Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1898, Page 23

, SS SS SSS SWISS WRESTLING| fhe National Tournament of Ath- letes at Davos, SCHWINGEEST OF THE MOUNTAINEERS Members of the Turnverein and the Herdsmen Compete. YODLING AND ALPINE HORN From the Davos Courter. For the second time in succession the Weather has proved most accommodating and cleared up’on the eve of another out- door festi There was nothing, there- fcre. to mar the suc of the “Schwing- fest.” or wrestling competition, on Satur- Gay and Sunday. This is the first occasion on which a “Schwingfe open to the whole of Switzerland, has been held in Davos, and never before, as we understand, has a festival of the kind taken place in the wirter. The competition was accord- ingly unique on that account alone. The tink presented the same gay and festive appearance as on the occasion of the re- cent races, and the number of spectators on Sunday afternoon seemed even greater, though the fact that they were more con- gregated in one particular portion may have given this impression. A small oval sbaped arena had been made opposite the Pavilion and covered with tan and saw- dust, so that not only could the competi- tors obtain a good footing but fall with- gut injury. The wrestling. was of two Kinds; Schwingen and Ringen. The latter dces not differ in any essential respect from that practiced In‘England. Each competi- tor seizes the other in any way he pleases. The point about Schwingen is that the com- batants wear loosely-fitting drawers of canvas over their ordinary breeches, with @ powe-ful clasped leather belt. Grip is got by each man grasping the girdle be- hind his antagonist’s back with the left hand. while the other takes firm hold of the loose end of the canvas drawers above the lft knee. This is called Schwingen, Recause it often happens, with the grip deseribed, that one of the wrestlers lifts thé other in the air and whirls him round. Rough Handling. In the course of the struggle the grip changes, and every concelvable form of clasp or grasp may be observed. Among the English spectators, the Schwingen at first _was rot so appreciated as the ordi- mary form of wrestling, but as the compe- tition proceeded the skill and nimbleness galled into play elicited their admiration. The twenty-two pairs of competitors had gome from all parts of Switzerland, and in most cases the Turnvereins were rep- fesented by their best man; though Davos sent four. The contest was not limited to the Turnvereins, as many herdsmen, members of no particular club, were among the testants. That they wresile between themselves to good account was shown by @ herdsman throwing the hitherto cham- pion of Switzerland in the final round. © proceedings on Saturday were mainly devoted to eliminating the Weaker of the combatants. The physique was generally 00d, but victory did not always rest with the stronger looking, and science frequent- ly conquered brute force. Every man has his day, but after thirty or even twenty- five his powers, in the wrestling ring at least. are on the wane and sooner or later he must sive way to a younger opponent, end though the defeat of Blaser, who is over thirty, must have been a bitter dis- appomtment to himself and friends he cculd hardly expect to retain the cham- pionship much longer. Rough handling has to be anticipated in the wrestling ring, but nething like bad blood or resentment Was noticed on the two days in question. Goodwill. Vietor and vanquished shook hands and then drank a glass of wine together, be- fore resuming their seats on the side of the ring to watch another pair of con- testents try conclusions. From an Eng- lish peint of view the festival was most interesting, for it showed that love of spert had brought these athletes together, and Save an opportunity of noticing sin- guhtr varieties of strength, agility and Stace. AS an accessory to the meeting X ious yodling and tuneful blowing Alpine horn 1s deserving of mention. e five judges who, from their must, at one time, have been opponents in the ring. The -ciding not very apparent tators, as even if a man were thrown he was awarded marks, if ural form and style were good. Fre- two or three bouts took place be- same competitors, and it was somet a er a lengthened rouple, by mut to notice r further hostilities until they “l their wind. The general ils seemed to give satisfaction, 1a program was an insufficient 1e spectator on account of the ferred to above. The prizes viluable, thanks to the generosity w prominent inhabitants. A most ful event terminated with a_ban- obelmuhle and a festive dance edere. Evidences of the Ancient Roman Water Works Again Found. of Vettius has two entrances, u one facing the east and open- ty the street which led to the city zate, side entrance which is directly oppo- o the modern wooden pent-house erect- protect the ancient Roman water which branch off from here in many Girections. Most visitors will remember this curious Mlustration of ancient water ‘works, the earliest and most complete that are known to us, and by the help of. the description we have given should have no aithic in locating the house. The build- ing obtained its name from three signets found in the atrium, one of which bore the legend A. Vettii Ce 3, which may be eted “Of, or belonging to, A. Vettius ird, t was a bronze ring, the letter AVCo, evidently an ab- on of the first signet. Besides these there were three engraved stones having the respective ornaments of an amphora,an ivy leaf. and the caduceus of Mercury. In Roma. times a man's signet was the most important of his possessions. It served the purpose of a signature, for all business transactions were ratified by it, and as in those days locks and keys had not long deen invented, the stores and valuables of many houses were still kept strictly under the seal of the owner. It was a felony to Teake two signets alike, and hence in the gems of the ancients we have the most marvelous compendium of thelr customs, Manners and beliefs. We may hence be pretty confident that the house belonged to Aulus Vettius. = BRIMSTONE. ~see LOADS OF SHIP ‘The ormous Amount of Crude Sul- ur Received in This Country. From the New York Tribune. Alfred 8. Malcomson has published an in- teresting