Evening Star Newspaper, April 16, 1898, Page 23

" WORLD'S RICH MEN Aountries Where Millionaires Are Most Numerous. ~ HE POWER OF GREAT POSSESSIONS \Few Ever Avail Themselves of Their Opportunities. @HEY LACK IMAGINATION from the London Spectator. * An American author is, it is stated, about €o publish a sort of “golden book” of the aristocracy cf wealth. At the price of £250, QF some such figure, a work is to be issued by subscription, we presume—which will gontain a full and particular account of all tHe millionaires of the world, beginning gwith the Rothschilds and going down, we pose, to the petite noblesse of trade and Inance. Unquestionably, a book of the kind we have indicated should prove very ¢urious and interesting reading. It would Probably show the world that its rich men @re not. as is often supposed, confined to @ few arees, but are scattered about in all he five continents, and appear also in Places which are generally supposed not & contain examples of the species. For ex- ample, Germany is not generally regarded a land of rich men, and yet the golden , k should have a very large section de- ‘voted to Germany and Austria-Hungary. 2 true that most of the names would ve prince before them, but being of royal flood does not alter the fact of wealth. Without counting the private properties Of the sovereigns, who ought not to be in- luded, there ere a dozen or so Teutonic hnesses whose wealth, not merely. in Jands, but in money, is gnormous. For ex- ample, that of the father of the present Prince of Bulgaria was counted by many Inlilions sterling. Idany of the dethroned monarchs, again, are very rich, for “roi en exil” bas ceased to be a synonym for Poverty. No one, of course, knows the ex- act wealth of the Orleans family, but it is very great. and even the Bourbons ere well off. Don Carlos, in spite of the money he hhas spent on Spanish and other adventures, {8 a millionaire. Wealth in Russia. The Russian empire would also make a &cod show, for, although the great landed Proprictors have suffered of late years, many of the merchants and financiers have done exceedingly well. If rumor is to be trusted, some of the officials are also very ich. Fabulous sums are attributed to one fm particular. The millionaires of Africa Woulé, we suppose, be confined to Kim- Berley and the Rand, but possibly there @re come large fortunes in Cairo among the Levantine colony. Asia will probably make a very respectable show in the Amer- ican golden book. It is true that in the Turkish and Persian empires millionaires gre never long lived, and this fact tends tO their non-existence; but for all that, some of the Smyrna Greeks and Damas- cus Jews ought to be able to gain admis- Bio! mn. India, «n the other hand, if the native Princes wno do not possess sovereign rights @re counted, as they must be. contains a great number of extremely rich men. Not only are there merckanis in the great efties who are worth several millions in Bersonal property, but there are also four or five great Zemindars who have incomes re represent the interest on two or ree millions sterling. The reaction a@gairst thinking of India as a place of ealth has, in fact, been carried too far, sy we are apt {> forget that princely tunes are still made and kept there. Chinese Millionaires. "The truth about the Chinese fortunes SRould be most curious if it could be dis- €overed. Unfortunately, it is the fand of 4he crypto-millionaires, of the men who e in little low nouses and hoard gold ts In the shape of Naples biscuits. It 4s known, however, that the empress dow- er is among the richest, if not the rich- person, alive; while Li Hung Chang, less he has lately been plundered, which unlikely, must have vast wealth. Out- @jde China the Chinese are often very rich, dare io show their wealth. For ex- ple, it is always said, and as far as Ye know with truth, that several of the ihinese merchants of Singapore are men enormous riches. ‘With the American millionaire it is hard- necessary to deal. What piace is not Il of the report of his dollars? It should, wever, be noted that though one or two the American fortunes are beyond the ams of avarice, the number of “warm "is, in rtion to population, not great as it is here. There are, that is, so many great, but far more small, ionaires in England. The man who hes the five million dollars 1s ept either lose it all again, or else to turn it into or a hundred million dollars. Spanish th America is rot, as a rule, regarded @ place for rich men, yet, as a matter fact, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and the Ar- mtine have all within the last thirty ars produced fortunes on the great scale, not very long ago the greatest heiress the world was said to be the only daugh- of a South American millionaire. The Power of Money. ‘We have written thus of the millionaire thout apology, acting on the assumption t he and his millions are of universal terest to the world. The fact, indeed, is plain as to need no proof or comment. lat does require comment is the explana- M for this universal interest in the mil- maire. Why should people be so keenly erested in the existence of exceptional ? We believe that the interest ex- ted by rich men 1s derived from the fact tt money is power. The man who has 2 of miHions, disguise it as we will, immense