Evening Star Newspaper, February 5, 1898, Page 19

THE ‘EVENING: STAR; SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1898-24 PAGES. AFTER: TWO DECADES Impressions of an Old Washingtonian’ on His Retarn. THINGS ARE NOt AS HE EXPECTED the throng receptions. MECCA FOR~ CRANKS Attractions of the White House for Men With Wheels. 10 HAVE THEIR WRONGS RIGHTED willing to do so if the officials did not in- terfere, following orders. This is the near- est approach to cranks the President has As a Rule They Do Not Get Across the Threshold. Seemed a Short Time, but There Were Many Changes. s =e Men Do Not Give Up Their Seats They tell me he's and poo ne trap terrane satay thar osbenigag Borg ny Women Are Thankless. hasn't he got a bellpw.of a laugh! When I met him the other d@y we had more fun than a bushel o’ monkeys talking about the way he used to do me up. “Bet you can’t do it now, Jim,’ said I. Meeting am Old Flame. “ ‘Bet you I can,’ said he; and he let out that laugh o' his that sounds like a steam CLOSE WATCH IS KEPT THE SCRAMBLE AT TRANSFERS TALES OF OLD COMPANIONS ——— ‘Written for The Evening Star. HEN I STRUCK Washington last A reporter ef The Star had a chat with a street car conductor the other day on the subject of street car manners, and he calliope. Jim dragged me off up to his pavaeisoletieankalss week I saw the town | house—and ‘say, it’s a beauty, isn't 1t—| "asa things had changed. This is what unknown, unless it 1 was ‘bawn an’ rais-/ ana not only made me stay to dinner, but af ‘ * “A few years ago, wh2 is for the reason ed in’ as my old! kept me in his den smoking and drinking| . Crowaea one td aunt win nae that when a man be- black mammy used| myself to death until the middle of the Immediately proffered her his seat. W:th gins to suffer from to say, for the‘first! night. And sey, when he introduced me to a gracious smile, the lady accepted it. hat. | -oohanaiat time in more than : ree emya tenant his wife I like to have dropped. Kittie Rogefs, you know. Why, Jim ‘cut me out’ with Kittie only a few months before 1 wert away, but I never thought this school boy and girl business. would develop into matrimony. When Kittie found out that Jim could whale me she had uo more use for me, and trensferred her affections to Jim. I remember her as a little, quiet girl that never had a word to say for herséif. spoken of as “wheels in his head” he im- agines that his al- leged wrongs can be Written for The Evening Star. remedied by the President only. He HY THE WHITE as f wh > R Ea // v7 thinks the President po: Things have been changing rapidly sinc> then. And it is largely the fault of the wo- men. ‘They became so used to the cour- tesy of the men that they forgot the smile and ‘Thank you, sir.’ Finding Grir eti- quette unappreciated, the men began to change. At first I noticed they did not rise with the same alacrity, and each Waited for the other to get up. Now they twenty years,” said the man with the slightly gray hair, smoking a cigar in a corner of the Metro- Politan Club. “It doesn’t seem such a long time, either, to look back to. On the showing the Pirnisphere of the Heavens. ine Po the Horizon Met at the Door. House should be the sesses sufficient power to do anything ‘sitions of the incipal Stars which bove: ays. at 9 ae te = = and everything. He might become dan- gerous should he learn that the President does not have the power he imagines. But he never learns this, as no crank ever gets an opportunity of seeing the President. The chief executive of the nation is sur- Now, as you fellows of course know, she’s a big, handsome, brilliant woman, and ev- ery one of her.four boys is a dead ringer for he i ‘Saw ‘Mud’ Reiliy on the street the other day. Recollect what a _ dirty, grimy, slouchy-looking boy ‘Mud’ used to be yet had. In point of desperation this class of men are regarded as worse than the gen- uine cranks. They have been disappointed in getting what they want, and are in a desperate mood when hustled on and fail to get to say what they desire to the chief executive. These men do not get an oppor- second day I got here I went out and had a look at old Rock creek. It struck me then that it was a mighty odd and unaccount- able thing that more than two decades had elapsed since I had chewed hard knots out of the sleeves of my shirt when, as a boy, ar2 beginning to Keep their seats. A short time ago the men waited for the ladies to get reaied at transfer points; now they all Participate in the scrambie. ‘I think 1 am ccmpetent to judge, and I have no hesita- tion in giving it as my opinion that th> women ire responsible for it all. When a FEBRUARY HEAVENS The Finest Celestial Display of All : Why, my mother used to say to me when | man offers his seat to a lady, he is entitled Pasa ea alt Stet ex pectericoty aia | tanity tl eee) thin: Preaidentt turin ihustness,| 10 pact mone tal ewhnmalug trite lersek rand litte qoenoiie witli ge Eo alton ony | toteoms imeem eEae oie ae the Year. true men. They can size up a crank as oa peckure pos generally busy re-} paid the knot-chewing penalty for being | knees an@ knuckles from playing Bee cone and say a picsantl word of thanks. . ceiving offic . s ; vat ; mens we dete atne criminal. Nee ee eee ee ee oe eri be Sere Tee ae | (Gouslae cath ataitlpaniy inmul Miamamorhing’a|| inely wand reher taking dbercroor ton ters President McKinley has been in the} enough to