember, ye, the poor! eens “Remember, ye, the MAnger’s Child at btimble Bethlehem, a ‘The Crucified! who spént His blood to ransom andtosavel lt Remember, ye, the necdy, yea,,for He was one of them! sao: At this, the giving time, remember, ye, what Jesus gave! Above the frosty Christmas-tide the chorus grandly soars— Ob! human hearts, lift up to it! answering strain While from the holy host the peerless harmony out- ‘pours, oo And stretch the hand of Charity to soothe where there ts pain! Lift up an —CLUSKEY CROMWELL. — Ss A Christmas Song. Come” wealth or want, come good or ill, Let young and old accept thelr part And bow before the awful will And bear it with an honest heart. Who misses or who wins the prize, Go, lose or conquer, as you can, But if you fail or if you rise Be eacti, pray God, a gentleman! A gentleman, or old or young (ear ‘kindiy with my bumble lays), ‘The sacred chorus first’ was sung Upon the first of Christmas days. ‘The shepherds heard it overhead. ‘The joyful angels raised it then. Glory to heaven, on high, it said, ‘And pesce on earth to gentle men. My song, save this, is little worth. T tay the ‘weary pen’ aside Ang Wish you health and love and mirth As fits the solema Christmastide— AB fits the holy Christmas birth, good friends, our carol still, Be peace’ on earth, be ‘peace on earth, To men of gentie will! —WILLIAM M. THACKERAY. ——+ e+. Her Reward. Frances Ekin Allison in the Chicago Interior. A throng of women who had served the Lord Waited before heaven's gate for their reward. Each shining soul had her fetr record brought Of glorious service for the Master wrought. One gentle one, whose life was ful] and long, With her great pen had slain a giant wrong. With starving children this. one’s fe was spent; To nameless outcxsts hope that presence lent. For dwarfed and stunted souls these labored well, And Rft love's blessings in the prison cell. For poor humanity, sin-cursed and lost, They gave*their lives, and counted not the cost. Oh, they were bright and beautiful to see! Earth’s fame had crowged them ere their souls were free. But one there was who lone and trembling stood Among this throng of women great and good, To whom the recording angel, speaking, said, “What doest thou here among the blessed de Bearing no record? Hast thou nothing done On earth where these their crowns of glory won?” To whom she, weeping, said: “‘Let me return To that dear earth for which I sorely yearn; “The hearts that loved me all my service got; Not any service for the Lard I wrought. “Life too short for rie; when Death I had but made on earth, a bappy home.” d_ come “Ab! sayest thou so, thos welt-beloved and blest! Daughter of heaven, go ii améng the rest. “The hearts that loved thee thou shalt have again; None may return, but thou shaft lose thy pain. “For thou shalt breathe th hegven thy native air, And in its glorious Tatslove, great and fair, the famtlar all its Joys shall come; Heaven is what thou hast left, a happy home.” Se Se Give Me Content. Dear Lord, to Thee my knee is bent, Give me content ‘wl leasured with ;whaf;comes to me Whate’er it be; f An bumble roof—a fiugal ‘hoard, And simple hoard; ‘The wintry fagot piled beside ‘The chimney wide 5 While the enwi hing-flames up-sprout And twine about ‘The brazen dogs at guard my hearth b A pusehold wo: Tinge with the en The rafters low And let the spa’ As fingers might That mark deft measures of some tune ‘The children croon; Then, with good friends, the rarest few ‘Thou holdest true, Ranged round about the blaze, to ehdre 's ruddy glow s snap with delight, My comfort there, e me to claim the service meet That makes euch seat A place of honor, and, each guest Loved as th WHITCOMB RILEY. Winter Twilight. A Uttle while ago and y ‘The ebon trees against ‘the saffron sky ‘That shifts through flume to rese; but now a calm Of solemn blue above, a stilly thm With pines th: and st might see le the snow amis ghostly the brittle sound office ‘Tinkles along the dunbni Tond, Since all the air ts tranc n, the folk Close gather at the ingle, and the hour Of fireside cheer and homely talk of kin Ix welcomed, as the big, vague world beyond Moves nightward, merges into mystery. —RICHARD BURTON. +o+-—____ Finished. From Life. ‘The muscles of my arms are sore, My head is full of And I'm afraid that never more I'll use my back again. ‘There is a hoarseness down below, My conscience quick declare: It_is a punishment, you know, ‘That 8 to him who swears. My neck upon an angle’s set Of 45 degrees, And somehow I don't seem to get Much action in my knees. Yet on this glorious Christmas day My heart remains cndimmed, For now at last I'm glad to say ‘That Christmas tree is trimmed, se The Sunrise. Blow out the candle, day is come; ‘The watchers need no other light ‘Than that which floods the solemn room Where life is passing with the night. Across the smiling acres green, Across