Evening Star Newspaper, July 30, 1898, Page 19

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1898-24 PAGES. A COCO TRAIN. TRAVEL IN BOLIVIA AThree Days’ Gallop Over a Vast Dried-Up Sea, ON THE GOVERNMENT MAIL WAGON Pitiful Poverty of the People of the Plateau. demaw ovens: HOTELS (Copyrighted, 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.) Spectal Correspondence of The Evening Star. ORURO, Bolivia, June 20, 1898. | URING THE PAST} three days I have| been riding behind | galloping teams of} from four to eight! mules over the Des- | aguadero or Bolivian | plateau, and I am now in the mining town of Oruro, away up in the mountains, 600 miles by rail| from the Pacific ocean. I am in a country which is like face of the globe. Situ- ated from e to fifteen thousand feet above th and a , it has a soil, a vegetation n. climate peculiarly its Its skies as viewed from day to day are different from those which hang over any part of the United States. Its people are like none we have on our continent, and I seem to be in ther world. It is the world on the "ights, the land highest on earth on which numerous cities and villages exist, a very land ¢ y. S region one of the little-known parts of the earth. What it was in the past is conjecture. Tkere are many evi- Gences that at one time there lay between these ranges of the Andes a vast inland sea, hundreds of miles long and in places xty and raore miles in width. The Des- adero plateau, which was a part uf this . extends from here to Lake Titicaca, at the north it joins to the Puno Piains of Peru, and far south of where I now am it unites with the highlands of the Argentine. Where I crossed the plateau in going from Lake Titicaca to La Paz it was 47 miles wide, and the ground was al- most as flat as @ floor. I found it almost level in my three days’ galiop to Oruro, and it seemed to me that I could every- where see signs that the whole plain had once been covered with water. I rode for miles over beds of stones and in other places passed over wide stretches of what seemed like sea sand. Sea shells are often found here, and Prof. Agassiz believed that the water level of this sea was from 300 to 400 feet higher than the present level of the basin. Today the only large bodies of water ound in it are Lake Titicaca and Lake Aulagas or Poopo, which are con- nected by the Desaguadero river. Lake ‘copo is only a short distance from here. It is a brackish lake, fifty miles long by about thirty miles wide, and is ao deep that | it is now proposed to put steamers upon it, and it may be that there will be a line of ships sailing from it through the Desagua- dero river to Lake Titicaca. Lake Poopo no visible outlet, and if its waters get | to the sea it is by some waterway under the earth. : is Travel ia Bolivia. There are few good roads in South Amer- ica. Ways among the mountains are ule trails, and in many cases steps have been cut along the sides of precipices so that you craw! along within an inch or so of destruction. Now and then a mule falls | 3.000 feet or so, and is usually left to lie | where it falls. You often h&ve to dis- mount to help the mu and it takes hours to go a few miles. There are in the whole country, which is one-sixth the size of the United States, only 725 miles of Weaving Cloth. atage lines, embracing roads to the capital, the city of Sucre, to Potosi, the famous sil- ver mining center, and to Cochabamba, which is a big interior town in what called the granary of the country. TI best road in Bolivia is one over which I have just traveled. I doubt whether there is a finer long stretch of wagon road in e United States. This dried-up sea basin forms a natural roadbed. We galloped for urs over a road better, smoother and er than any in Central Park, New nd dashed along at a breakneck rv the plains on a track that would have been accepted as excellent by any American jockey. The only work that seemed to have been done upon the road was the picking off of the stones. In some Places it was as flat as a floor for miles, in others there was a gradual rise or all, but not enough to impede the gallop- ing of the mules. Pilty-Five Leagues on 4 Mail Wagon. ‘fhe distance between La Paz and Oruro is fifty-five leagues.or 165 miles. At least, that Is what my coachmen estimated the ¢istance. The geographers, who have prob- abiy not gone over It, put it at 150 miles, but after my ride I am willing to swear conchmen, and to say that they if anything, made ft too short. The i Paz stage runs twice a week to Oruro. It ts one of the worst-looking rattle-traps that was ever put upon wheels, amd the broker-down carriages which carry pas- Seagers from cur country towns to the fair grounds would be classed as heavenly chariots beside it. It has six seats inside and one with the driver. It was the driv- er’s seat that I coveted, but I found at the stage office that the whole inside had heen taken for his family by a rich Bolivian and that the outside seat was already engaged. ‘There was no better chance for the next stage, three days later, and for a time it seemed that I should have to go on the beck of a mule or hire a private convey- ance for $150—Bolivian dollars. At this moment my guide, adviser and friend in ways Bolivian. Mr. Sam Klotz of La Paz, advised me to try to get a seat on the mail ceach. This seemed to me