Evening Star Newspaper, July 9, 1898, Page 19

AYMARA HUTS. AMONG THE AYMARAS Queer Indians Who Live in the In- terior of Bolivia. PRACTICALLY A RACE OF SLAVES Contented Just as Long as They Can Get Drunk. IN ONE OF THEIR HUTS x os Bpecial Correspondence of The Evening Star. ight, 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.) LA PAZ, Bolivia, June 7, 1598. H RE E- FOURTHS of all the people of Bolivia are Indians. The country is more han one-sixth the size of the Uniied States without Alas- ka, and these In- dians are scatt>red all over it. Some of them are savage, but the bulk, com: a population mating a million, be- leng to two civilized gibes known as the Quichua (Keech-wah) The Quichua claim io be t of the old Incas. They ar> the stern shores of es to the south inhabit this high s of mud huts 2 thousands in this 2 a people of them- , queer eu: ter peculiarly that slave suppose the it is true neve ° stat operty. The most e owned by the Cholos Spanish In- the whites, who e Spaniards who h farm y ese Indians, who nole year give three 4 supposed to of the grou n here has in f one else is bound ed, not an uncom-} struck to make him | rstand more quickly. ad Indian Fights, atment the heir mast2 utely without ambition a: mtent with their y their masters for nothing elv: pay from a foreigner, will fight to the death the Indians ng plantation with whom or of whom they are jeal- | en exist between ths In- of the farms of a neighborhood, and | aster or Indian Feuds a and sling fights are common. | the natural weapon of the Ay- | 1 of David, and 1s | his Goltah ‘at such | his sheep | shing through his his master’s griev- | ge in any bat- instigat=d by 5 is kind last night. A | nt of La Paz had bought a rtain number of te of a rich Bo- et te et os An Aymara David With His Sling. n. The Bo! ‘operty aD. n coveted the foreigner and wanted to force him to sell it He fomented a feud between his In- and those of the foreigner. The of the foreigner’s Indians were pulled ground, his men were s:oned, and hey came to him and told him their Hp asked them what they were do about it. They replied that if Mow them the keys of the house h and give them forty pounds of cocoa leaves and six gallons of alcohol they would soon settle the difficulty. They told him that the Bolivian was trying to make him sick of the bargain,.and that he was doing this so that he would gladiy soll out the property for Httl> or nothing. “But,” said the foreigner to the chief of the Indians, “what can you do? You have enly forty men and the Bolivian has 250.” The chief said he would get the Indians of ha forth. There was a pitched battle, and about thirty of the Bolivian’s Indians were illed. The result was that the Bolivian came a day or so later to the foreigner and asked him to sell him his place. Said the fereigner: “Yes, I will sell to you, but my i is now $20,000. I offered you the a month ago for $15,000, ‘but after what you have done you cannot have it for iess than. $20,000.” “I will take it," was the reply. “I have had enough of you, and as I want the farm I will pay what you ask.” And he did. The Pongo. All the dishwashing, fire making and water carrying as well as the dirty work of the household generally in La Paz Is done by men called Pongos. The Pongo of most houses is changed every week and many families have fifty-two different Pon- gos in a year. This is due to one of the customs which prevails here between the Indians and their masters. In addition to the three days a week without pay, which the Indians must give they have to fur- nish also without pay so many men a weck to do the dirty work about the house. On a large farm five or six more such men are furnished than are needed by the family of the planter and they are then hired out to others. As the Pongo works only for a week at a time, the contract is made to furnish one a year for from $80 to $100 Bolivian or from $28 to $35 Ameri- can. The Porigo when he comes at the first of the week brings with him five bags of Mama manure for the fuel of the house- hold and also two or three native brooms. He gets nothing for these and receives in short no pay whatever. At night he sleeps on the cold stones inside the door leading to the street and must get up and open to anyone who knocks. The work done by him will not be done by any of the other servants, so that ff you should have twenty other servants you must still have your Pongo. The Pongo alone will go to the public fountain for the water, the Pongo carries the vegetables and meats which the cook b . home from market and the Pongo alone empties the slops and cleans the pots and pans. These Indians often give their children over to the wh'tes to be brought up by them as servants. There is a money con- sideration, and though the Bolivian law j ese chew the betel nut. The Pongo. provides for the education of a child so bought this is practically limited by caprice of the buyer. The contract usual- ly provides that the parents may have the child back if they pay twenty cents a day for the time he has been in the hands of the buyer, but as the Indians never have any money ahead such sales are usually absolute, and they are in force until the child is of age.