Evening Star Newspaper, March 26, 1898, Page 23

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MARCH #6, 1898-94 PAGES. FIJI] CORAL REEFS Professor Alexander Agassiz’s Recent Long Tour. HIS STUDY OF MID-PACIFIC GEOLOGY What He Says of the Formation of Reefs. ORIGIN OF THE ISLANDS ase From the Boston Globe. Frof. Alexander Agassiz has returned to his home in Cambridge, after a five months" trip to the islands of the Pacific. It was made on the Yaralla, a twin-screw steamer of about 360 tons, and there was a full outfit of dredging, sounding and deep-sea towing, as weil as materials necessary to preserve the collections. The day before leaving Cambridge for the Pacific news had arrived that the expedition of Prof. David of the University of Sydney, had bored into the atoll of Funafuti to the depth of nearly 0 feet, the bottom being still in coral. But later experience would seem to indicate that a general theory of the formation of coral reefs is as far re- moved as ever. Prof. Agassiz says: 1 came to Fiji under the impression that were to visit a characteristic area of subsidence. Dana, in his last discussion of the coral reef question, states that it is impossible to find @ better series of islands than those of the Fiji to illustrate the xradual changes brought about py subsi- dence, which Wansforms a volcanic island with a fringing reef to one with a barrier, and next to one with a circular reef ring, and tfinaliy to one in which the interior island has disappeared, and has left only 4& more or less circular reefing. For these réasons one of tae Fiji atolls promised to be an admirable location for boring and settling the question of the thickness of the coral reef of an atoll. My surprise was great, therefore, to find within a mif® from Suva an elevated reef about W feet thick and 12) feet above the level of the sea, the base of the reef being underlaid by what is locally called soapstone, probabiy a kind of straiified voleanic mud. Voleanic Rocks. “But the traces of extensive elevation are not limited to the larger island of Viti Levu. I found the islands on the rim of the atoll of Ngele Levu to consist entirely of coral rock elevated to a height of over @ feet on the larger isiand. It was found that at Vanua Mbalavu the northern line ot islands were parts of an elevated reef forming vertical bluffs of coral rock raised by a central voleanic mass of the main nd to a height of from 500 to 600 feet. © south of the main island they are At Mango the vertical bluffs we On much lower. nderiaid by voicanic rocks, which crop avutha the blufts y $6) fect high, and at Lakem- bout 20. On the island of Aiwa the reef is fully 20 feet thick. On islands of the Yangasa group it of from 24) to 300 feet; on Ongea, it attams a thick- w fect, and at Fulanga 300, , th . the he sea level. At reef forming is 10 feet thick at its northern nis plainly shows that the southern Levu and as far south as Vatu ihe whole length of the wind- of the Fiji group from Ngele north to Ongea on the south, to an elevation of at as there is abundant proof Tt of the thickness of the -d reef has been eroded to reduce it aim localities to the level of the sea leave at others bluffs and islands or the occurrence of which we have t so many points. But the evidence of a very considerable elevation is not lim- ited to that furnished by the rem: the elevated reefs just mentioned; natural to assume that the elevation we have just traced was but a part of a more eneral elevation, which perhaps took place in tertiary times, and in which the whole group was involved. Fringing Reefs. “From this evidence I am inclined to think that the corals of today have ac- tually played no part in the shaping of the cireular or irregular atolls scattered among the Fiji Islands; furthermore, that they have had nothing to do in our time with the building up of the barrier reefs sur- reunding either wholly or in part some of the islands. I also believe that their mod- ifying influence h: been entirely lmited im the present epoch to the formation of ‘fringing reefs, and that the recent corals living upon the reefs either of the atolls or of the barriers form only a crust of very moderate thickness upon the under- lying base. This base may be elther a flat of an eroded, elevated reef or of a similar substructure of volcanic rocks, the nature of that base depending absolutely upon its character when elevated in a former period to a greater height than {t now occupies. Denudation and erosion act more rap- ily on the elevated reef rocks than upon se of a volcanic character. It is, there- natural to find that the larger islands, like Kandavu, Tuvinin and Ovalau, are of volcanic origin, while the islands which ence occupied the area of, the lagoons of Negele Levu, of the Nanuku reef, of Vanua vu, of the Argo reefs, of the Oneata, Yangasa, Alwa Ongea and Vatu Leile clus- ters, being elevated coral reefs, they have diszppeared almost entirely, leaving only here and there a small island to attest to the former existence of the more extensive f, once covering the whole area now an atoll. ation and erosion have been still mcre active in the Ringgold Islands, in the Kimbobo cluster, and in Komo, and it may have gone so far as to leave no trace in an atoll to indicate either its voleanie or coral €levated reef origin, the shape of the atoll be:rg entirely due to mechanical action, and not being connected in any way with the growth of the corals which have been found a footing upon reef flats formed by atmospheric agencies or by the action of the sea. Denudation and Erosion. “As far as we can judge from the Fifi Islands, the shape of the atolls and of the barrier reefs is due to causes during a pe- Fried preceding our own. The islands of the . Whole group have been elevated, and have, like the northern part of Queensland, re- mained nearly stationary and exposed to xreat and prolonged denudation and ero- sion, which has reduced the islands to their prevent height, the platforms upon which the barrier reef corals have grown being merely the flats left by the denudation and erosion of a central island of greater size than that now left, while the atolis are similar flats from the interior of which the islands have been eroded, and the lagoons of which have been continually scoured by the action of the sea, the incessant rollers pouring a huge mass of water into the la- goon, which finds its way out through the passages leading into it. in the Fiji Islands the atolls and