statistical table, in which the ‘World's consumption of brimstone is shown for seven years. This commercial com- Modity is of great importance in many branches of manufacture, but the fact ts mot generally known in business circles that 118,137 tons came to the United States from Sicily in 1807, and that the year before the importation was even larger. This commodity comes exclusively from Sicily, and to a great extent from the port of Palermo. It is shipped in bulk like coal, ga looks, in its raw condition, like pieces broken stone about the size of those which are used on macadam roads. It is a Gull gray, and from that to a bright yel- low, according to its quality; the the grade the yellower the stone. It is bandied by the large importers in its crude form only, and these dispose of It to the ee by whom it is subjected to which eliminate the dross and bring to the surface its valuable properties. It is used by the manufacturers of fer- tilizer materials and sulphuric acid, and large quantities are consumed by the man- ufacturers of wood pulp and paper. The brimstone goes in great quantities, also, to the sulphur refiners, and after it becomes sulphur it plays an important part in the manufacture of vulcanized rubber. The addition of sulphur to plastic rubber, vulcanizing the mass between two. tin sheets as an experiment, gave to the world the valuable commodity known as hard rubber; and “no substitute has yet been found for the yellow dust in the process. The brimstone statistics show that the United States receives more of the material than any other country. For the same time that 118,137 tons reached the ports of New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charleston, Boston, Wilmington and Nor- folk, the following exports were made from Sicily to other parts of the world: France, 4,895 tons; Italy 5% : Lnited King- Russia, 17.582 tons; Port- Greece-Turkey, 13,866 tons; Belgium, 9,253 tons; Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 11,226 tons; Spain, 4,089 tons; Holland, 3,599 tons. ft The wine-growing districts of Europe use large quantities of the material to destroy the insects which attack the vines, and although many substitutes are employed, the most careful growers never abandon brimstone for that purpose. The supply in Sicily ready for transporta- tion is larger than it has ever been before, there being no less than 240,367 tons in storage. soe THE CONDUIT SYSTEM. The Experience in New York Shows It is Even More Profitable. From the Chicago Record. Comparison of results obtained in the operation of overhead trolley and conduit electric lines disclosed the fact that the latter construction is more serviceable than the former, in spite of the general belief to the contrary. In Chicago and elsewkere during the last week trolley lines were down on all sides, the service was interrupted, and in many instances discontinued entirely, and the operating companies found it difficult and expensive to keep the lines open. Any one who visited the outlying districts particu- larly realized the disadvantages under which the street railway companies oper- ated, as wires were broken and poles snap- ped under the weight of snow and ice and the pressure of.the wind that blew a gale in expesed places. Had the wires been btried and a conduit electric road provided instead of an overhead trolley system the operating companies would have been spar- ed the annoyance and expense of repairing ard reconstructing their Hnes after the storm, and the public would not have been subjected to the delays and inconveniences suffered in every part of the city last week. It may be contended that the. conduit trolley road would have been blockaded ‘Decause of the snow and slush from the street surface getting into the conduit through the slot, but experience does not support this view. In New York, for in- stance, where they have had three years’ experience with the conduit electric rail- way, there is no complaint of the conduit filling up or the system being seriously affected in snow, sleet or rain storms. At first, it is true, defects of this nature were noticeable, but they long since have been overcome. First-class construction proved to be the only requirement, and although this was comparatively expensive, it has proved good economy, as the maintenance account {s scarcely worthy of considera- ticn. It may interest street railway men to know that the economy of the conduit elec- tric system in New York has proved to be far greater than its champions predicted, and that it compares favorably with the Breadway cable line, which is the best type of cable construction in the country. ——— +o + —____ British Diplomats Cared For. From the Chicago Record. The British government cwns the finest residence in Pekin. It is occupied by its minister to China and hia staff, which con- sists of eighteen or twenty rersons, includ- ing three or four “commercial attaches,” as they are called, whose business is to study the commercial possibilities of the empire and make reports to the foreign office in London for the benefit of the British man- ufacturers and merchants. There are also several “‘siudent interpreters,” young men who are placed there for the purpose of ac- quiring the Chinese language and a knowl- edge of the custome of the country prior to their appointment in the consular service. The British government will not appoint eny one to its consular service in any coun- try unless he understands the language of that country, which condition does not ap- ply to the consular service of the United States. In addition to the legation in the ‘ity of Pekin, the Eritish parliament has recently appropriated $85,000 for the erec- tion of a summer residence for the use of its minister end his officials in the hills fif- teen or twenty miles aw: Twenty-six thousand dollars was also appropriated for the erection of a consulate at Chung-King. Wherever the British establish an embassy or legation or a consulate they always pro- vide a suitable building, as in Washing- ton. But the United States government owns only one such building in all the world, and that is at Tokyo, Japan, where the land was given by the Japanese gov- pment, and the original residence was erected by Mr. Seward when