potential authority and in- over his fellows—and an authority influence which can be exercised with minimum of friction. Physical power legal power may be obeyed, but they obeyed always without pleasure or usiasm:, and generally with fhdigna- and disgust. The power of the purse rule produces a cheerful and ready e. If a man is made to do a thing, Goes it grudgingly and without enthu- . If he is paid to do ft, and thinks May get another order and another it, he is happy and full of alacrity. fo doubt this fact must not be preased too , but it undoubtedly does affect the ques- ae the — euperior mn a town the townspeople to make him a lake, ‘hich {s to supply the town with water, only obey out of fear. If a million- orders the reservoir to be made, and pays for the labor at market rates, he fegarded as a great benefactor, and if favors are expected he can exercise complete a contro! over all the proceed- of the town as if he had a legal right veto. A millfonaire’s power increases fh each million in a rapidly increasing io. A man with two or three great and establishments, and a yecht @ pack of hounds, may possibly spend 8 int2rest of three millions without any . difficulty. At present rates of inter- it is only some £90,000 a year. hen he has a couple of millions beyond, say, £60,000 of extra money every year, his power bzcomes obvious and real. @ fact that he can at any moment throw aay £60,000 without pinching himself in least, dimi his capital by a six- . or altering a single item in his es- hment, is the fact that makes the man ‘erful. However rich a man may be, he not really powerful if his money is all ed,” all ear-marked servants, ts and racers. It is the free ich the source of power is margin to be What They Might De. But though the ability to spend largely any moment without feeling it confers original, never apparently has the slightest desire to have a “run for his money.” His On the contrary, we believe that society gains a great deal from the fect that mii- lionaires are so unimaginative and so un- ambitious. Were they what one might ex- pect them to be, instead of what they are, they would trouble the state, instead of, as now, acting as quiet reservoirs of cash. ——————-e-—___ ENJOY QUIET LIVEs. Astronomers Do Not Worry Them- selves With the Affairs of Earth. Jalisn Hawthorne in Collier's Weekly. I suppose nobody can be so detached from mundane troubles as the man whose calling it is to investigate the other earths of the universe. In the astronomical ob- servatory there is always peace. In our churches we offer up prayers for the po- litical welfare of the country, and listen to sermons advocating or deprecating war. Sitting at home, amid wife and children, in the security of our firesides, we read the newspapers and discuss the chances of battle and the horrors of famine. But in the observatory there is no mention or thought ‘of these things. The nearest the astronomer gets to this planet is 240,000 miles—the distance that separates the moon from us. He does not, however, lin- ger there long; it is too near; he 1s like the old frontiersman who began to gasp for breath when any one came within flve and twenty miles of him. Our astronomer ig not satisfied with miles; he wants diam- eters of the solar system; the speed of light vibrations is his yardstick. Mars is the. nearest spot where he can sit down a bit and feel at home. He begins to smile and open his shoulders at Jupiter or Sat- urn; he fs striding along at a round pace by the time he passes Neptune; and then, with a sigh of relief, he bestraddles the awful gulf that yawns between us and the nearest fixed star, and disappears cheer- fully from view {n the mists of the Milky Way. What ts the use of talking to such a person about the war in Cuba? “How soon do yeu think {t will be settled?” you inquire. He replies that it will require so many billion ages for Alpha Centauri to alter its present position. “But think of those starving folks in Matanzas!” you continue. He refers you to the fact that a@ thousand million years hence the sun will have cooicd down, and all the inhab- itants of this solar family will have frozen into icicles. “Have you pictured to your- self the terror of the moment when the Maine was blown up in Havana harbor?” you want to know. At this he smiles a fearful smile, and saying something about a recent collision of two planets adjoin- ing a nebula of Orion, is off toward the nerth, probably on a hunting expedition after the Great Bear. Sometimes I feél inclined to go home. Yes, it is healthy once in a while to te- mind ourselves of the relations of things im this creation, to breathe infinite space, to cool our little fevers in its absolute zero, to set our watches by the Precession of the Equinoxes, and to seek a quiet corner for meditation somewhere behind the back stars. Hitch one end of your hammock to Sirius, and the other to Arcturus, and compose yourself for a nap of a few stellar periods; when you wake up, the matters that so concerned you here will have ad- justed themselves. —_—_+e+____ MARRIAGE OF OFFICERS. The Armies of Europe Have Various Rules Regulating It. From the Brooklyn Citizen. ‘The restrictive conditions at present In force with regard to the marriage of ofti- cers in the Russian army forbid this privi- lege under any circumstance in the