Evening Star Newspaper, April 16, 1898, Page 19

A STREET IN BABAHOYO. UNDER THE ANDES A Visit to the Curious City of Babahoyo. HOUSES BUILT ABOVE THE WATER Touring in a Canoe Through the Tropical Forests. BODEGAS TO QUITO ——_+—___ FROM Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. (Copsrizht, 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.) BABAHOYO, Ecuador, March 23, 1808. OR THE PASI two days I have been lumbia river of Ecuador. The Guyas is to this country as the United States. It is the biggest river of the Pacific coast, and just now, in the rainy season, which Jasts here from De- cember until May, it has converted the country for miles and miles into a vast lake. Where we entered it from the Pa- cific just opposite the Island of Puna,where Pizarro landed, the river is sixty miles wide, and as we sailed up it to Guayaquil we seemed to be passing through an in- land sea. The waters were of the color and thickness of pea soup, and upon the fast flowing flood were patches of green, great trees and other debris which were floating down from the Andes to the sea. At Guayaquil the river is more than a mile wide, and twenty-six feet deep, fur- nishing a good and safe harbor for the largest of the Pacific ccean steamers. The river there is filled with shipping, and thers are hundreds of dugouts, canoes, great rafts and cargo boats used by the natives to bring their wares from the interior for sale. I left Guayaquil two days ago and in the little American-built steamer Puigmir took an all-night’s sail up the Guyas into the interior. I am now far away from the coast, almost at the foothills of the Andes. Chimborazo frowns down upon me, and -~ can almost hear the rumbling of the vol- ‘ano Cotopaxi. I am in the city of Baba- ¥O, sas, a city which, like Bang- all afloat upon the water. The whole land is flooded, and many of the houses are so built that the people live in the second stories and go from one place to another in canoes. The town proper, which contains about 8.000 people, has Streets which are now little more than niv- ers, and in coming from the boat I hired an Indian to carry me to the high lands ot the shore on his back. As I went my whisky flask, which I always carry here for medicinal purposes, fell out of my pocket into about five feet of water, and I hired another peon to dive for it. He did so, bringing up first the bottle and then the drinking cup which had slipped ofi when it fell. I made him happy by giving him 10 cents for his trouble. The busines: part of Babahoyo is a few feet higher than the rest of the place, and just now the stores are free from water, though it crossing the streets you must hug thé buildings and balerce yourself on the log: and bamboo bridges put across from side- walk to sidewalk. The houses are all o: two stories, the und floors being taken up with the cav ike stores, and the sec- ond stories forming the living quarters. There are, of course, no pavements nox modern improvements. Babahoyo has not @ sewer nor a gutter in it. Its only bath room is a floating shed upon the wharves of the river, in which you may dip yourself down into the water with the serious danger of losing a leg by the niy of an alligater. There is not a fireplace nor a chimney in the whcle town. There 1s not a glass wincow, for the houses arc ventilated on the second floors by means o Yattice work running about the ceiling. The whole front walla of the stores are thrown back in the daytime,and the ground floors are as open as those of Japan. The houses now on the water a few weeks ago were high and dry. The ground floor was then used for tte chickens, donkeys and cattle. Now these are either on platforms higher up or are living with the family on the second floor, which {is bulit upon piles so high up that the floods do not reach it. Im an Ecuadorian House. ‘There are hundreds of houses here which can only be reached in canoes. The chil- dren go to school in canoes and the mar- keting is done in boats. The most of these houses belong to the poorer classes, though I shall describe further on my visit to a Millionaire planter, who cannot now walk ten steps from his house without drown- ing. The poorer houses corsist of little more than one rocm, about six feet square, built upon piles about ten fect above the ground and reached by a ladder outside. The houses are thatched with broad, white leaves, tied to a framework of bamboo cane. The floor is of cane and the cracks fm it are so many that the women do not need to sweep, the dirt of the household falling through ypon the ground or into the water. In the houses of the common people there isno privacy whatever, men and women, boys and girls, wives and maidens, all herd together, sleeping in thé same clothes they ‘wear in the daytime, lying indiscriminately upon the floor or in the hammocks which form the chief articles of