carry out any scheme they | it is that I’m sitting here tonight with a make me clean up quicker. Well, say, | him. ORION PRINCE OF CONSTELLATIONS White House nearly @ year, and during | might have, and it ts doubtful if any of lot of seams in my face, talking with al want ovKowhan saell'ana what a rating Reading Character. that time not over eight men have been pe pees Boo Pict Arpebes | bola pack of grizzled old fogies lke you fellows. | good-looker ‘Mud’ is now! Looked like as if] There are come very amusing things we ae Se arrested and taken away because their | 5,"Y.cn when in full possession of their | ! an remember when the whole caboodle | he had just come out of a band-box when | railroad men see every day, and I have Sanity was questioned. Not one of these | mental faculties. The dangerous crank 1s| f you looked with awe and envy upon the | 1 S@W him, and the boy 24 : oftsn thought that one of those fellows who believe they can read human nature by looking at people could find a big field for experiment. I became somewhat in- terested in the subject a while ago. I read a story in The Star of how people could read the character of others by certain characteristic: such as the color of the eyes, the prominenc? of the nose, ihe wall the mouth and other things. I tried it my- seif, and, do you know, it worked so weil, I have unconsciously made it a part of my business, and it has served me weil and saved the company many a doilar in fares I never would have collected had I not been able to read people’s faces. “You don’t mean to say people try to beat the railroad?” No; it’s stronger than that. They suc- ceed too often, and all the luck I would wish for is to have annually the money the railroads lose through fares uncollected. Ccnduciors have cnly one pair of eyes, and our memory for faces is bad. W back is turned a man geis on and vacant seat. He takes out a newspaper and begins to read. If we suspect him and ask for his fare, he either pays no atten- tion to us, or gets indignant and thr2atens to report us to the company. A Servant of the Public. ‘ou knew all about the growlers we have to contend with and the insults we are subjected to. A man to be a successful con- Studying the Star Clusters, Neb- ulae and Double Stars. cases has been of a dangerous character, although one man was disposed to use the Westibule of the mansion in which to got the biggest line o’ clothes in Washing- ton, and switches his whole rig-out thre or four times a day. hadn't hardly got through talking with ‘Mud’ before I met Burt Comstock. You fellows must remember what a dap- per, neat-looking boy Burt always was, and how the school girls thought he was .the only real thing on earth because he turned up at school every day, rain or shine, winter or summer, with a flower on his coat? Well, talk about your slouches! Positively, I felt cheap talking with Burt on the avenue the other day, he looked so much like a ‘longshoreman—and they say he’s got money to burn, too. “Look a-here, Burt,’ I said to him—I eculdn’t hold it in—‘what’s the matter with yeu? Why, when you were a kid you used to be as natty as a cadet all the time, and you kept us all guessing as to how we stood with the girls, you were togged out so splendiferously all the time? Why don’t you smoke.up, anyhow?’ “‘Oh,’ said Burt, ‘I got all over that kind 0’ foolishness long ago; too busy making nioney,’ and, of course, that settled it. Can’t Always Tell. “And say, the diffetent kind of businesses the boys have gone ;into! Ted Havelock, whose mother was going to make a Metho- dist minister of him;'working on a news- Ppoper; Nat Preston, who could never learn arything at school, one of. the crack crimi- the man who has sense enough left to conceal his intentions and who refuses to tell his business to any but the proper person. Such a man, if presenting a proper appearance in dress and otherwise, might evade the lynx-eyed officers stationed at the Executive Mansion, but there are nine chances to one that some of them would find him out and end his game. a as “SINERS” OF HIGH young fellows, now sailing along into their fifties, who found it necessary to get them- selves shaved every couple of weeks or so. But I'll bet the most of you wish by this time that razors had never been invented, don’t you? We're all getting along, for a fact—but it’s hard to believe that you peo- ple were among the kids I used to play shinny, and leapfrog, and marbles, and crack-the-whip with, and scrap with, and give and take black eyes and bloody noses with, and all that kind of thing. Maybe it doesn’t seem so queer to you fellows, be- cause you've all remained here, and have watched each other gradually develop from boyhood into manhood and then into old fogyhood—and none of you much over forty, at that. But it all seems strange enéugh to me. I wasn’t much over fifteen, as you'll likey remember, when I jumped away from Washington and went out west with my folks; but, now that I’m back here again, all of the intervening time, with its hustling, hard knocks and final—well, suc- cess, I suppose I may say—seems like a dream—even if I am verging pretty close on to forty. = Not What He Expected. “Of course, the town has changed -im- mensely. But I’ve taken more notice of the change in the people I used to know than I have of the change in the town. I can’t just explain why, and it seems im- ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS Sa SS SS DEGREE. Written for The Evening Star. O: A FEBRUARY The Craze for Revolutionary and Monarchical Pedigrees. Frem the New York Commercial Advertiser. Every town has its group of men known iners."" They are the amiable fellows ln a craze for joining every society that is formed. They all belong to every secret, fraternal and benevolent society in town. Each “j‘iner” has a lodge meeting nearly every night. The lodge is, outside of his family, the great thing about life. Poli- tics, religion, society, literature, sport, all are secondary things to the lodge in the “Jiner’s’” mind, and it is a good thing that most of the ledges require their members to sit up nights with sick brethren and con- tribute to the funeral expenses of the dead, because it is only in this way that the con- firmed “j'iner’ duties as a citizen and evening, at about 9 o'clock, at the begin- ning of the month— an hour or so earlier toward its close—we have spread before us the grandest spec- tacle that the starry firmament affords. The finest of the con- stellations and the brightest of the stars Zz, re then well above Be tj the horizon, while around us and overhead are a host of inter- esting objects—star clusters, nebulae and double stars—either visible to the naked eye or within reach of a telescope of mod- A Crank’s Story. sermon. in a bro! Two of t He spoke somewhat n accent. He was a cranks recently ar- erate power. ans. One of the officers | member of society catch up with him. becile enough, too, when I come to think |. nal lawyers ia town, I hear; “Tubby’ Nich-|4uctor must Kill his feelings and ee In midheavens in the south stands Orion, Hou: a German, and he} The “‘j‘iner” is ordinarily a feature of the ee rae : petner expected meen i Suing | ells, who had a head as hard as a mallet us prid : ee wae culnen tly ie servant.S the acknowledged prince of the constella- cir storie: * rane ack here last week to find ’em all looking | anq fei ¢ " the people and must not re ‘or a mo- Sea a RE £ a ae as smaller communities, and flourishes most | io! pore ae reek fou they looked | 224 fell down on all of his examinations, means tions, with its splendid setting of first: ment. But there business, in the humble walks of life. But he is spreading, and the craze for “j‘ining” is of religious mania. The last ceclared that he was being > C: is a funny side to the developed into a mineralogist, they tell and I almost go into hysterics me; Bud Weevil, who was at the head of when I went away. disillusionments I've had some terrible magnitude stars—Betelgeuse, Rigel, Sirius, Remember Teeney Nor- Procyon and Aldebaran. eee SHEN oan lei ea MERE : ometimes over the ludicrous things I sce. seco < Overhead is Au- tholic Church. He | now rampant among the wealthy and so-| ¥004, that spirituelle-looking littie girl | his class all the time, driving a horse car; | Por instauce, there are some people who | riga, the Wagoner, the principal star in to call out the]. ates e whose books I used to carry home from | ‘Zippy’ Edwards, who swere he'd never be | are miserable unle. they get a corner seat, | which, Capella, ranks in splendor second to suppress that styled upper classes. The craze has taker school and with whom I was so madly in P ples anything else when he grew up but a road ‘Teor’ ie raver; west them in a different form. The lodge of the Amalgamated Order of the Grand Panjan- and the way they plan to get there do credit to the great chess experts. ould love when I was thirteen that I couldn't Then eep 0’ nights? Well, one of the brakeman, Hartman, only to Sirius. In the east is Leo, contain- ing the bright star Regulus, the sickle- a government who wanted to er Met at the Door. f he 1 Kill Inj there is the chronic fresh-air crank, who = ‘: viet ies ieee "6h 5 nik: tier, Gvanien axes aerentnctoe drum and its compeers have the avowed | fllows pointed her out to me on the street | and kill Injuns and things, running a| insists upon opening all the ventilators | shaped group of stars which forms the Cena practi Be Ge eins Pobiset (Ob promote the saa eaaicoe nec nn | Yestentay lets re lahs, 290 Ae she: welenal(canieation eatracsteie eee h; ‘Fat- | even on the coldest days, and his opposite, | Lion's bushy head and shoulders being at st enter the door of the White | pbJect ofp But the new brood of | 2, Pound, and she's got nine children, 1] tv’ Rerrows/ who wanted to be a. profes- | who shivers when the door is open to let | vous onedthinicnt the sdisienbs anoa\ tbe not understand the rou- | “jtners are too fine for lodges like these.