case of officers under the age of twenty-three. Be- tween the ages of twenty-three and twenty- eight years the dot of an officer's wife must amount to a sum representing the minimum income of 250 roubles yearly. On comparison of these conditions with those regulating the same question in other Eu- ropean armies, it may be noted that in the Austro-Hungarian army the number of offi- cers authorized to contract marriage 1s limited by a fixed proportion assigned to each grade, and, these totals being reached, all further marriages must be deferred pending the occurrence of vacancies in the married establishments. The Italian army regulations, which fix the income of the fiancee at a minimum of from 1,200 to 2,000 lire, would appear to be more rational in their operation. Italian officers, however, apply a somewhat liberal interpretation to this law, with the result that the number of marriages occurring under actual pro- visions does not exceed more than an eighth of the total number, seven-eighths of the officers being united under the con- ditions of the religious ceremony only, and thus exposing themselves to all the incon- veniences which attend a marriage not rec- ognized by civil law. Similar disabilities would now appear to be incurred by Rus- sian officers, and suggestions have been made by the press in Russia that a general revision of the law is becoming necessary. ‘The question is assuming some importance from the fact that Russian officers, reach- ing a total number of nearly 40,000, repre- sent one of the most important classes in the state. ——— A Day Literally Lost. From the Chicago Chronicle. Out in the Pacific ocean, somewhere about midway between San Francisco and Yoko- hama, is a place where tomorrow is born and the traveler skips from yesterday to tomorrow without being able to get a grip on today. One day is absolutely stolen out of his life, for if it be Tuesday on one side of the line it is either Thursday or Tuesday is repeated on the other. No matter which direction the ship may be sailing, the pas- senger is shy one whole day when he gets to that point. The weekly calendar oper- ates from different sides of the sea and the result is this conflict. In crossing the Atlantic from Londen to New York the passenger gains slightly over half an hour @ day. From New York to Chicago he adds another hour to the three or four crossing the ocean, another in reaching Denver and still another on reach- ing San Francisco. The latter city reckons time eight hours later than London and the better portion of a day later than Shanghai or Yokohama. In crossing the Pacific the traveler comes to the time when he catches up with the procession and drops a whole day out of his life as easily as he gildes through the water driven by the ship's Powerful screws. This line of demarkation is not a perpen- dicular one from north to south. The is- lands in the Pactfic take their time reckon- ings from the continent with which they do the bulk of their trading. This causes the Ine to. zigzag down the ocean in a very manner. It might happen that the boat would strike an island which clings to San Francisco time, the vessel having al- ready skipped a day. In such a case it would be Monday Battle Ships and Cruisers. From the Cleveland Leader. “I tell you,” sald Jayson Spriggs, “all this talk about our not being prepared for war has been simply buncombe. We've THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1896-94 PAGES. Physical Tratning for the Men ts No Longer a Fad—Good Re- sults That Follow. From the Iiustrated American. It is the generally accepted opinfon m the army today that there 1s nothing which deserves more close attention or which pays a larger interest in beneficial resuits , let her voice be heard! than the physical training of the individual soldier. Not that the subject was over less ie ip ncaa important than it is today, but it has been Canst thon attain the path only within the last few years that the ‘That leada ta Glory still. army, withdrawn from small and isolated ‘Then let the calr by Ores gene posts and concentrated in a great measure ‘Who place in God their trust into large garrisons with gymnasium fa- Reveal a — reggae cilities, has been able to devote to this sub- Baap nite oF anaee seeks Ject the careful and systematic attention Now, while the watehing world it deserved. . = bape to thy Steed Marshal Saxe sounded the keynote when je no wild menace Buried, he said “the secret of success in war lies Rincharteres: Insalt ‘iratt; Exemplar for the sons of men, in the fegs of the soldier.” And it might be cae State Toe tbe aches ; added further that not only to the legs of the soldier should the commander look for success, but in the arms, the back, the lungs, in fact, the entire physical organ- ism; for the endurance or lack of endurance of all of these may mean the difference be- tween victory and defeat. All other things being equal, that army which can cover the greatest distance in the least time and with the least fatigue—that army which can stand sleepless nights and tiresome marches with poor food and poorer com- forts, and still be in good physical condi- tion, has its battles half won before the first shot is fired. The only principle of strategy or tactics that old General Forrest, the confederate cavalryman, ever