islands or islets, surrounded in part or wholly by barrier reefs, have not been formed by the subsistence and disappearance of this cen- tral island, as is claimed by Dana and Dar- win. The Fiji Islands are not situated, as was supposed, in an area of subsistence; but, on the contrary, they are in an area of elevation, so that the theory of Darwin and of Dana is not applicable to the is- lands and atolls of the Fiji group. “What the age of the elevgted reef of the Fiji is 1 am unable to state. Its aspect and position show it to be of considerable age, probably antecedent to the present period. In many ways it resembles some of the late tertiary elevated limestones which I have seen on the northern and southern coasts of Cuba. The great thick- ness which the elevated coral reefs attain in this group, at least S00 feet, also shows that they may have been deposited origi- nally during a period of subsidence, but rot a period of subsidence taking place in our epoch or which could have had any effect in shaping the outline of the islands of the Fiji group and their accompanying reefs. Proof by Boring. “The evidence thus far collected on the Fijis shows the futility of boring in this group. Any result obtained would merely at some point indicate the thickness of a former elevated reef—a reef formed in a period preceding our own. We should ob- tein information which could have no bear- ing on the main question, if I am correct .| in the interpretation of what I have ob- served, information, ip fact, which may be obtained as one steams along without the trouble or cost.of boring. Should I be cor- rect, it would be natural to look upon the results of the boring at Funafut! much in the same light and to assume that the island, as well as others in the Ellice group, is also in the area of elevation, and that the great thickness of coral ob- tamed was reached by boring in the base of an ancient reef. Sc that the results ob- tained by Prof. David from the boring at Fenafuti do not assist us in any way in corroberating the theory of subsidence as essential to the formation of atolls." * “However that may be, it only empha- sizes what has been said so often, that there is no general theory of the formation of ceral reefs, either barrier or aio.ls, of universal application. Each disirict must be examined by itself—at least, such has been my experienc? in Fiorida, in the Ber- mudas, the Bahamas, in Cuba and the West _India Islands and the Sandwich Isiands. The results of this trip show Plainly that the theory of Darwin and Dana of the formation of atolls and of bar- rier reefs by subsidence, is not applicable to the Fiji Islands, notwithstanding the bering at Funafuti by Prof. David of the University of Sydney. In the localities that I have visited the coral reefs form but a thin crust upon the underiying base—it is not more than fifty to sixty feet thick in Florida—and the shape and slope of the base is in no way due to the growth of the cerals living upon it. Masses of Coral. “This still leaves open the question of the formation of such thick masses of ccral reef rock, which, though they may originally have been formed by subsidence, as other massive deposits have been, yet may also have been formed by the gradual pushing out to seaward of the outer edge of the reef. the reef ircreasing both in keight and in width by the constant push- ing out of the mass of debris and of blocks detached from the outer edge, forming a talus upon which corais may grow when- ever the talus has reached the depth at which they thrive. I am inclined to think that the careful study of such a shore reef will alone give us a correct idea of the mencer in which such thick masses of coraline limestone may have been formed. “There are in Fiji a number of small atolls from one to three or four miles in circumference, the formation of which, it seems to me, can only be satisfactorily ex- plained on the theory that they have been formed upon the eroded summits or rims of extinct craters, the rim of the volcano having been eroded either to a continuous flat or to flats separated by deeper pas- sages, forming entrances to the inclosed lagoons. The great variety of causes which bave been active in shaping the present physiogonomy cf the reefs and atolls of Fiji shows the impossibility of assigning any one factor, like subsidence for instance, as is done by Dana and Dar- win, as the Single cause for the furmation cf the r-any different kinds of atolls and barrier-reef islands to be found in the Fiji group.” geen MONACO AND MONTE CARLO. How the Gaming Capital of the World Begun. * Wm. Drysdale in the New York Times. Monaco and Monte Carlo were always more or less confused in my mind until I ezme here, and pexsibly they may be in yeurs. Monaco is the name of the king- dom as well as of the capital an. chief town, and Monte Carlo is a separate town, lying also on the coast of the Mediterran- ean. The two places were originally about a mile apart, but the single street along the shore which connects them hes been so built up that now they ere practically one, and itis hard to tell when you are in Monte Carlo and when you cross the line ipto Monaco. Monaco is the old town, with dwellings and shops end castles and dirt and a market place like any other small European city, but Monte Carlo is new, and lives entirely upon the Casino. There are few dwe!ling houses in it, few shops, few permanent residents beyond the hotel people and Casino employes, and even the Casino men live mestly in Mona- co, where rents are cheaper. Monte Carlo corsists chiefly of the Casino and its ap- purtenances, a group of hotels, a railway station and a very handsome arched stone railway bridge. Here are the Maritime Alps, rising al- Most out of the back yards of both places, the sea in front, no bits of arable land big- ger than flower beds, no manufactures, no chance for any irdustries beyond fishing and retailing groceries, if you take away the gaming tables. It was a strong temp- tation, no doubt, to their little majesties 02 Monaco to go in for anything that prom- ised to bring money into the country. And the winter climate was the best in Europe, and therefore suitable fcr a great winter resort. Let us give the devil his due, and say that the prince was not without rea- scns for making himself the chief gam- bling pimp of the world. The gambling in- dustry was begun here in 1856, but enly in a small way. Then, four years later, a person named Blanc, who had been ex- pelled