-If the mester don’t like the child, however, he can send it back, ciaiming that it has some fault. Many of the house servants of La Paz are gotten in this way, especially in the case of the giris. As a rule, a jarge number of servants are needed, one usually being allotted to each la of a well-to-do family. The servants are lazy and inefficient, it requiring about fcur Indians to do the work of one good American hired girl. The wages are from $1.20 to $10 a month in this money, which is equal to from forty-two cents to $3.50 American money. A Look at an Indian Hut. I wish I could take you into one of these Indian huts and show you just how hun- dreds of thousands of people live here in B It 18 by no means easy to get in- to the Indian's house, for he hates strang- and will not admit anyone if he can help it. I had one or two rather serious experiences while making my investiga- ticns of this kind on the Titicaca plateau, and in cue case the Indian householder showed fight-and threatened to have me the | arrested. The outside of the huts are to out I haye ridden along tens of thous- ads of them and they are practically same everywhere. ‘They would hardly rank as respectable pig pens in America. Imagine a mud hut from six, eight to twelve feet square. Let it have walls. so low that you can reach up to the thatch- ed roof without effort. Let it have no windows and let the door be an opening be seen everywhere in the country her the two fi from the ground, so small that you have to stoop to get into it. The floor of the hut is the ground and you step cver the high door sill to get in. Once in- side there is little more en room to turn about, for often the farming utensils Le- longing to the owner are kept there and it may be that in the hut the donkey, the hickens and the Mamas also quarter. There is little furniture. The people sit on the floor and men, women and children back themselves up against the wall at night, keeping as close together as pos- sible for warmth and sleep sitting. In one corner of the hut there is alittle heurth or clay stove. There is no chimney to the hut and the dense smoke finds its Way out as it can. No one thinks of using fre for warmth. Fuel Is too expensive for anything except cooking. The faml- ly does not change its clothes at night. Everyone sleeps in the clothes which he wears during the day. The men and boys wrap their ponchos about them and the wome. their blankets and all draw them- selves as closely as possible together that no part of their bodies may remain un- covered. The cooking is very simple, one of the favorite dishes*heing challona ‘stew with perhaps some chuno or frozen pota- toes dried, mixed with it. Challona is jerked mutton. The sheep’ having been killed, is split open, then laid out flat and frozen. Water is ‘now sprinkled over it and it fs frozen again. It is then hung up and when dried it becomes so tough that “ell keep for months. When used it is cut into bits and boiled a long time, Indian considers it delicious, ©“ "® TB® The Great South American Chew. There is one thing that is more important to the Bolivian Indian than his meals. This is his coca or his daily and hourly, and 1 might almost say his perpetual, chew. He eats coca as a horse eats hay. Indians em- ployed in the mines each insist on a daily allowance of five ounces of coca leaves in addition to their wages, and many of the farmers give coca to their men. Women other small farms near by to unit: with them. This they did. They concealed these Indians in the church on the estate, and when the marauding Indians came again @ud began to pull up the crops ail sallied and children chew coca, and it is rarely that you can find an Indian without a big lump of it inside his cheek. Coca is indeed one of the chief products of Bolivia. Mil- lions of dollars’ worth of it are produced every year, and it is brought into La Pas THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1898-24 PAGES. daily ic large quantities. Coca is the shrub from which cocaine is madé. It should be distinguished from the cacao tree, from which we get our chocolate and cocoa. The coca plant grows from two to five feet ia height, and it is largely cultivated in the eastern provinces of Bolivia, Each plant gives three crops of leaves a year. The leaves are gathered by Indian women, pecked up in bundles of twenty-five pounds each and shipped to the markets on the backs of Namas, donkeys or mules. It is heavily taxed and is one of the chief sources of government revenue. The Indians use coca much as the Siam- They take the leaves, which, by the way, look not unlike wintergreen leaves, and mix them with ashes of lime. They chew the mixture, and strange to say, swallow their spittle. The chew is said to be both a food and a stimulant. It keeps out the cold and al- lays hunger. Many of the Indians go out and work for hours cn nothing but a chew of coca, and in going over these high moun- tain passes they always chew it. At noon and breakfast times they put in supplies of the mixture, but keep on chewing all day long year in and year out. Strange to say, this continuous chewing does not seem to cause indigestion, and I am told that it has no evil effects. Not a few of the half-breeds use coca, but I have yet to find any whites who are addicted to the “babit. They Drink Raw Alcohol. - The Bolivian Indian drinks raw alcohol. This he esteems the most desirable of bev- erages, and a large part .of his earnings goes toward keeying himself and his family in a chronic state of inebriety. On feast days, and I am told that the Indian claims 200 feast days out of every 365, men, wo- men and children get drunk and keep so until the alcohol and their money run out. An Ind ian Family. Drunkenness ts, I_am told, the Indian's iaea of the acme of pleasure. Speaking of alcohol ard aguardiente or sugar brandy, which is largely used here, reminds me of a curious method they have of carrying such Hquors over the country. It must ail go on the backs of men or mules, and the receptacle in which it is taken is usually a goat skin. The skins, I am authentically informed, are torn from the bodies of the goats while still living, as such skins make more pliable and better bags. The geats are hung up by the horns. Then a slit is made about the neck and a couple of nen, seizing hold of the skin, fairly rip it from the body of the tortured and dying animal. Chicha or Bolivian Beer. Another drink, which is liked by both Indians and Cholos or the mixed races here, is known as chicha. You will find chicha saloons in every block of any Bo- livian city. he chicha is kept in an immense earthen jar and is ladled out in glasses much like the beer schooner of our country. The liquor looks like very thin and very dirty buttermilk with a decidedly yellowish tinge. I have not as yet been able to acquire a taste for it, and since I have heard how the best of it is made I have not had trouble in gs up trying to do