pretended to know was that of “getting the most men there first.” And after all the volumes that have been written on these subjects have been sim- mered down and digested, the whole thing oes down to pretty nearly that prin- ple. The problem then fs how to “get the most men there first’ and not have them ex- hausted when they do arrive. The only natural solution is, by untform and system- atic physical training, to rendér their bod- fes almost insusceptible to fatigue. This system of progressive instruction in physical training is carried on throughout the entire army. Several manuals have been prepared, principally by Mr. Koehler, instructor in gymnastics at West Point, and by Lieut. Butts of the 6th Infantry” An officer who has special aptitude for the work is put in charge of the course of in- struction at each Post, and together with his assistants takes active part with the men in all the exercises. Drill halls or gymnasiums have been provided at a num- period the larger posts. The system begins with exercises mildest nature, such as calisthenies with: out apparatus of any kind. From these, dumb bells, Indian clubs, bar bells, medi- cine balls, running, etc., are taken up. When sufficient time has’ been devoted to the milder forms the training proceeds to practice in vaulting, jumping, running fully armed and@ equipped; escaluding and final- iy ae on the various gymnastic appa- Though the rate of advancement may sometimes seem slow and tedious to those men who show special aptitude for ath- letics, they can put in as much extra time as they desire in the gymnasium. The system is not devised for the making of 2 few -highly finished athletes, but. for the training of the whole-mass to as great a degree of proficiency as possible, just as a chain should be made strong, not by weld- ing a few of its links to unusual thickness, but by distributing the metal as evenly as possible throughout its entire length. After the course has been well entered upon field days are held at the various posts, prizes of no small value being given to the winners of events. In some,instances also athletic contests between teams from different posts have taken place. The plan even of forming an athletic association composed of all the regiments of the army with a grand annual contest at some cen- Look forth, beloved, from thy mansion high, By soft airs fanned, And s2e the summer from her bluest sky Surprise the land! See how the bare hills bask in purple bliss Along the south; On the brown death of winter falls a kiss From summer's mouth! From pines that weave, among the ravished trees, ‘Their phantom bowers, A murmur comes, as sought the ghosts of bees ‘The ghosts of flowers, * Though yet no blood ane swell the willow rind, 88 ‘No gra: de start, A dream of blogoms fills the yearting wind, ve, my heart. Leok forth, beloved, through the tender alr, And let thine eyes ‘The violets be it finds not anywhere, And scentless dier. Look, and thy trembling locks of plentecus gold day shall see, And search no more where first, on yonder wold, ‘The cowslips be. Look, and the wandering Summer, not forlorn, Shall turn aside, Content to leave her million flowers unborn, Her songs untried. Drowsy with life and not with sleep or death, dream of thee; Breathe forth thy being in one answering breath, And come to me! = Come forth, beloved! Love's exultant sign nee fine heart to thi 1d let me 1a; Vt 10 thine. And et me ey die! BAYAND TAXIOR. ———_-o- The Present World. ‘This world’s a pretty good sort of world, Taking it altogether. In spite of the grief and sorrow we meet, In spite of the gloomy weather, ‘There are friends fo lcve and hopes to cheer And nt, compensation wonena ache, for these who make it the sitration. ‘The vest OF the SIOSEPHINE POLLARD. While We’ Mey. i The bands are such dear hauls: They are eo full; they turn st-oup demands So often; they reach ou With trifles scarcely thought abdut, So many times; they do 9b So many things for me, for you-U3 If their fond wills mistake): 'T ‘We may welt bend, not brégk:'? Tl ‘are such fond, frail lige! ‘> ‘That speak to us. Pray, it tow strips jscretion man, Griit:theyseponk:toerainn ick, such erimes Or if they speak too slow! of We may pass by; for we méy Days not far off when those mail words may be Held not as slow, or quick;"ér @ut of place, but Because’ the lips that spoke'are'bo more here. They are such dear, familiar! feet'that go And trying to Keep pace—tetmeysmistane ” ti eep pace—| Or tread upon some flower that Ave would take Upon our breast, or bruise some Or crush poor hope until it Bieod;) tral locality has been seriously discussed | Rat meee MUS 15 to impate and 1s not among the Impossibilities in the | Grave faults tur they sal or” near future. In Lieutenant Butts’ manual there ts described a very pretty system of using the rifle in calisthenic work. There are a number of exercises calling into play all the muscles of the body, not only skillfully, but in a manner yery Pleasing to the eye. Facilities for gymnastic work are being increased and improved as rapidly as pos- sible at every post in the army. Any one Have mech a little way to go—can be Together such a little while along the way, ‘We will be patient whils we may. So, many Httle faults we find. We see them; for not blind Is Love. We see them; but if