the furniture ot their houses. The cooking is done in clay pots on a fire box filled with dirt. The fue) is largely charcoal, the pots being raised tupon tiles or bricks to allow room for. the coals beneath. The chief food of the trop- ideal parts of the country is the potato, or the yam, known as the yucca, and plan- tains or large bananas. Much rice is used, being cooked with lard, the most of which comes from the United States. Though this whole region where I now am Is filled with fine cattle, the people do not seem to know arything of butter. The chief cu: tomers for it are fc and the article most sold —— —— oe a ae ee Awo-pound tins. It sells for $1 a pou this money, or about 50 cents in American ailing along the Co-| the Columbia is to; gold. I am told that at this price there is not a great profit to the Italian butter makers, for the tariff and the selling charges are high. . Through the Forest in a Canoe. Landing at Babahoyo, I was for a time at a loss how to make myself understood by the natives. There was no one about who spoke English, and my pure Castillian Spanish did not seem to be understood. At last, however, I met a German storekeeper, a Mr. Kruger, who told me that there wa: an American living in the city. This was a Mr. Klein, a carpenter, contractor and un- dertaker. I socn found him among his coffins. He left his work and devoted him- self to me for the day. Together we went to visit one of the biggest plantations 01 Ecuador. This belongs to Mr. Augustine Barrios, a man who owns thousands of cat- tle and horses, and who sells something ke 300,000 pounds of chocolate beans every ear. The plentation is now all under wa- ter, and we had to take a canoe to visit it Our canoe wa3 about thirty feet long and not over thirty inches wide. It was a dug- out and was poled and sculled by two lusty brewn-skiuncd gondoliers, one of whom stood at each end of it. Mr. Klein sat in the bottom, and I was given a place in the center of the canoe, and told to hold myseli steady. Leaving the city we were pushed along through the wide streets of water, rassing by huts which seemed to be float: ing on the. waves, until at last we moved en into the tropical forest. We rowed for miles among the tree tops, now grazing a great black alligator, and again chattered at by monkeys, who made faces at us as they scampered away. Tire trees were ful of strange birds, which fluttered and criec as we went by. Now we get a shot at one, a gallareta, a beautiful thing as big as a pigeon with a bill like blood, long legs of a vs yellow and a plumage of royal pur- ple. 1 try a shot at a crocodile, but the canoe trembles as I stand up in it and the ugly monster gets away unharmed. There are wild ducks and other birds which I have never seen before, and Mr. Klein tells me that he often bags a deer on-the highlands or has a shot at a wild hog or a leopard The ride is beyond description. Under us there is twelve feet of water, where a few weeks ago it was all dry land, The trees make a thick arbor-like shade over us, anc we wind in and out through them, now l on the backs of men. From Bodegas to Quito. This town of Bodegas or Babahoyo is the half-way station on the road ta Quito. Here all goods from the interior plateau between the great Andean ranges are brought and sent down the river by raft, boat or steamer. Just how the fleods are such that the gcods are brought to the town <f Savaneta, a day’s ride by canoe, from Bedegas, and are brought by water tc this point As I write dozens of canoes arc being unloaded and their freight carried onto the steamer. Picturesque, half-naked A Freight Car of Ecuador. peons go along the streets with great loads of hides, begs of rubber or boxes of laré on their back, held there by ropes fast>ned above their foreheads. They are natives who have carried their. goods on their backs or upon donkeys down the moun- tains for sale. They work more like beast: than men, laboring for the mere pittance which I have mentioned above. It is by such means that all freight is carried from the seacoast to the capital. It takes twenty-four Indians to carry a piano, anc the cost of the freight is greater by the time they reach Quito than the cost of the piano itself. Thus ordinary packages of goods put up in bundles or boxes of 100 pounds each form a load for a mule, anc such a load from here to Quito costs from $6 to $7, or from $60 to $70 per ton. The freight on a small boiler recently sent was $100, and the rates for heavy article: are such-as to prohibit them. The distance of this city from the coast is 130 miles, and from here to Quito is 165 miles. Think of paying $60 for carrying a ton of freighi BABAHOYO. green and then shooting cut into a greai sreen-walled chamber of water, the trees about which are loaded down with orchids, each of which in New York would bring a sum equal to the wages of