the point, the bay, the hills, Strong, like the soul that loved the scene, ‘The tide of dawn the chamber fills, Blow out the candle—small bis care Whose mortal light burns, ab! so dim; Haply his vision opens where ‘he eternal sunrise shines for him, Yea, day is bright above his bed, And night bas vanished with his breath. Lo! on bis face all shadows fled, ‘The morniny majesty of death. —M. A. DeWOLFE HOWE. Lifters and Leaners. There are two kinds of phople dn earth today— Just two kinds of peop! more, I say. Not the good and the bad, foP?tis well understood ‘The good are half bad aud the bad are half good. Not the Heh and the pear, for to count a man's wealth . We Tue feat know the siate of his conscience and jealth. Yet the happy are sad. for thé awift-flying years Bring each man bis laughterand each man his tears. ¢ s No, the two kinds of peopje op,earth I mean, Are the people who lift iF] tha people who lean. Wherever you go you wil .d The earth’s masses Are always divided in jt ‘these two classes. And oddly enough, you wilitind, too, I ween, ‘There is only one lifter t@twenty who lean. In which class are you? .x4ve zou easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toll gown the rond, QF are you a leaner, who Je share Your porth bor and care? 19 Christmas and: Afterward. From the St. Paul Dispatch, He gorged himself on turkey till his clothes got ‘awful tight, bed away at stufing.ttll the stuf was med jie Jemmed and. crammed tn cranberries, nis Vitals and his inner man were-tn a dread- And waded into salads. till bis stomach “fairly ‘Three-quarters of a mince ple on this mass he laid "pict of lemon ice-cream that had seen a CORNSTALK PITH It is to Be an Element of National De- : fense, Cell Be Produced in Large Quantities a Western Mill. lose for Armored Vessels is to From the Chicago Record. From a nuisance in farm economy the cornstalx has become a valuable product. It has attained to the dignity of $4 a ton rating, and now is daily arriving in great loads from all parts cf Winnebago count; and is being piled in immense stacks on th grounds of the Marsden Development Com- pany at Rockford. Already there are several thousand tons of the stalks collected and by the time the crop is all in there will be many times as many on hand. The present year was not a good one for stalk development and the average crop does not exceed 1,000 pounds an acre, but normally nearly twice this amount would be realized and a valuable addition made to the farm’s bank balance at the end of the year. The vast piles of stalks will be turned into a marketable product before summer comes again and the beginning of a great industry will have been fairly made im IIli- nois. lt the claims and hopes of the officials of the company are realized the benefit to the world at large will be stupendous financiai- ly and a great waste in agricultural econ omy will be stopped. It is stated on good authority that the crop of cornstalks in the United States for 1595 reached the Immense aggregate of 160,000,000 tons, and this of a product unfit for food for man or beast. Although the process is secret and the agents of the concern wi!l neither allow in- spection of the plant nor indicate the methods employed, the general idea of the eperation which converis the stiff flber- covered pith into merchandise is quite sim- ple. The stalk is ground very fine and the resulting comminuted mixture of pith and fiber, the two differing greatly in specific gravity, is separated by the use of a strong air blast and the action of gravity, the heavy fiber first falling, while the pith is carried on by the blast to another recept- acle. There is no waste product; the heavier part, the fiber which has composed the stalk and blades, is put in sacks and goes as stock food, while the pith is sacked and as corn cellulose goes to the eastern market to aid in armoring battleships. ‘The stalk yields pith and fiber in about equal quantities, but on the scales the tale is different, the pith not being more than 10 per cent of the product. The stock food is estimated to be about equal to hay as a stock ration, and serves the same purpose— that of a base for feeding heavier rations, The discovery of the possibility of utiliz- ing the cornstalk was made through the use of cellulose in naval construction. It was found soon after the adoption of ar- mored craft that they were more liable to dangerous leaks, if the armor were once penetrated, than a wooden vessel would be, being less buoyant. With the development of modern heavy ordnance of wonderful penetrative power the question became a serious one. It was solved by French de- signers. The vulnerable ea of the ship is not large, the most dangerous breaks be- ing but little below the water. The French plan provided for the construction of an arching false deck from a point a few feet below the waterline to the deck, leaving