| hear—a couple of the girls ready to 'be| sional ball player and a sport and bios, d, practicing dentistry—well, of all the con: tradictions! “I dug up little Miss Whackem, who used to teach us kids in the fifth grade, the other day. I bet none of you fellows has seen her since you left School! Well, I found her in a little old house over in Georgetown—still ‘Miss,’ and as nice and off a passenger. There is als) the woman with the small child too old to ride free. We used to haul a man in the old days when conductors were not used, the pass- enger acting as his own conductor and de- positing his fare in the old-fashioned box. i was a driver in those days, and a weil- known real estate man in this city, when he rode with me, would invariably take the 5 the President's office, and their business known to n who is stationed at the door f usher, who is a former po- man Cissel, who guards the e of the White House, is an }'man. He has held his position -Ler of years, and knows a crim- Their iodges must be aristocratic. So they base them cn their ancestors. Societies of descendants of participants in the revolu- tion and colonial wars, all of them started with the respectable purpose of keeping up patriotic memories and diffusing acquaint- with American history, have been made ridiculous by pretension and display on the married, too. Well, I introduced my: to her, and she remembered me perfectly women never forget anything about the girlhood and the boyish sweethearts there- ef, you know. We had quite a tender lit tle talk—but it all seemed so absurd Teeney weighing 250 and trying still to be cequettish and fascinating—the time I had horizon to the zenith. At about the same altitude in tne west is the pair of stars, one of the second and one of the third magnitude, which mark the head of Aries, the Ram. Midway between Capella and Regulus, a iittle below a straight line drawn from one to the other, are the y : fi Twins, Castor and Pollux—a pair of stars part of those who have transformed them| been away from Washington seemed like interesting a dried-up little woman as you'd | seat nearest the box and when a nickel was of about the same brilliancy and at about ulekly Captain Du- | into mutual admiration societies, Grand. | 2 thousand years then. Tant to meet. Did she know ‘me? Cer- | passed to him to deposit in the box woud | the same distance apart as the Pointers in eect theglualiy efficient in | fathers who wore homespun and whose| “Then, a couple of days after 1 got here, tainly, she aid? substitute a ticket. the bowl of the Great Dipper. The Dipper itself, or the Plow, as this striking group of seven stars is popularly called in Eng- land, will pe found at the hour named above, standing on its handle in the north- east, the Pointers uppermost and at about the height of the Pole Star, while at about the same altitude in the northwest is the W-shaped figure of Cassiopeia, “The Lady in Her Chair.” private life was the simplest and most democratic wou... be astonished could they see the airs assumed by their descendants. The fathers of the republic were for the most part plain people. The revolution was fought and won by the common people of the colonies. The “best society” of the time was tory. Except a few great fami- lies like the Schuylers in New York and the Randolphs in Virginia, the names con- spicuous in revolutionary history had been obscure all through colonial history. The way in which their names are now used by their descendants for their own glorifica- tion would strike them with amazement. And the way in which the sons, daughters, dames anu queens are now squabbling over precedence would disgust them at the thought of their honorable and unpreten- tious struggles being made material for such absurd child's play and childish wrangling. ‘Still, with ali the follies that attend them. there is something to respect tn any at tempt to commemorate the work of one’s ancestry for one’s country. But nothing so complimentary as this can be said of so- cieties devoted to exploitation of claims to descent from early English kings and barons. Such claims of descent are usual- ly frivolous guesswork. Except where his family has been in continuous possession of a country seat or an hereditary title, not one Englishman in a hundred can trace his ancestry three hundred years back. Of Americans who are forming societies on every hand to advertise themselves as de- scendants of thirteenth century barons or sixth century kings, not one in a hundred can trace his ancestry one generation back from the first American settler of his name. Nothing is easier to buy than a genealog- ical tree. Scores of London dealers in fam- ily trees will sell any American who has the price a genealogical tree connecting him with any family he chooses. Societies based on such genealogies can depend on one thing, they will excite more ridicule abroad than even at home. Their value is better known where they are made to or- der for the export trade. The Worries of an M.P. From the London Mail A singular disclosure was made by Mr. Robert Ascroft, M.P., in his annual address to his constituents at Oldham on Wednes- day night. Replying to a vote of confi- dence, the honorable member remarked: In my hand I hold a roll of paper, which one of the fellows I was walking on fF street with nudged me. “ ‘Know that lady walkin, to the curb?’ he asked me. “I looked in the direction toward which he nodded, and saw a little, shriveled, yel- low woman, dressed in widow's weeds. ‘No,’ said I. ‘Who is she? “Well, you are an inconsistent sort of a chap,’ said he. “Phat's Imogen Brown.’ Youthful Romances. “Imogen Brown wus the girl I loved to distraction when I was fourteen, and had just knocked off wearing knee pants. 3} used to sit up half the night composing the most bee-yutiful letters to her, and a few years 2go my wife, in going through one of my old trunks in the garret on a rainy afternoon, came across a dismally un- happy love letter addressed to me, with a faded rose pinned to the top of the first sheet, and signed ‘Imogen Brown.’ When I left here, Imogen was a big, buxom girl, and promised to develop into a superb wo- men of the Juno type. Yet, as I say, when I saw her the other day, she was about as emaciated and sad-looking a little woman as a man cares to see. She married some fellow that abused her and finally went to state's prison, I hear. Well, it’s a queer game, this life. “Tuesday afternoon I met Ida Robinson. Ida and I used to be pretty soft on each otker, too. We had it all fixed that we were to be married for certain sure when we grew up. Well, Ida was with her daughter, and durned if they didn’t look like twins. I knew Ida in a minute, for, with the exception of her long skirts, I declare she didn’t look five years older than she did in the days when I used to slip candy hearts with mottoes on ‘em into her hand. It kind o’ tickled me, too, when Ida recognized me—maybe because I’ve always gone clean shaven. “ “Look here, Ida,’ said I to her after she had introduc2d me io her pretty daughter, w've you managed to remain so young?’ “Well, I didn’t marry you, you know,’ she said cheerfully. Kind of a knock at that, vasn’t it? We had a pretty good talk, and before I left her she demanded aughingly the return of her letters end gifts, and left me humming ‘I Want Dem Presents Back.’ Some Surprises. “And then the way some of the fellows have turned out! Remember Tinky Jones, that long-eared boy with the smooth “I remember all of my boys,’ she sald, ‘but I suppose they have all forgotten me many years since.’ Kind o’ pathetic, I theught it was, the way she said it. I had to eat all kinds of cake and drink tea until I was in a pipe-trance with the nice little old lady, and had a bully good afternoon of it talking over the old game with her. Some of you chaps ought to be decent erough to look her up. “Remember old Clubswing, the fat cop that made it so warm for us for playirg shinny and hollering bloody murder on the vacant lot on Sunday afternoons? Met him up on Capitol Hill the other morning—just as fat as ever and not a day older looking. He's retired now. He didn’t know me or recall me at first, but he remembered my folks, “Come to think of it,’ said he after a inute, ‘I believe there was a brat at your house that used to shoot things at me through a blow-pipe as I passed along my oa and the identification was com- pleti “D'je ever hear anything of—” “No,” said one of the men in the party to the ex-Washingtonian, “and we don’t ‘want to. We all feef old enough as it is without your coming along here and telling us all about things that we forgot more’n a hundred years ago.” And the club waiter did the rest. — Felt Acquainted, From Harper's Bazar. A Boston lady of the most reserved and exclusive type was walting for her change at the glove counter in one of the large stores when she was approached by a very large, gaudily-dressed and loud-looking wo- man, who held out a pudgy hand in a bright green kid glove, and said, “Why, how do you do, Mrs. Blank?” Mrs. Blank ignored the proffered hand, and, drawing herself up stiffly, said, frig- idly: “I do not think that I know you, madam.” “No, I s'pose not,” replied the woman, in no wise emberrassed by the coldness of her reception, “but I’ve knowed you by sight fer a long time, and now I've got a hired girl who worked at your house once a year or two ago, and she’s told me so much about you that I feel rea! well acquainted with you. Pleasant day, ain’t it? Well, if she ain't polite to sail off without so much as a word! Shows her raisin’, anyhow! ~ —— sie. k's wandering mind soon unfolds, and then he is taken away to a station house is considered badly deranged. If he If-witted and absolutely harmless he id to go home, and no attention is to him. Captain Dubois and Mr. Cissel scrutinize Ts at the White House and shrewd- agnose every case. In their years of Service they have seen many men call at the Executive Mansion, and have learned, if any two men ever did, to read the human being without much trouble. Cranks frequently do not get as far as the front door of th- White House. Some of them encounter the policeman who pa- trols the grounds fn front of the Executive Mansion. They relate their stories to him and he acts without consultation with the other officials. Went Away Satisfied. Cnly once since the administration of President McKinley began has a crank reached the business part of the building. He wanted to see the President, but if that could not be arranged, Secretary Porter Would de. His affliction was quickly seen, and he was quietly watched by several employes, one of them a policeman, who is atled to clerical work in the executive offces. He was a Frenchman and had traveled much. He wanted some trivial matter regulated. An assistant clerk, rep- resenting Mr. Porter, heard the man’s y and promised to attend to what he he man went away satisfied and ver returned. It would have been a for this man or uny other to resident. Nearly every unoffl- aller at the White House has to re- his Lusiness to some clerk or door- If he wants to see the President talk with some one. In this way te is detected. Charles Loeffler, er of the Presi- eagle eye, and has He Whacked Up. “I reported the case to the superintend- ent and he told me to call the man down. When the opportunity came I opened the door and told him the company was not in partners with him and did not propose to divide profits with him; that when a nickel was passed up it was intended for the com- pany and not for him. He got very red and said he didn’t see what kick