Evening Star Newspaper, May 28, 1898, Page 14

14 TROOPS ABOARD SHIP ee Life on a Big Transport Has Many Disadvantages. ON THE WAY 10 THE PHILIPPINES How Two Batteries of Artillery Once Enjoyed Themselves. FOR THE OFFICERS Se NO FUN Written for The Evening Star. ¥ THE TIME those lads in blue of ours who are now merrily scudding over the sapphirc Pa- eifie Philippine-ward set thelr coral-dusty shoes on American again they are all likely to be deep- water and heavy- weather men of the saltiest type, with many a_ shiver-me- timbers and push-on- the-skys'I-nalyards expletive sausaged in with the car-r-rambas and santissimas they are liable to pick up the while they Stroll joyousiy along Dewey street in Ma- nila, to say nothing of the alohas and pous and other Kanaka phrases they will prob- ably get the hang of in the harbor of Hon- olulu. Whether they get their tongues around the good things in the vocabularies of the Kanakas, Negritoes and half-breeds in the beautiful palm-sown lands they are to visit or not. they are sure to get back to the United States with the ever-ready de- mand upon their lips for junk, scouse and duff, to be prepared at any and al! times to “heave soup and bully cans” at each other, an alk of “shipping green seas” as we of the land landly talk of occasionally over- flowing bath tubs. It is rather a romantic expedition, this n armada sweeping over the subl:mest sea, and next week, may- soldiers who have started for the Philippines will probably begin to enjoy it all. It is moderately safe to say that not many of them are enjoying it at the present = a moment time—only three days out. ‘There is bably an amount of bunk fa- tgue and pounding and longing for any old land, even desert land, so it ts stable, at this writi to make it impossible for many of the ixds to truthfully say, in their first letters home, that they enjoyed the Yoyage from the moment of casting off at San Francisco. The Pacific, as everybody nows who has ever sailed over its indigo bosom, is handicapped by- its name. “Pa- cific’ is taken by too many people to be Synonomeus with mill-pond. This is a dis- mai error. The Pacific Swell. The Pacific is no more often at rest than atlantic. and in any league of the from San Francisco to Manila the : y to find out the exact old skippers’ and Swiss y Robinsons’ allusions to “mountain- that they have pondered over th the solid earth beneath ven on days when the Pacifie unblemished turquoi: there couple of blocks in old tars. at the outset of 4 voyage. for all the air they can crowd into their lungs. American naval ng from San Francis: for or for coast cruises, ome too sick for any use couple of days out, and rt knows of a Pacifi mati skipper, who has made nearly three hundred voy- ages to veen "Frisco and Pana- $ to put in the firs: day ze between those ports Voyagers departing from ‘oO are not often permitted to iow of bravery very lons ure cast off. The ne ship be- of the Gold- q well of the perpett People who claim that the is harder on the mal-de- the long. steady swe! and time to the fraction ain the 1 choppy afflicted than rm to hate with incon- not m have in all proba- the murmursome Pa- the ers on the trans- ped into the indescriba- bor of Honolulu, however, bly be making faces over the ‘acifie’s glorious phosphorescent voyaged 6 fie. By the tim ships beautiful 1 har ‘un and Expertence. tient, philosophical lads who have or who are going with the Philippine ition will have all the fun and ex- perk they can handle on the troop ships. Yhere is surely all kinds of experience, enyway, to be had on a troop ship. Draw- irg lots, for example, to see who's booked to stand up a to hav about one-thire of hawser to slee on in @ position complimentarily called re- clining is an exciting pastime of the day- light hours beard ,a troop transport. There can be denying that trans- ports are always jammed to the gun’is hundred ‘troops cannot be put ven So Spacious a steamer as the sut furnishing material for bably blows among the men will surely be nothing sinecure in the work of the regular guards ansports. If spats, and nfrequent, are part of the ounted routine of a prac- regiment of soldiers, the in- sort in the steerage of where men who sour on each over tri jes can’t get away from @ach other's sight, are surely common enough to keep a big fore-and-aft guard essantly busy. Not that the soldiers y aboard a saip make « shambles and find surcease of sorrow only their quarters between decks banging trav- nsidera- @ troop ship's company cious and unmanageable, and jon that troop ships never @way at each other's heads; but shy of wrist and ankle squelehing of the unruly. » departed on voyage that s of the soldiers aid not cruise in double irons up the mot necessarily bad soldiers but men too handy with their fisis 2 too hair-triggerish of tem- rer. ¢ soldiers who travel brigg: nS on troop ship voyages can't b ve the wors: of it. They generally ve three times as much room @s thelr com who are at liberty, and unposted of the guard have to bring th f which saves the brigged from the necessity of scrambling disappears { the mess tabi sunset mirage: he Daily Routine. ary routine Is always kept up op ship, just as it is maintained Tor food that post. The guard is mounted in the mc &. and the men of the guard have their regular two-on-and-four-off tricks to worry through, seasick or no sea- sick, on decks that leap from beneath their feet like runaway elevators. he men stand reveille and retreat as they do ashore in gar i most of the other garrison fatigue the « unded. with the exception of On the Philippine expedition i all to be sounded will be and after the arrival at fatigue call will mean hands coai <hip.” The soldiers will no doubt be impressed to help in the coaling of the transports, and this will give them all an opportunity to pat themselves on the back # hake hands with themselves over the fact that they did not “take on” in Uncle Sam's line of fighting packets— for coaling ship is the least appealing job performed by naval bluejackets. There are Occasions even in the lives of bluejackets, ‘by the