a space about thirty inches wide between this deck and the outer shell of armor, the side of the battleship. This space is densely packed with cellulose, stowed by hydraulic pressure. In the French construction co- coanut fiber was used and answered fairly the requirements. It remained for Mr. Marsden to apply the despised pith of the cornstalk in place of the more expensive le the fate of corn cellulose a bulkhead was built of armor plate and filled with cellulose, the corn product and cocoa- nut article being given equal chances. It Was arranged to puncture the armor and filling with an eight-inch and six-inch pro- jectile and instantly to flood that side of the bulkhead from which the shots entered So that the holes would be five feet under Water, giving a test pressure of two and one-half pounds to the square inch. Under this test the cocoanut showed a leakage of one gallon of water a minute through the eight-inch wound, while the smalier aper- ture admitted the passage of one-half gal- lon. But the corn pith had allowed the ball to pass through and had sprung back into place, swelling so that the water had not even dampened the cellulose at the point where the ball made its exit. ‘The corn pith possesses in a remarkable degree the property of swelling when moist- ure is at hand. The moment water enters a wound th» packing swells to meet the incursion and in a few moments the pith has swelled into a solid body that wil. reith- er admit the water nor wash away The cellulose from the Rockford pl shipped to the at is main warehouse of the com- pany at Philadelphia and thence is dis. tributed to consumers S yet there is slight consumption of the aterial in the West, although there are t veral ,institu- tons experimenting with it. ENGLAND Many of Them Are More Then Ten Centuries Old. Frem the London Wes kly Country Life. Some very competent writers, frightened by the disproportion’ between the wheat grown in England and the for our daily bread, h the establishment of public granaries, for use in time of war. Thee only wonder is that the figures which impress them have not made more impression on the public. But while hundreds of thousands of acres of good wheat land lie uncultivated in Eng- land, the proposal to buy and hoard foreign corn is rather too previous. Our best pub- lic granaries are the wheat ficids of old England, which have fallen into Pactial ruin and premature deci The wheat fields of England have two special claims to consideration, based on their merits, and apart from sentiment, though we have lately begun to apprehend that national sentiment in great concerns may be as valuable as public spirit in small ones. But the fact remains that the wiieat fields of England are the oldest national industries in this country, and the most productive in the world. A wheat field a thousand years old is quite a common sight ir this country. Of course, it has not grown a crop of corn every year in the ten centuries, but during that long sequence of ages, in the fixed and abiding order of this ancient country, that particular area of land has been culti- vated, with the production of wheat as its main object, and it has remained as part of the English granary from the days of Ed-* ward the Confessor until those of Victoria. Many of the wheat fields are far more an- cient than this, but the record of Dooras- day Book is a practical voucher for a period of 1,000 years. The custom of the Saxon cultivators, and the evidence of local Dam are proof of a still greater an- tiquity of cultivation on some of the best corn land; and beyond the days of the Saxons lie the last two centuries of Roman occupation, when England was the great wheat-growing country of the west, and supplied the population of Rome with daily bread. <, Perhaps the most interesting feature of cur ancestral corn lands is the small degree in which their appearance can have chang- ed in the course of ten or twelve centuries. ‘Their area is much greater than in the old times, when villages were separated by wide woodlands, and only grouped and con- tiguous in naturally open country. The early Saxon times were not days in which men cared to lay field to field. There was plenty of ground available, and of this the villagers cultivated and sowed with corn as much as they needed for their year’s supply. quantity needed ave recently urged ——_—+0+—_____ The Mystery of Sleep. ‘From the London Spectator. : The sleep of a human being, if we are sleeper who hardly seems to breathe. We see death seldom, but were it more fa- miliar we doubt if a corpse would inspire so much awe as the unconscious and sieep- ing figure—a smiling, irresponsible doll of flesh and blood, but a doll to whom in a second may be recalled a proud, active, ecntrolling consciousness which will ride his bodily and his mental horse with a hand of fron, which will force that body to endure