from Hamburg, came here and de- veloped it. At present the gaming tables support everything. The Casino Company pays the prince $250,000 a year for the con- cession, though that is only a small pari of what they really pay, as I shall show in a moment. This is a stock company of the ordinary kind, like any mining or in- surance company, with shares that can be bought in the market and that pay such handsome dividends that they command always a high premium. So, if you are a millionaire, as I hope you are, and would like to be in a position to dictate to a real prince, you need only come over to Monaco and buy enough shares in this company. Tkey ars $100 shares, and sell at present at about $300, I believe. ———_+-e+____ Only Perfect Stradivarius. From the Scots Pictorial. In connection with the death the other day of Mr. Laurie, the Glasgow violin ex- pert, reference was made to his having had through his hands the famous Stradi- varius violin, which has come to be known somewhat irrelevantly, if not absurdly, as “The Messiah. The instrument is now in the possession of Mr. B. Crawford of New- park, Trinity, Edinburgh, who a few years ago paid no less than £2,000 for it. As re- cently as 1872 Charles Reade (who knew as much about fiddles as about the trade of letters) had valued the instrument at £600, putting the worth of the varnish alone at £5! Villaume, the high priest of fiddle- making in Paris, had it at this time. He kept it till his death in 1875. From Vil- laume the treasure descended to M. Alard, the great French violinist, who gave £1,000 for it. He died in 1888, and two years later Mr. Crawford risked his £2,000 on it. There is some reason for the high figure. The in- strument is the only one that has come down from Stradivarius’ own hands in a state of perfect preservation. It has been very little played upon, and its glowing, ruddy varnish is as fresh as if it had been put on only a week ago. Mr. Crawford has a second Strad. and also a very fine Guar- nerius. It is but a question of a few years and the instrument—if it is ever sold—will fetch a considerably higher~price. —+e+____ Bactert: Attractions, Prof. Ray Lankester, in a recent lecture in England, gave a clear and easily under- stocd explanation“ of how inoculations of mild disease will cure or prevent the se- verer kinds. Protoplasm, he said, had the capacity for being taught to tolerate a ckemical action from which it naturally shrank. A maes of protoplasm attracted in the direction of a solution of sulphate of fron would-at first grow down to the edge of it and then draw back, but in a Httle time would plunge boldly through and across it, and this protoplasm thenceforth weuld have ro fear of sulphat3 of iron. The amoeboid corpuscles of the blood are attracted by what is called “chemotaxis” to the germs of disease entering the body and swallow them up; but these bacteria in their turn produce a poison which re- pels the corpuscles. The latter, however, INDIA'S) HOARDED WEALTH Millions of Gold Bricked Up in Secret Vaults. The Hindous, Even Among the Rich- est, Are Fragul, and What They They Hide. Save W. Forbes Mitchell in Springfield Republican. During the first decade of my residence in India I was for some years associated with a wealthy banker named Lalla Mut- tra Pershaud, the Lahore agent of the great banking house known as “The Seths of Muttra,” and from him I learned a great deal about the system of hoarding prac- ticed in all ages by the wealthy classes of India. He died at Brindabun about 1867. It may be explained that the title “Lalla, used by native bankers, has no exact equiv- alent in English. It might with equal pro- priety be translated master, professor or banker. Both in ancient and modern times, one of the stock objections of European nations against trade with India has been that that country absorbs a large amount of the precious metals, which she never disgorges. It has naturally been askéd what becomes of these treasures, for we do not find in India that abundance of either gold or sil- ver which might naturally be expected; and the reply has always been that they are withdrawn from circulation as curren- cy by being hoarded. For ages it has been a prevalent opinion in all eastern countries that there if a vast amount of treasure hidden in the earta, which, unless found by accident, is entirely lost to man. When up country last year i heard that Chowringhec Lall, manager to Lalla Mut- tra Pershaud, already mentioned, was in Gwaliot oh some temporary businéss, and 1 called on him, as an old friend, at a place in the Lushkar where he was residing. Among other subjects, we discussed the ac- tion of the government in closing the mints, and I asked his opinion about the possibil ty of a gold standard for India, and men- tioned the fact tnat certain meinbers of the currency association considered that 50,000,- 000 sterling of gold wouid be sufficient to Provide India with a gold currency. The Lalla laughed the idea to scorn, and as- sured me that 50,000,000 would not suffice to replace the silver hoards of even one state. “You know,” he said, “how anxious the late Muherajah Scindia was to get back the fortress of Gwalior, but very few know the real cause prompting him. That was a concealed hoard of sixty crores (60,- 000,000 sterling) of rupees in certain vaults within the fortress, over which British sen- Unels had been walking for about thirty years, never suspecting the wealth con- cealed below their feet. Long before the British government gave back the fortress, every one who knew the entrance into the concealed hoard was dead, except one man, who was extremely old, and, although in good health, he might have died any day. if that had happened, the treasure might have been lost to the owner forever, and to the world for ages, because there was only ene entrance to the hoard, which was most cunningly concealed, and, except that en- trance, every other part was surrounded by solid rock. “So the maharajah was in such a fix that he must either get back his fortress, or di- vulge the secret to the government, and run the risk of losing the treasure forever. When the fortress was given back to the maharajah, and before the British troops had left Gwalior territory, masons were brought from Benares, sworn to secrecy in the temple of the Holy Cow, before leaving; and when they reached the Gwalior rail. Way station they were put into carriages, blindfolded, and driven to the place where they had to work. There they