way. when they get out of the coai ship job. This is when the bluejackets are returned from foreign stations to the Unit- ed States on passenger steamers. No more restful picture is conceivable than that of, a United States bluejacket leaning on the rail chains of a passenger steamer, and smoking a short clay pipe, the while he watehes the steamer’s crew helping out the shore roustabouts coal ship from lighters. This spectacle has an irresistible fascina- téon for the bluejacket traveling per steam- @t, after his time in the navy is out, and call to look at him while he is in the act of watching other deep sea men Bore | coal” you would never dream that he knew the difference between a ton of coal and a carge of cochineal. When Soldiers Become Unmanageable ‘The writer wishes to be absolved at the outset from any accusation that he por- trays the soldiers of the United States as a wild lot. The writer knows that the sol- diers of the United States army are as good soldiers as ever walked No. 1 post in a jong-eared manner when the commanding officer of the post happened to be coming down the walk. He knows it, having been one of them himself—and this ought to clinch the matter. But, with reference to the voyaging of soldiers on troop ships, comparisons as to the relative degrees of goodness of soldiers in various services can- not very well be made, for the simple and truthful reason that all soldiers are more or less unmanageable aboard troop ships. Soldiers can’t be as reliable, level-headed and yseody-good as their officers pretend— only pretend—they would like them to be when under way for a new post, either over land or across seas. For purposes of illus- tration, the voyage of two batteries of the 5th United States Artillery from Astoria, Ore., to San Francisco, on the steamer Co- lumbia, about four years ago, will do. The writer knows something about this voyage, in which there was nothing unusual, except that it was a characteristic movement of soldiers by sea. An Eventful Trip. These two batteries of heavy artillery were ordered from Fort Canby, Wash., to Alcatraz Island, in the harbor of San Fran- cisco. The men of the two batteries were good average soldicrs of the regular army— obedient men in garrison, and rather an unusually sober and trustworthy lot. ‘They had been expecting the order to move from the unspeakably dreary Canby down to the harbor of San Francisco tor a long time. the crder came, they were on edge , and moved in platoons across the ‘mile, bear-infested trail to the little Siwash town of Il Waco, where they light- heartedly razed a few superfluous shacks to the ground and otherwise swam in a night of joy. The chain guard doubled up with the post guard and brought the platoons back trom Il Waco after a day or so, and then the batteries began to pack up for the move. This was a hefty job that the men went through like Trojans, for they wanted to be a-move. Before the start was made every man had a month's pay in his pocket. The battery luggage was dumped aboard the little steamer at the Fort Canby dock, and the men embarked for the thirteen-mile trip across the mouth of the Columbia river for the town of As- toria, whence the Portland steamer was to ship them for the trip down the coast to San Francisco. The post guard was taken aboard the little Astoria-bound steamer. and the members of that guard had plenty hands embarked aboard the steamer and the officers of the batteries breathed easier. The men at least couldn't get away again without swimming for it. to do. Three-quarters of the men of the two batteries had, before the start was made, toasted each other at a canteen not wisely, but too well, and by the time the little steamer pulled alongside the dock at Astoria, where the big steamer was to tie up the next day and take the soldiers aboard, this comfortable 75 per cent of the outfits was penned up in a corner of the lower deck, examining the glint of the guard’s bayonets. They were all turned loose when the little boat arrived at Asto- ria. however, and put to work with the rest in unloading the luggage of the batteries. When this job was done, the men were formed and marched into the long pler shed, where they were to pass the night. That is, where it was supposed they were to pass the night. A strong guard. com- posed of the men who hadn't toasted each other at the canteen in Fort Canby, was put on the entrance to the pier shed. The guard was not corruptible—but the mem- bers of the guard were just as anxious to see Astoria by oil light as were the mem- bers of the batteries penned up in the pier shed. Escaping Into the Night. The officers were determined. however, that there should be no liberty granted, and their determination didn’t ooze out at all. But the men did. They oozed out in the most mysterious manner. The pier shed was filled with merchandise that was to be loaded aboard the ‘Frisco-bound steamer, and this merchandise served to screen the men in their plans of escape. There surely were not many boards left in the side works of that pier shed after the men had been herded therein for an hour. Each man went to work at a board, after approved Jack Sheppard style, pulled it loose, and slipped through the vacancy. After a while the officers began to notice the thinning out in the ranks of the men, and the door guard was employed to make the rounds of the shed for the purpose of corraling the soldiers engaged in working their way through the walls. Twenty or thirty of these were caught dead to rights end put under guard in a bit of a circle formed by bales of merchandise. They kept up an uproar, but they succeeded in dickering with the guards. While some of them dickered others found loopholes and got out into the freedom of pierbuilt As- toria, the wildest town, bar none whatever, in the western hemisphere. The officers jawed the guards, threatened them with general courts-martial and all sorts of un- pleasant things when the batteries arrived at Alcatraz, and the guards looked prop- edly humble and tractable. Even the Guards Left. ‘Then the guards began to disappear. Now. it is a pretty serfous offense for a soldier in our army to jump his guard. All the same, these guards began to disappear.’ How in the world the men were getting out the of- ficers couldn't understand, but when the officers returned, along towards evening, to the pier shed from the restaurant where they had been dining they found only about twenty men in the pier shed, and most of the twenty were non-commissioned officers, who would probably have gone, too, had they not had their stripes and chevrons in mind. When they began to investigate the officers found that a small boy had been making slathers of backsheesh in carrying escaping soldiers from the pier whereon they had been confined to another pler across the way, whence the soldiers made for the Joyous portions of the town. The boy had only a leaky skiff, but it served. The officers formed a patrol guard of the men remaining and set out at the head of the patrol to gather in the runaways. The commanding officer first hunted up the town marshal and instructed him to bring the escaped soldiers !n dead or alive. ‘or ten dollars per head I will,” said the town marshal, who knew the legal fee in such cases. “At ten dollars per head,” acquiesced the commanding officer. Getting the Men Back. “Well, I've got twenty-eight of em now,” said the town marshal, who was an enter- prising man. Sure enough, he had seized twenty-eight of the soldiers one by one in various parts of the town and had them all snug and safe in the calaboose. The patrol went after them. The pgtrol found the twenty on very even terms, indeed, with the jailer, who was sitting among them enjoying the solids and liquids they gener- cusly provided. The patrol formed the cap- tured men and started them for the pier shed. They went at a lope and most of them got away again. The patrol spent the whole night at this kind of work, with little result. The two batteries had’ prac- tically been effaced from the earth, so care- fully did they secrete themselves. Every man turned up for reveille at 6 o'clock ‘the next morning. You can’t general court- martial two whole batteries, but the officers painted dreary pictures of what was: in store for the men who had run away. All But they could do other things. Those among them who did not become immediately hors du com- bat when the steamer went over the violent Columbia bar evinced a strong dislike for the steerage. A dozen of them, somewhat irresponsible after their night In Astoria, made a break past the guards,-ettained the main deck and in a twinkling were up the foremast rope ladders and out on tht lower yard, trying to outdo each other in the at- tempt to “chin” the yard the greatest num- ber of times. The steamer skipper-and first officer cot them down out of that with leveled pistols, and this was the first gang to be ironed. After that they began to go into the glory hole In sets of fours. Their chief offense, that landed most of them in irons, was the fun they persisted in having with the Chi- nese members of the steamer’s crew. They chased the scared Chinamen all over the ship, with no idea of maltreating them, but just to hear the Chinese jabber of distress. it was rather cruel business, inasmuch as half a dozen of the celestiais had to be held from jumping overboard, so frightened were they over the antics of the white devils in blue. * Y Fur on Board Ship. The Chinese deck haads of these Pacific steamers all smoke opfum in their bunks between watches. All of the soldiers mani- fested an unchainable inclination to “smoke hop” with the Chinamen’s layouts, and this got several dosen of them in irons. THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1898-24 PAGES. The officers came below a dozen times and told the men, in dignified harangues, that they ought to be ashamed-of themselves. The soldiers acknowledged it, and said among themselves that they wanted to be ashamed of themselves—that after soldier- ing for two years at such a post of desola- tion as Fort Canby they couldn't be any- thing else but ashamed of themselves, any- how. There were eighteen men of the two batteries “loose” and out of trons when, af- ter three days, the Columbia finally pulled into San Francisco bay. All of the men were released as soon as the steamer tied up, and behaved themselves from that time on, immediately resuming their garrison demeanor when they saw the time for sky- larking had passed. The officers, all of them experienced men, said among them- selves that, on the whole, the men had be~ haved admirably. Now, this was in a time of peace, and there were only two batteries of them. The reader may figure for him- self the fun to be had aboard a huge trans- port in time of war, when there are from 1,500 to 2,000 men to be handled. SS MEMORY OF PETER THE GREAT. How the Great Czar is Worshiped in the Russ! Empire. From Black and White.. Peter has become almost a cult in Russia. Go to his cottage on the banks of the Neva on a Russian holiday, and you will have to fall in queue and squeeze your way into his little rooms, ostensibly to kiss a holy picture, but this holy picture is mixed up in the Russian’s mind with Peter the Great. The Moujik looks around on the little home Peter built for himself on the Neva marshes as if he looked on the relics of a saint. Peter was essentially a man of action an artisan of genius, as his handi- work and the tools he used prove; yet.a bern commander, restless, ruthless. When near the site of his future St. Petersburg he saw a tree scarred with a mark high above the ground, and he asked of the peasants near: “What is that?’ “The height to which the waters rose in 1680,” replied a peasant. “You He!” cried Peter. He cut the tree down. He was not to be deterred by the fact that floods had swept over his chosen site, and his masterfulness is today felt by the Russians until they have nearly made a god of him. It is impossible now to see the exterior of Peter’s cottage on the Neva's banks, for a stone house was built by Catherine II over it as a shell to preserve this wooden cottage, and so the outward appearance is gone. Inside this stenhe building you see the wooden build- ing, but this has very foolishly lately been painted to imitate bricks, but inside you can see in one room the type of place Peter lived and worked in. Here in this one lit- tle room—there are but two in the cottage —are the oak furniture, old leather chairs, a little cooking service, some of the sails of his béat, and the worn little wooden bench seat on which he sat at his door and dreamed of the future capital, or raved ‘at those who carried out his orders or failed to do so. In this room he transacted busi- ness with his ministers of state and re- ceived foreign ambassadors. The very greatness of the man forces it- self upon one by this act alone. He, the czar, with all the jeweled group of the Kremlin to enshroud himself with, sitting on his bench, or in his timber hut, and creating a power that in less than two cen- turies was to rule half the world. The oth- er room of the cottage is also greatly trans- formed; it was Peter's sleeping and dining reom; now it is a chapel, and a picture of our Savior which Peter took with him upon all his trayels, and which he bore with him at the famous battle of Poltava, hangs here. It is in a gilt frame with a jeweled crown that, as is usual in Russian towns, quite overshadows the picture. Not long ago I went out to this cottage on a Russian saint’s day, and service was being performed in the ‘chapel. A smal? choir of men in ordinary dress were squeezed in behind the little altar and a priest in robes was chanting the service. The people were packed flatly together in the room and outside arvund the door, and under the passage of the outer building that protects the cottage. Some tried to get others to pass in lighted candles to place before the picture, and others crushed and Squeezed until some moving on gave « chance to get ii All devoutly blessed the picture and crossed themselves continuou: ly, and when they got out went with rever- ential air and looked at Peter's: room and the boat he built, this latter placed between his cottage and the outer building. The heat in the little chapel. with the lighted candles and the packed little mass of not too clean humanity, was excessive, and the perspiration stood out on the faces of Eriests and choir, who went about their work in a quiet, business-like fashion; but the devotion of the crowd to memory, to a something they themselves perchance could not explain, was very apparent. Ostensibly it was the holy picture, but it is the link between the picture and Peter that gives so much value and makes it so revered This Peter who built St. Petersburg gave Russia a port and a navy, and started her on her world-influencing career. The fierce, Temorseless, indomitable restlessness of the nan and his crimes are forgotten; all the bloodshed he caused in seizing upon the sole rule and his ill-planned campaigns— even the one great terrible crime of the murder of his own son, Alexis,which rumor and tradition lay to his charge—ali is for- gotten in the memory of the man who, by that same indomitable will and force of character, started Russia on her aggrandiz- ing career. Everything that is associated with him, his clothes, his trappings, his jewels, the tools with which he worked, his writings, his books, everything is treasured up and looked upon with such reverence by the Russians that even strangers begin te feel they are in the presence of relics of a man of men. The common folks may well be excused for so crowding to the lit- tle house where he lived and worked al- mest as they live and work, to passionate- ly veneraté the holy picture that receives their worship of the founder of St. Peters- burg. —____+ e+ ____ He Objected to the Law. From the New Orleans Picayure. One of the repulsive features of the laws under which the Natchez Indians were gov- erned was that when a member of the roy- al family of the nation died it was neces- sary that several others of the people should accompany him to the tomb by suf- fering death at the hands of executioners. When the “Great Sun,” the hereditary chief of the whole nation, died, all his wives, in case he were provided with more than one, and also several of his subjects, were obliged to follow him into the vale of shadows. The “Little Suns, secondary chiefs, and also members of the royal fam- ily, Iikewise claimed, when dying, their tribute of death from the living. In addi- tion to this, the inexorable law also con- demned to death any man of the Natchez race who had married a girl of the royal line of the “Suns;"’ on the occasion of her death he was called upon to accompany her. “I will narrate to you upon this sub- ject.” writes an old French chronicler of Louisiana, “the story of an Indian who was not in a humor to submit to this law. His name was Etteacteal. He had contracted an alliance with the ‘Suns.' This honor came near having a fatal result for him. His wife fell sick, and as soon as he per- ceived that she was approaching her end he took to flight, embarking in a pirogue on the Mississippi, and sought a refuge in New Orleans. He placed himself under the pro- tection of the governor, who was at that time Mons. de Blenville, offering himself to be the governor’s hunter. The governor accepted his services, and interested him- self in his behalf with the Natchez, who declared, in answer, that he had nothing to fear, inasmuch as the ceremony was over, and as he had not been present when it took place.he was no longer available as a candidate for execution.” ' the the : “Arriet—“I don’t believe ‘alf them delu- | made _ bonds gardea’ aie sions is real.”"