fust the thing, ard when I learned that there was always rcom for one passenger on it, and that the place had not been taken, I jumped at it, and handed out the $20 which was the cost of the ticket. This was several days be- fore the time for leaving. All baggage must be on hand by noon of the day pre- v.ous to starting. It took three Indians to carry my baggage to the station, and La Paz opened its mouth, figurativel: peak- ing, as the men trotted through the streets with their loads. At tha stage office a sec- end dilemma arose. Only 200 pounds are allowed to go with each passenger. If he has more it can follow him on the next stage, with the chance of its being forgot- ten for weeks. My trunks tipped the beam of the American scales on which they were weighed at just 370 pounds, and it took much persuasion, and that of seyeral Kinds, before I could get the officials to ccnsent that it should go with me. At last, however, L was told that it would be all right. and was handed a bill for $21.70 ex- tra baggage. Only twenty-ftve pourds of baggage are allowed free with each ticket, so that my baggage cost me more than my fare. A Bolivian Mail Coach. I am not more than ordinarily conceited, but I must confess that I felt rather proud that not only myself but my baggage as well were to be carried over the country with the Bolivian mails. I fear visions of a glorious red Concord vehicle, with postmen in Bolivian livery, may have come before my innocent soul's eye, and I know it was with conscious rride that I told my friends at La Paz that = A BOLIVIAN housed in the courts on which the one- story huts forming the hotel faced. None of the rooms had windows and the floors were of mud or stone. In some cases the beds were ledges of sun-dried bricks upon wlich a mattress had been laid. The only light I had was the candle I brought with me and my candlestick was a spot of melt- ed grease which I dropped on the table or a chair before setting the candle down. There were always several beds in a room and I hed room mates in the shape of na- tive Bolivians every night. Before going to bed the woman who kept the hotel al- ways came in and collected a doliar for the use of the bed and a dollar for dinnér. We started at 5 every morning, and at 4:30 I was usually up and ready for the cup of tea which was made for me before leaving. This with a couple of biscuits constitutes the breakfast of all the hotels of Bolivia. Our regular breakfast, which we had at 11 or 12 o'clock, was more like a dinner than a breakfast. It began with a vegetable soup and followed with two or three stew- ed dishes, all of which fairly swam in grease. The dinner was of the same order. Before leaving La Paz I had taken the pre- caution to have a lunch put up for my use on the read. This cost me ten Bolivian dol- lars, but it seemed cheap enough when I found {it was about all I had that I could eat on the road. Such were the accommo- dations on one of the most traveled roads of this country. The fare on the mule trails is far worse. As to prospectors and these who get away from the beaten tracks, there is often no chance to get any- thing. The only places where you can sleep are in the huts of the Indians, and they will not allow you to come in if they can possibly prevent it. They do not like strangers, and. money seems to be no in- ducement to them. The only way to get a night's shelter in such cases is to tell your muleteer to unsaddle and to go in and take possession of the best part of the hut. If there is anything at hand which is eatable, take it and give the Indian some | mcney for it. If you ask to buy it he will refuse, and even if he has plenty will say he has nothing. The chances are that when you leave in the morning, having paid him for your night's lodging, he will be pleased, but he will offer you nothing and will give as little as he can. As a rule they are cowards, and they will submit to @ great deal of abuse without fighting. Poorer Than China. I have never seen a country where the people have to work so hard for a bare liv- ing as on this Bolivian plateau. It is bad enough in China and India, where the Poorer classes live in mud huts and till to the utmost their little patches of land. But in those countries the land will pro- duce three crops a year and the laborers get something for their work. Here it is so high that only potatoes, barley and a grain called quinoa, which’ is much like bird seed, and which makes a very fair mush, will grow. The barley does not ripen, and it 1s raised chiefly for fodder for the mules, donkeys or cattle. The potatoes are very small and few in a hill, and the soil is such that it is only here and there that you find a patch that can be farmed. The effort to get land that can be cultivated at all is so evident as to be almost painful. The stones have been picked from a great part of the plateau. We passed long stretches of country where there were vast piles of stones scattered over the fields, and in sev- eral places I saw Indian women going along bent double picking up stones in the gathered up skirts of their dresses, and thus carrying them to the piles. Much of the plateau is covered with a scanty growth of grass. Upon such places there are herds of sheep and Hamas feeding. Each herd is watched by an Indian shep- herdess, who has a spinning spool in her hand and keeps on spinning while she tends her flock. She uses a sling to keep the ani- mals from straying, anu with unerring aim Fy wn STAGE COACH. 