toil and misery, and make that Ynind, now wandering in paths of fan: tastic folly, grapple with some great prob- lem, or throw ail its force into the ruling, the saving, or the destraction of mankind, ‘The corpse is only so much bone, muscle and tissue. The sleeping body is the house Which a quick and eager master has only left for an hour or Let any one who thinks sleep is no mystery try to observe in himself the process “by which sleep ccmes, and to notice how and when and vrder what conditions he loses conscious- ness. He will, of course, utterly fail to put his finger on the moment of sleep com- ing, but in striving to get as close as he can to the phenomena of sleep, he will real. ise how great is the mystery which he is trying to fathom. aS PRISON HORRORS, RUSSIA’S From the London News. The presence of a batch of convicts in Odessa, Russia, for deportation to Sag- halien, has occasioned the publication of varlous accounts of the treatment received by the prisoners in that island, and if the numerous stories are true, Saghalien must be a veritable inferno. Eye-witnesses re- late that a common sight is that of shackled human beings yoked to a huge cart whose weight tries the strength of their underfed bodies to the uttermost. These men are demoralized by the bru- tality of their surroundings and the cruelty of the officials, who are ever ready to have recourse to the knout to enforce submis- sion. An attempt to escape is punished with ten years’ extra imprisonment, and it needs only one or two failures to break away to bring»about an unfortunate pi oner’s residence in this “siough of des- pond.” One form cf treatment is the cou- pling of the shackles which ensheath a prisoner's ankies to a wheelbarrow. This the victim must drag night and for months, perhaps till the iron inflames the fiesh and the legs mortify. His comrades may mercifully soak the feet and forcibly pull off the bands—a process which is at- tended with the mosi excruciating agony, but which is eagerly borne. The knouting of a man is a scene of in- credible barbarity. The victim is mounted on a speciaily constructed wooden horse and his back is bared. The scourge is ap- plied with such violence that at each stroke pieces of flesh ere torn away and the blood trom the wounds bespatiers the face of the executioner Such is the horror of Saghalien that men and women go mad and lunatics are to be found hiding in quiet places. All the wo- men are more or less demented. Their lot is peculiarly unhappy. They are given to the bachelor convicts—men whom for the most part they have never seen before. Even.those who are not convicts lose their reason, as witness the story of Mlie. Nau- mofa. This lady had devoted her life to the rescue of children in this unhappy spot, and for years had spread a light and com- icrt around ner, but in a paroxysm of mad- ness induced by the soul-torturing sur- roundings she shot herseif. Her work was taken up by three other ladies; one of these shot herself, the second went raving mad and the third married a warder. A DEER HUNT AT WINDSOR. Sickening Exhibition at the Meetings of the Buckhoun London Letter to the Pbfladelpbia Ledger. The English press is accustomed to hold up its hands in pious horror at the accounts of what it is wont to term the blood-curd- ling exhibitions of cruelty which take place in connection with the occasional bull fights at Nimes and other places in France, but it has not a word of protest to raise against the sickening exhibitions which take place every year when her majesty’s buckhounds meet under the shadow of the royal resi- dence at Windsor, and, under the guidance of their noble master for the time being, torture an unhappy deer to death in one of mahy various ways. Yesterday’s meet, for | imstance, which, it is needless to say, ‘was graced by a number of jords and ladies of {very high degree, seems to have been a most disgusting exhibition. After the deer —which, by the way, is practicaily a tame one—had been turned cut of the cart in which it was driven to the throwing-off place, it made a most desperate siruggle we pursuit. In the course of its plucky run it twice crossed the Thames, and dinaliy sought protection in the grounds of a pri- vate house. As it Was badly wounded, Lord Coventry, who is the present master of the buckhounds, called the dogs off, and or- dered the hunt servanis to recapture the | deer and save it for another day. But the animal, mad with fright, dia not und stand the honor which was in store for it. the lawn cn which it had taken refuge, and ma across the park toward the Countess of Wiiton’s house—the Hatch. It now seemed as though its ¢: was tain, for the hunt servants had been re- inforced by a number of outsiders, who jvoked upon the c s being very good sport, and Who turned it into what is called a laundry walk—a narrow avenue hemmed in by a brick wall, headed by