were kept till they had opened out the entrance into the secret vault; and, when the concealed hoard had been verified, and the hole built up again, they were once more blindfolded, put into carriages and taken back to the railway station and rebooked for Benares under a proper escort.” Chowringhee Lall went on to tell me that for generations before the rise of the Brit- ish power, his ancestors had held the post of treasurer tn the Gwalior state, and that, after the British had annexed ‘territories around Delhi, one of his great-grand-uncles had retired from the post of treasurer of Gwalior with a fortune of 20 crores of Tupees (20,000,000 sterling). By great good fortune, all this money was quietly got into British territory, he declared; and 15 crores of it are at this day bricked up in a secret vault under a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess of wealth in the holy city of Brindabun. “Now.” said the Lalla, “if the treasurer could accumulate so much, what Were the accumulations of the state likely to be? The treasures of Gwalior form but @ very small amount compared with the total of the known concealed wealth of India. All the silver would be brought out and replaced by gold directly the British government decreed a gold currency for ndia. “Five hundred millions of gold would absorbed and concealed before & gold tae rency had been twelve months in circula- tion. Europeans. even those who have been in the country for years, have no idea of the hoarding propensities of even well-to- do natives, without counting the more wealthy bankers and traders. For exam- ple, my wife,” said the Lalla, “has more than three lakhs of rupees hidden for fear of my dying before her, because I am much older than she fs, and we have no son alive to inherit my property. And I know noth- ing abcut the place where this money is concealed.”” On this I asked how accumulate so much wealth, and the Lalla replied: “Natives don’t spend like Euro- peans. Take the house of any well-to-do mative merchant with an income of, say, a thousand rupees per month; at the very outside, 50 to 100 rupees would purchase the whole of the furniture in it. Beyond a few purdahs (curtains) and beds, furniture in the European sense does not exist. Even the very wealthy, although they may have @ carriage and horses, possess neither books nor pictures, nor any expensive works of art; and, when a feast is given to their friends, a piece of a plantain leaf serves each guest for a dish, where Euro- peans spend hundreds of rupees in dinner and breakfast services of fragile but most expensive china and glassware. " All this the native saves and hoards. The wealthy conceal their accumulations of gold and silver in secret vaults, except the orna- ments, which are reserved for and worn by thelr women.” I had to admit the force of all this reasoning. ———~+-o+—____ Ibsen’s Quiet Rebuke, William H. Schofield in the Atlantic. No man ever was so loath as Ibsen to say anything regarding what he had him- self written. It is thus he shields himself from the importuntties of curious travelers and interviewers who plague him beyond endurance. Even at court balls, which he scmetimes attends, however, he is not rid of the importunate; and on one occasion a German lady received one of those quiet rebukes to tmpertinence which have given him a well-merited reputation for reticent reserve. Hardly had she been presented to him before she broke out into expressions of enthusiastic admiration, and finally wound up with the question which Ibsen has heard so often that he is now tired of it, “Do you mind telling me, Dr. Ibsen, what you meant by-Peer Gynt?” natives managed to without answering the query. finally raised his head, threw back his shock of white hair, adjusted his glasses, looked quizzically into the woman’s and then slowly drawled out: Bes “Oh, my dear madam, when I wrote P Gynt only our Lord and I knew what f meant; and as for me, I have entirely for- circulation of coins that we are forget that there are millions beings who know nothing whatever coins, and conduct their transactions means of cowries, brass cotton or cloth and divers other important article of commerce from of England. Recent-| pheake, rn uene made (to: displace: this RANDOM« MERSE. — Adios. _ ‘Written for The Evening Star by V. C. M. ‘Yes, Senor de Lome, go back tp your bome, And you richly deserve, on your route, ‘To te drummed frem eu, shore before you write more, Of what you know nothing about. “From Madeid to Madrid” (syhich you'd better have hid), Has roused every womas's céhtempt, ~ And the falsehoods you t@ld, if; a manner 20 Prove your soul of all honor exempt. Pray, where did you find the remarkable kind Of woman of whom you ;there}speak? "Tis pity you met with quite such a ‘set,’ But—‘‘Water its level wilt sdeu.”” ‘The next time you write try to get an insight Of the homes of the best to be found, Or, perhaps you might change of your eyesight the range ‘That your statements may rest on some ground! Your recent mistake was a very “‘bad break,” And bas brought its deserved result, But please understand, in this courteous land, Nor its “rulers"” nor ‘queens’ bear insult! So bie to yout home, Senor Dupuy de Lome, Be advised, and forget how to write; No longer remain, for should war come with Spain, We women are ready to fight. aa ee Love's Time Table. Virginta Duncan in Mother's Magazine. Ok, Margery sweet, in your daffodil Montpaee atithactaraton ee oes Beside a wee lassie with lashes of brown Wito cons the old table with care. 5 “Sixty seconds a migute,”’ I hear her repeat. “Nay, aot for a lover,” I call, ‘Tis “an hour I would’swear When I’m watting, petite, For Margery here in the hall.’