1 was going to travel with the mails. I noticed that some of them rather smiled at the idea, and that others seemed to pity rather than admire. This at the time IJ at- tributed to jealousy, envy or ignorance. I know better now. I know what the Boliv- ian mail coach is. I had my first sight of it at 6 o'clock of the morning of my start- ing. It was the baggage wagon of the stage, and the only seat on it was the one with the driver. It was, in fact, a skeleton wigon on springs. The bed was so far up in the air that you could almost walk under it without stooping. The wagon box Was not over six inches high, and how it Was supposed that a ton and a half of mail and trunks could be put into it I con!d nut see. I had my baggage hurried out, and it went in at the bottom. The other pieces were piled on top until there was a moun- tain of stuff on the wagon. It now looked more like a hay wagon coming to the barn in harvest time than the royal mail. A rawhide rcpe was bound round and round the baggage, being run through hooks in the sides of the wagon-bed, and the bag- gage was covered with canvas to shield {t from the rain. By this time the mules were in thefr places, and I was told to climb to my seat beside the driver. It was at leas: seven or eight feet above the ground, and the soft side of the board was the only cushion, until I improvised an- other of some biankets. The coach rode, however, very comfortably, and the springs were as good as any I have ever tried. A great discomfort was the lack of cover when it rained and snowed, as it did sey- eral times during the Journey. At such times I could only put on my waterproof and my Bolivian cap. This last is a krit- ted affair, covering the head and face, with holes for the eyes, nose and mouth. It makes on2 lcok actually devilish, but it is such a comfort that it should be adopted for winter travelirg and sleigh-riding in cur country. ~ Bolivian Coachmen. My coachmen in livery were in fact Bo- Mvtan Cholos. They were half breads, a cross of the Spaniards and the Aymara In- dian, and as cruel a mixture as you -wiil find among the races. They had no sympa- thy whatever for the mules and their treat- ment of them was so cruel that I several times protested against it. In the first place the harness was twisted out of all shape. There was not a tug that was straight and not a collar that fit. As a re- sult the necks of the animals were raw and sore, and this became worse as we went on the gallop over the road. I remember one Uttle yellow mule who had lost two patches of skin, each as big as the palm of your hard, from the front of his shoulders be- fore he was put into the harness. I ob- jected to taking him, as there were other and better mules in the corral, but he was hitched up all the same and was given one of the hardest places in the team, This Was just Lelow me, next to the wagon and right under the driver. We started off on the gallop, but the little fellow soon began to lag behind. Then the torture began. The driver cut at him with a whip, which brought the blood to the hide at almost every place {t touched, and the helper, who ran alang with the coach and whipped up the lazy mules, picked out the little yellow fetlow as his special work. We had not gone five miles before the back of the mule’s legs were bleeding in a half dozen different places, and I could see that his collar was red with blood from the sores on his neck. From time to time I noticed that the driver when he found his whip- ping and whistling failed to stir up the mules teok up a heavy tug with an iron chain and ring at the end of it and rattled it. This never failed to frighten the mules into increased speed. As the little yellow fellow again fell behind I found the secret of the inspiring sound of the tug and chain. The driver swung the tug about his head and brought it down with.a terrible thud upon the little mule’s back. It is a won- der it did not break the bones, for the heavy iron chain hit him on the spine, and the pain must have been intense. The blow ir. this case did not break the skin, though f Saw subsequent ones given to other mules which made bloody gashes in their backs. We changed mules every fifteen or twenty miles and rarely had a team that was not more or less scarred and bloody when we got througa. - ‘Fhe Country Hotels of Bolivia. During the trip I had some chance to get a taste of the country hotels of Bolivia. The stations where we stopped to eat and sle2p were more like cow stables sends a stone straight at the llama or sheep that steps onto the fields of her neighbors. There are no fences in this part of Bolivia. one oot noes are, as a rule, staked or hobbled by tying a their front legs ve th nica. eon often see a drove of donkeys so fastened, and horses and mules are tied in this way all over Peru and Bolivia. Bolivian Farming. Such farming as Is done is after the crud- est methods. I saw no signs of manure be- ing anywhere used,though there were great piles of it lying at every stable, where we got a new relay of mules. I have been told that the natives know nothing of the uses of fertilizers, and that they only bring up the land by letting it lie fallow and by