he was our minister there. We have paid twenty times its value In rent during all these years, and finally purchased it from his heirs for $16,000. oS oe Shark Charmers, From Lippincott’s. In the Persian gulf the divers have a cu- rious way of opening the season. They de- pend implicitly upon the shark conjurers, and wil! not descend without their presence. To meet this difficulty the government is obliged to hire the charmers to divert the attention of the sharks from the fleet. As the season approaches,, vast numbers of natives gather along the shore and erect huts and tents and bazaars. At the oppor- tune moment—usually at midnight, so as to reach the oyster banks at sunrise—the fleet, to the number of eighty or a hun- dred boats, pulls out to sea. Each of these boats carries two divers, a steersman and a shark charmer, and is manned by eight or ten rowers. Other conjurers remain on shore, ‘twisting their bodies and mumbling incantations to divert the sharks. In case a man-eater is perverse enough to disre- gard the charm and attack a diver an warm is given, and no other diver will de- scend on that day. The power of the con- jurer is believed to be hereditary, and the efficacy of his incantations to be wholly independent of his religious faith. —_+e+____ Seeing Stars. From the London Mail. If a man falls so as to strike his head violently on the ice or on the pavement, or if he gets a blow over his eye, he is said to “see stars." The cause of this cu- rious phenomenon is found in a peculiarity of the optic nerve. The function of that nerve is to convey to the brain the im- pression of light. It recognizes nothing in the world but light. It ts susceptible to no other impression, or, if acted upon by any other agent, it communicates to the brain the intelligence of the presence of that agent by sending along its fiber flashes of light only. Irritate this nerve with a probe or other instrument, and it conveys no sensation of pain, but simply that of luminous sparks. The pain of the blow on the eye or the fall on the head is real- ized through the nerves of general sensa- tion; but. insusceptible to pain or other feeling, the optic nerve sends to the brain its report of the shock by flashes, sparks and “stars.” Witty Whistler. The San Francisco Argonaut has collect- ed a few of the most famous of the vitri- olic sayings of Whistler, the artist, whose bitterly sarcastic tongue, one writer says, has made him the most unpopular man in England. To an aggrieved paint:r who al- leged himself the victim of a conspiracy of silence and asked Whistler's advice he replied, “Join it.” Of a different quality was his rejoinder to a flattering admirar who declared that there were only two Soe Se, ees eee quired languidly. And cutting indzed was 's Fan.” W! Just some brilliant thing and Wilde admir- : “By Jove, Whistler, 1 wish I had said that.” ” was the THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1898-24 PAGES. PHARAOH'S DAUGHTERS They Had Many Luxuries Women Enjoy To- day, and Some Others. The Great Variety of Toilet Articles and Jewelry Among the Ancients, From the New York Mall and Express. The excavations and explorations of Ne- routsos Bey, Brougsch Pasha, and, more recently, of Dr. Morgan and Flinders Pet- rie; have thrown so much light upon ancient Egyptian society that we now know more about the toilet, wardrobe and daily habits of the princess who found Moses in the bullrushes than we do of the early queens of England or France. Strangely enough, the difference between the ladies of that early period and of today seems to have been less in social maiters than between those of the ccurt of Queen ®lizabeth and today. An Egyptian lady of quality had a suite of at least three rooms for her own use. One, a boudoir or reception room, a second a bath or dressing room and a third a bed room. She had a dressing maid, an assistant maid or fan bearer, a bath maid, seamstress and a manicure. he manicure seems te have been ‘a chiropodist as well, because tke belles of that period used sandals and bare feet, and not only be- stowed the greatest care upon the toe nails, but in many cases put rings on the toes and magnificent anklets around the ankles. They took the same care of their hands and their nails as the women of today, and for ornament employed rings, thumb rings, bracelets and armlets. The hair was dressed in many conyen- tional forms, and there were fashions in those years which slowly changed, the same as there are at the present time. There were mirrors made of burnished sil- ver, gold, copper and brass. There were hair brushes, but these were not as good as modern ones. Their combs, however, were far more beautiful. They were made of bronze, silver and gold, and were often jeweled. In shape there was considerable variety; the working combs ranged from a fine-tooth article, smaller than the regula- tion affair of today, up to large, coarse ones, similar. to what are called barber's combs. For people not so well to do there were combs of ivory, horn, bone and wood. There were pieces of hair like our frizzes, bangs and switches; there were plumpers over which the hair was rolled; there were orna- mental combs of various kinds, ranging from the horseshoe shape, such as little girls wear nowadays, to high shell combs employed in the back part of the hair. There were hairpins, which must have been quite costly. The cheapest were made of bronze or brass, while all others were of silver or gold. Many of these pins were stickpins with ornamental heads, the latter being made of the precious metals, of enamel, carving, precious stones and semi- precious stones, such as jade, cat’s-eye, fire- stone, carnelian and coral. On the dressing table there was powder, both blonde and brunette, rouge polishing powder for the nails and teeth, antimony for darkening the eyebrows, another prep- aration for making the eyeg lustrous, a scarlet paint or dye for stafing the lips, tweezers for removing superfluous hair, scissors, needles, bodkins, thimbles, work- baskets, jewel cases, and there was even a powder puff which had a pretty silver handle, and was made of the downy plum- age of birds. In the bath room there was hot and cold water, tooth brush, nail brush, hand brush and flesh brush, and