spiked rail- ings. The huntsmen, excited and vocifer- ous, closed up, and the unfortunate animal, maddened. by pursuit, made a desperate for the wall and tried to leap it. It eded in reaching the top, but there pped, cut itself on the sharpened spikes 1 hung impaied. Before the huntsmen could climb to its release its struggles re- jSulted in even more serious injuries. It was, in fact, partially disemboweled, and hung there groaning with pain and fright. The nobie ster, who by this time had hed the aw that the animal's condition was hopeless, and ordered one of the whips to perform the happy dispatch. This is by no means an exceptional case, and yet, year by year, the Royal Buck- hounds meet, and the position of master is looked upon as one of the most coveted and honore.ble of court appointments. SS Animals’ Fright is Short. From the Pall Mall Gazette. A question that has often been asked is, how long does fright last in a wild crea- ture? The clese observer will be surprised at its brief duration. They are not subject to “nerves” like human beings. A partridge after running (or rather flying) the gaunt- let of half a dozen guns—if we may be al- lowed a mixed metaphor—drops on the other side of a hedge and begins calmly to peck as if rothing had happened. You would think a rabbit after hearing a charge of shot whistling about its haunches and just managing to escape from a yelping spaniel, would keep indoors for a week, but out it pops quite merrily as soon as the coast is clear. A fox pursued by hounds has been known to halt and kill a fowl in its flight, though we may assume that his enemies were not close to Reynard at the time. We have been led into thinking about the matter by noting what took place at a cover after being shot over. ——-+ e+ ____ The Curfew. From the Chicago ‘Times-Herald. Although the so-called curfew ordinances have encountered considerable ridicule, the police reports from Lincoln, Neb.; Omaha, St. Joseph, Mo.; Qenver and Des Moines declare that it has been a success. There is a large decrelse in the arrests of youths; there fs an improvement in study, and a reduction in commitments to the reform school. The law in many places no longer needs enfcrcement, for the children are no longer on the streets. With the exception of Omaha, no attempt has been made to put such a law in force in any metropolis. There is no question, however, about the evil it undertakes to remedy. The steps in many instances of free night roaming cn the streets are clear- ly marked and inevitable.” First, amuse- ment; second, mischief; third, crime. for escape from the savage hounds which | 1t jumped a six-foot fence, which bordered | | x3 RUSSIAN LACEMAKERS The Peasant Women Learn the Art in the Fields. EVEN THE CHILDREN LEARN If Some Patterns Require Years to Weave. Seles WORKING ARLY AND LATE —_s—___ From the New York Times. The Russian peasant woman has all the versatility of the old-time housewife. She needs only a few seeds, and from them she will evolve marvelous things. She be- gins at the beginning with her work, sows her seeds, raises her flax, spins thread and makes her lace. If she does not in every case do the whole of the work, she gets a part of it by exchange from her peasant neighbors, and is entirely inde- pendent of the rest of the world. The Russian corner of the woman's ex- change in 80th street is an independent establishment by ftself, managed by a lit- tle Russian girl, whe is trying to intro- duce the work of the natives of her coun- try into America. Miss Vera Polakoff is the tame of the little lady, but she ts more often spoken of as the “little Russian girl,” for there is @ soft-voiced gentle- ness about her which makes the words ap- Propriate. She has made a visit to Rus- sia this past summer to see her frieads and bring over more of the supplies she needed, and she was talking about her countrywomen there the other day. “They are very happy with their work, They would not know what to do without it,” she said. “Even the little children work. The chi'dren are not like the chil- dren here. They begin to work when they are very small. They must do it, and they like to do it. The*mothers begin to teach them when they are seven or @ght years old, and when they are nine or ten they can do beautiful work. A Child Worker, “There was one young Russian girl with us who could do the best work, and she was only thirteen, but she had commenced to work when she was six. Some of her work was exhibited at the Atlanta exhibi- ton, It was a quarter of a yard wide and she worked with 400 Bobbins. “All the Russian peasant lace is the cushion lace. The rich peasants make a little stand to place the cushion on in front of @em when they work, but the poorer Peasants have only a basket which they hoid on their knees. Yes, they all make lace. There is not so much difference be- tween them. The richer peasants have