so. Chicha is made of Indian corn or maize. It is a drink that was used by the Indians here ages ago, and you still find it everywhere along the west coast of South America. The best made in Bolivia comes from the city of Cochabamba. ‘Here is how it is made: The grains of ripe corn are first bruised with a heavy stone. Then they are handed over to a party of old and young women who chew them thoroughly, mixing the grain with their saltva until they have turned it into a paste, when they spit it out into a dish or cup and begin on a fresh chew. When a sufficient amount of the paste or corn and spittle has been collected it is spread out upon a board to dry. It is next put into a big earthen ves- set as large around as a wash tub and about as high as your waist. This is filled with water and boiled over a slow fire for four days. It is then cooled, filtered and put into earthen vessels and left to fer- ment. After about a week's fermentation it is ready to drink. It now smells like old yeast and tastes not unlike old butter- milk. Good chicha will make a man drunk, but many of the Indians can drink a gal- jon at a time without being perceptibly af- fected by it. When the Indians of the Pil- comayo have their harvest they celebrate the occasion with a great feast. Each vil- lage prepares quantities of chicha, and the Indians of the whole section go from one village to another, and there is a grand chiche drunk. They continue their drink- ing until all the chicha is consumed. The women sit around a fire with the men be- hind them. They pass the chicha first to the men and then drink themselves. As drunkenness comes on their orgies grow more and more wild, and toward the last they act more like beasts than like men and women. FRANK G. CARPENTER. — GATHERING OF IVORY. Elephants Will Soon Be Extinct Un- less They Are Protected. From the Philadelphia Record. From the time when palaeolithic man first drew the rude outline of an animal on a mammoth’s tusk, ivory has always been a favorite material for the artist to werk upon. The Egyptians and Assyrians used it extensively for making ornaments, and among the Greeks some of the master- pieces of sculpture were wrought in ivory. Fashion has indeed brought about a change in this respect, and ivory is not now so much used in art; but for more prosaic purposes it is still in great demand, and in the manufacture of billiard balls alone thousands of tusks are used annually. In- deed, the demand for ivory is constantly increasing, and unless legislation interferes to put a stop to the wholesale slaughter of elephants they must scon become extinct. The world’s annual consumption of ivory is estimated at something like 1,500,000 peunds, valued at $4,500,000, and to supply this amount 70,000 elephants must be kill- ed. The eonsumption in Sheffield alone re- quires the annual slaughter of 22,000 ani- mals. Africa supplies the great bulk of ivory, the Indian wild elephant having be- come so scarce of late years that India is now obliged to import a considerable quan- tity of ivory. A vast amount of fossil ivory is also exported from eastern Si- beria to various countries, chiefly to the continent, where it is more highly esteemed than in England. Africa, then, remains the happy hunting ground for the ivory cellector. African ivory, too, fetches a higher price than any other, being denser in texture, susceptible of a higher polish, and not so liable to turn yellow when exposed to the light as the Indian kind. In Africa itself the quality is found to vary greatly, the rule being that the warmer the regicn the finer is the ivory found there. The finest tusks, how- ever, are generally met with at some dis- tance from the equator. The finest pair of tusks ever brought to Europe came from Uganda, and are valued at $0. Tusks of anything like these dimensions are, how- ever, very rare, and are difficult to procure fiom the natives, who value them highly, and use them for door posts, especially in treir temples. The teeth of a full-grown “tusker"” seldom measure over six feet, and weigh from one to two hundred pounds. The tusk is usually solid for about half its length, the base being quite thin, and there- fcre of little use for commercial purposes. Only from the upper porticn of the tusk can billiard balls and the bulkier articles be_ made. The longest tusk known came from Ta- bora, East Africa, and is 9% feet long and weighs 97 pounds. The largest and the thickest pairs of tusks in the world meas- ure 8% fect and 9 1-8 feet and weigh 1671, pounds and 174 pounds respectively; while the thickest pair, from Niam Ma in- Centrai Africal, are over five feet long and their respective weight is 123 pounds and 118 pounds. —_—_+ e+ ___ SR os Pay as you go,” said Uncle Dud- “But suppose I've nothing to pay with?" “Then, don’t go.”—Ti -Bits, ACHIEVED “SUCCESS Men in the Army and Navy Who Have Got Rich APTER THEY LEFT THE SERVICE Though Some Have Entered While Under a Cloud. SOME TYPICAL CASES ——_____ Written for The Evening Star. PERIOD OF SERV- ice in the navy or regular army devel- ops the latent quali- ty in the maks-up of Many a young man. It is n6t intended here to say that any man is too~good for the American army or navy, But it can- not be denied that, long before the pres- ent war was even dreamed of there were many scores of enlisted men in the land and sea forces of the United States too well endowed by nature and education for civilian effort to dally through all of their best youthful days in a military outfit in-time of peace. Long after this war is over, the same thing may probably be set down with truth as regards a considerabie class of enlisted men in our two fighting es- tablishments. It is a lack of self-control and steadiness that causes men of capacity of the first order to drift into a voluntary military service; but, with reference to a great number of the men of this sort who awaken to find themseives in Uncle Sam's army and navy uniforms, the maxim that all men, like water, are bound to find their level, decidedly does not apply. Men 0° the type alluded to “arrive” at themselves, to employ a Gallicism, when they find themselves serving in a garrison or on board a man-of-war, and before they have put in very much service they look around them and reflect in a “Why is this thus?” strain. The one thing they need for civ ian success is self-restraint, and they ac- quire this in chunks in a uniformed service. With self-restraint added to their natural capacity, they dre fit, when the time comes for them to break away from the service they have joined, to take a winning hold on the game of life ashore. This many of them do, not alone in this country, but in many paris of the world. As a matter of fact, the most successful of them renew shore life in foreign countries, and the writer knows of many. cases in which such men have been conspicuously successful. It is better all around, too, that such men “take to the beach."’, Uncle Sam does not require men too well gdytated, or too clever by nature, for his etixted soldiers and sail- ors. The well-educated soldier or sailor rarely makes as useful an enlisted man as his swaddie or shipmate of only average intelligence, for edugatfon generates inde- pendence, and individual independence in a military outfit is only a good thing in the- ory. The fighting “establishments have more trouble with their educated enlisted men, by far, than they=do with the great bulk of the men of only ordinary endow- ments for whom the atmy or navy is the natural place. Many of the educated en- listed men in the navy, for example, who have been notably successful in civil life after their period of Se@ service, have been failures as man-o'-wer’s men. An Expert Engraver, A young New Yorker, who, after serving a six years’ apprenticeship at the art, be- came known as one of the finest bank note engravers in the United States, got tangled up with the Tenderloin and the fluids and other allurements thereof about ten years ago, and he went to pieces in a canter. None of the engraving firms would employ him on account‘of his well-known tenden- cies toward dissipation. He would work for two days and carouse for two weeks, and he got to be a pretty no-account youth. When he was “up against it for fair,’ to use a phrase of the pave, he concluded that there was nothing for it but to “hold up ago—a Philadelphia man named Walter Cummings. Cummings owned up to it him- self that he wasn't @ spectacular success as a man-of-wars’ man. Swabbing decks— he shipped as a landsman—was not In his line, but fighting was a good deal to his taste, and it is said in the navy yet that when Cummings was cruising in the China seas he licked almost every man forward on the China stat‘on. He got a bad conduct discharge when his ship returned to San’ Francisco, and he didn’t have a dollar when he went ashore. But he had learned in China of the good opening there for clever American clerks in the customs service, and so he shipped aboard a “wind-jammer” and made his way to Canton, where he immediately went to work as a customs clerk. He was chief inspector within three years, with enough gilt on his uniform to outfit two admirals, big pay, and “perks” enough to permit of his hangivg on to his membership in all of the best foreign clubs in Canton. A New England Yankee “from up Bath way,” named Babcock, who had done a lot of merchant sailorizing up to the rate of second mate, shipped as an A. B. in the United States navy at the Portsmouth navy yard in 1885. Babcock was a rattling good sailor, a man without education, but with a whole lot of native shrewdness. He was liked weli enough by his shipmates, who, however, voted him the stingiest man-o’- war's man that ever knotted a halyard. Babcock didn’t spend a cent aside from his mess and tobacco money during his en- tire three-year cruise, and, as he was made @ petty officer soon after his enlistment, he had a snug pile of savings when he went over the gangway of his ship at Yokohama, Japan, “clear of the navy.” Saw His Opportunity. Babcock looked around him for a while in Yokohama, ani then he corralled about a dozen skillful Japanese feather-workers, employed them at very small pay, and set them to work making three-by-four-foot representations in colored feathers of George Washington, the father of his coun- try. It cost Babcock about 10 yen to have these really artistic portraits in feathers made, and he sold ali of them that he could make by employing more men and mak- ing them work overtime to the United States man-o'-war’s men for from 50 to 75 yen apiece. When the sale of the George Washingtons in feathers grew slack Bab- cock set his Japs to work making Ameri- can flags of delicately worked feathers. He got from 25 to 5) yen each for these, all that he could turn out-of them, for almost every American nayal sailor on the China station bought one of them to send or bring back to his people in this country. By this time the shrewd Babcock, who didn’t drink s.Jd or any other kind of confusing liquid, had a piant. He set a large force of skill- ful Japs to work making all sorts of Jap- anese curios, and he started an emporium in Yokohama. He widened this out into a wholesale establishment, and began ship- ping Japanese curios to England, America and the other big markets for Japanese products of art. Babcock hasn't made any effort to have the tatooed compasses and stars removed from his big, horny hands, even if he is now ore of the very wealthy. Americans living in Japan. He makes fre- quent tours of his branch wholesale Japan- ese curio emporjums at Kobe, Nagasaki and Hakodate, and he enjoys life prodi- giously in a quiet sort of way. He is one of the very best friends the American sailors have oa the China station. Whenever one of them goes broke ashore in Yokohama, all he has to do is to make for Babcock’s emporium, and, if Babcock ts there, the tar always comes away with enough yen under his mustering shirt to see him through the rest of his liberty. Made His Pile. Living opulently in the Burgundy district of France is an ex-American man-o'-war's man, who put in nearly twenty years on the Mediterranean