* “But when on the sofa, with ghts dim and low, ‘She neais my sweet story ‘again, Too soon the old clock will be bidding Sixty minutes a second make them.” —_—_-+e+______ The Battle Ship. Minna Irving in the Criterion. Prond swan of the waters, white eagle of war, The blue billows ripple from under her keel, And the kiss of the foam and the tears of’ the spray Are sali in the sun on her girdle of steel. ‘Those stars at her peak, that in tempest arose, ‘Those stripes that were bought with the blood of the bh She will gallantly’ guard till her skeleton Mes, In a sea-weeded sepulcher, deep in the wave. me go. ‘The Llack cannon crouch on the snow of her decks, With the thunder asleep In their throat, but beware, "Tis the voice of the nation that speaks to the world When the hand of her gunner 4s lifted in air, And the language they ultet is even the same ‘That Lexington heard on that morning of yore When, the scarlet-clad soldiers lay dead in the lust And the power of a tyrannous king was no more! ae eS The Measure of Life. ‘Ten years a gracious heaven gives To muke man conscious that he lives. Then twenty years of ardor sweet, And hopes that dance with winged feet. Another score to strive and weep, And bind youth's dreams with gyves of sleep. And last the harvest twenty come, Reap, bind and take the pathway ‘home. MES BUCKHAM. se. The Fight at the San Jacinto. John Williamson Palmer in the Chap Book. “Now for a brisk and cheerful fight!” Said Harman, big and drell, As he coaxed His flint ond steel for a light, id puffed at his cold clay Dowl; ‘or we are a skulking Jot,” zeys he, ‘Of land-thieves hereapout,, And these bold sencres, 430 “bp ane, Have come to smoke ug. cut." Santa Ania and Almonte brave 1 Portilla red from ig: And Cos with his smart array. Dulees and cigaritos, And the light guitar, tingtum! drum, Sant’ Anna courts slexta. And Sam Houstoa taps ‘The buck stands still in the ittmner— “Is it patter of nuts that fall?” ‘The foal of the wild mare whinnies— Did he hear the Con-ouche call? In the brake by the crawling’ bayou ‘The slinking she-wolves how]; And the mustang’s snort:tu the river sedge Has stortled the paddling fowl. A soft, low tap, and a muffled tap, And a'roll not loud nor long We would not bre:.k Sant" Aitna’s nap, Nor spoll Almonte’s sc: Saddles and knives and rifiést Lord! bit the men were’ glad When Deaf Smith muttere And Karnes hissed “Goliad! The drummer tucked his sticks in his belt, ‘And the fifer gripped bis gun. Oh, for cne free, wild Texan yell, As we tock the slope in a runt But never a shout nor a shot we spent, Nor an oath nor a prayer that day, Till we faced the braves, eye to eye, And then we blazed away. lamot’* Then we knew the rapture of Ren Milam, . And the glory that Travis madi With Bowie's iunge. and Crocket And Fannin’s dancing blade And the heart of the fighter, bounding free In his joy so hot and mad— When Millard charged for Alamo, Lamar for Goliad. shot, Deaf Smith rode straight, with reeking spur, Into tke shock and rout: “T've hacked and burned the bayou, bridges There's no sneak's back-way out!" Muzzle or butt for Golin Pistol and blade and fist! Oh, for the knife that never glanced, And the gun that never missed! Dulces and cigaritos, Song and the mandolii That gory swamp is a grewsome grove To dance fandangos in. We bridged the bog with the sprawling herd That fell in that frantic rout. We slew and slew till the sun set red, And the Texan star flashed out. coe Prepared. John White Chadwick in Harper’s Magazine. Oft have I wondered at the fearless heart With which strong men and tender women go To meet great Death; but now I seem to know The secret of their courage. "Tis a part Of their whole life, the end of all thou art, Q Nature, to thelr souls. ‘The steady flow Of time is ceaseless; thick thy hand doth sow ‘The void with stars, while from earth’s bosom start The lovely flowers, and there are trees and streams, ‘And women’s faces and love's mystery. And all these thi: are influences that give ‘The needed lesson. They are all Of the one strangeness and the la: be Of death afreid when we have dared to lye? —_——_ —+ee__ The Town of Nogood. W. E. Penney in the New Haven Register. friend, have you heard of the town of Nogood, the Banks of the River Slow, Where blooms the Waitawhile flower fair, Where the Sometimeorother scents the afr’ ‘And the soft Goeasys grow? It Mes in the valley of Whatatheuse, In the province of Leterslide. ‘That Tiredfeeling is native there. It's the home of the reckless Idon’tcare, ‘Where the Giveitups abide. It stands at the bottom of Lazyhill, ‘And is easy to reach, I declare. You've only to fold up your ds and site Down the slope of Weakwill’s toboggan ‘To be landed quickly there. ‘The town is as old as the human race, And it grows with the flight of years. It is wrapped in the fog of. idlers’ dreams, Its streets ar paved. with:didearded schemes And sprinkled with uselzes tears. yer ‘The Collegebredfool and the Bichman’s heir Are plentiful there, nordouht. ‘The rest of its crowd are a motley crew, ‘With every class except ee im view— The Foolkiller is barred,out. ‘The town of Nogood is all hedged about No yentinel stand of Be alls, sentinel stands on walls, ° nd triumph calls, ‘No trumpet to battle a1 ~ For cowards alone ure there. friend, from the dea; town Nc Mie Sou outa keep far wieayee o"™ Nome Just follow your duty Take this for your motto, * good and i, eS i ‘And live up to it each jay. > _ ‘Time's Vj jes. We wandered by the ri a ‘The maiden fair and ‘My arm about her w: tied, ler looks were coy ri ‘The mecon on test sheen 23 A JAPANESE FACTORY The Way Matches Are Made and Put Up. Endless Toil of Handling and Count- .ing All Done by Hand for Twenty- Five Cents a Day. From the Manchester Guardian, In bis report to the foreign office on the subject of commerce in Japan Byfon Bren- an says: It is perhaps in a match factory that the advantages of cheap labor can best be seen. Osaka and Kobe are the centers of this industry, which employs some 12,- 0Q0 persons. Nearly the whole process is done by-hand, and the cost of making ma- chines chiefly resolves itseif into a ques- tion of wages. A large factory at Osaka employs 1,500 hahds, principally young g.rls. It is only in such parts of the pro- cess as require physical strength that men are employed or where the duties to be performed are essentially men’s work, such as soldering tin cases, wheeling trucks, stoking furnaces, etc. In this fac- tory .the splints are imported ready cut from the northern island of the empire. Before being dipped in the chemical preparation they are placed in the frames by women, who become marvelously expert at_their work. The woman takes a number of splints between her fingers and practice soon teaches her how many are required. With a rapid pass of the fingers she spreads the splints along a thin piece of wood an inch wide and a foot long, into which have been scored fifty shallow grooves at regular intervals. By deft manipulation one pass of the fingers leaves about forty- five grooves duly filled ard with lightning rapidity the five empty grooves receive their little stick; then another strip of wood is superposed and keeps the lower one in position. The process is repeated fifty-five times and then the frame is