—Punch. WARTIME: FORTUNES —— m3 Men Who Havé Taken Advantage of ve Their Opportunities 0 /AND MADE YaST SUMS OF MONEY But the ‘Methads Have Not Always Been Above Reproach. ROTHSCHILD’S SHREWDNESS Written for The Evening Star. (Copyright, 1898, by the International Literary and lews Service.) W E ARE aAccus- tomed to regard war WS —w as the exclusive op- Se = portunity of the sol- ‘ Be der, but it has made fortunes as well as reputations. The struggle for victory at the front has had its parallel in the equally flerce strug- gle for wealth on the stock exchange. It was ‘Waterloo = “that made-secure the fame of Wellington as a soldier. It was Waterloo that made secure also the finan- cial dynasty of thé Rothschilds. Shrewd old Nathan“Rothschild had wait- ed for Napoleon's dowrifall, firm in the faith that it must gooner or later come. His agents had followed the Corsican in his various ¢ampaigns that he might have the first news of his overthrow, and during the days that immediately preceded Water- loo was himself with: the British army. In- deed, he kept so close to the commander-in- chief that the “Irofi Duke,’ not knowing him, fancied he mud} be either a spy or possible assassin, and threatened to hang him if he again appeared near headquar- ters. The day of the great battle Rothschild, from his horse on the hill of Hougoumont, watched the struggle of the nations, and when at last he saw that the French army was in-retreat, posted off to Brussels as fast as his horse could carry him, from whence a carriage in waiting conveyed him to Ostend. There he found a storm raging on the channel and the sailors fear- ful to cross. But he knew neither fear nor danger when he saw the glint of gold. He offered first six, then eight hundred francs to be taken to the English coast. At last upon his offering twenty-five hundred francs a fisherman having greater courage or greater cupidity than his fellows under- took the dangerous task. Before nightfall Rothschild had landed at Dover, and with- out waiting for a moment's rest was on his way to London. On the 20th of June he appeared at the stock exchange. He told his friends; ih “eonfidence, of course, that Blucher’s “army had been utterly de- stroyed by Nap#leoti*at Ligny on the 16th and 17th, and that’s a result of this de- feat there could*bé n6 hope for Wellington. His whisperings® poisoned the public faith on every side. The’funds went tumbling into the bottomless pit of commercial panic, while private and public credit ceased to exist. ) When the Reaction Came. As stocks an@ bands went down Roths- child bought all the consols, bills and notes he could raise the ‘money to pay for. Then he waited securé in’his knowledge-of the reaction that would follow the news from Waterloo. On the 2d of June this. news reached London: Values went up more rapidly than they had,previously gone down and shrewd old Nathan Rothschild counted as his some six millions more of gold. Of all the gre#t’ fortunes ‘of America. the one Most distinctly,and ‘legitimately a war fortune is.that of, the-Du Ponts, who for. almost a century have controlled the man- ufacture of gunpowder in the United States. os In. 1802 Eleuthere Treme Du Pont, a French refugee, established himself in Del- aware, where he commenced in @ small way the mantifacture of explosives. ‘The war of 1812 and the Mexican war did much for the industry which his descendants car, ried. on, In every generation one or -more members of the family have paid for the family riches with. their lives through ex- plosions in the mills, for the Du Ponts must be their own chemists and superin- tendents and mechanics. The priceless se- crets 6f their craft pass from father to son. During the civil war their contract with the government involved millions of dollars, and the present war with Spain, when the cost of firing a single’ projectile is enormous, will dd greatly to their wealth, which is estimated to exceed one hundred millions. » During the Civil War. Most of the fortuueain America today com? directly or indirectly as a result of the expansion and’‘development occasioned by the civil war. : ‘The. first effect of the war was to paralyze trade of every sort, the next was to stimu- late it: The *speculativs ‘fever broke out in 1862. Men speculated in «ill the food prod- ucts, in coal, iron, dry goods ani gold. Very few ofthese purely speculative fortunes were cipstine. howevér. They w2re made and lost almost In a’ day. One of the most interesting phases of this war-time specula- tion were the operatiops {n gold which were first conducted in’a @irty and dingy news stall cailsd “Gilpin's rooms,” at the corner of Wiliam stréet and Exchange place, New York city. In two ‘or three months it be- came thé center of the gold business of the United States. During the war, when gold reach2d 285, the trade amounted to millions a day and immense fortunes were suddenly made, the majority of which were as sud- denly lost in March of 1588, when gold fell seventy-four pomts. Speculating in Gold. The speculation-:in gold culminated in 1869, in widespr2ad ruin. Th!s was cn what is known as Black Friday, when Jay Gould and Jim Fiske tried te force iz up to 200. Fiske had entered into the venture on Gould’s azsurance that President Grant’s brother-in-law, Gen: Porter, his private sec- retary, and Butterfield, the assistant sec- retary of the treasury, were to have an in- terest in the speculation. Fiske was aware that together they’conld buy all the goid in New York city, but he feared the $100,000,- 000 in the subtreasury, for he knew an offer from the government to sell any part of that’ would meaa thelr rain, as he said— “Our phantom gol€ can’t’ stand the ‘real’ stuff." However,;/whan iné was told that corruption was té Ja part in the specu- lation, he-felt at HoiteAnd safe. They pre-' pered for the stragé@le"by buying the Fifth National Bank of New, York. On the 23d of Bépte! the bubble broke! Pi and Fiske had about $300,000 onfd it thete, ‘but ‘their checks were certified'®to the amount of The governmen®! nié@itime had ‘been tn- formed ofthe @ti@A of thé bank, and three examiners qe it to New York to'-take” possépsipn.” is was on Friday’ morning; but thef petmitted tie bank to transact “its “regufar: Wasiness; though no more checks ‘werd<cert@ed whith were not’ -covered by a deposit # = Panic t Rottowea. On Wednesday .