there were also curious little creations in wood, intended for rub- bing the body, epee results of the same nature as those obtained by massage treatment. The height of luxury was ob- tained by an Egyptian princess in taking a bath as hot as she possibly could, while immersed to the neck in water, having her attendants fan her with great palm-leaf fans. Sho loved flowers, and had jars full of choice blossoms in all of her rooms as well as pots of growing plants. She had many favorites in th> animal kingdom, in- ciuding song birds, parrots, falcons, owls, birds of brilliant plumage, monkeys, kids, lambs, leopards, wild cats, ordinary tab- bies, terriers. big dogs, donkeys and even tiger cubs. She went to church with great regularity, but, instead of spending an heur or two, spent seldom l2ss than half a day at each service. ee “Kiss Richie for Me.” From the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. Col. Richard C. Parsons, jr., whom the President nominated for secretary of the embassy at Rome the other day, is the son of Col. Richard C. Parsons of Cleveland, Ohlo, who was years ago in Congress from that district, and was on3 of the most in- timate friends of Secretary Salmon P. Chase. Chase formed a strong friendship for the young Cleveland statesman that was scv- ered only by his death. Older Washing- tonians and frequent>rs of the capital re- call, says the Chicago {nter-Ocean, during the rebellion and the early days of recon- tion, when Parsons, as the guest of ase, was a familiar figure upon the streets and in official socisty. Then, as row, he was noted for his polished man- ners and speech, and particularly for his dress, which was faultless. So careful was Col. Parsons in the selection of what he wore that he attrac: attention of President Lincoln, who spoke of him one day to-Chase, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, as “the best-dressed man he ever saw.” The last letter ever written by Chase was addressed to Col. Parsons. The chief jus- tice was at the home of a near relative in New York, being on his way hom> from the east, whither he had gone in the hope of benefiting his health. The letter was writ- ten about an hour before he was stricken with the disease that killed him. ons, jr., Who ‘This letter Is preserv- Parsons, and money could not was then a toddler. ed by Col. buy it. ——_-+e+_____ He Sold a Dicke Souvenir. From Literature. When “Our Mutual Friend” was pub- ished, a nighly laudatory notice of the ‘book appeared in a leading journal, which was written by Mr. X., an acquaintance of Dickens, and a very clever man, who has been dead for many years. Mr. X. wrote to inform Dickens of the service which he had rendered him, and not cnly did he re- ceive a grateful, not to say gushing, reply, but the author was so delighted with the timely lift which his book had been favor- ed with that he presented the reviewer with the manuecript of the story, bound up in gilt morocco. Mr. X. acknowledged the gift in glowing terms, assuring the au- thor that only death would part him from the precious manuscript, and that he would take care that it should ultimately find a place in the national collections. A few years later one of Dickens’ most intimate friends was traveling in America, and hap- pened to visit the late Mr. Childs at Phil- adelphia, in whose library one of the chief features was this same manuscript, which it turned out had been sold by Mr. X: for £250. Anthony Trollope had a stormy. dis- cussion with Dickens at a London dinner party about the transaction, asserting with characteristic vehemence that Mr. X. was wrong to inform Dickens that he had writ- ten the review; that Dickens was much to blame for having taken any notice of hts |. letter, and that the gift of the manuscript should neither have been offered nor ac- cepted, as it was practically bribery and corruption. * . oo—_—____ e Dieting on the Side. From Pearson's Weekly, A ceftain stout lady resolved to consult a physician about her corpulence. She had no previous experience with “banting” of any sort. The doctor drew up a careful dietary for her. She must eat dry toast, plain boiled beef, and a few other things of the same lean in a month return and report At was F -- RANDOM VERSE. + mses” wees Rendy in the BykA1 Districts. ‘Vistiten for The ee by Cluskey Crom- wel alin + We air all a-gittin’ Teadp®@o%n ter Ches'nut Hill, Yer kin hear th dram atlgmpin’ an’ th" fifes’ toot shrill, An’ ev'ry feller’s squir'l ions bin polished up an’ filed : aL > An’ th’ back sights straigitenea an” th’ eend sights filed. rae Miss Sally Jcnes sent bide out fur er pality, an’ When fokes arrove she give er bullet mole ter ev'ry man 1 An’ ev'ry gal, an’ stidder dancin’ like they allus hed ‘They sot a-makin’ bullet@uhter red hot lead! Oh, th’ ole fiag’s jist a-wayin’ down ter Ches'nut Hil, By a Even Parson Jobusing’s sitmons her a patr'ot thrill, An’ ef enny uv them mattydores comes round down thar ‘They'll find th’ popylasbun’s loaded up fur bar! —— The Coming War, pyrighted by Sari Walter Foss.) “There will be a war in Eurene, Thrones be rent and overturned.” o and fetch 2 pail of water,” said his wife.) “Nation: sball go down in slaughter, Ancient capitals be burned.” (‘Hurry “up and spl said his wife.) wrapped in_contagrs| decimating Diition Chaos crashing through creation (‘Go along and feed the chickens,” said bis wife.) And the war shall reach to Asia, And the Orient be rent. (When you going to pa¥ the grocer?” ays bis wife. sand the myrmidons of thunder Shake the trembiing continent."” (‘Hurry up and beat them carpets,” said bis wife.) *Reiitton myriads invadiag, * Rapine, rioting and raiding, est, carnage, cannonading!* (Wish you'd come and stir this puddin wife.) said his “O, it hreaks my heart—this conflict Of the Sclay and Celt and Dane." stubbed his rubber boots ont,” said his ‘O, the draggled Russian banners! 0, the chivalry of Spain @ got no more molasses,"* sald bis wife.) ‘See the marsbaled millions led on With no bloodless sod to trey Gog and Magog! Armageddor (‘Hurry up and get a yeast cake," sald his wife.) “0, the grapple of the Nations, It is coming. Woe is me!"" (“Did you know we're out of flour?” said his wife.) “O, the many-centuried empires Overwhelmed in slanghter’s cea! (“Wish you'd go and put the cat out,” sald his Wife}. “Death and dreadful dissolution Wreak their awful execution, Carnage, anarchy, confusion! (‘Let me have two cents for needles?’ said his wife.) “ATL my Io And my (‘How can T keep fe. “0, the carnival of carnag ©, the battle maelstrom mad!” (“Wish you'd battle for a living.” said his wife.) “Down in smoke and bieod and thunder, While the stars look on in wonder, Must these empires go under? C*Where're we going to get our dinner?’ satd his wife.) —SAM WALTER Foss. © goes out to Enrope, re i torn and sad." house on nothing?” sald his Cupid Repulsed. T mot Dan Cupid sestentay. Himself and bow unstrung; “What luck?” eried I. and barred the way. “Come, Stupid, find your tongue!” He paused rnd sighed right dolefully, Held ont a shattered darts “I'm golug out of trade,"* guoth he; “Another, marble hear t Richard Stillmad Powell in Truth. Fame’s, Cost. From the Chicago Inter-Ocean... Oh, scorn not things of low degree, And sigh for wealth and state; Far better court humfity ‘han burdens of (he great. For be who wins ambition's fight Can never he at ease; He galns, ‘tis true, a worldly height, But has # world ¥ please. For cares increase as honors grow, And in his new estate He finds, thongh bright those honors glow, "Tis thraldom to the, great. ‘The flatterers that’about him throng Each has some dote toask; 4 To please them is no idle song, i But an Herculean tawk. ‘We value things as they appear, Nor count the cost and pain Which line the road to that bright sphere ‘The envied ones attain. Fame {s vo royal herltag Its crowns are free to all; But who its dizvtest heights’ would gauge Must risk the dizziest fall ‘Then sigh not for ambiticn’s meed, Its sceptre and {ts crow Uneasy Mes the kingly hea ‘Though pillowed upon down. —ses. The Loss of the Maine. Chariton M. Lewis In the New Haven Register. To a sunny harbor-mouth In the gars he south, Where the never-ending sammers breathe and bloom, Where warm love and light enfold Palmy wood and tangled wold, Thither sailed our seamen bold—to their doom. ‘There they heard the wild alarm, When the red death-angel’s arm Shook the thunders of his wrath below the deep, And he swept them to thélr graves, Where the long, deep-dreaming waves Wash forever through the caves of sunless sleep. And the tears of ori From a rt, For our hei 1 those they left forlorn; But from sea to rocky range, From the prairie to the grange, We ure mighty to avenge, as t0 mourn, In the dari we blindly grope, Halt in fear, though half in hope, For the way where honor calls lies still concealed, On Thy people Thou hast trod; We have bowed beneath Thy rod; May Thy purposes, O God, be revealed. . _— Experience. The lords of life, the lords of life> I saw them tol In thetr own guise, Like and unlike, Portly and Use and Surprise, Surface aod Dream, Succession swift and spectral Wrong, ‘Temperament without a tongue, ‘And the inventor of the game Omuipresent without name— 10 see, some to . > guessed; ‘They marched from eust to west: Little man, least of ail, Among the legs of his guardians tall, Walked about with puzsled look. Him by the hand dear Nature took, Dearest Nature, strong and kind Whispered, “‘Darling, never ‘The founder thou; these are thy race!” are UUEMERSON, Hats o@: From the Youth's Companion. ‘Albug’the street there com jong the street t A’blare of Dugies. ‘« Fulle of drums, A flash of color Dengath the sky; Hats off! cee B ‘The flag ts passing tft at Blue and crimson aid whjte it shit Over the steel-tip, nes.” The colors before why col re But more than Te HP beaene by. Sea fights and land fghis” and great, Fought to bmke i the states ‘eary marehes, ai i Cheers of victory ony fi ps; ss Days of plenty and a 8 5 Equal se tty — rely honor revi awe} tion, nod strong rome ‘Wrongy Pride and glo thd bond Live in the colors to: d'or fall. ILLEGIBLE WRITING | 12s. ana then we would begin at the bot- The Chirography of Many Famous Men of Letters. Amusing Tales of the Perplexities of Correspondents and Printing OMce Quidnuncs. From the London Globe. It is the perversity of human nature that pecple who ought to do one thing do an- other. Men who write a legible hand (no one can accomplish more than that now) will use a typewriter, and others, who ovght never to be trusted with a pen, order them by the gross and take the discount. Rudyard Kipling writes a neat, delicate hand, and Conan Doyle's is as plain as the proverbial pikestaff, but both use ma- chines. It would have saved a deal of misery and helped to perpetuate a useful art if otner writers of eminence could have been prevailed upon to “type.” Unfortu- nately the typewriter was teo belated an invention to affect many of the best bad writers. Carlyle would not have struggled with a keyboard, but it would have pre- vented that miserable compositor fleeing from Edinburgh to London out of his way if he had. Carlyle's, however, was a cop- Perplate to others that could be mentioned. Hugo's manuscripts, we are told, presented the appearance of a sort of battlefield on paper, in which the killed words were weil stamped out and the new recruits pushed forward in anything but good order. Na- poleon was unique in everything, even in his handwriting. His letters from Ger- many to Josephine were at first taken for maps of the seat of war. And his signa- ture was an indistinguishable hieroglyphic. Byron and Dean Stanley ‘wrote atrociou: “fists,” and it is said that Sydney Smith's was no better, although he used to chaff Jeffrey badly. He used to say that he read Jeffrey from left to right, and his wife from right to left, but neither could make out a syllable. Jules Janin would rather rewrite than attempt to read over again what he had written, and Montaigne could never read what he had written. The acute thinker mended matters by employ- ing a secretary, whose writing was abso- lutely undecipherable. Balzac was as big a sinner, and Dickens’ microscopic charac- ters, written on blue paper with blue ink, appalled many seasoned compositors. A terrible hand had Herry Ward Beecher. His daughter once declared that she had three guiding rules in copying it—if a let- ter was dotted it was not an and if is was crossed it was not a “t" and a werd with a capital letter