rotation of crops. The tools are in all cases of native make. The only American tools I have seen are Hartford axes. Po. tatoes are dug by the women, who use little strips of fron shaped something like an ar- row with a wide flat stem. This is grasped in the middle with the hand and the woman bending double scoops the potatoes out of the hills. Barley is cut with little sickles with saw teeth and such rude hoes as are used have handles so short that the work. ers have to bend close to the ground to use them. The plowing is all done by oxen with rude wooden plows, to which & point made of a flat tron bar about two inches wide is fastened. A long tongue or beam extends from the plow to the yoke, which is tled to the horns of the oxen, the weight of pulling the plow being done with the head and not with the shoulders, as with us. The Freight Wagons of the Andes. I have given you some idea of how freight ‘s carried here by wagon. Very few goods are taken from one part of the country to another on wheels. The greater part is carried on donkeys, mules, llamas or on the backs of men and women. There are no baggage wagons or drays in La Paz. We met with none on the road to Oruro, al- though we passed droves of animals loaded with all sorts of burdens. There were scores of donkeys carrying bundles of coco leaves on their backs to the towns further south. There were llamas loaded with bundles of silver ore stalking proudly along with cocked ears, and there were many trains of mules carrying goods of all kinds. Each train was managed by one or two Indian men and women, who walked with or behind the animals, and who, as far as I could see, never ride them. Most of the women had bundles on their backs and not a few carried little babies there slung in shawls. All prospectors here use mules for traveling over the country, All supplies for the mines must be carried through the mountains in this way. The machinery for mining in Bolivia must be made in sections, no piece of which can be larger than a tule can carry on its back, and every bit of machinery has to be carried in this way. The merchandise which our exporters in- tend for Bolivia should be put up in boxes or bales of abeut 100 pounds each, so that two of the packages will just form a load for a mule. Otherwise the chief centers of Bolivian trade cannot be reached. FRANK G. CARPENTER. THE SHARK PAPERS How They Convicted a Baltimore Captain of Piracy. RECOVERED INA MIRACULOUS WAY They Were Brought Into Court at the Last Moment. HUNG AT THE YARD ARM a Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. KINGSTON, July 29, 1898. There is no spot in the western hemi- sphere richer in romantic history than the Island of Jamaica. During the weeks while Kingston has served the newspaper corre- spondents who have been watching the Cuban blockade as the only door to the out- side world, a few of the veracious romances have been unearthed. One of them came to light a few days ago. [t is wrapped up with a bundle of yellow, water-washed doc- uments which hang on the wall of the Kingston museum under the printed legend “The Shark Papers.” = The story connected with “The Shark Papers’ is so remarkable that it would be impossible to believe it were it not all to be found in the authentic papers and sworn statements of Kingston court records. To Americans it has a special interest, since it relates the trial and taking off of the last American pirate brought to book in the West Indies. It has all been verified and ig known te be absolutely true. This is the story, In July, 1799, Capt. Briggs, an American whose Christian name does not appear, fit- ted out the schooner Nancy in the city of Baltimore ostensibly for trade with the Dutch West Indies. It appears that he took out his papers for Curacao. The crew consistedsof seven men besides himself. The vessel was of light burden and built on the model of those clipper ships for which Baltimore was famous at that time. The Nancy never reached Curacao. On the way south she stopped in at one of the Bahama islands, ‘where she took on board some small cannon and arms for her men. At the time the Caribbean and the adjacent waters were filled with great fleets of sail- ing vessels. These peaceful vessels afford- ed a splendid chance for spoliation to any craft armed and manned for that purpose. *& Pirate King. In less than a month after Capt. Briggs, in command of the Nancy, left Baltimore for Curacao news reached Kingston that a piratical schooner was in the adjacent waters levying tribute on merchantmen. The description of thts schooner was such as subsequent writers like Marryatt and Russell have made familiar. She was a fore-and-after, with a black hull and rak- ing masts. She lay low in the water, and forward she carried a swivel gun, known as a Long Tom. Stories of her speed and the character of ber crew incited. the\'spirit of a number of English sailors then ‘in the harbor of Port Royal. It was before that beautiful port Was destroyed by an earthquake. George Til was still monarch of England, and all the war vessels were known as “His Maj- esty’s Ships.” Conspicuous among these ships was the Sparrow, commanded by Capt. Roberts. From the governor of Ja- maica Capt. Roberts received instructions to go out and look for the mysterious stranger, reported in the vicinity of the French possessions !n Haytl. Capt. Roberts, who was a typical Eng- lish sailcr and in command of a splendid ship, at once made sail for the scene of the reported depredations. Within a week he came in sight of two vessels, one evidently in pursuit, and the other in fight; the former vessel answered in every way to the deseviptien he had received of the pliratical American schooner. While under a full head ‘of saii, the pursuing chooner carried no flag; the vessel being pursued had at the foremast the Stars and Stripes. As soon as the English man-of-war came in sight the pursuing schooner tried to make for the shore, but she was soon overhauled, a shot from the Sparrow forc- ing her to stop her way, and to permit a just above the ankles. You |} Cat to be sent aboard. The Captain’s Claim. Capt. Briggs asserted that his mission was peaceful; that he was an American sailor, and that he had his clearance pa- pers from Baltimore to the Dutch port of Curacao. The officer from the Sparrow de- manded to see the Nancy’s papers, but they were not forthcoming, nor could Capt. Briggs find them. Under the circumstances, the only course left the commander of the Sparrow was to take the Nancy to Kingston, charged with piracy. Under the maritime laws then and now prevailing, if the vessel were con- demned as a pirate, the officers and crew would be executed and the ship and cargo would be turned over as a prize to the captors. Throughout all these proceedings Capt. Briggs comported himself with the utmost coolness. He claimed that the port from which he sailed, his destination and his purpose were entirely legitimate. When asked for his papers to substantiate his claims, he boldly asserted that they were lost through no connivance of his own. Capt. Briggs and his crew were arraign- ed before the high court of admiralty of the island, charged with ptracy. The American consul used all the power at his command to show the innocence of his countrymen. Briggs himself, made a de- fense even more able than that of the con- sul. He was a cool, handsome, intelligent man, whose manner impressed the court and spectators with his honesty and sin- cerity. Briggs was quick to see that while the absence of his papers might tell against him, the Englishmen could not convict him of piracy unless these papers were in their possession. ‘The American pirate conducted his own case. When asked to explain why he was so far out of his course when overhauled by the Sparrow, he said: A Plausible Story. “My vessel is only. 300 tons. We reached the west end of Cuba on our way south, when we were struck by the return trade winds, ‘and were forced up to the southern extremity of Haytl. I was not acquainted with that coast, nor had I charts that would enable me to make a harbor. The vessel which Capt. Roberts claimed I was in pursuit of I was simply trying to over- haul in order to obtain water. This ves- sel flopted the American flag, and when it is asked why I did nat do the same I have only to say thatthéfe are only three times when the captain ‘6f a merchantman is compelled to show flag; the first is on entering a port;the‘second is on leavin; port, and the ird‘when signaling a © at sea. The v t id as trying to overhaul in order to obtain Water could not have seen my flag, nor aly flag, simply because I was approaching her head on. She may ‘have mistaken me b9 a pirate, but it is for this court to fiether a schooner Hike the Nancy, only seven men and the captain on board, ig at all calculated for piratical expedi The words a) iner of Captain Briggs very strengly, and impressed the ’'co' e Sparrow, although vy sure of jhis ground, began to feel that he ha a mistake. The judge. asked Briggs how it hap- pened that he did jjot make for Jamaica instead of ns Hayti, the former being on the route of his voyage and as his charts showed more accessible. Briggs again explained that a storm had driven him out of his course. The judge then fixed his eyes upon him and asked this question: “Did the same storm that drove you out of your course blow away your ship Papers? : Not at all abashed, Briggs replied: “I cannot explain the absence of the papers. I am an American sailor and have tried to do my full duty. Whether’ the Papers are present or absent,I ask before you condemn me, or even before you set me free, for I want no stain upon my char- acter, that you communicate ‘with the own- ers of the sce Nancy at ad And here Captain of papers from confident that Captain Briggs would go clear, for his own defense was masterful, and without the missing papers the charge of piracy could not be sustained, Even Captain Roberts of the Sparrow and his of- ficers forgot their prospective prize money in admiration of the. cool bearing of the audacious American. It was 3:30 on the afternoon of the second day of the trial. In another half hour the court must close in favor of the American. The circumstantial evidence against him was sirong, but the actual proof was ot such as would satisfy any ordinary jury. A few minutes more and the court would adjourn, after having declared Captain Briggs guiltless, and the schooner Nancy free to proceed on her voyage to Curacao. While the preliminaries for closing the court were about to begin, the booming of @ gun was heard down the bay. In a short time the news flew through the court that the war brig