<the* price of gold had been 140%, a rise df fivé cents. This would have given’a profit ‘of Mive millions ‘of dol- lars to the conspiraters had they chosen to sell, but they “held and Thursday gold reached 150: On FrigeX morning it climb- ed to 160—and then at critical moment government had Stantly thére was a ‘panic; with hardly a rally y ola felt to 133. There was nome: » the day befcre’ taken at any price. ‘’The real stuff” crush- 4 the corner in ‘twinkling of an ‘The. report by the Comitnlttes ‘of inve York city..at the” yet the clearings for ihe ete: OB : hi and twenty-five 2 those of Friday be negotiated abroad owing to England's | Secret but bitter hostility to the north, and to the mistrust of the Rothschtlds. Tke iate Jay Cooke, a western banker, un- dertook the sale of these bonds; he placed the original 5.20 loan of five hundred and thirteen millions—as well as subsequent loans, which in the aggregate amounted to over one billion of dollars. This is said to have been one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of the world’s frances. His profits from the undertaking Tran up into the millions, but it was a service of paramount importance to t! United States, Fortunes in Whisky Tips. The placing of the internal revenue tax —& war measure to, increase the income of the government—was not without its op- portunity for aggrandizement. Certain Grave senators are said to have made comfortable fortunes by peddling what were known as ‘whisky tips.” These tips =the standard price for which seems to Rave been about $10,000—were eagerly sought by speculators who bought and stcred large quantities of whisky, knowing it would advance in price the moment the tax was placed upon it. One year prior to the war cotton sold at 11% cents a pound in the markets of the world; two years later it was seliing at 24% cents, this rise, and those which fol- lowed, forcing it up to 65 cents, and affe: ing the price of all dry goods. Having foreseen the condition that war would necessarily create in the south, A. T. Stewart, New York's great dry goods merchant, had bought and stored miilions of yards 6f cotton goods of all descriptions. In a single year from this source he real- ized $4,000,000. Furnishing Uniforms. Devlin & Co. of New York, a great war- time firm of clothiers, profited in a some- what similar way. When jt was seen that war was imminent they purchased all the cloth they could find in the market suit- able for uniforms, and not even waiting for the call for troops began the manufacture of overcoats and army clothes. They had 75,000 of these packed and ready: for ship- ment when the President's calf for men came, and these uniforms were worn by the first troops that marched to the front. It was during the first year of the war that the .word “shoddy” came into use. It was applied to the worthless garments furnish- ed the government by dishonest contrac- tors, but after the first year the giving out of contracts was so well managed that frauds of this sort became well nigh im- possible. It was the rise in the price of cotton that made blockade. running profitable to Srglish ship owners. The cargoes were sent out to Bermuda or Nassau and there transferred to the fast steamers that were to make the hazardous run to some con- federate port. The profits were so great that a single successful run would ‘more than pay for thé best steamer afloat and meet the expenses of the voyage into the bargain. How it flourished and what in- ducements it had to flourish may be judged from the fact that during the war the blockading fleet _took or destroyed more than seven hundred vessels engaged in the trade. A Questionable Transaction. “It pas been said that the purchase of arms added greatly to the private means of certain officials. The works at Spring- field, where the army muskets were made, were unable to meet the sudden demand, and agents were sent abroad to buy rifles from various Buropcan powers. The ag- gregate cost of these muskets exceeded two million dollars. They were in every way inferior to those made at home, and it was asserted that they were guns which had been condemned by the governments fiom which they were purchased. ‘The moneyed return in war time is not always in proportion to the actual value of the service rendered; indeed, it would seem that the man who stays quietly at heme and allows his neighbor to go to the front and do the fighting has every chance of becoming a rich man, while the soldier can only hope for fame—or a pen- sion. Perhaps there is no better illustration of this seeming unfairness than that of- fered in the case of Capt. John Ericsson, who invented and built the famous _moni- tor which defeated the Merrimac in Hamp- ton Roads and forever stayed the rising wave of confederate success. He probably recelved less from the government than did many of the cogtractors who supplied caps and shoes for the army. - a LOOK TO YOUR LITTLE FINGER. It Can Point Back to Your Grand- father's Station in Life. From the Woman's Heme Companion. The fact that the hand looks shapelier and more graceful when the middle and third fingers are slightly curved in and away from the index and little finger is shown by the models in the glove store windows, and while it is affectation to hold the hands in such a position, yet this exercise, tg make the pose natural, should bé practiced. Some one has said somewhere that the number of cultured generations back of an indivitiual may be judged by the degree of curve in the little finger. Observation will prove this more or less true. When one sees a person holding a glass or cup with the little finger thrust out and curved until it resembles a hook, a little invesiiga- tion will almost invariably show that the desire for culture has only just awakened in that particular family, and in its new- ness is somewhat overstepping the mark. Affectation is a sign of lack of breeding. Some of the old painters understood hands to perfection. Long, rounded hands, with slightly curved fingers and gently bent wrists, are characteristic of the wo- men whose beauty they have made memor- able. Sometimes, perhaps, the beautiful hands were those of some other model than the pictured one; but the painters knew that beautiful hands were as necessary as beautiful faces in erder te make a har- montous picture. The people of almost every other nation have