you and I Perhaps remember them some vy and by, will not be Remembrances to bless. interested in the work cannot but recognize | Days change so many things—yes, hours, the fact that such exercises not only Bulld ‘We see so differently in sun and showers. up the constitutions of the soldiers and | Mistaken woids tonight May be so cherished by tomorrow's light. We will be patient, for we know zi tek to go. There's such a ae A oe D. render them insensible to fatigue, but by presenting a free and interesting diversion from the monotony of post life are power- ful factors in keeping the men from wast- ing their time in useless and possibly harmful amusements. Verily, instead of being a Passing fad, the system of physical training in the army has decidedly come to stay. sf —————_ ‘Wanted the Birds Cared For. From the St. James Gasette. There is a story just now current in Rome to the effect that a scuiptor in that city, in an evil hour for his reputation as an artist, undertook some time ago to Produce “to order” @ bronze statue of Pres- ident Kruger. One of the conditions tm- Posed was that no liberties were to bé taken with Oom Paul. He was to be rep- resented in all his native heaviness of fea- tures with the fidelity which Oliver Crom- well exacted; and for personal decoration he was to be depicted in his ordinary frock coat and tall hat. The most trying stipula- tion of all was, however, that Madame The Days of old. Alfred Ellison in Chicago Record. Let's go back, O brother mine, ‘To the precious ways of the gone br ck to the gleam of the glad sunshine, jen we were children. you and I. re growing old, but i long #0 much For the grasp of a mother's hands to hold ‘Me away from sin and its soiling touch, they msec to do in the days of old. I'm tired of dogma of Church and State; Let's tra.t with our feet the dust of the lane, . As we wander duwn to the pasture gate, And bring the cows for mother again, And see once more the woodlark a From stake to stake of the ridered fence And feel the old-time fellowship We felt iv our boyhood innocence. the rafters overhead, wing on the old barn floor, 8 ind seek” in the wagon shed And be “knee high" again once more. Let's part che weeds where the truant hen stolen her nest; then stoop and fold ‘The sheltering weeds o'er the nest aj As we used to do in the days of ol climb to bulld J nat Kruger, Oom Paul's amiable lady (whose | Misti the yoth saat oa ne tae ont trees, health, we hope, is by this time complete-| | Where the dandelions thels coos of gold ly recovered) insisted that the crown of the hat should be made concave so that it might catch and hold rain water for the re- freshment of little birds! The artist has succeeded In doing the bidding of his pa- ‘Had scattered to bribe the bumblel Down in the grane was the ericket’s chirr, And overhead was the dragonfly; Found ubout us ev: here Was the the days gone by. rerywi dreamy gleam of for the were oe retoria. This ™n ‘The graves we have passed and the moments when r the welfare of the harmless little birds ‘The cradle a1 almost {s creditable to Madame Kruger's maternal} go let's neanneG fo back, O brother mine. And talk awhile of the glad sunshine ‘That gilded the ways of the days of:old. : The Heart of God in Nature. Robert Loveman in the Independent. I bear no 411 to. any hil I'm brother to the tree, My mind doth melt to mountains, And my svul doth seek the seass Wi a friendly loving. ods heart, but humanitarianism of this kind is certainly not conducive to the Produc- tion of a keen aesthetic sense. ——<e2____ One Way of Posting a Letter. From Housebold Words. The Island of St. Kgjda ts often visited by tourist steamers in the summer, but its regular mail communication with the mainland, some 150 miles distant, is con- fined to the annual visits of the steamer which brings the factor and his stores. But if at other times the inhabitants de- sire to communicate with Great Britain, they employ the following curious device: A man cuts the rough mod2I of a boat from & billet of wood, hollows it partly out, places in tho hold a tin or small bottle eon- taining a letter, natls on a deci the wind is blowing toward ths Patt tang, con- But the set of the gulf stream frequently drives this curious craft out cf its course, and us often as nol it reaches the Shetlaad Isles or the coast of Norway, where, however, the letter is Bret- garure to be found and posted to its Ges- tination. The Chinese as Mathematicians. From the Manchester Guardian, Cambridge University has just had a re- markable proof of the mathematical genius of the Chinese. Some time generally by the discovery among the papers of the. late Sir Thomas. Wade of UNDERGRADUATE HUMOR English Students Who Make Pea for Them- : selves and Other, ‘They Shine Most Brightly at the Oonferring of Degrees—Anm Ine teresting Custom, From Tit-Bits. “The undergraduate is a creature of a class J Peculiar to himself, and baffles classifi- cation. He speaka a language of his own, has his own code of etiquette and morals, and his own sense of humor. When he an- nounces that a “Cat's man has been ploughed in the stinks,” he merely means that a St. Catherine's man has failed in his Natural Science Tripos examination; but even this verbal ambiguity may be pardon- ed in a man who buys his butter by the yard and cultivates