station as a chief bo’ sun’s mate, without ever once returning to the land of his birth. This was a very un- usual thing, but this chief bo'sun’s mate made it go through because he mastered a knowledge of the channels of all of the Mediterranean ports, and therefore became an invaluable man to be kept on that sta- tion as iong as he wanted to remain there. He wanted to remain there very badly, for, during his first cruise on the station, he met a pretty millinery girl in Nice that he grew very fond of, and he married her. The chief bo'sun’s mate saved his money, and after a few years he set his wife up in the millinery business in Nice. She made it go from the start, and it. was not long before she was making five times the amount of her husband's pay as a sailor. She wanted him to quit the navy, but he liked the navy and he was an independent man besides. Hi ughly devoted ailor_hus- and the this time there were half a dozen young ones in the family. The chief bo'sun’s mate continued to save his own money, and after a while he went into the wine-dealing business in , as a side issue to his naval sailoriz- his hand” in a recruiting office. He chose the navy. He wanted to get a penman’s billet, such as ship’s writer or yeoman, but there were no vacancies, and, like a game yotng chap, he went in as a coal passer. For a man who had been used to the com- fortable living this young engraver had en- joyed all of his life, the coal passer’s billet Was a heart-breaking proposition, but he had a square jaw, and he shut his teeth down and said to himself, “Take your medicine, imbecile.” By the time he was ready to go ashore after his three-year cruise on the South Atlantic station he had been rated a first-class fireman, and he hadn't been in the brig more than half a dozen times for wild conduct. He was as steady as a rock during his last year, and he went over the side of his ship at Buenos Ayres, at the conclusion of his enlistment, about twenty times as good a man as he was the day he joined the navy. Buenos Ayres wanted engravers badly at the time, and this ex-coal passer got a job at $20 per diem in gold the first day he went ashore. He stuck to his work and kept out of the swift whirl of young Englishmen and Americans who convert night into day down in the fastest city in South America, and at the end of two years he got a con- tract for engraving and printing all the bends and paper money of Brazil. The con- tract made him a rich man. He has a big engraving plant of his own now, and, a young man well on the hither side’ of thirty-five, with all kinds of money, he boards American men-of-war when they get down his way and dines in the cabin with the fleet commander. Gets a Big Salary. A young San Francisco man named Whit- lock shipped in the navy as a coal passer at the Mare Island navy yard, California, in 1889. He had been a clerk in a real estate and insurance office, and he had never had a shovel in his hands before, probably, but he raked coal out of the bunkers valiantly for a year before his clerical ability was discovered and he was made engineer's yeo- man, with the rate of chief petty officer. ‘Then his ship went out to the China sta- tion. By-the time the ship arrived there yorng Whitlock was in difficulties with his chief engineer, who was an officer of the old-fashioned swaggering type, still known among the enlisted men as a “bucko” or “belaying pin first mate. Whitlock perceived’ the plain fact that if be didn't get out ofthe havy he'd probably wind up in a naval prison, for he had a lot of trouble to keep hands off the chief ergineer, who actually did rub it in on him, and if he had done gnything of that sort it Was & case of at lea¥t five years in a naval prison, and the yeomait knew it. So he bought his discharge out of the service. it took all of his savings, several hundreds of dollars, to do it, but, as it afterward de- veloped, the price was cHeap enough. Whit- lock had a solitary $5 American gold piece when he quit the navy at Shanghai, but he hustled for a job, got one immediateiy. He went to work as shipping clerk in a big English opium-exporting house, at a salary of'f25 a month. ,Whitlock had it in him, and his employers saw it. Within three months he was je correspondence clerk, at a salary of £1,000 per annum. At the end of two years of service with the opium-shipping firm, he slid into the billet of general manager of the concern, at a salary equal to $20,000 per annum, and this is the billet that Mr. Whitlock is holding down this Saturday afternoon.:-He is one of the big “foreign devils” of Shanghai. and his name {s in Shanghai's English directory in heavy type. His firm needs him so bad- ly that he hasn't been able to get back to the Unite: States since he left it as a coal passer-on a United States man-of-war, but when Whitlock does come back here he’ travel on his own yacht. Mr. Whitlock en- tertains American naval officers on board his yacht and at his country place on the outskirts of Shanghai when they nose into | cruising. his port in In the Chinese Service. The Chinese customs service has for many years regarded its ex-American man- o’-war's men as among its most valuable employes, The chief of the cus- tom house at casceeuteroe enn two years His business prospered from the ing. jump, and he began to make money rapidly. Stull he stuck to the nav A few years ago the idea finally did soak into his mind that it was absurd for him to remain in the service when he already had more money than he knew what to do with, and gave up his bo'sun’s mate’s billet, to the general regret of his officers. He hung on to his Nice wine business, and went to the Bur- gundy district and started to growing grapes. This, also, was a conspicuous success, and after a few years of it he closed up his busines: , as his wife did hers, and they settled down with their children on one of the prettiest estates in the wine district. The son of a rich Lyons silk merchant made eyes at his eldest daughter and married her, and a while later a young French nobleman, who w decide ily not impecunious, mar