full. Thus 2,750 splints go to each frame. A very practiced hand will fill fifty frames in a day of ten hours, and taus earn 17% cents, but in this establishment there were but few who could fill more than forty frames a day. As in every other department where the nature of the occupation allows it, this work is paid by the piece at the rate of 3% cents for ten frames. The wo- men work on the floor, each in her little penlike compartment, rafled off by bamboo poles. The Japanese woman's attitude at work, in which she will remain for hours, is to kneel and sit back on her feet, which are turned tces inward under her. Each worker has her box with a supply of splints, and a number of frames at hand, and an overseer comes round periodically to count and remove the full frames. In one room were working some hundred young girls and women, some of them mothers, with their bates strapped on their backs, or crawling round clinging to the mother and innocently impeding her in her work. After the splints in the frames have re- ceived the chemical treatment and passed through the drying rooms—all this being the work of men—the matches again come into the hands of women, and in the box- filling and box-labeling rooms the visitor 1s again amazed at the celerity of human fingers. In the box-filling room young girls and women are again sitting on the floor in rows, and the small babies re- appear either on the mother’s back or at her side. A rapid worker will fill 400 dozen boxes per day; with unerring judg- ment the delicate fingers pick up the exact quantity of matches and with a shake or two lay them evenly in the box; then, in- stead of replacing the original cover on to the full case, the woman pushes the latter into a new cover, and in doing so pushes out an empty case, which in its turn as soon as filled displaces another tenant. This work is rewarded at the rate of 5% cents per 100 dezen, and a very quick work- er may earn 22 cents. In the box-labeling room it is again women's work. Each woman has in front of her a board on which are laid a pot of paste and a small pile of labels face down- ward. At her side are the unadorned match boxes. A emall quantity of paste 1s spread on the board, and then almost more rapidly than the eye can follow the flat brush is dabbed on to the paste, swept across the topmost label to which it ad- heres, the label is slapped on to the box and a rub of the finger secures it in its Place. The best woman can label 25,000 boxes a day, and while I was noticing one girl my watch told me that she was doing more than one a second, but she was the show worker of the room and on her met- tle, and such rapidity could not” be kept up for long. ‘Ihis work is paid 1 cent per 1,000 boxe ——___~+ e+___ PROFITS OF THE SUBZ CANAL. An Extortionate Charge for Vessels Passing Through. From Tit-Bits. ‘The Suez canal is just under one hundred miles long. The enterprise, as every one knows, has been highly successful from a financial point of view, the receipts an- nually being considerably over £3,000,000. This is due to the fact that the saving to large vessels consuming great quantities of coal, as against going round the Cape of Good Hope, is so great that the Suez Canal Company are in a position to ask huge rates, not to say extortionate ones. It is true that, happily, Great Britain owns about half the shares and reaps a very handsome profit; but as, out of 3,500 ves- sels or thereabouts, 2,200 are British ships, it is to some extent like taking it from one section of the ccmmunity to give it to an- other. Recently the owner of a large steam yacht wanted to go as far as Ismailia, @ distance of about forty miles, just to see the canal, and come back again. The trip would have only taken a few hours, and the sum asked, according to the scale of their rates, was nearly £500. The owner very properly said he would rather throw the money into the sea, or, better still, give it to the poor, than submit to such a ridic- ulous demand. It is easy to see the canal from the railway which runs alongside it. it. is a very curious experience from the wirdows of the train—the trackless desert on the one side and on the other enormous vessels, the largest afloat, perhaps 5,000 tons or more, steaming apparently through the land; because you oniy get occasional glimpses of the canal itself. At night these Monsters of the deep haye their hundreds of electric lights shining brightly, with a huge search light on deck, to show them the way, and the sight is most picturesque viewed from the railway carriage windows of this little line. ———__ -+e+___+__ ON THE RIVER OF EGYPT, ‘Wild, Weird Chanting Songs of t! Arab Boatmen. G. W. Steevens in the London Mail. ‘Assouan is the southern frontier of Egypt, the terminus of the Lower Nile. And it looks like a terminus. We came to it on a lazy afternoon, too late for coffee, too early for tea. The Nile, which -had been lazy too, began to show signs of a current. We tied up by a bank of yellow sand; in front of us, to the left, was a long line of palms with white houses peeping from behind them—Assouan. Beyond it a lofty rise of rock—at least, it looks lofty in Egypt—met the elevation of @ rocky, tree-grown island —Blephentine. Between the two came dcwn the river, still fretting from the Cat- aract. It narrowed between the two elbows of rock, and turned a corner, so that it lcoked as if Assouan were not only the end of Egypt, but vhe end of the Nile. pate Guar of pete in a boat, for my friend’s dahabeah. Lucky are the friends of my friend, and his welcome always gives you to believe he came to this ‘particular corner expressly to. meet you. Now I was to liv u E é af eek HE j = a i iit fe | the bows kept whining and grunting with & kind of modest enthusiasm. Well he might, for he was the musician of the crew. The Arab sailor won't take the river with- out a bard to soothe and stimulate him as he rows. He can’t do without him. I could. So we slowly furrowed up the water, dancing golden in the sloping sun, till we came under the leftward shore of Elephan- tine. And there—where was I? At Henley or in Oxford for the eights? r there lay moored a row of half a dozen white-painted houseboats—houseboats, if you please, at the far end of Egypt, 800 miles from the sea. But on examination they were not exactly like houseboats, either. The after part was like it, with many windo and awning, cushions, and lounge chairs; for- ward the boats were low in the water and sharp-nosed, as if built for