the company had so long as it received a fare, and that one-sixth of a cent was too little to talk about. I rejoined that it was apparently not too little for him to scheme for, where- upon he put a nickel in and added, “There are thirty sixths. I hope you are satisfied.” He never rode in my car again. Then I re- call in later years the case of a woman who never had the exact change. Four con- secutive times she worked the five-dollar bill scheme on me. Of course, I didn’t have change for that amount, and each time she rode free. But I caught her at last. Every time she handed me the bill she added that it didn’t make any difference to her what kind of change she received, knowing full well I had no kind to give her. Well, I got a five-dollar bill changed into pennies and waited for her. It was my own money, and once or twice I got so hard up I was about to spend some of it, but I was so anxious to get even with this woman that I forgot my wants and waited. I carried that bag of pennies for nearly a week, when one morning I met her waiting for a car. I had been transferred to a different car in the meantime and had despaired of catching her. But there she was, and she tripped on with a glance at me, as much as to say ‘Have I ever worked your car? He Made Change. “I trembled as I thought of the possi- bility of her not having that fiver, and 1 thought my trouble had all been in vain, when after fumbling in every pocket she put on a_puzzled expression and hauled out a new five-dollar bill, adding: I hope you can change, it as it is the only money I have with me. To make sure I asked her if she was certain she had nothing smaller, and she sa‘d she was sure she had not, but I could give her change in silver, no matter how small, as she realized it was er fault. I came very near laughing out- ight in her fece. Here was my long- scught-for-chance. I turned my back, pulled out the bag and counting out five coppers handed her the remaining 495 ig this way next Orion. In this great X-like figure we have un- doubtedly one of the very oldest of the con- stellations, Familiar to Homer and Hesiod and referred to in the Book of Job, Orion is invested with historic associations and sur- rounded with a halo of poetry and mythol- ogy which have, perhaps, quite as much to do with its fascination for modern star- gazers as has the singular majesty of the asterism itself. It is still the “Mighty Orion,” as it was in the days of Homer, though its potency now is not over the weather, but over the imagination. As has been the case with many others of the constellations, chart makers have drawn the lineaments of Orion with a free hand, and have imposed upon us a figure quite unlike anything which we can see among the stars. His sword, his lion skin shield, his uplifted club, are appendages which we should hardly imagine to exist without the aid of the figure which we may find upon a celestial chart. Yet these accessories are all referred to at an early period, and they belong to the constellation as it was known to ancient astronomers, though it may be questioned whether they were seen by the still more ancient con- stellation makers. Looking at the stars themselves and losing sight of the picture, we can easily make out of them a crude likeness to a gigantic human shape—such a giant as a schoolboy might draw upon his slate—and we may feel pretty certain that this figure is the original and true Orion. The Arabic name of this constellation was Al Jauza, the Giant. The name is preserv- ed in that of its briglitest star, Bet-el-geu- se—Bat al Jauza, Armpit of the Giant—at the upper left-hand corner of the great X. Rigel, the name of the star at the lower right-hand corner, is the Arabie Rijal, which means foot. These stars are both of the first magnitude. Saiph, at the lower left-hand corner, is of the third magnitude The name is Arabic, and means sword. Bellatria, at the upper right-hand corner, is of the seccnd magnitude. This word is Latin, meaning warrioress. As the name ‘s. but he rt. Cleveland to his office had som Both en Mr. sely contined is said to have the former President and his sec- hurber. dreaded cranks. One office, Mr. Thurber down stairs in the to the foot of the d two policemen in a strug- colored man of gigantic SE Seo arr id rr oes of @ star its point is not very apparent. ‘2 i or = Peeeei The struggle was a fierce one. | Is nearly twenty feet long, and it is covered | olden locks, that all the teachers loved | goin pun Bes ieadam: T have been waiting ty chanes In Orion’s Belt. Thurber very prudently remained at| with the names of applications for sub-| 2t School, and who was always made moni- that five-dollar bill for a week.’ She| The three stars which form Orion’s belt, nee and shouted, “Put him out.” tor over us? Heard yesterday that he’s keen doirg time off and on for the past fifteen years for being too crafty with his pen—forging. That right? days ago I met Billy Matthews. Recall how Billy used to stand out in front cf our hovses on summer nights and yell cut the whole thing and give us plumb away when we sneaked off in swimming in the dcg days against home orders? Remember how ke was so goody-goody that he'd tell the teachers ull about it when we played hookey? Remember how mournfully he'd lcok at us when we'd smoke cigarettes on the vacant lot? Remember how he'd creep along to Sunday school, smug-lookiug es they make ’em, and cast sorrowful looks at us fellows for loitering along the way to spin tops? Well, as I say, I met Billy Matthews a few days ago. D’je ever see stch a rum wreck in your life? Dinged if he didn’t touch me for'a half a dollar for bocze, and, of course, I gave it to him for the sake of old times, even if he was a little cad when I knew him last. “Seems to me that all the boys who, on scriptions since I became your member of parliament for QJdham. The late Mr. Fielden, member of the Middleton division, a week before parliament rose, and while we were sitting having a chat in the house of commons, said to me, “However do you manage in Oldham?” and I replied, “As well as I can,” and he remarked, “Would you believe it, the first twelve months that 1 was elected I was asked to give, and the sums were mentioned, no less than £27,000."’. Now, continued Mr. Ascroft, I simply mention this because I made a rule to send a cheque when-I could afford to send it. But I am not an African millionaire, and I have no shares in Klondike, and do not in- tend to have. Therefore, you must please to understand that when I do not answer these letters, and do not inclose a cheque, it is for the simple reason that I cannot af- ford to do so. I think that it is time one ought to speak out, and though one, as a member of par- Nament, ts willing to do one’s share to every good work in the constituency, do not forget that there are other men in the con- sutuency, and of great wealth, from whom you ought to get a thousand times as much as you get from me. a He Knew Her. From the Obicago Post. They were speaking of the actress, who was one of these modern—very modern— blondes. “You know her, I believe,” said one. “Know her!” exclaimed the other. “J used to know her when she was a bru- nette.” ve ore colored to the roots of her hair, but was game, and pocketed the bag of pen- nies without so much as counting them. ‘Your conversation reminds me of some funny things I see every day,” put in a roughly clad fellow leaning against the reiling. “I am the driver of a herdic, and since the cable has stopped running on 14th street we drivers have harder work and eee funny sights. You spoke awhile ago about the scramble for corner seats. Why, man, the corner seat nearest the box is the most undesirable seat we have. The men would sooner sit on a red-hot stove. Working His Passnge. “As I heard a man say one day who sat there, ‘A fellow who gets this seat ought not to pay his fare. He has to work his passage, and it’s hard work at that.’ And he was right, for the occupant of that seat is kept constantly busy making change and acting as conductor. I have noticed that the Washington men are not as polite as formerly, and agree with you that it is the women’s fault. If they would thank a gentleman when he gives up his seat it would be different. I heard a ly. Two additional po- but e unable to sub- During the struggle the pied Mr. Thurber. “There's " said the man, pointing to ng in the direction of the sec- who very promptly took himself to d of the steps and remained out of the way until the man was subdued and taken away. The man had proclaimed him- self “Moses in the Bulrushes,” and wanted to see President Cleveland to preach a sermon. en two policemen attempted to take him away he began to fight, and the struggie was a severe and rough one. The heavy ¢etail of policemen at the White House dur'ng the last administration President Cleveland prevented trouble many oceasions. This force was re- after President MeKinley came in. President McKinley, unlike his predeces- has no fear of cranks. He goes in of the White House when he sees is not accompanied by detectives, or walking at a distance behind While the officials at the White prevent cranks from reaching him, * much to prevent disturbance of business as anything else. The Presi- dent has never been molested at his tri- weekly public receptions, and there havo Leen no unpleasant features at any of If there were cranks among the hundreds of people with whom the Prest- dent has shaken hands at each reeeption they have passed unnoticed. More trou- ble has been experienced from importuning Office seekers at these receptions than from ny other source. These have been un- able to see the President during his of- all of the second magnitude, times regarded as an asterism in them- They are variously known as the Three Kings, as Jacob's Staff, as the Rake. Taken in connection with the star in the hilt of the sword, they form the Yard L, or the Yard and Ell, as the name is some- times written. The line of these three stars is almost exactly three degrees in length, a fact useful to remember when one is estimating distances among the stars, The celes:ial equator passes very close to the uppermost of these stars, viding the constellation in such wise that it lies one-half in the northern and one-half in the southern hemisphere of the heavens. This mest majestic of the constellations is ed the lunatic. poor man Moses, no znd start retary. the he It’s the long- eared boys, arparently, that have gone to the dogs. Met Jim Tucker on the avenue the other day. When I w: i severed from the body, open-mouthed and profusely adorned with shaggy, streaming mane. The Great Nebula. Photography has revealed the fact that this so-called Great pula is only the more conspicuous pcrticn of a mass of nebulous matter which extends over