learning on “squish.” His humor, proud as he is of it, is sel- | dom equal to his learning, and is rather frank than witty. Once a year, however cabined it may be at other times, this hu- mor breaks bounds and runs riot in de- flance of proctors and vice chancellors. This is in “common,” when his university honors itself by conferring degrees on dis- tinguished outsidera Then the undergradu- ates gather tn battaltong and fill the gallery of the theater in riotous crowds. Every undergraduate is for the nonce a privileged punster, a licensed humorist; and every man tries to outvie his fellows in daring witticisms. The rafters shake with topical songs, and many an old gentleman in the area is paralyzed,by a request to re- oe his hat or his wig, as the case may Oxford men cherish the memory of the day when John Bright and Oliver Wendell Holmes, gentlest of autocrats, raceived their degrees in the historic theater. Dr. Holmes, with his slight, boyish figure and amiable face, made a strong appeal to the gods in the gallry, who, to a man, decided to protect him, at ell costs, from the on- slaught of the public orator. It is alwaye the Latin orator who is the chief butt of undergraduate wit, and on this occasion nothing but nerves of steel — have brought him through the or- eal. “Do mind your pronunciation, sir,” the gallery shout> ‘even the doctor’s laugh- ing at you;” “False quantity again, sir, and no quality to speak of;” “Don’t prompt him, vice chancellor, get him a ‘Principia’ “Now, sir, take a deep breath—one, two, three;” “Do tell the doctor the joke, he’s too polit> not to laugh;” ‘There’s a lady Icoking over your shoulder, sir.” These were a few of the thousands of comments which descended on the regius professor of civil law; thick as autumn leaves and stinging as hailstones. When Browning presented himself for his degree, a red cotton nightcap was gently dropped on his head as an appropriate dec- oration; and whea Nansen was “crowned,” @ barber's pole cunningly wrought in color- ed paper served to remind him of his title to academic honors. The undergraduates mustered in great force to honor Nansen with their wit, and Professor Goudy, the Latinist of the occa- sion, had a time sufficiently warm to dis- Pel all thoughts of arctic snows. “Speak up, sir; do put a@ little Hfe in tf “Pull yourself together,” assailed the weak-voiced Professor on every hand. “Shocking Latin, sir; where did you learn it?” “Proctor, do set the professor right.” During his really eloquent speech Pro- fessor Goudy introduced the word jam” (mow). “Not jam,” a young alumnus cried; “bear's grease is the thing for an arctic explorer.’" When the ceremony was over, and Dr. Nansen in his gorgeous robes of doctor of civil laws was released, an under- graduate shouted out, “Do give Dr. Nansen some brandy—the professor has frozen him.” Witticisms such as these are character- istic, if not brilliant; and if brutally frank, they are at least full of good humor. Perhaps, however, the palm of under- @rtaduate humor in recent days must be awarded to the Trinity (Oxford) man who was “sent down” a few months ago. The occasion was a solemn one, and the under- graduates decided to invest it with becom- ing gravity. ‘i At the hour appointed for hts d=parture, @ hearse, drawn’ by a long-maned black horse, drew up at the college gates, and the undergraduate took his s2at among the nod- ding plumes. Two friends, clad in black, took up positions on each side of the horse's head, and a crowd of undergraduate mourn- ers formed a procession behind the hearse. In this solemn form the cortsge wended its way slowly through the Oxford streets toward the station, the crowd of mourners being gradually swelled by hundreds of townsmen and gownsmen alike. At inter- vals the happy ‘“dec2ased” improved the occasion by speeches of fitting solemnity from hts “bad eminence.” When the station was reached the “corpse” was carried shoulder high to his train, while hundr2ds of lusty voices joined in singing “Britons Never Shall Be Slaves” and “Auld Lang Syne.” ———_++_____ LONG FINGER NAILS Indicate Rank Many Orie From the Chicago News. ‘The countries where the long finger nail is most affected are Siam, Assam, Cochin China and China. The approved length va- ries from three or four to twenty-three inches. A Siamese exquisite permits the nails on his fingers to grow to such an ex- tent that his hands are practically useless. The aristocrats who affect these nails can- not write, dress themselves or even feed themselves. The Siamese hold the long finger nail in the same reverence we hold the family tree. Many of them never have had their nails cut fromthe day of their birth. On the first finger the nafl is of moderate length—three or four inches—while on the other fingers the nails grow occasionally to two feet. The thumb nail, which is also allowed to grow long, after reaching a cer- tain length curve# around like a corkscrew. In both China dnd Siam the owners of long naiis wear metal cases over them to preserve “a made of gold or silver, and je long nails are not regarded as singular in China, they are rarely met with except on fanatics and pedantic scholars. .d Good Breeding in i Countries. dishtly elenchea and in ition: \s clenc! one ‘80 lo! that at last the nails ae ne A race of cave dwellers live on a small ‘tsiand off tne Aleskan coast. It is King’s Island, in : i i i | | He ls F [ 7 Het “ii A it My | H fi i & E 3 i : i i ii i rf f F i é H i ; d i H E 5 i 8 fe i & i a PETS OF THE AQUARIUM. About the Homes of GoldGsh and Their Curious Habits. tuguese sailors saw swimming in the lakes and rivers of China and Japan a very beautiful variety of fish, which glistened lke gold. They captured some specimens and brought them to Portugal. The little fish found the Jakes of Europe as pleasant to live in as the lakes of China, and they at once domesticated themselves and rais- ed their little families, until the Edropean streams became well stocked with these beautiful creatures. They are also found in many brooks and streams in the United States. The glistening gold color of these fishes made them much sought after as house- hoki ornaments, and the demand for them became so general that establishments Were opened for raising them for the mar- ket. One of the largest and most cele- brated of these places for gold fish breed- ing is in Oldenburg, Germany, where more than a hundred small ponds contain the fish in all stages of growth, from the tin- lest baby to the big, stout fellow eight and even ten inches long. The little ones are carefully kept apart from larger ones, for the goldfish ts a wicked cannibal, and de- vours its little brothers and sisters, and even its own children, whenever it has an opportunity. At the same time it is a great coward, and will hide away from fish much smailer than itself that have the spirit to attack it. A gentleman who Ppossesed an aquarium fn which were sev- eral large goldfish once placed a tiny “pumpkin seed” or sunfish, about the siz= of a silver dollar, in the water. Watching anxiously to see that the goldfish did not injure it, what was his astonishment to see the “pumpkin seed” dart furiously at the larger fish, which huddled themselves in n corner, or scurried hastily through the wa- ter to hide among the stones and mimic grottoes of the aquarium! From that mo- ment the “pumpkin seed” remained lord of the fleld, scarcely allowing his compantons to come to the surface, as they are fond of doing, or to take a mouthful of food until hs had satisfied his own hunger. Finally he had to be removed from the aquarium to Save the goldfish from dying of fright. The enormous demand for goldfish is shown by the fact that from the establish- ment at Oldenburg alone over three hun- dred thousand fish are sent to market every year. Their price varies according to their size and beauty, for there are of beauty in goid fish as well as in all other things. The ingenious Chinese make great pets of their goldfish, and, with patience, teach them many tricks, such as eating from their hands, or rushing to be fed at the tinkle of a bell. The goldfish belongs to the genus Cr- Prinus, or the great carp family, and is sometimes called the golden carp. ———_+e2+______ A King Killed by a Beef Bone. Sir Walter Besant in the Pall Mall Magazine. The king who died in this house was that young Dane who appears to have been an incarnation of the ideal Danish brutality. He dragged his brother’s body out of its grave and flung it into the Thames; he massacred the people of Worcester and ravaged the shire; and he did these brave deeds and many others all in two short years. Then he went to his own place. His departure was both fitting and dra- matic. For one so young it showed with what a yearning and madness he had been drinking. He went across the river—there was, I repeat, no other house in Lambeth except this, so that it must have been here —to attend the wedding of his standard- bearer, Tostig the Proud, with Goda, daughter of the Thane Osgod Clapa, whose name survives in his former estate of Clapham. A Danish wedding was always an occasion for hard drinking, while the minstrels played and seng and the mum- mers tumbled. When men were well drunken the pleasing sport of bone throw- ing began; they threw the bones at each other. The fun of the game consisted in the accident of a man not being le to dodge the bone which struck him, and probably killed him. Archbishop Alphege was thus killed. The soldiers had no spe- ctal desire to kill the old man; why couldn't he enter into the spirit of the game and dodge the boncs? As he did not, of course he was hit, and as the bone was a big and heavy bone, hurled by a powerful hand, of course it split open his skull. One may be permitted to think that perhaps King Hardacnut, who is said to have fallen down suddenly when he “stood up to drink,” did actually intercept a big beef bone which knocked him down, and as he remained comatose until he died, the proud Tostig, unwilling to have ft said that even in sport his king had been killed at his wedding. gave out that the king fell down in a fit. This, however, is speculation. ods of Signaling. introduced improvements in detail, but it is certain that leng before the time of the Trojan war the Egyrtians and Assyrians, 1 not the Chinese and other nations of re- mote antiquity—of whom monumental rec- orés alone remain to us—had ‘The great wall, built by the Chinese ages ago, and 1,500 miles long, is studded with Between these signals were inter- be mal tf. ef i | i i | i j j | 8 tf i j i i i | H [ , i i i : | | | iH i 5 i li at ilk : i i 8 i i id i i i | i i ! EES