more graceful hands than we have; and those who use their hands most freely when conversing are by far the most graceful. The hands which make no super- juous movements, which appear to obey readily and easily their owner's will, whose movements are free, rhythmic and gentle, are the really graceful oneg. —_+e-——___ THE SMALLEST COLONY. Money Has No Value in It and Crime in Unknown. From the New York Herald. Did you ever hear of a place where money was useless? Well, there is such a place. It is the Island of Tristan d’Acunha, in the south Atlantic, about midway between the Cape of Good Hope and the South American: coast. But you musn’t jump to the conclusion that money -has no value there because the island is uninhahited. It has a population of sixty-four, and is the tiniest, of Great Britain's many si colonies. é Once a year the British government sends off a ship to the island. Just why this sbould be done is not quite clear. A year- ly mail service is quite unnecessary, for although the sixty-four inhabitants are British subjects they never receive any mail. They lead a_ solitary existence, knowing nothing of the great world be- yend their shores and caring less. The last visit to the !sland, which is en- tirely out of the track of vessels, was made last November by her majesty’s ship Wid- geon, under command of Lieutenant A. F. Gurney. The special object of the visit was to convoy to the islanders a whaling boat, which was supplied by the admiralty. Upon his return Lieutenant Gurney made the following report to the colonial office: “The total population is now sixty-four, composed of eighteen adult males, nineteen ‘women, fifteen boys and twelve girls. The island is capable of affording pasturage for same 500 head of cattle, and, as there aro throws an additional light upon strange islanders. He said in part: “It may not be generally known, but it is mone the less a fact, that money is of no value to these people. When I was there, in 1884, I offered money in exchange for their curiosities, but it was politely but these firmly declined. They had no use for it, | they said. On the other hand, articles of clothing, such as woolen undervests and socks, suited to the rigor of the climate, were received with the utmost appreciation. “At the time of which I speak they found a difficulty in obtaining tobacco, and this, I gathered, was the chief hardship of their | lives. The islanders, I may say, are in no want of books. Few of them can read, and those wno can have literature enough for all their requirements. It is to be hoped that any donations generously made to succor these hardy people will be applicd in a manner which keeps in view their real necessities.” The Island of Tristan d'Acunha.which has been described as the loneliest British po: sesvion on the face of the globe, well bears out tts reputation. It is a mountainous place, the highest peak rising to an alti- tude of 8,236 feet above the sea level. The “head man” of the island, known as the governor, is a picturesque old fellow named Peter William Green. He was shipwreck- ed over sixty years ago, and when his shipmates were finally tdken off the kind- ness which he had experienced at the hands of the islanders ied him to remain bebind and cast his lot with them. He was afterward married to one of the women of the island. So great became his pcpularity that upon the death of the then governor, William Glass, in 1853, the island- ers unanimously elected Peter to fill his place, and this office he has occupied ever since. He is known to be over eighty years old, but is hale and vigorous. His administration of primitive justice has won him the respect and esteem of his foliowers. The island was discovered by the Port guese in 1506, and was named after the commander of the expedition. It was oc- cupied by American. sealers from 179) to 1811, and in i8i7 formal possession was taken by the British. A company of Brit- ish artillery was stationed there for the Purpose of keeping a watch on Napoleon, at that time a prisoner on the Island of St. Helena. On the death of Napoleon the troops were withdrawn, with the exception of Corporal Glass and two companions, who, with sume whaling men, were the founders of the present settlement. Property is Practically held in common. There is no strong drink and no crime, and the island- ers are healthy and long lived. There are two adjacent islets, known as Nightingale Island and Inaccessible Island. The “latter for several years harbored two Germans, brothers, named Stoltenhoff, who passed a Robinson Crusce existepce there. ae Played in Luck. From the San Francisco Exarciner. ‘When the steamship Cottage City arrived at San Francisco from New York to join the Klondike trade it carried three ship- wrecked sailors, picked up at Valparaiso. They were Jack O'Neil of San Francisco, William Walsh of New York and John Dall, a Norwegian. They had been seamen on the bark Monantum, wrecked seven months ago. “We were on the way from Newcastle, Australia, to Panama, when the bark sprung a leak,” said O'Neil, at the Sailors Home. pumps, and he soon concluded that_we would have to run for Easter Island. This island, mind, is away off the coast of Chile, about 2,500 miles from anywhere. “The captain’s idea was to run the bark @shore, sq he wasn't particular what course he took, and, as hard luck would have it, we banged into a reef. Tnat settled it, and we barely succeeded in getting ashore with our lives. “Easter Island is about twenty miles long and eight or nine miles wide. It is inhabit- ed by a simple and hospitable lot of Kan: kas—about 180 of them in all. There is a king at the head, and there are three or four chiefs or officers, who seem to hold office by right of age. “The king took a fancy to me. He un- cerem)aiously conducted me to his house— a rude cabin of sticks, dried mud and thatch. The captain and the rest of the crew had to put up with the homes of the ordinary citizens, but we all had about the same amount of beef and sweet potatoes to eat. These are the only foods we saw on the island, and as the cattle run wild and have