Abergavenny had just arrived from the south coast of Hayti. This news in itself was not startling. There was 10 reason why the arrival of an English man- of-war should in any way interfere with the proceedings of a court. A few mirutes ore and the gavel of the judge would announce the closing of the court, and, to Briggs, the favorabie ending of the trial. In the meantime an officer in undress uniform entered the court, and advancing to the bench laid before the judge. a bundle of water-stained docu- ments. They proved to be the missing papers of the schooner Nancy. Now comes the most remarkable part of this remark- able story, the part which it would be hard t» believe were it not backed by the «worn evidence of the Abergavenny’s officers znd crew. Out of the Depths. A few days before this a fender of the Abergavenny, in fishing off ‘the coast of Hsyti, struck a shark. The shark was taken on board the Abergavenny. There it was cut open in order that the sailors might secure the liver for the sake of the oil which it is known to contaia. Great was the surprise of these rude dis- secters at finding in the stomaca cf the shark a bundle of papers. These papers were the records of the schooner Nancy, which Captain Briggs had thrown over- board when he found that he was being overhauled by the Sparrow. Dramatists have racked their brains to produce a startiing situation, but there is nothing in dramatic literature nor in the pages of fiction that at all equals the scene that followed in that Kingston court when Captain Eriggs wus confronced with the evidence of his own infamy, and was de- clared by the court, just about to free him, to be a pirate. The evidence was overwhelming. Con- fronted with this testimony from the sea, brave though he was, all the courage and coolness of the American skipper departed. Feeling that heaven had arrayed its powers against him, Capt. Briggs con- fessed his guilt. This man must have had in him some elements of nobility, for when he found that-his cwn fate was sea'ed he tried to shield his crew. He made a speech still remembered for its eloquence ani reason, in which he tried to show that he was the ruling spirit, and that his men were en- tirely guiltless, or at least that they did not understand his purpose, and that in doing what they did they simply obeyed his orders. The outcome of the trial was that Captain Briggs and his crew of seven meri were found guilty of piracy and soon afterward were executed in accordance with the law, by hanging from the masts of the vessel on which they had recently sailed. See THE TRINIDAD PITCH LAKE. Standing in One Place for Some Time Produces a Curious Result. From the Wide World Magazine. ‘The famous pitch lake, or great bitumen deposit of Trinidad, is situated at Point Librea, on an cleyation at about a mile from the sea. It covers an area of nearly 100 acres, and its appearance is that of a dull, still, dark waste. It is irregularly circular, and its surface perceptibly con- vex, being more elevated in the center, and thence inse isibly declining on all sides. In the center the pitch is quite soft—ain fact, seml-liquid—but it becomes more and more hardened as its circumference widens out. Except the soft central parts, the surface is intersected in all directions by numerous fissures or chasms, varying in breadth from two feet to sixteen feet, and from half a foot to seven feet in depth, Widening also at the surface, and terminating acutely at the bottom, thus producing, as it were, in- verted angular hollows, while the sides are regularly rounded. These crevices are at all times filled with fresh water. Here and there where the bitumen is mixed with earthy matter grow lichens, mosses, grass- es, etc. The center of the lake, the pitch pot, or chaudiere, as it is called, is at all times so soft that it would be impossible to venture on it without incurring the danger of being engulfed. The lake is government property, and parts of it are leased out to private individuals, who have to pay royal- ties according to the amount of pitch r2 moved, which amount is checked by the government. The pitch lake is, practically, inexhaustible. No matter what quantity is taken out, it is replaced by fresh pitch, which always wells up to fill the hole. The surface of the outer edges of this most wonderful of lakes is quite hard enough to walk upon; but a curious result ensues if you stand still for any length of time on one spot. For some yards around you the pitch bodily sinks until it forms a sort of basin. It is quite different to sinking in sand, where your feet gradually disappear without making any apparent difference in the level of the ground. ++ _____ A CHINESE WEDDING. Everything Connected With the Cere- monies is Decked in Red. From the Wide World Magazine. The Chinese place a significance upon every color, and in connection with a wed- ding red obtains a deep-rooted, mysterious importance, the next bridal color in value being gold. At a betrothal, the bridegroom- elect sends his sweetheart a pair cf brace- lets, fastened together with a piece of red ribbon or cord. The bride and bridegroom drain two winecups at the wedding, which are also connected by a red cord. In north- ern China the attendants wear a tall felt hat, and each hat has a red feather stuck upright in it. The attendants also carry the