did not begin a sentence. Jacob Bryan said of Archdeacon Coxe’s caligraphy that it could neither be called a hand nor a fist, but a foot, and thet a club one. His hieroglyphics formed @ clumsy, tangled black skein that ran across the paper in knots, which it was impossible to untie into a meaning. Lord Eldon used to tell of John Bell, a great chancery luminary of his time, that he had thre» different methods of putting his wisdom on paper—one intelligibic to himself only, anotner which his clerk could read and he could not, and the third which neither he nor his clerk nor any one else could r2ad. The funny letter of T. B. Aldrich to Professor Morse stands aiongside of Tom Hood’s facetious reply to Lady Georgina Fullerton’s as protest against learned illegibllity. Aldrich as- serted that he cou!d decipher nothing in th2 professor's missive but the date, which he knew, and the signature, which he Siessed a’ The story of the Duke of Wellington writing to Bishop Blomfield when he had received a letter from J. C. Loudon, th3 eminent landscape designer, asking to see the Waterloo beeches at Strathtieldsaye, ts @ ch2stnut, but it makes us laugh (al- though, perhaps, we ought not) to pictura the consternation of the bishop (and through him the shock to the whole Epis- copal bench) on receiving permission to view the duke’s Waterloo breeches. Also a elassic is the tale of Macready’s admis- sion ticket being solemnly made up by the apothecary into a cough mixture, “To be taken three times a day.” The name of Horace Grecley has, in this connection, to be mentioned with a chastened respect. He, undoubtedly, was the great master of Milegibility. It, was of him th? compositor averred that if Belshazzar had seen his handwriting on the wall ke would have hed cause to be terrifled. A common story attributed to Greeley belongs, howev2r, to one Brooks, some time president of ‘the New York Central railroad. It is best, in all things, to be just. And Greeley can wall spare it. It was Brooks’ protice to quit that a tenant used for two years ag a rail- way pass. Greeley wrote to some press- men: “With a weight of years, I fel obliged to decline any invitation that takes me a day’s journey trom home,” and this is all they could make of it: “If eels are blighted, dig them ear Any insinuation that brick ovens ar gives me the horrors.”. This is the way the moderns have juggled with the pen, so can we wonder that its time of usefulness is welinigh spent? soe AWFUL TORTURE, STOWAWAYS’ Locked in the Cold Storage Room of a Pacific Steamer. From the San Francisco Call. From death in a shipwreck to death by starvation and thirst in a steamer’s cold storage rooms seems a stretch. Jacobson and Harry Christiansen nearly met their doom from both such causes, and that within the laSt three weeks. On December 10 the schooner Vesta was totally wrecked near the Carmanah light, and had it not been for the heroism of Mate George Gen- ereaux every soul on board would have per- ished. He carried a line through the boil- ing surf to the shore, and by means of it the shipwrecked sailors reached a place of safety. The wounds and bruises of Jacob- son and Christiansen received on that occa- sion can still be seen on their bodles. After reaching Seattle some of the men came home overland, but the sailors in question stowed away on the steamer Uma- tilla. They got in the cold storage chamber on December 30, at 8:30 a.m., were sealed up at Port Townsend and did not get out of their prison until January 2, at 4:15 p.m. They were then more dead than alive and had to be carried on deck. Their tongues were swollen and lacerated from licking the sweat from the mast in order to alky their thirst, and they were so weak from hunger that they could not stand. Chief Steward Curtis saw to it that they got both food and drink, and when the Umatilla docked yesterday morning both the men were able to go ashore. “All that we suffered during our lives did hot compare with what we had to endure during the past three days,” said Jacobson on board the steamer yesterday. “The Vesta was caught in the gale that wreckeu the steamer Cleveland, and we had a terri- ble time of it. Waves were washing over the boat continuously, and had it not been for Mate Genereaux, who swam ashore through the breakers, we would all uave been drowned. As it was, Christiansen and I have been in the hospital at Seattle. “From where we went ashore we walked to the light house, where our clothes were dried and food given us. From there we went to Neah bay in a rowboat, and from there to Port Townsend, where we were paid off. Christiansen and I then went to Seattle, where we were sent to the hospi- tal. When we were discharged we could not get a ship and-no sailor boarding house would take usin, so we resolved to stow away on the Umatilla. We got into the forepeek and hid among the cargo, but on the way to Port Townsend it got so coid that we crept into a place — we were Hf ees ie | g a : i £ ‘ i t 5 5 ‘ tom again. Finally, when the crew of t.e steamer was getting ready for the coming docking of the ship, we made ourselves heard and the seals were broken. We were faken on deck and could barely gasp “Wa- ter!’ It was given to us, and then in a lit- tle while we got hungry. That meat they gave us tasted better to me than anything I ever ate in my life. We are all right now, but I never want to go through an experi- ence like that again.” Luckily the cold air was not turned into the chamber or the two men would have been frozen to death. ——__~-e-_ HEART WOUNDS. Have Recovered. From the London Hospital. The murder of Terriss has directed public attention very strongly to the subject of vounds of the heart and professionai in- terest is aroused by the important fact that, notwithstanding the extent of the wound, “which pierced the heart right through,” the murdered man lived close upon an hour. The cases in which patients suffering from small wounds of the heart have lived for some time, and have eve recovered, are by no means rare. A case was reported at the Clinical Society last year in which a man who had been stabbed over the third left costa! cartilage, and kad suffered severely from hemorrhage, died seventy-nine days after the injury from general causes, and after