scant pasturage the beef is pret lean. They have only one meal a day on the island, and that comes about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. “By one of those funny freaks that al- ways happen at shipwrecks, a chest con- taining paint had floated ashore. I painted the king’s house for him red, white and yellow, with trimmings of tar. His bare- footed highness thought that was out of sight. He had an extra dinner that da: just as they do at weddings and funeral: and he never stopped chuckling. “We had been there six months when a sailing vessel landed and took us to Val- paraiso The king and all his subjects— men, women and children—shouted in lamentation as we sailed awa; “It strikes me, Mr. Brief,” said Mr. Dog- way, “that your charge of $750 for th opinion is pretty®steep.” “No doubt,” said Mr. Brief. “But you see, Dogway, when you come and ask me for an opinion which violates all my con- victions, you've got to pay not only for your law, but for my eonscience."—Har- per’s Bazar. “Captain Newhall put us at the | SHADOWS. == is More Artistic Than | the Repetition of a Design. | Prom Coilier’s Weekly. | One of several good reasons for leavtag | blank, unvexed, and unincumbered witk paper patterns, the cetling and walls of a simple house is that the plain surface may | be visited by the unique designs of shad- cws. The opportunity is so fine a thing that it ought oftener (o be offered to the light and to yonder handful of long sedgea and rushes in a vase. Their slender gray ¢esign of shadows upon your white wails is better then a tedious, trivial, or anxious repetition of diaper or flower in colors, The shadow has all iniricactes of per- spective simply translated into line and in- tersecting curve, and pictoriaily presented to the eyes, rot to the mind. The shad- ow knows nothing except iis flat designs. It is single; it draws a decoration that vas never seen Lefore, and will never be seen again, and that, untouched, varies with the journey of the sun, shifts the in- terrelation of @ score of delicate lines at the mere pasing of time, though all the | Teom be motionless. There is, after all, | 4 dreadful fixity in other drawings. Why | will art insist upon ils tmportunate im- | mobility? Wiser ts the drama, and wiser | the dance, that do not pause upon an ai- Their Di Utude. But these walk with passion or pleasure, while the shadow walks with the earth. It ters as the hours wheel Moreover, while the habit of your sun- ward thoughts is still flowing southward, after the winter and the spring, it sur- prises you in the sudden gleam of a north- westerly sun. It Gecks a new wall; it is shed wy @ late sunset through a window unvisited for a year past; it betrays tho fitung of the sun into unwonted skies—a sun that takes the midsummer world in the rear, and is able to alight on an unused horizon. So does the gray drawing, with which you have allowed tne sun and your pot of rushes to adorn your room, play the stealthy game of the year. But the luxury, the extravagance of shadows, ts for lamplight. With the ten- der designs of lamplight shadows you can wake your plain room ready for a gala night. It is a festival of leaves and lines, and you can let your fancy go wild, as the London hovseholder’s does in the ordering of upholsteries of a more solid kind, and paintings out of the exhibitions. You need not stint yourself of shadows for an vc- caston. These, too, the lamps cast upon your ceiling, which the sun shadows leave un- visited. And it is the best field for th Manner of decoration, inasmuch as, how- ever plain your surfaces may be, the ceil- ing is generally still the plainest. These two lamps make of one palm-branca a symmetrical counterchange of shadows, and here two palm-branches close with ore another in shadow, their arches flow- ing together, and their paler grays darken- ing. It Is hard to believe that there is an enormeus majority of people who prefer a “repeating pattern.” - In fact, ft is difficult to persuade a world 80 persistently busy in the work of spoil- ing the simplicity of surfaces that shadows are in any sense a sufficient decoration. Nay. it does not seé them. It will speak of a blank wall, and apparently will see it as a blank, even when the warm white is but the ground of a wavering, various and sensitive “impression” of shades. We are often toid that the artist should learn to leave cut; but it would seem that it is the absolutely unpictorial man who habitu- leaves out, who is unaware of things that would be conspicuous to a sim) ye, but who has a irick of seeing locai color, for instance, without its thousand dents of air. of climate and of light. Nevertheless, one must grant to him that gray day robs of their decoration th Walls that should be sprinkled with shad- ows. But why should not a plaque or a picture be kept for hanging on shadowless days? To @ress a room once for all, and to give it no more heed, is to neglect the units of the days. +e Ethics of Bargaining. Fiom Marper's Bazar. A bargain fs a trade in which each party outwits the other, and each thinks he has got the best of it. A good bargain is when we get the better of the other party,-and a bad bargain Is when he gets the better of us. ‘To bargain is to dicker for the advantage, trying to get the other party off guard, that you may secure his wares without giving him their equivalent | To get a bargain is to buy what vou do | not want at a few cents less than you might have to pay if you ever should want it. A good bargain often turns out a poor one. The time, energy and money spent in se- curing a good Largain will usually prove a bad investment SSL ES Judge (to wife of defendant) you were present when your husband broke into the Girls’ High hool.”” “Of course I was! Would your wife allow you to break into a girls’ high school alone?""—Fliegende Blatter. tee She—“Why does a man feel rich when he's riding in a hansom?” He— ‘cause he hasn't paid the driver yet, I suppose.”"—Yonkers Statesman. From Fiegende Blatter. THE BELATED HUSBAND'S PRESENCE OF MIND. ll fix you, you old toper; how dare you come home so late! Bit!