the average workingman. Insects are plenty, bugs and ants of every description fall upon us as we fleat onward, and Mr. Klein tells me how a great snake once dropped down into hi: | beat from the branches above. The trees are all strange and tropical. There arc rubber tre trees loaded with alligatoz | pears and here and there a great palm ha: j hoisted its green head above the others. Outside of the insects and birds the silence is almost oppressive. The soft air is heavy) with peace and rest, and the ripple of the water as our long cance works its way on- ward seems to invite us to sleep. Now canoe with a family of Indians passes us, and again a great cargo boat loaded with cocoa is shovea along on its way to the markets. A Millonatre’s Plantation. Nearly all the land above which we have been traveling belongs to the millionaire Planter whom we are to visit. When we get out of the forest we come directly into the grazing lands of his plantation. The grass is now under water, and his herds hav> been taken to the high lands on the edge of the Andes. We are in a wide waste of waters, above which here and there the tops of the wire fences are to be seen. We sail right over these fences, now and then passing terant houses of bamboo thatched with palm leaves. The houses are like these of Babahoyo, built high upon piles. Under each just over the water therc is a platform on which the chickens ané pigs of the owner live within six inch2s of drowning. As we near the great whit¢ house of the planter we see more and morc of these houses. We pass a butcher sho; resting on the water where are killed the animals which furnish the meat for the planter, and go by a great barn which i: also on piles surrounded by water. We sai® over the front gate and land amid a lot of long steel cucoa boats on the second floor of the house, which is a great three- story building rcofed with red tiles. Here we are met by the owner, and are made tc feel at home. He orders a breakfast to be peares for us and puts wine and cognac fore us. His two pretty daughters are now called in to entertain us, and together we all drink to the better relations of our continents and our countries. Later on the old man serds an Indian servant out to climb one of his cocoanut trees to zive us a drink of cocoanut milk, and ther directs his men to guide us in canoes to the cocoa orchard ard to other parts of his es- tate. Labor and Wages in Ecundor. I talk with him as to the profits of farm- ing. He says he keeps no accounts, bu: that he leaves all to his foreman and over- seers, and that all that is over above th« expenses is profit.This year he will harves 300,000 pounds of cocoa, which at 10 cents Profit a pound will net him $30,000 from this source alone. He tells me he loses a great deal every year because he cannot get laborers to work for him, and still I am told the men on his plantation owe him $260,060 in silver. This {s to a certain extent his labor capital, for the money must be worked out and a portion of it Is taken every day from the wages of his debt slaves. It is said that slavery no longer exists in Ecuador. It may not exist as it did in the days oi Pizarro, when the Indians were branded, whipped and killed at the will of their owners, but it is really in force througt the debt laws and the habits of the peont or laboring classes whick cause them to keep in debt to their masters. The waget are so low that once in debt it is almost imrossible to get out. Here, near the coast, peons get aDout $8 a month, but in the interior they do not receive over hali this, and one-tenth of their earnings goes to the church. The planters give their laborers twelve cunces of meat, fourteen ounces of rice or beans, a little lard or sali a day. Each also gets a hat, three coarse cotton shirts and three pairs of cotton pan- taloons a year, and a house, such as I have described above. Their hours of work arc from sunrise until sunset, and if a man skips a day this is charged to him. The women and children must work as well a: the men, and if a man runs away he 1. straightway put in prison for debt and stays there until some other planter Is willing to pay him out and take him intc his service. Even should a man get out 0; debt, the conditions are such that he i: soon in again. If there is a death in his family he has to borrow money to bury hi: dead. If he would be married, the priest: will charge him $6 for performing the ceremony, and if he wants a hog or 2 donkey it is only by going into debt that he can g>t them. As to he usual- ly prefers to live without the ceremony tc paying the fees, and today, it i said, on this account 75 per cent of the births in Ecuador are illegitimate. Wager in Guayaquil and along the coast are muc! higher than in the interior. In the citie making our way along a narrow canal o | 165 miles and you see one of the difficulties