ed anot er of his daughters. His wife, still prezty, pokes fun at him down to the present day over the twang that he mixes in with his French speaking, and the establishment surely is a happy one. Mulvihill Was Smart. An Irishman named Mulvihill, who had been a cook in Irish and English restau- rants, wound up, after a jamboree in Liver- pool about ten years ago, on an American man-of-war that was shy a galley cook, with a saucepan for a rating badge on his watch arm, and he made one of the best cooks in the American navy, too. He saved his money during the three years that he put in chiefly on the Mediterranean station, and his ship, the old Pensacola, happened to be lying in the port of Marseilles when the day came for Mulvihill to be paid off and decide, ashore, if he wanted any more of the navy in his. He went ashore in Marseilles, and the idea struck him that that big port ought not to be lacking in a restaurant where traveling Americans and Englishmen could get a chop and a steak cooked and served in the right Anglo-Saxon style. Mulvihill opened a little steak and chop place on one of the side streets of Marseilles, considerably out of the way of the big thoroughfares, but touring Ameri- cans and Englishmen have a nose for places of this sort, and it did not take them long to find Mulvihill out. When they found him out, it was all over, so far as the assurance of Mulvihill’s success was concerned. Mulvihill knew how to put a chop or a steak before his guests in a way that made them dream over it, and his lit- tle restaurant soon became overrun with custom, He permitted it to be overrun, and to'let his guests take their turn at the tables, until he had saved enough money to go inte the chop and steak business on a big scale. Then he branched out and opened a big place on one of the main thoroughfares of Marseilles, and he has beeen making money hand over fist ever since, te the deep disgust of i. French proprietors of tables d’hote in Marseilles. Successful Soldiers. . The sailors hawe not had all of the suc- cess in this Ine. Any number of Ameri- can regular army soldiers have done well in civil life after getting out of the army, either in the right way at the conclusion of their enlistments or in the wrong way by “bobtails,” or Gishonorable discharges. A few years ago a cavalryman named Black was ‘‘bob-tailed” from his troop out at the Presidio of San Francisco for general wildness. The officers of his troop hated to see him go, for he was by jong odds the very best horseman in his regiment, an utterly unbeatable and dar- ing acrobat on his mount. Black didn't his pay and added to it by engaging in Httle profitable deals in the’ town, and at the ecenclusion of one of his enlistments he took a furlouzh and had a took around the country. He thought Seattie would one day be a_pretty warm site for a city, and he Isid down his savings in investments by the acre in and around the site where Seattle now is. When the boom began Forsythe simply woke up to find himself rich, and he bought his discharge from the army by telegraph. He didn't go to pieces, either, as so many ex-soldiers and ex- sailors who make money ashore do, but he unloaded his property at the psycholog- ical moment, and he has got enough n oney now to keep all of the coyotes of the plains away from his door for a good many years longer than he will ever live. TSS a a A TON OF SHOT. Every Bullet Has Not Its Billet in These Days. Frem the London Mail. The popular idea that modern warfare is more deadly and bloody than fighting was in the past is not supported by available facts | With armor-plated ships, twelve- mile cannon, Maxim guns firing 1,000 shots a minute, and magazine rifles with a range of three miles, war now is undoubtedly scientific, but to parody a well-known phrase, “it fs not bluge: In the days of hand-to-hand fighting, when missiles were employed but little and the contest was decided by sword play, the vanquished were generally almost annihi- lated and the victors suffered enormously. At Cannae 40,000 Romans out of 80,000 were Killed; at Hastings the victorious Normans lost 10,000 out of 60.000; at Crecy 30,000 Frenchmen out of 1,000 were killed, with- out reckoning the wounded; while at Ban- nockburn 140,000 men fought and 38,000 were killed. But the mortality in the Crimean war was very slight whea the number of shots fired are remembered. It is estimated that the British troops fired 15,000,000 shots and killed Russians, or 700 shots for every di The French fired 20,000,000" shots and killed 51,000 Rassians, or 590 shots for every fired 45,000,000 death, while the Russians ots and Killed 48,000 of the allies, or every 910th shot was suc ful, in the Italian campaign of 1859 rifles were used on both sides, and the number of casualties at Magenta and Solferino was per 1,000 combatants. The Franco-Prussian war of 18; the first in wnich breech-loading rifles were used, and, strange as it may seem, their in- troduction only corroborated the foregoing facts that scientific war is less deadly than natural. Thus the invention of gunpowder reduced the proportion of killed and wounded among the troops engaged from about one- third to between one-fourth and one-fifth— from 320 per 1,000 to between 250 and 200 per 1,00. And the adoption of breech- loading rifles diminished it to about one- ninth (111 per 1,000), though that is greater than the mortality in the Franco-Prussian war. Military authorities now hold that rapidity of fire is more essential to success than range and precision; marksmanship, indeed, counts for little in battle, and mod- ern arms are certainly less deadly than ancient. The old proverb that every bullet hus its billet has given place to the mili- tary maxim that it takes a ton of shot to kill a man. . This applies equally to artillery and rifle fire. War does not increase the mortality among soldiers so greatly as one would ex- pect. In South Africa in 1879 64 per 1,000 British soldiers died or were killed, while in Egypt in 1885 the death rate in’ battle averaged a trifle over 1 per 