near- ly the whole of this constellation. A broken- line curve on the plenisphere, drawn down- ward from the star Bellatrix, marks the location of the great spiral nebula which Was first brought out on a photograph taken by Prof. W. H. Pickering at Wilson's Peak in 1889, and which was subsequently photographed by Prof. Barnard. In its general vhape it resembles the figure 6. The old, long-known nebula seems to le in the vortex of this grand yet only faint- ly luminous spiral. The tpectroscope has given conclusive evidence that the light of this great lumin- ous cloud, and that of all other true neb- ulae, comes from glowing gases, of which one is certainly hydrogen, while ecting enother there is still a question whether it is nitrogen, as is the opinion of Dr. Hug- gins, or, as Sir Norman Lockyer maintains, the vapor of magnesium. Beside these two gases, which are found in the most of the nebulae, the Orion nebula appears to contain several other gases, none of which has thus far been identified with any ter- restrial substances. The difficulties in the way of making the investigation are such, hcwever, that the failure to identify the nebular gases does not prove that they are elements wholly unknown to us. As to the nature of the nebu the theory which scems just now to have the most in its favor, though It is by no means accepted universally by astronomers, is that of Sir Norman Lockyer, who holds that a nebula jis simply a cloud of meteorites, which are jin a state of commotion, the individual meteorites colliding continually with one another with a force sufficient to vaporize and render luminous their more volatile substances, and thus to surround them with a feeble luminosity, though the h ergendered is not great ‘enough to render their whole substance gascous, The neb- ula 1s supposed to be condensing and to be growing hotter. Out of tts materials are tc be evolved eventually, according to this iview, new worlds—ne ins and planets. } The question h on raised whether the Orion nebula lies in the midst of the stars which form the constellation, or ts merely in the same line of sight, either on this sid of them or beyond them. Among the rea- sons for thinking that it lies in the midst cf these stars and is connected with them physically, is the fact that many of the stars of Orion agree in naving a tain dark spectrum Mne, which appears to coin cid with one of the bright lines of the nebula, and which has been observed in but a few stars in any other part of the av~ ens. This region would seem, therefore, to stand by itself—to be in some sense a dis- tinct department of creation. Its stars, its suns appear to be in some respects differ- ent from those in other parts of the heay- s; and apparently, too, the work of world ‘ormation is still actively going on here, on a scale of which the grandeur utterly baf- fies the feeble power of our imagination to conceive. Algol. The variable star Algol—Al Ghul, the De- mon—will be at a minimum of brilliancy at 8 o'clock tomorrow evening. To find this star, face the west. A line of four second- magnitude stars will be seen curving down- ward from a point nearly overhead to one corner of the Square of Pegasus, which at that hour will be just above the western horizon. The uppermost of these stars is Alpha Persei, in the body of Perseus. The next is Gamma Andromedae, in the left foot of Andromeda. Algol lies to the south of a line joining these two stars, with which it makes a nearly, right-angled tri- angle. The peculiarity of Algol is that after shin- ing as a star of the second magnitude for about two and @ half days it begins to lose its light, and in the space of about four hours it drops to the fourth magnitude. Having remained thus for fifteen or twen- ty minutes, it begins to brighten, and in another four hours it has recovered its usual splendor. The explanation of this singular behavior,now considered to be fully established, is that the star has a dark companion, which revolves around it in an orbit turned edgewise toward us, and which passing periodically between it and us cuts off a portion of its light. When first seen tomorrow night the star will be of only the fourth magnitude. If one wiil keep a watch upon it, it will be found to be brightening slowly. By midnight it will equal in brilliancy the two other stars with which it forms a triangle. The Planets. Mercury is now a morning star. Tt may be looked for in the southeast a half hour or so before sunrise. It is unfavorably sit- uated for observing, however, and is not likely to be seen except when the sky is unusually clear near the horizon. Venus will be a morning star until the 15th of the month, and after that date an evening star. She is too near the sun to be visible. Mars is now a morning star, about one and a half hours west of the sun. It may possibly be seen on a clear morning, low in the southeast. Jupiter is an evening star, in the constel- lation Virgo, rising at about 10 o'clock. On the 24th of last month this planet was sta- tionary. It is now retrograding—moving westward. Saturn and Uranus, both in the constella- tion Scorpio, are morning stars, rising at about 3 a.m. Neptune, in Taurus, about two degrees northwest of the more southerly of the two stars which tip the Bull's horns, is the only planet now above the horizon at 9 p.m. it 1s invisible, of course, to the naked eye, After Lunch. Mu, a4 a