of developing a trade with interior Ecua- dor. And still it is said that a good wagon could be made the whole way. The asses over the mountains into the valley are nearly three miles in height, and the roads are mule paths, which at this writing are almost impassable. I had intended to make the journey to Quito by a camp- ing outfit at a cost of $55 to do it. Here, however, I am told that owing to the recent floods 1t will take at least ten days of mule riding through the mud and rain, and the Brazilian minister, who-has just come throygh from Quito, tells me that he had to wade part of the way through water up.to his waist. The Ecuadorians may well say: “Our roads are for birds, not There is, in fact, only one good of road in all Eeuadcr. This is it seventy miles long, and it runs from Ambata on the plateau to Quito. There i: an English stage coach which carries you over it, and takes you from one point tc another in about a day and a half. Ecua- dor has also about fifty-four. miles of rail- road. This is a narrow gauge Tunning from a station or the River Guyas, opposite Guayaquil, to Chimbo. Th> road has cars and locomotives which were made in Pennsylvania, and it was bullt by an American named Kelley. It is now ownec by the government, and an American syndi- cate has, I am told, a concession to com- plete it to Quito, though the requisite cap- ital, $12,000,000, has not yet been raised. The road now runs to the foot of the Andes, and it is said by engineers that its completion is without doubt a mechanical possibility. As to whether {t would pay o1 not is uncertain, as is also the question a: to how far the government would con- tribute to its support. FRANK G. CARPENTER. ee AND ARTISTS. ART For many weeks Mr. Harold L. Macdon- ald has been giving the best part of his time to a large picture containing a single half-nude figure, and while there is much y2t to be done on this striking canvas the work has reached a point where the final effect is no longer a matter of conjecture. The artist has rather characteristically chosen his subject from the reatm of the idzal, and his main aim has been to suc- cessfully present a noble and dignified type of beauty. The head, which is seen in pro- file and is encircled by an iridescent nim- bus that adds to the general dscorative ef- fect of the composition, is remarkably fine in its modeling. The flesh is well rendered, both in color and in texture, and the figure is strongly drawn and painted with a s2nse of lifelike solidity. Mr. Macdonald always paints with a good deal of literal truth, and to some it is a source of surprise that he does not choose subjects from real life, where his realistic style would se2m more legically employed than in the fanciful tkemes drawn from the imagination. The picture now in his studio is full of the rich coloring which we have lsarned to expect in his work, and the breadth of ‘handling is noteworthy. * * * The loan exhibition which ts being held for charity at the old Corcoran Art Gallery finishes its first week today, and the exhi- bition will remain on view through another week, closing on the 24th of April. While the collection was not assembled with any effort at chronological order, it includes work covering a long period of time, and embraces many different schools of paint- ing, so that for the purpose of comparison and study a visit to the gallery will prove instructiva as well cs interesting. * * * Carlton T. Chapman’s collection of olla and water colors on view at Veerhoff’s have an especially timely interest just now, when our navy is the target of so much general attention, as the pictures d2al largely with the naval actions of the war of 1812. Mr. Chapman has hed long experi- ence 2s a painter of marines, and the spe- cial study that he has made of the vessels of this early period enables him to combine historical accuracy with artistic charm. As fg natural with one who knows the sea so thoroughly, his drawing of wave forms is precise and well studied, and he gives a good effsct of movement to the heaving water, but he seldom works with the breadth and freedom which in the work of some artists so finely suggests the ocean's ae Mr. Wells Champney, the well-known worker in pastel, paid a flying visit to Washington last ‘week, and, beginning on the 25th of this month, he expects to dis- play at Vserhoff’s a collection of his pic- tures. * * x A collection of water colors by the Baron- ess Helga Vou Cramm will probably be dis- played simultaneously with Mr. Champ- ney’s exhibit. She has shown her.work in a number of the larger cities of the coun- try, and her landscap?s have won golden opinions. * * A single large water color by the New York artist Wm. Verplanck Birney is now on view at Veerhoff’s. It is a genre sub- ject, showing an old fisherman looking over his angling paraphernalia, and is painted