10,000. In twelve years of small wa 396 British soldiers were killed out of engaged, a shade ove per cent. The returns for the war were got out with great care, and they showed that the total deaths ring the five years were 166,623, and ged 70 per 1,000-of the force engaged. In the Franco-German war the mortality was 50 per 1,000 of the troops engaged dur- ing the seven months. Official statistics show that 116, German so..ers were wounded. Of these BG recovered, 11, died in hospital and 6,223 on the battle. It appears that a soldier's lower limbs are most frequently wounded Few men are killed outright nowa . and that the wounded generally recover, whereas in the days of the sword and lance men were killed outright or finished off af- ter the battle was won. In fact, there would be more slaughter in a baitle be- tween the Ancient Britons and the Romans, armed respectively with stone axes and short swords, than between two modern armies equipped with magazine rifle smokeless powder and powerful artillery; the question would be settled just as satis- factorily and with less expense, for it costs £1,400 to slay a man in modern warfare. see SPAIN'S SUBMARINE “OAT. It is Not as Great a Success as Was Supposed, From jentifie Americen The Spanish submarine torpedo boat Pearl was constructed at the arsenal of Ceraca and launched October 23, 1887. The boat is cigar-shaped and is feet in length and 9% feet in width amidships. It is pro- vided with two screws, an electric motor and a torpedo tube. The first experiments were made with it The question was not to boat as a its in February, 1889. examine the qualities of diver, but simply to ascertain what nautical capability might be. 1t we the fore maneuvered near the surface; but, fortunately, one of the screws suddenly re- fused to revolve, and a landing had te be made to repair it. Pearl started out for the on this occasion no acc The boat seems to have well and, as the Cronica ¢ “obeyed its inventor as a xlave obey master.” But the Spaniards are enthus- jasts, and, long before the experi they had lauded both the boat and ventor up to the skies. Durirg subsequent trials for speed the the beat was always meeting with some mis- hap, and it was even once stranded upon a sand bank. A submarine boat, however, not designed to be maneuvered at the sur- face of the water, but is to navigate b neath. It must be confessed that from this viewpoint the experiments were, from all accounts, far from being conclusive. The Pearl certainly dived, but so few times that the Spaniards had no reason to boast of ii The boat remained submerged for a quar- ter of an hour, but was immovable and at- tached to the wharf by a rype. From such an experiment no conclusion could be drawn as to its stability. In some more recent trials of the Pearl, in the harbor of Cadiz, the vessel moved about upon the surface uf the water with a speed of six miles an hour, turning short, stopping and starting with the ucnost fecility.. After a display of ner qualities in these respects, her powers of sinkiag below the surface of the water and rising again were exhibited. Several times up and down she went, sinking until only haif of her tow- er, through which air was drawn, could be seen above the surface of the water. After going through a variety of evolutions, such as turning, stopping and backing while in this position, that nearly submerged, the cover of the tower was shut down and the boat disappeared whoily beneath ihe water, and remained under the surface for six minutes, only the flag upon the staff being visible. After a trial of three hours and a half, most of which time the boat was sub- merged, leaving only the towe or air pipe half way-2bove water, the performances were concluded, the boat rose, and Mr. Peral, the inventor, opencd the cover cf the tower, and, presentiaz himstlf upon the exterior, was received with the grcit- est enthusiasm by the speciators. It was, says La Tlustracion Espanola, “a day of glery forthe inventor and of prestige for Spain.” It is stated that the Spaniaris expect to show the efficiency of che Peari in tne de- fense of some one of the ports of Cuba; but, says La Vie Scientifiqas, “let us hope, in the first place, that it will be possibie to use the boat!” Dancing Scorpions. From the Quarterly Review. Tarantulas do not dance to the sound of the violin, but let the people they bite do the dancing; scorpions, however, erSoy fid- dling, and lizards go crazy for music of eny kind. As for serpents, the boa cor- bears enjoy the violin; so do ostriches; wolves will stop in to listen to a 19 CROSSING CHILKOOT PASS Some of the Joys and Sorrows of Life in the < Klondike. In May the Days Were Warm, but the Nights Were Cold—Previ- » sions Plentifal. Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. LAKE BENNETT, N. W. T., June 1, 1898. When the adventurous pilgrim to the Yukon has climbed the thousand icy steps of that precipitous stairway which com» pletes the final ascent to the summit of Chilkoot Pass, he has reached a line which not only divides the flow of waters and the domains of nations, but Where the condi- tions, interests and ambit‘ons of the people appear to change. The busy world, the march of nations and the-fortunes of war seem to be instinctively confided to those who remain within the range of civilization and its marvelous facilities for transporta- tion and communication. The Yukoner is not seeking the gicry of war, but the glitter of gold; he does not lack patriotism, but the facilities for displaying that splendid Virtue are woefully lacking. Battles may be lost or won—he cannot change ‘their cours, he does not even know the result for days and even weeks after the roar of the great cannons has ceased and the dead and wounded anxiously numbered. A few Papers with the “latest news” reach camp at irregular i altho from eignt to ten 4 © snap- ped up at paper I have at this writing was « ved at Seattle on May After leaving Sheep Camp there is only a monthly mail, except ate carrier. it is that the Yukoner accepis with or less gratitude whatever news