sailing. They carried a mast and the yard of an enorm- ous lateen sail that looked as if it were balanced on top of the mast, and sloped up- ward from just above the bow till it hung towering almost over the uprising stern. That was a dahabeah—or, rather, just half of one. For this was a sort of yacht with auxiliary steam in the shape of a tug to tow it up stream when winds are light and current contrary. With the lateen sail and the tug together you can’t go wrong— but for the moment, what had I to do with the tug? For the boat had come alongside, fouling the proprietor’s fishing line in its merry Arab way; in a moment we were aboard and in the saloon. Many people would be only too glad to have that saloon, lying placidly 600 miles from the nearest Possible upholsterer and decorator, for their drawing room at home. Fine furni- ture, books, pictures, plano—and these the setting for that crowning blessing of civili- zation—an English lad: Then dinner, with everything that the Nile can furnish, or that can be persuaded by any device of science to keep during the journey, good wine, good service, good bed—and not a minute's trouble to the people who enjoy it. They just order a dahabeah—and the da- habeah is there, equipped down to the last table napkin. That means a complete holi- day—a real holiday. Just as you get a ready-made hotel in the Nile steamer, so in the dahabeah you get a ready-made home. -o+—__ PROFANITY COMFORTED HIM. An Exile Who Died Happy Hearing Oaths. From the Chicago Record. For myself, I knew of the case of a young Javanese who came to Chicago shortly af- ter the fair end who was stranded there! There was something wrong with him. He could not get any kind of an understanding of the language. The Javanese colony be- ing limited to one person, and that person himself, he naturally got homesick and pired. They took him to a hospital and he grew worse. Nothing in particular the matter with bkim—just lonesomeness. He weuld look up with wide, searching eyes at all who came to call in his ward, and he lstened apparently for some familiar word, but nobody could talk Javanese, so he had no meens of communication with the world. Perhaps you cannot appreciate this Poor fellow’s position. Just imagine your- self in Fez or Madagascar, homesick and dying for the sound of one English word, and never hearing anything but a subdued Jabber in an utterly unknown tongue. It was the way with this Javanese. One Gay a man who had driven a canal beat in the east and after that had piloted a delivery team in Chicago, and in some other and tributary ways had laid the foundation for a thorough grasp upon the language of violence, was brought into the hospital suffering from a broken jeg. The injured leg was getting along fiist-rate until ene of the internes in passing the cot in some unacccurtable way slippel, and, to catch feoting, reached toward the bed and seized the man’s foot, which was truss- ed toward the ceiling with ropes. The con- tact and the wrench must have hurt the pa- ent. AnyWay, hg said so. He said s0 with great force and volume. He painted that hospital purple, green, yellow and ver- milion. His remarks were copious and florid. And through all that Vesuvian erup- tion that young Javanese listened with the light of a great joy in his face. His weary eyes flashed with pleasure and his cheeks took on a temporary color. He followed every evolution of the ex-canal boatman’s speech. And when the injured person had quite finished the youth dropped back upon his pillows and closed his eyes. They came to give him his medicine afterward and found that he had died. Peacefully, evi- dently, and with a joyous spirit. He had gcne out with the closing remark of that man who spoke at last in a language which the poor exile understood. When drawing attention about a year ago to the bipedal movements of certain Aus- tralian lizards, notably the comical little chlamydosaurus, or “‘frilled lizar@,” whose photograph is now familiar, Mr. Saville- Kent referred to an unconfirmed rumor that the Mexican iguanoid lizard also possesses the power of running on its hind legs, being led to this by the correspondence in gen- eral structure of the creatures, especially the abnormal length of the hind limbs. He pubiishes a letter from a gentleman living in the West Indies, which shows that there also all the lizards, from the large tree iguana, five feet long, down to the tiniest mites which scamper about among the stones, are accustomed to run erect on their hind legs when hurried. The correspondént adds the interesting information that on the rocks about the watershed of the Gui- ana are old drawings of lizards running erect. Mr. Saville-Kent points out that this peculiarity, which a year ago was doubted by many naturalists, but which has now been shown to be common to so many dif- ferent species of lizards, deserves attention as pointing to bipedal locomotion in some remote uncestor. Sounding Apparatus. From the Savannah News. Rapid-test soundings were required in some work on a railway line between Paris and Havre, where tlie cast-iron viaduct of Bezons was replaced by an arch bridge a:ongside. The old foundations for six chan- nel piers were removed to the bottom of the river. It was 1equired that the river bed should be carefully leveled: After it had been dredged the bottom was explored by means of a horizontal bar of iron about twenty feet long, which was suspended at each end from a framework uniting two flat boats in catamaran fashion. This beam was lowered close to the bottom and the boats were gradually moved along in the direction transverse to the length of the bar. When the scraper encountered no ir- regularity, the suspending chains hung ver- tically, but as soon as either end was de- flected by contact with any obstruction an electric circuit was closed, which caused an alarm to be rung. The boat was stop- ped, and the obstruction located by means of soundirg poles. In this way, small stones, down to a diameter of four inches, were easily located, and the bed of the river was leveled to within that amount of irregularity. This method proved rapid and successful, Child Life in China. From Troth. We have all heard, in a general way, of the cruelty of the Chinese in summarily of Chinese parents toward their offspring is quite at variance with some of the things we have heard. He says that the little are the objects of unlimit2d par- ental devotion; especially do the fathers love their little ones, and lavish upon them i Lid Ht i H i ft y | HUNGARY'S TZIGANES — The Peculiarities of These Picturesque Nomads. ——_.