death a scar was found in the right ventricle, showing that the heart had been pene- trated. But much more severe injuries of the heart may be recovered from. Muhlig relates the case of a man who was stabbed with a stiletto on the left side of the ster- num. For a time his life was despaired of, but he recovered, and returned to his em- ployment; and on his death, from other causes, ten years later, it was found that the pericardium was intimately adherent to the heart ,and that there was a rounded opening on the inner surface of the right ventricle admitting the little finger, and a corresponding hole in the inter-ventricu- lar septum leading into the left ventricle. It is, however, very important from a medico-legal point of view to remember that after large wounds of the heart pa- tients have been known to walk or run some considerable distance after the re- ceipt of the injury. An instance is on record in which a stag, the auricle of whose heart had been practically destroyed, ran fifty or sixty yards. Taylor relates the following case: The keeper of a brothel was tried in Glasgow in the year 1819 for the murder of a sailor by shooting him through the chest. The auricles and part of the aorta next to the heart were “sha tered to atoms” by the slugs and bra: nails with which the piece was charged and, in the opinion of the medical wit- nesses, the deceased must have dropped down dead on the moment that he received the shot. The body was found in the street, and the door of the prisoner’s house was eighteen feet up an entry; so that it fol- lowed, if the medical opinion was correct, that the prisoner must have run after the deceased, and shot him in the street. It was, however, urged, and proved, that he had shot the deceased through the door of his own house, while the latter was at- tempting to enter by force. There was, in fact, a stream of blood from the door to the spot where the body lay. The prisoner was acquitted. But many very extraordi- nary instances of the persistence of life after injury to the heart are on record; for example, one of a man who lived for twenty days with a skewer traversing the heart from side to side, and another of a boy who lived for five weeks with a piece of wood three inches long in his right ven- tricle. eee - Lion Hunting in South Africa. From the St. James Gazette. “I was coming round the base of a little rocky hill when I heard, as I thought, some pigs grunting up on a little ‘bench’ jutting out from this hill. I cocked the old gun, slapped Bess to keep her quiet, and climbed up on to this bench, expecting to see a big old boar, and all ready to take a snap shot if he ran. When I got up there I could see nothing, so I stepped up on a big boulder and there lay a lioness and three cubs play- ing. She was boxing one’s ears. Her mouth was open, and the cub appeared to be try- ing to get into it. I am sure her mouth looked big enough. She was facing me with ker head up when I first saw her, but just as I covered her she dropped it and gave me a good square shot at her head. Being at very close range, I gave her a center shot with a hollow bullet. She never got jon her feet. She uttered one snarl, and, af- ter partially rising, rolled over without even kicking. Next morning John Ingram and I started back with four blacks. We got there before sunrise, and found every- | thing O. K. I saw by the spoor that the !cubs were still with her. .After skinning her we went up the kopje and found two of the cubs. Then the fun began. The first one we ran out was a male, and a scrap- per, and by the way, he roared and switch- ed his tail you would have thought he was papa. We ran him down the kopje and across a little flat about 100 yards, and about 100 yards up another kop Bess grabbed him again by the ear, and they both rolled clear to the bottom, the pup (Gwande) trying to get a hold, the niggers yelling and the little lion roaring for all he was worth. We tore off our shirts and coats and threw them over the lion, and finally, by getting on top of him, succeeded in tying his legs. We then took him back to the old one and tied him. We afterward went up in the kopje and caught a cub lioness. She had taken a stand in a crevice of rock, and the dogs could not tackle her. With a short lasso and a forked stick we got her out. The cubs are beauties, and just the right age.” —--e2—___ The Trans-Siberian Railway. From the New York Times. Imperial Railway Commissioner Chilkoff has just made a long report to the czar concerning the Trans-Siberian railway. The road will be opened throughout its entire length next summer, and the journey may then be make from St. Petersburg to Vlad- ivostock in ten days. American rolling stock and locomotives will be chiefly em- ployed. The Russian commissioner has ob- tained an interesting result by calculating the actual running time of the various rail- ways and steamship lines east and west around the world, and comes to the conclu- sion that the globe may, in ordinary times and with present facilities, be circled in thirty-three days. The itinerary is as fol- lows: St. Petersburg to Viadivostock, 10 days; Viadivostock to San Francisco, 10 days; San Francisco to New York,’ 4% days; New York to Bremen, 7 Bremen to St. Petersburg, 1% day: by engaging special trains and the fastest steamers, the tour may be reduced to twenty-eight days, with an allowance of seven hours for delays. This itinerary is as follows: Moscow to Vladivostock, 149.1 hours; Vladivostock to San Francisco, 270 hours; San Francisco to New York, 73.1 hours; New York to Plymouth, 133.8 hours; Plymouth to London, 3.2 hours; London to Moscow, 36 hours; total, 665.2 hours. It is suggested that when the Trans-Siberian railway be completed that a commission, including Russian, English, German, French and American representa- tives, under the auspices of the Russian government, make the tour of the world, following the second itinerary. ————+o+-_. How Gold Was Found the Klondike. From the Century. ‘The famous Bonanza creek and the more famous El Dorado creek are very like or- dinary, every-day creeks in appearance—a lttle less civilized, perhaps, than creeks to be met with in the east. There are men living In Alaska today who have hunted i i Hl i a finding i Hl 4 