with a pleasant combination of br2adth and realistic detail. * * * During the latter part of this week there was a very interesting exhibition of olls, water colors and illustrative drawings at 2404 14th street. Miss Grac> Atwater's aquarelles furnished most of the color in the exhibit, her subjects being for the most part from East Gloucester, Mass. Her study under Childe Hassam has given hera penchant for brilliant, sunny effects, and she renders the effect of bright sunshine with unusual sKill, as one may see in her sketch of a typical “flake yard” and in Trany others. She'rarely essays the charm- ing gray eff2cts of the old fishing town, but her study entitled “A Foggy Morning” shows that she can handle such phases with almost the same skill. Most of her work was done,around the wharves where the fishing schooners lie, but eh2 shows sey- eral interesting motives found on the moors and elsewhere. In addition to her water colors Miss Atwater exhibits a number of pen drawings, which include som3 Interest- ing bits of architecture to be found in and about Washington. * * Mrs. Mary Cecilia Spaulding contributes to this joint exhibition a large number of drawings in black and white, many of which have already been reproduced as illustrations for volumes of poems. Flow- 2rs, which she draws with great delicacy and truth, furnish subjects for a large pro- portion of these drawings, but she also paints little landscapes in black and white with a good deal of artistic fecling. Miss E. H. Remington of New York has a share in the exhibition, but her ofls and water colors are by no meatis notable. cd Mo de ok One of the pairitings which add to the in- terest of the Masonit fair at Convention Hall is a portraitby Mrs. Annie E. Hoyle. It is @ portrait of Mr, Small, the president of the board of control of the fair, and is considered a very good liken2ss. —__+ + ___ Penance Later. Frem the Chicago Peat. :«: “Did you give up anything during Lent?” asked ths matron. > “I did,” answered the maid. “What?” inquired the matron. a heart,” answered the maid, blushing. » yes,” nm of penance will not come until “Are ye ready, Mike™ “Yes, let her— EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1898-24 PAGES, THEY WISH TO ENLIST Men Who Are Willing to Take On or to Ship. AT THE LOCAL RECRUITING OFFICES Various Them to Take the Step. Written for The Evening Star. 8S SOON AS THE announcement was made, a few weeks ago, that a couple of States army, and that the young Washington men in the direction of the Washington barracks, at the arsenal, and the marine barracks, adjoining the navy yard. Most of these young men were ready, when they presented themselves, to “take on” or. “ship” in the land or sea forces of Uncle Sam without any parley or beating about the bush whatsoever, but a few turned up at the recruiting offices for the apparently sole purpose of asking questions. Old-time enlisted attaches of recruiting offices are able to spot the questioner, the reluctant youth who has a huge amount of thinking to get through with before he decides to “consent” to join the military service of his country “for awhile,” as far as they can see him, and the fairy tules of blood- shed, rapine, within-the-ranks riot, fero- clty of officers, unremitting hardship and Perpetual danger that most of these hesi- tating young men have listened to, open- mouthed, as related by the gifted word- picturers of swaddies whose business it is to receive applicants for enlistment in re- cruiting offices have served to send most “Make Out de Papers.” of them hence from the recruiting offices with decision finally written upon their faces—decision to continue to drive trucks, or perform chores in liyery stables, or hus- said.the, matron; “then your | tle planks In lumber yards, or go ahead at any old avocation in civil life, rather than mix up in military outfits so terribly de- scribed by the pipe-smoking assistants to the recruiting officers. The old-timers attached to the recruit- ing offices at the arsenal and at the marine barracks up on the hill have not attempted to employ these tactics with the determin- ed-looking young chaps who have made their appearance with “I’m going to take on anyhow, if I can,” written on their countenances. Rather to such they have portrayed the delights of the two services in somewhat more roseate hues than the facts warrant. About one man_ir, thirty- five applicants has been accepted at the arsenal for the heavy artillery service, and the comparative percentage of men who have been taken on at the marine harracks is even smaller. It 1s not the extremely rigid medical examination alone that has caused the rejection of such a large pro- portion of the men who have presented themselves at the recruiting offices here for enlistment. : For Various Reasons. There are other considerations—a lot of them. In the first