it i i | ! i Hi I i i § i ! t i i I i I Bal i L are & ie Ht ; { i ii i | 23 IN A MODERN CITY An Iustration of What Municipd Sculpture Might Be. FROM THE HISTORY OF LANDS Art Played a Prominent Part In the A GLIMPSE OF THE PAST ee Kari Bitter in Municipal A@aire. The best Mlustration of what municipat sculpture might be in our time is to be found in examples showing what importe ant part was assigned to it in former times, The history of ancient Egypt and its rulers, as well as of the leading ideas of those times, can be retraced from the sculptured relics surviving along the banks of the Nile these many thousands of year The sculptured pictures which cover the columns of the ancient temple of Karnak Were to the people of that day living ovte ward signs of all that was great and sa- én their national and religious life. In the Egyptian saw reproduced the sacred rites of his religion, the might ai Prowess of his rulers, and could thus, at times, recall to himself and to his child: the great past. The colossal sphinxes, couched beside still more colossal pyra- mids, the mantic tombstones of aead kirgs, by their stolid features and tranquil pose, still tell the story of a boundless Gespotism and overweenipg hierarchy, and of the lasting impression made by them upon the entire character and life of a great human race. Monuments of Hellas. Just as the greatness of Egypt has been recorded for all time to come by its im- perishable monuments, so the charm of the life and civilization of ancient Hellas has been perpetuated by monument», the «pirit of which is imperishable. What Homer and Sappho sung in living verse their fel- tow artists recorded in no less living form with their chisel and mallet. The Lion Gate of Mycenae and the sculptured re- mains of tombs lying near it tell much in their way of the life and deeds of Ho- meric times as Homer himself and the Homeric Rhapsodiste embody in their epics. Even if we did not have these rehes of stone we could know, from these songs, how large a part sculpture and its kindred erts played in the iife of those peoples. So it came that, by the time cf Pericles, the men of Athens were surrounded in ail thelr pursuits by a magnificent outward demonstration of their city’s greatness, and of the highest civilization of their age. Spendirg their lives out of doors, as they did, they could find the beauty that we seek in our homes distributed throughout the entire city; and thus they grew to con- sider the city itself as their real home and to be more concerned in it than in thelr own at best but a casual dw < place. The magnificence of their Acropolis—the heart of their city—was something the humblest citizen rejoiced and took pride in, From afar he was greeted py Athena Pro- machos, the goddess of his aris cond sciences, the defender and patron of his city, bearing her name. Her statue was, therefore, the ideal expression of all the clty stood for and properly placed cn its Acropolis. The statues and bas rcliefs, adorning the temples and publis places which surrounded her and so harmoniously affected the whole life of the city, could not but leave a permanent impression upon the receptive minds of all who had eyes to behold them. For All the People. Athens was a democracy, where all that was done or undertaken was meant for the enjoyment and education of the people at large. The place that sculpture and art held in this system of popular education is shown by numerous examples, but « small part of which have survived until our day. The inevitable connection of cause and effect in such a system of national educa- tion is shown by the much quoted incident when the famous statue of Athens was about to be erected within the Parthenon. “What would you have,” said Pericles to the Athenian people, when it came to vot« ing the expense for this monumental work, “stone and bronze, or gold and ivory?” and the people answered as with one voice, “Let it be gold and ivory,” decreeing at the same time that whoever should propose ta devote any part of these funds to the more necessary war expenses should be Yon demned to death. This was the spirit di- rectly engendered and fostered by a sys- tem of national education which decreed that there should be public readings of such poems as the Rhapsodies of Homes before the assembled populace. No won- der that an Athenian with the music of these powerful verses still ringing in hig ears—when turning to the temple of hid tutelary goddess—should desire her sculp- tured image to combine all that was best in art and workmanship. Thus the noblest of inspirations were perpetuated in the ar- tistic productions of the day, and they in turn gave new inspiration of all the finest and noble ideals to all those who came un- der thetr spell. Im Anctent Rome. The conception cf sculpture and Its scope in ancient Rome in the days of the repub- lic, as well us of the empire, only differed from that of ancient Greece in its stan- dard. There was a similar agreement be- tween the people end their rulers, were they senators, councils, priests or empe- rcrs, to make the utmost of this art to record and commemorate the great deeds cred them Rome. Indeed, glorification, as was an object more sought for by the the Greeks, or even ii 1 a ef g I i i ti ni ih : ! i rd i i i ! il F 8 | | A lit ‘ H 4 ' f 1 i f |