bread enough and perhaps their houses are better and they have wooden floors to them. The poorer peasants have only the houses that have come down to them from their ancestors, and they may be very o The peasants’ houses are very small. They are divided In the middle into two rooms. One is the guest room, and the other is where the family lives. The guest room has a table with benches around the sides, like the other room, though the benches and table are all made of better wood. The peasants make all their furnt- ture themselves. They make everything they use. In one corner of the guest room will be the icens, the holy pictures, one of which every child receives when it is born, and every girl when she is married, from her parents. The peasants take the guests whom they wish to honor to this corner of the guest room. Their Homes, “In the other room in the house is also @ table, and there are also benches around the room, only made of a cheaper wood. The peasants live in this room. The principal thing in it is the big stove of brick in the corner, and it is built up to the ceiling, all but one space in the im- mediate corner, which is covered over, making a sort of shelf very near the ceil. ing, and which has the wail of the house on one side and the other part of the stove Suing up on the other. This makes a warm place, Where in the coldest weather the faraiiy sleeps, sometimes four or five per- at a tame. At times this shelf becomes too warm, but the fire is so tar below Uhat more fre. quenily it is only comfortable, though it is so near the ceiling that it is not possi- ble to sit up in it. There is another place for sleeping made by a big shelf-like ar- rangement, which makes a sort of a dou- ble ceiling to the room, and which, being So nigh, Is the warmest place in the room, excepting only the stove shelf, and here also the family can sleep. Then there are the benches around the room, which, with a sheepskin, mike a good bed. In the summer the floor is used. “While the rich peasant’s floor is of wood, the poorer peasants have a floor of earth, sometimes covered with straw. This makes a bed for the animals, for any of them would share their one’ warm room with the domestic animals, the sheep, the dogs and even the chickens. They’ are very kindhearted. Winter Lace Maffing. “It is in these living rooms that the wo- men make their lace in the winter. In the summer there is not so much time for it, for they have their agricultural duties, The peasants never buy anything for their work. If they have their seeds they raise the flax and spin the thread and make the lace, or they raise the sheep and spin the fine wool and make the beautiful Oren- burg shawis. Sometimes a woman will make her lace from the very beginning, planting the sseds and doing all the work, even to selling the lace she has made. But not always. Some of the women raise the flax and do the spinning and exchange with the lacemakers, but they always do it among themselves; it is all peasant Work. They do everything for themselves, and the men even make the spinning wheels and the looms for weaving. “The women get up very early, perhaps 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, and they work until 11 or 12 o’clock at night. But they are a gay people, and in the evening a@ great many peasants gather in one house, and they will bring their work and sing as they work, or sometimes they will stop for a little while and dance, and then go to work again. “They do not know any other life, and they are very happy. They do all their work for themselves, and have no bosses. “Some of the designs of the lace are very old, and many of them they make up from the things they see around them, designs from the frost on the window. “Every thread in a piece of lace has to have a pair of bobbins. The children be- gin with narrow lace with about ten pairs of bobbins, and the women use more or less, according to the width of the Ince. The lacemakers usually live in one place, and the women who do other kinds of work are together in other towns. There is one town not far from Moscow’ which is filled with lacemakers, and as soon as you get near the town you can hear the sound of the bobbins. The shawlmakers line in the province of Orenburg, which gives the shawls their name. They are made of the finest down of the sheep, se- lected from the wool, and the fine yarn is spun and the shawis are knit with two ordinary knitting needles. It will take a woman four months to make one four yards square. They are so soft and fine that three of them can be drawn through a finger ring at once. It will take a wo- for it. They are very strong laces, and they, will wear for hundreds of years.” The Affectionate Office Boy, From the Crypt. One morning Tomlins, when editing Jer- rold’s Newspaper, found his office locked and no office boy on the premises. He the i g | i Hades i i