wedding presents. A sedan chair bears the bride herself. In south China a sedan most wonderfully gilded is used by the wealthy classes, and it is decorated with what appears at first sight to be bril- Mant inlaid stones, but which are in reality the glo8sy feathers of the king-fisher. A handsome cloth of glowing red with trim- med borders {s also thrown over the chair. In the case of the poorer classes red is also the prevailing bridal color, and a chair of ordinary carved wood, painted a bright red, is used. Above the door of the chair a kind of charm is placarded or hung upon a red cloth. The chair itself is sent by the bride- groom, accompanied by what corresponds to our best man. This functionary brings with him a letter written = eee erid upon red paper, praying the ly to enter Fe take her place. Men dressed all in red, and carrying red parcels containing the presents, fall into the procession. Other bearers carry boards and banners, inscribed in golden letters upon a red ground. These banners tell the pedigree of both parties. Behind the bearers come other attendants with long poles, on which are hung very’ handsome lanterns. The bridal veil is of bright crimson hue, and her dress regal gold and scarlet. From Tit-Bits. Count Rocco .Dianovitch has made the getting into prison the chief business of his life for thirty-four of the forty-seven years he has lived, for the purpose of gath- ering information for a book he is anxious to write on the subject. At thirteen he left his home and went into Prussia, where he was arrested for trespassing and sent to prison for three months, working’ at chair making. From that time to this he has never been free from the desire to continue his prison explorations. From thirteen till THE GREAT LOCK. TO DAM A BIG RIVER Great Change ‘That Will Soon Be Made on the Nile. -_- MEANS MILLIONS 0 THE COUNTRY In a Land Which Positively Screams for Water. a WILL BE ENORMOUS Cost Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. LONDON, July 29, 1898. After some centuries of discussion and planning the Nile is at last to be dammed. ‘The plans have been completed for some time, and as soon as the season's floods have subsided the contractors wil! have | several hundred men busy on the stone | work at Assouan. The man who is to have | the direction of the work, which will rank | as the greatest irrigation scheme ever at- tempted, and one of the engineering f of the age, is Sir Benjamin Baker, whose name is already essociated with many great enterprises. Sir Benjamin is himself ready to start for Assouan, where he will assume personal direction of the under- taking. In discussing the matter a few Says ago he fazarded the prediction that by the beginning of the twentieth century the first steamer would pass through the locks into the reservoir, on its way to the | upper Nile. Whatever difficulties may be encountered in the work, it probably will not take so long as it has for the khedive and his French advisers to make up th minds to sanction it. In the industrial world the big enterprise is attracting a great deal of attention, but to the average reader the chief interest of the dam is not in the engineering prob- lems and possibilities which it pre but in {ls situation and surroundings. Assouan is the site of quarries whic furnished stone for many temples in t days of the Ptolemies. The granite which will form the masonry work of the new dam was cut out of the hills thousands of years ago, and has stood here ever since. The same quarry which supplied the ma- rial for the temples of Philae, no years later, furnishes granite for a new twentieth century wonder. Temples of Philea. These temples of Philae, by the way, bave formed one of the chief difficulties, though not an engineering difficuity, in re spect of the dam's construction. The rst cataract consists of a scattered mars of small islands and rocks, and it is acrosr this scattered stone heap that the dam, 3 mile and a quarter wide, forty feet br and several feet high, is to be constructed. This is a modification of the original plan. which would haye made the top of the dam thirty-six feet higher. The effect of the dam as at present conceived wil! he to submerge the nearer islands only, but as originally planned it would at flood tide or “high Nile” have submerged the Is!and of Philae, a mile up stream, and the temples on the Island of Philae are of immense in- terest to the architect and the archaeolo- gist. They are splendid examples of the Ptolemaic temple. No Gothic architect in his wildest mcments ever played so freely with his lines and his dimensions as the forgotten designer of Philae, anid nene ever produced anything more picturesquely beautiful. It contains all the play of light and shade, all the variety of Gothic art, with the massiveness and grandeur of the Egyptian style. There is no building out of Thebes that gives so favorable an im- pression of Egyptian art as this. It would have been a great pity if the revervoii which is to water Egypt had den anded such a sacrifice. At one time it ap eared inevitable, and Sir Benjamin Bake sug- gested that the whole groundwork of the temples should be raised. The cost of this would have been £200,000,which was rather tco much for the Egyptian taxpayer. who. in Sir Benjamin's words, “does not care a plastre for the temples,” except