place, a considerable number of the men who have applied for enlistment at the recruiting offices here have been men who do not live in Washing- ton, and who were spotted by the recruit- ing officers and soldiers as men who, hav- ing been rejected at recruiting ogices in other cities, came to-this city to if they could not make their applications stick here. Old-timers connected with recruiting Offices have various ways of telling whether an applicant has previously applied for en- listment— and of ccursé men whose ap- plications for enlistment have been decided egainst upon some ground or other in other cities are not wanted at the recruiting of- ficea- here. Moreover, the applicant who confesses that he ts not a Washingtonian, but a resident of some other city, is looked upon by the recruiting officers as a proba- bly unsteady man, a wanderer, cr, to em- ploy their own phrase, a hobo, even if, upon turning up at a recruiting office here, he dves not betray by his somewhat ecx- perienced manner the fact that he has un- successfully attempted to get into one branch or other of the military service in another city. Hoboes are not warted in the military service of the ‘United States. The appli- cant must be.able to give an account of himself. A good many of the palpable Wandering Willies who have turned up at the artillery and marine corps recruiting Offices have expressed both surprise and disgust when informed that, in order to get even so far as the “remove-your-clothes” stage for physical examination, it would be necessary for them to produce local “‘ref- erences’—to at least give the names of two or three persons in this city who could and would vouch for the applicant's repute in this community for decency and good conduct. These Weary Waggleses have as a rule departed from the recruiting offices muttering that the gall of the United States government was beyond their com- prehension. This is the class of men who fail to apprehend the fact that the United States military forces no longer have any difliculty in securing plenty of good men, good, bad or indifferent, as soon as they pre- sented themselves, as was once the case. Conners manner plainly indicated where he hailed from, shuffied into the recruit- irg office at the marine barracks one after- noon last week. He was a pretty seedy and rummy-looking lot, but he apparently figured it that jumping into the spick-and- epan uniform of a United States marine was about the eas/\t thing in life. The marine patrolling in front of the recruiting office door had permitted the tough to go upstairs solely because he knew Reasons Which Move HOBOES ARE NOT WANTED additional regiments were tu be added to the heavy artillery branch of the United United States Marine Corps was to be expanded ad libitum, there be- gan a steady flow of From Virginia. age of manhood, that you're not a drunk, and all that. Bring these affidavits in and T'll_talk to yor The tough’s eyes were sticking out of his head by this time. “Aw, say, young feller, cut dat out, will ye?" said he when he came to. “Wot ye givin’ me? Affidavits me eye! I don’t know no ore in dis burg, anyhow. Hully chee, I kin git a job an’ go to work on Ge outside if I want to, witout gittin’ no affidavits: Vhy don’t you?’ calmly inquired the sergeant. “Because I'm too strong, dat’s why. Affi- davits fur t'irteen plunks a mont’!” and he went out with an expression of deep dis- gust on nis sedder face. No Vacancy for Him. A strapping buck of a colored farmer from the Old Dominion walked hesifating- ly into the arsenal recruiting office soon efter the announcement was made that more soldiers were wanted for the army. “Boss,” said he apologetically tc the ser- geant behind the enrolling table, “Ah’s radey, suh.” ‘he sergeant grinned, regretfully. ‘Ready for what, Zeb?” he asked. ‘Tuh fix out in one o’ dese heah blue suits, boss. Ah’se a pow’ful stout nigguh, suh.’ “Well, you certainly look the part, Zeb, but I'm afraid we can't rig you out here just now,” and the recruiting sergeant ex- plained to the crestfallen citizen from “Fahquah Kaounty” that, while there are four regiments of colored men in the Unit- ed States army, two of infantry and two of cavalry, the arsenal recruiting offices was not examining men for those regiments, which are nearly always full, but was only looking over white men for the heavy ar- tillery branch. The big black man looked very much disappointed. z “Kin yo’ all teil me, boss, wheah Ah'se got to mek fo’ to fin’ de place wheah dey ‘lists de men whut pack shotguns ‘round on boats?” he asked. “Oh, you m2an the Marine Corps? Well, unfortunately, they don't enlist colored men in the Marine Corps. You might get through as a sailor, but you'd have to go to Brookiyn to try that on. ° “Ah guess ah’ll go back t’ de fahm an’ tek to plot ag’ was the wise conclu- sion of the huge black applicant. “Ah dun hoofed it all de way up heah, laik uh fool nigguh, an’ ah guess dat's all de exercise eds jes’ fo’ de presen’, boss. 