he can obtain from home and the war, but his energies are expended in the construction of his boat; his affections are centered pon her symmetry and sailing virtues, and his ambitions and hopes carry him in hi dr2ams to a far o%, undiscovered ow where there are nuggets galore, and thence back to a home of plenty and unalloyed happiness. Insare Industry. Such visions yield contentment and in- sure industry, and thus it is that in these long arctic days, which extend from 2 o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night, I hear the incessant sound of ham- mer and saw. Labor with its hundred hapds seems not only to “knock at the golden gates of the morning,” but also to be pinning down the curtains of the abbre- viated night. These are the boat builders. In the tent cities of Linderman and Bennett and in the little camps which line the shores the great army of Klondike crusaders are building boats, boats by the hundreds—yes, thousands. Each camp is a shipyard, and each tem- porary habitation has its own boat in a more or less advanced stage of completion. It is a wonderful sight—unique, interesting, fapresssive. in company with my son I am undertek- ing the trip to Circle in a stanch Peterhoro’ canoe. Being solicitous lest our ship might be harmed in transit, we undertook ‘to sled it from Chilkoot Summit to the feot of Long lake. The night of May 18 we passed on the summit, and the next morm- ing we shipped our outfit by dog team, an@ started in a blinding snow storm. | We 11 not soon forget the varying fortune with which we proceeded down the steep trail. We slid, and pitched and rolled in the abundant snow, but finally emerged in good order upon ‘the fro: surface of Crater lake, with the sun shinning brightly | and a brisk north breeze. We are much at- tached to our canoe and appreciating a good thing we proceeded to push it along over Crater lake, Deep lake and Long lake. From the canyon at the foot of Long lake we had it carried over the sum- mer trail—a very rugged one—and placed in the waters of Lake Linderman. Crossing Chilkoot Pass. Many of us who are accustomed to moun- tains and mountain climbing would regard it an exciting and exhilarating exercise to cross the Chilkoot Pas: ed, on a bright day, but when the st shrieks and the snow blinds and the f ur th boldest and hardiest are driven back. The pass has not so formidable for the Yukoner to ere on, but many have endured untold transporting their suppiie nd Lake Linderman. Such penance is no longer ne essary. A tram or cable is now in opera- tion from Canyon City to the summit, nine miles, and freight is being rapidly trans- been ported from Dyea to the Ss at a cost of only three and one-half cents per pound. It-may be of interest to mention the fact that supplies are now retailing in Dyea and Skagway at very reasonable pr For ham and bacon I paid nts per pound: butter, 30 cents; flour, 3% cents; dried fruits, 14 ., excepting raspberries, which were sugar, 9 cents, é&ec. I paid $5 for Yukon” ‘stove, which cocks and bakes quickly, and so we are comfortable and well-fed in camp. Upon my arrival at Lake Linderman on D cent May 21 persons were still crossing on the ice to Bennett, though it was considered dangerous. A week later the ice was all broken up. Then came a strong south wind, and in two days every piece of had deen swept out of Linderman and to the end of Bennett. The celerity with which this ice amazing to the tenderfe Since leaving the summit has been delightful e disposed of was the weather ch day, excepting an occasional high wind, after the sun has been so persistent as to render a coat a burden and the shade grateful. But the nights are cool, and sometimes cold. Al- though sleeping in a good tent, upon a raised bunk, and with ampie blankets, I find a night wardrobe very necessary. For a cold night I don a suit of heavy under- clothing, a buckskin shirt, a sweater and a long flannel night robe,’ which few gar- ments, together with woolen socks and a wool cap, serve well to aid me in my con- tests with old Jack Frost. Mosses and ects. I believe Alaska produces the most beau- tiful variety of mosses in the world. I have only seen two real flowers, which I plucked last Sunday. Birds are few in number and species, but there is one va- riety with a very sweet whistle in three notes. Insects are few, and although I have seen specimens of the elephantine Yukon mosquito, none has yet attempted any undue familiarity. A bumble bee flew into my tent the other day, which I at once undertook to capture as a specimen. I knocked it down with a saw, tread on it gently, drowned it three times in a cup of water, and then laid it out on a log to dry. When pwent after it the bird had flown. The 5: onian missed @ rare specimen, and I am able to certify not only that there are bees in this section in May, but that they represent a very hardy race. The canyon through which the waters from Lake Linderman flow into Lake Ben- nett is narrow, rugged and tortuous, and the current is very swift. These rapids are the most dangerous of any on the course down the Yukon, and few take chances in running them. Some let their boats down with ropes, but a few risk both boat and life in the wild run. One of the great advantages of a canoe is that it can be readily carried by these dangerous places. Now that the pligrims are beginning to leave Linderman there are many thrilling scenes at the rapids daily. Several boats and a raft have been wrecked already. No lives have been lost, though there have been some very narrow escapes. it is these reckless persons who will add largely to the wreck list and death roll of the Yukon flotilla’ this season. A goodly number of crafts started down Lake Bennett yester- day, and the multitude of sails suggested a@ gala day with the yachts, Already there are two steam launches plying on Linder- man, and an equal number on Bennett, with more to follow. Yankee enterprise is @ conspicuous feature in this crusade. JOHN P. CLUM. peaeiphereces ‘The oldest British regiment dates back to 1660. The oldest Austrian regiment is