H ; [ i i | £ E i i i i il! iH Fi Hs i 5 ats 4 23 eee eee 'HOW ANIMALS DIE Epidemics That Sweep Throngh For- ests and Oceans. - Spiess REMARKABLE ABSENCE OF DEAD BODIES Diseases Common to Wild and Domestic Species. PLAGUE aMONG nip cea FOXES From the London Spectator. It is difficult io avoid the corclusion that wiid animals, enfeebled by weakness or physical decay, perish because of the ab- sence of aid in sickness. But if the bills of y from causes other than the vio- lence of predatory species could be made out for the animal world, there would prob- ebly be good ground to modify the conclu- sion that this lingering death ts in store for the majority. The subject is complicated by a kind of mystery which has been long recognized in common experience, and is now attracting some of the attention ft deserves from travelers and naturalists, the disappear- ance, namely, of the animal dead, other than those killed by accident or violence. In tropical countries rapid decay dissolves the tissues of flesh, and bone-devouring beasts like the hyena may destroy the largest bores. But there is one region in which we should expect to find the bodies of such animals as have died a navural death—along the whole length of the frozen rim of the oki world, from the Petchora to Bering sea, a region where even the fruits forced into being by the arctic summer are preserved fresh beneath the snow un- til the ensuing «pring. and the remains of prehistoric beasts, the mammoth «and Siberian rhinoceros, have only undergone partial decay in the frozen soll. Here wo should also expect to discover the bodies of animals which had died at the end of the summer “‘cold-stored” till the snow broke up in the arctic spring In the Arctics, Nordenskichd in his “Voyage of the “Vega,” more than once recurs to this strange absence of the animal dead. “Near the hunting grounds,” he says, “there are often to be seen the remains of reindeer, seals, foxes or birds that have died from gunshot wounds, but no ‘self- dead’ polar bear, seal, walrus, white whale, fox, lemming or other vetebrate. The polar bear and the reindeer are found there in hundreds, the seal, walrus and white whale in thousands, and birds in millions. These birds must die a ‘natural death’ in untold numbers. What becomes of their bodies?” This disappearance of the dead, so re- markable in itself, must, we think, be left out of account in the endeavor to ascer- tain the causes of decease. These must be sought by argument from the known causes of death among domestic animals, and the numerous, if scattered, records of mortal- ity among wild ones, notes of which have often been carefully preserved, and may be found scattered over the histcry of the last ten centuries. Normal Causes. Among normal, non-epidemic causes of death many must be common both to wild and to domesticated species. “Distemper” amoang dogs and cats probably extends also to foxes. wolves and the wild felidae. Its course is often exactly like that of a wast- ing low-fever, and animals die from it in exactly the same way as a l.uman patient suffering from malaria or bilious fever, for the symptoms are cot always the same. “Chill” kills dogs, often by jaundice, and horses and cows mainly by causing internal inflammation. Death is then rapid and painful, and takes place before emaciation oy Kind is visible in the animal. Most domesticated animals. even cage birds, are liable to this cause of death; but we may assume that among wild animals, whose normal course of life does not expose them to over-exertion or “draughts,” it is less common. /mong aged domesticated ani- mals, or those which are obliged to take violent exertion, heart disease often . sudden death. “Master Magrath” died from thix; so do the racing dogs of the Northumberland miners. Aged horses fometimes drop down dead when being gently riddea from the same cause. Most very old horses wh have been turned out to grass to end their days in peace euf- fer in the end from forms of indigestion, which cause them to become so thin that their owners order them to be shot. A re- cent veterinary work ascribes this and many other equine meladies to decay or defects in the te-th due to age or acci- dents. In the same way old dogs become emaciated, even when carefully fed. Sore Throat. But, like human beings, all the canine race, and most of the felidae and bears, seem liable to forms of tumor, and unile relieved by surgery or released by euthan asia, may meet their death after gre misery and suffering. Nor should it be for- gotten that virulent sore throat is o| prevalent and fatal amongst animals, pecially cats. Consumption and other forms of tub culosis accovnt for a lange percentage of the natural deaths of domest:cated animuls. We doubt if any but the goat have com- plete immunity from it. Caitle, cats, chickens, pigeons, and in a less degree horses, dogs, rats and mice, are all victims of the tubercle-bacillus. ‘There is a long list of contagious animal diseases mainly confined to domesticated animals. Anthrax is perhaps the jeast common. Then follows the permanent list—influenza, now always present and often epidemic, and affecting all domestic animals, and probably wild ones also swine fever, aphthous fever, giander: end in some sessors the fatal “liver ro! mainly affecting sheep and rabbits, due @ parasite harbored in tainted ground aud water. Add to these the choleraic diseases from bad water and dirty soil, and we have forms of natural death sufficient to account for the total disappearance of whole xpe- cies, did not the generally healthy condi- tions under which cy live ect as a sa: guard. Unfortunately, among these. condi- tions is oac which does not make for the preservation of health, namely, the uu dency of nearly all non-carnivorous animais to herd together, and even when non-relat- ed, to seck each other’s society, Hence the astonishing violence and fatal results of animal epxiemics. Rabies in Foxes, During their prevalence the absence of the animal dead is no longer marked. On the contrary, the bodies are in evidence. Among the multitude of examples collected by Mr. George Fleming in his work on “Animal Plagues” are eighty-six epidemics affecting wild quadrupeds and birds, and twenty-seven affecting fish. Among the