'Bleeged suh, all de same,” and he departed. A large number of very young men—too young—have applied for enlistment at the marine barracks recruiting office. These were told that they would be taken on to fill vacancies as “‘musics’’—that is, as ap- prentice fife and drum musicians—but they one and all stuck at this proposition, and declared that if they couldn't get in rifle packers on the decks of men-of-war they didn’t want any of it. On the other hand, a considerable number of the ap- plicants have been too old. These the re- cruiting sergeants have suavely recom- mended to apply “at the soldiers’ home.” Both at the arsenal and at the marine racks numbers of exceedingly lovely young things, pretty pets in nice clothes, have timidly applied to: “join,” but none of these wanted to go in with the common sol- diers, you know. Krew What He Wanted. “Of course,” airily remarked a specimen of this sort at the marine barracks re- cruiting. office, “I feel quite willing to de- vete a year or so to the service of my country, y’ see, but I understand that the marines who enlist as common soldiers are obliged to sleep in hammocks, like common sailors, when they get sent to ships, and that they dine off common tin piates, and all that sort of thing, y’ see. I've heard this. Have I heard aright “I fear you hav replied the well-fed looking old-timer of a_ sergeant. “I've been bunking in a swinging bag for a mat- ter of a quarter of a century now, and 1 guess I can still lick my weight in hand- taised lubbers.” “Well, y’see,” the lovely thing went on, not noticing the sarcasm, “I thought, y’un- derstand, that you might make an exc2ption in my case—I’ve been to college, y’see—and enlist me as a sergeant, or as some kind of marine, y’know, with authority enough to have a room to myself on a ship, y’under- stand, and not have anything to do with the common soldiers outside of Grills and all that. You make out what I mean, don’t you, now?” “Yep, I'm next, all right, son,” replied the old sergeant. “What you want is to en- list as a major of marines. That ain't so dead easy as some things I’'v> heard tell of, but you just take a run over to An- where the Naval Academy is, and maybe they'll be able to fix you out all right there.”” The nice thing didn’t really perceiv> that he was being guyed. Numerous applicants of this sort also tackled the recruiting office at the arsenal, Would Be a Major. and few of them got beyond the door, All ficient judgment as to the material in the men Une sidle toward the recruiting office door, Object to Married Men. ‘The usual number of men have sought en- 19 to be d—4 inquisi- I've got a divorce suit wife, since you ask I can’t see that that ought to make me any less desirable to ‘Wear a marine’s uniform if I want to. ‘The good-naturedly. “it might riot make you But if your wife is fighting your divorce suit, and takes it into her head to get sore over being deprived of your society and support —not that I suppose there's any likelihood of that—why, she could make the life of the Secretary of the Navy, or of the Presi- gent himself, for the matter of that, so ‘looming uncomfortable by hanging around all + Weeping and wailing for your dis- charge, that the outfit makes ii a rule not to accept married men. [ll teil you what you can do, though. You can wait until you secure your -diverce, and then come here, with the decree along with you, and I've no doubt the recruiting offic: will ship you. Then, after you're once tn, you can get married again, you know.” | And the sergeant grinned again. “Thanks,” the applicant replied. “I guess, after all, that the land is good enough for me.” “I wish I had made up my mind to the same thing about twenty-seven years ago.” remarked the old sergeant, significantly, as the applicant passed out —- AUTOMOBILE TORPEDOES. Description of Vari s Types Employ= ed in the ed States Navy. From the Chicago Tinws-Herald. Automobile torpedoes and the important part they promise to play in futu ergagements are discussed at considerable length in the forthcoming number of Mod ern Machinery, a technical publication of this city, the author of the paper being W. E. Willis, a mechanical engineer who has given special study to the subject. It is the belief of the writer that torpedoes of the automobile type have been so perfec that armor plate offers no effectual r sistance to their attack, and that they a practically irresistible. The character and operation of three prominent types of tor- Pedoes are described in the article, with ciese attention to technical details, after the writer has stated his reasons ior con- sidering such instrumea’ naval warfare the most formidable today In stating some of the causes which have led to the opening