—____ THEY HATE THE IDEA OF WORK All Possess a Love of Half-Savage Music. ——_- DWELL FOREVER IN TENTS ee Hungarian Letter in New York Times. There are about 150.000 Tzicanes in Hun- gary. They may be divided into three classes—those who go bereheaded and barefooted, the wandering gypsies; those who wear headgear and shoés on Sundays, the semi-nomads, and those who always wear hats and shoes, and who have to a great extent abandoned the nomadic lives of their ancestors. These latter are the most civilized, and are generally musi- clans, who excel in the playing of Hun- garian tunes. When the Tziganes arrived in Hungary they were not trained mu cally, but they soon appropriated Magyar music, and out of it have made a crude and weird art of their own. Their favorite instrument is the “bas ‘alja,” as they term the violin. Some play the harp, but they have a marked aversion for the piano, for the reason that it cannot be easily moved about. In Hungary no fete or festival takes place without a Tzigane orchestra. At elec- tion times a Tzigane band always heads the electoral processions, and no wedding is considered complete without their musio for the dance. The natural musicians, tion and generally music. Liszt, Tziganes, says that music is to them a sublime language, a mystic song, which they often make use of instead of conver- sation, and that they have, in fact, invent- ed a music of their own. One of the fa- vorite abodes of these st ge people is near the frontier of Croatia. It is there that the typical Bohemians are seen at their best. Their “camps” are always set up at some distance from the nearest. town or village, often in close proximity to some forest. The Tzigane huts—for they are nothing more—consist of a single room, un- less the owner ts extremely well-to-do, and generally devoid of furniture. Rade Life. The Tziganes eat and sleep on the bare boards. At all times of the day there is a smoldering fire in the hut, over which hangs a sandstone pot, for the Tzigane has no fixed hour for his meals, but eats when- ever he feels hungry. The ordinary bill of fare consists of potatoes, stews, milk and lard. On festive occasions such tit- bits are indulged in as hedgehogs, foxes and squirrels. ,Cats are considered by the Tziganes a princely diet. Dogs are trained to hunt hedgehogs and foxes. They have a peculiar manner of cooking foxes. They are placed in running water for a couple of days and then cooked under hot coa in a hole in the ground. The Tziganes have a partiality for the flesh of dead ani- mals, and whenever a farm or a stable takes fire they rush to the scene in the hope of finding the carcass of some dead animal. Like certain oriental races, they use their fingers only in eating. Tzigane women, as a rule, go about half naked, the young girls wearing nothing but a small apron, excepting when they go to the neighboring town. The men wear but little clothing, and until the time of their marriage, at between twelve and fifteen years, they go about almost naked. After marriage, however, they attire themselves in the gaudy Hungarian national costume, of which they are very proud. Cast-off garments of some Magyar nobleman they have a great weakness for, and when they are able to obtain a bright red coat their satisfaction is complete. The Tziganes have horror of work or restraint of any kind. Even those who have a fixed residence lke to roam about when they feel so inclined. So firen is this wandering instinct with them that they have no word in their language to signify “remain.” Most of the trades they adopt are suitable for a nomadic Mfe. They are either horse dealers, blacksmiths, sheep shearers or, and above all, beggars. It is quite impossible to take a country drive through some provinces of Hungary with- out coming across a band of Tzigan: some one of whom will surely follow a carriage for a half hour or more until he has received a coin. Beggars All. The Tziganes have given themselves the nickname of “poor men,” and the habit of begging is so thoroughly rooted in them that even well-to-do members of their race, whom ane occasionally meets in Budapesth driving pure-blooded horses and wearing costly jewels, cannot resist the temptation of asking for money. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to restrain the vagabond propensities of the Tziganes. The Emperor Joseph II once tried to compel them to have a fixed residence, and allotted them iand, distrib- uted agricultural Implements among them, and ordered then to cultivate their land. But, instead of taking up their residences in the comfortable houses they had been presented with, the Tziganes turned the houses into stables for their horses and cows and set up tents near by for their own use. To prevent the corn given them for seed from sprouting they boiled it. But the emperor was not discouraged. He abol- ished the Tzigane language, as he had al- ready done away with the Magyar lan- guage> did away with the very name of Tzigane, and finally took their children from them to be educated by German and Hungarian farmers, who were to bring them up according to a strict code of dis- cipline. But the lite Tziganes grew up with all the instincts of their race, and at the first opportunity they escaped and re- joinea their parerts. A few years ago a Tzigane who had been adopted as a child in an Austrian family entered the army and rose to the rank of captain. Ove day, without any warning, he disappeared, and six months later was found among a band of wandering Tzig- anes. Liszt, the great pianist, once tried to tame a young Tzigane. He took the boy to Paris, gave him teachers and tried to bring him up in a conventional manner, but the effort was useless, and the young Bohemian was sent back to his native land. Choosing a Chief. Tzigane tribes in Hungary elect their chiefs every seven years. The election of these “volvodes,” as they are termed, takes pl being unable who made a study of the inspira- to read ing from the bottle. Then the new chief delivers a long speech to his tribe, and recommends them to respect the laws of their nation, after which every member te. tribe dancing. Among themselves the Tziganes speak their native language, which contains @ number of foreign words. As a race the Tziganes are one of the finest examples of natural selection to be found anywhere. if i at i 5 [ { He | aut # | ! ld \ : & i | E