of a new era in naval warfare it is noted that the weight and floating capacity of war vessels have ar- rived at such a stage chat litile short of a mit has been reached, and tha: Unnking men are constantly looking to new e: Pedients with which to annihilate their foes afloat. Referring to zhis problem. makes the following concius “Our costly cruisers and & weighted down with tons of armor, and carry moasirous guns to th supposedly armor-plercing she my. The enemy being equally weil pared, it is more a matter of ch: anything else which is victorious. “It is the old question over again, of what will happen if ‘an irresistible force meets an immoyable body? Z, day we are informed that our Har- 2 in- another time we learn that some new projectile has pierced the best of them. The common-sense of the matter is that practi ave been reached ‘n both di thinking men are with v hic » naval the wrier vulnerable to shot and it } qvantit serious 1m Ss proved or quality mor opposes no rying vk re zine, engine and other vital Clements of fighting power below the water line, sur- reunded by coals and other material in- tended to defend them, e! rether insures their ror tion, fer it is there that aimed to strike with as mu: precision as at target shooting. “As unseen as the wind, with a speed that is as rapid and an eff: that the ter- nado’s concentrated force er equal- ed, the work is done, andthe r Closes over where, a moment before, a powerful vessel was.” Among the several promising types of automobile torpedoes, the Cunningham, Whitehead and Howell are me‘ med in the article as the most promincat. The Cunningham is described as resembling a huge pointed screw, being a cylinder with @ conical end and haviag op its body a series of fins arranged after the manner of @ screw thread. In ine opinisn of the writer, this torpedo i in its construction, hiv pensive apparatus tor i: ing lowered into the water and p ham torpedo keeps ‘ts course markable fidelity. 11s moct sists of a series of discharges of arising from chemicals arranged in ets along its sides, which causes it to re- volve through the ter ike a screw through fis nut, Its explosion depends upon the concussion of its forward end against scme hard, firm obj; The following description and comments upon the Whitehead torpedo are given by the writer “The Whitehead—an English »ontrivance —is of the fish variety, inclosed in a steel shell containing elements of locomotion,con- sisting of a compressed air motor driving tandem screws at its rear end. Although ex-Secretary of the Navy Tracy has said in his report that it had been successfully domesticated, it 1s doubtfal, from a me- chanical point of view, if :t 1s most desir- able, for its working necessitates a pow- erful air-compressing plan’, two thousand pounds to the square inch being demanded, a trained force of mechanics, rather thaa common seamen, and constant care to keep its steel shell and interior free from cor- rosion—a difficult task around salt water— and the maintenance of a parfect balance, as any deviation from the perpendicular as regards its center line shows a corres- ponding change in its course, fatal to the effect desired.’ The Howell torpedo, which is most ex- tensively used by the United States navy, was the original conception of Commodore J. A. Howell, United States navy. It iz de- scribed as possessing all the good qualities of the Whitehead and many peculiar to it- self, being the outgrowth of extensive and expensive experiment and embodying the condensed thought of some cf the best American mechanics and engineers. It isa bronze cylinder with conical er about fourteen inches in diameter an! eleven feet long, weighing about %0 pounds, inciudiog a charge of 100 pounds of guncotion cer- ried in the forward end. it is propelled by a very delicate and ingenious mechan- ism operating a flywheel weighing 150 pounds. This flywheel is set revolving at a speed of 10,009 revolutions a minute just before being fired from the tube in a vessel, and is capable of running at least one and © half hours after leaving the tube. The energy Ceveloped vy the wheei turas a pair of screw propellers at the rear end of the torpedo, and by a very ingnious dev'ce these screws are mate to maintain a un!- form rate of speed long as the torpcco is in motion. By the action of an ejualy ingenious device the -ord>1> is kept on is course without any deviati Tom the depth in the water which has been deter- mined upon at the time of firing. 408 Reformed by a New Pavement. From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Dill Smith lives far beyond King’s high- . He has lMved in that section since the time it was composed of cornfields and cow pastures. © or thirty years he has been e habitual drunkard. Bill Smith quit drinking intoxicating quors recently. At first nobody noticed his reform. cillba a i ! g