as a means of attracting tourists to Assouan. Facts and Figures. As to the importance of the work, from the engineer's point of view, Sir Benjamin says: “The colossal character of the great dam will be apparent when It is stated that the flood discharge of a river a mile wide and ihirty feet deep, flowing at high velocity rust pass through the dam’s sluices at the rate of 15,000 tons of water per second— 9,000,000 tons a minute—mor? than 5,000,000 tons of water an hour! At times the water will be dammed back sixty-six feet above its present level and for a distance 144 miles abov2 the dam. “The Nile at Assouan by no means ful- fills the popular conception of a cataract. The river is broken up by innumerable islands—some of them of considerable acre- age; but the great majority m2re rocks which are submerged in flood time—into myriad shallow water courses. At one or two points the water runs deep and fast between the islands,- but for the greater part of the width of the river the channels between the islands carry only a trickle of water during the dry season. It is upon this’ foundation of small islands that the dam will be built. So far as strength and economy of foundation are concerned the site leaves nothing to b> desired. The rock throughout js hard. compact syenite or quartz diorite and the section of the river is so wide and shallow that the foundations of the larger part of the dam can be put in dry. The under sluices will be built upon reefs projecting over the water surface both in summer and winter so that the founda- tions will be open to annual inspection—a most important advantage when so many interests depend upon the stability and en- durance of the work. It will be a splendid thing to look at—stretching a mile and a quarter from shore to shore, of compact r a | into detail we may granite, a huge mass seventy feet high at its low2st point, and its crest 320 feet about the lowest water level of the river below the cataract “A carriage road, thirty to forty feet wide, will be driven across it from the sast to the west bank of the Nile; and on its western side will stretch a chain of locks, leading from the upper to the lower river. The locks will be 150 feet long each, capa- ble, therefore, of taking a good-sized steam- er, and will b> of an average height of fifty feet. The archipelago of islands will di appear, the tops of the hills on the larg | islands will just appear above its surface, | and the temples of Phila> will rise out of a wide placid lake instead of appearing, now, when tourists visit {t low } insignificant and in a hollow. Its Importance to Exypt. To the Egyptian administrator the chief concern is in the money value of the new dam to the country, and in thts respect it makes a most favorable showing. In a land which, in Sir Gardner Wilkinson's phrase “positively screams for water,” its worth can scarcely be overestimated. its supplementary and With dams and barrages at ear Kasheshat, it will in- t cultivated area of Egypt and bring under constant » whole of that proportion « 900,000 acres in Egypt which is now under yearly irrigation only. The supply of water needed for this purpose according to Mr. Willcock’s calculation is 3,610,000,000 of cubic centimeters flowing at a maximum rate of 630 meters a second over the whole line of district affected. The monetary ad- vantages of the scheme may be Assiout expressed by saying that the direct annual return to the state will be £850,000; that the Increas- ed value of land in Egypt will be £46,198,000; that th increase to annual produce will be 00, and to annual rent £5,300. mates leave out of account the value of land and crops owing to increased facilities of navigation. Sir Ben- jamin Baker's view is expressed in the words: “The profit resultant from the works it is difficult to overestimate, as the value of the crops will be increased about £6 per acre per annum over the whole area j affected Cost of the Enterprise. The cost of the dam itself was ¢ a by Sir William Garston and Sir Benjamin Baker to be some £1,900,000, and this was 6n estinate that has been practically ac- cepted by the contractor. But to this esti- mate have to be added the cost of supple- mentary dams and barrages at Assiout and at the other point which Sir Benjamin Baker had indicated 281 miles nearer to Cairo. The exact form of these dams is yet determined; but the barrages which 2 part of them will be similar to that shesheh already existing. The mod- ern masonry barrages are the substitute for the old-time “Khaleegs” or dams of earthwork, which were cut or bre at the top when the water was high enough and which wexe dangerous and wasteful. The barrage at Koshesheh already exist- ing is 273 yards long and is practically a vall of masonry running by the side of the river and pierced with sixty double arches, Each of these arches is fitted with an up per and lower iron gate, and without going ay that they ng Nile to overfiow into a rm ch 1s 800,000 acres in extent a n of three feet. This lake fee rigation canals, This in brief gives a bird's-eye view of the great scheme which is to give new birth to Egypt. Its cost altogether wili not be far short of £,000,000, which is to be paid by the Egyptian government in year- ly installments extending over thirty years and not beginning to be paid until the re- ceipts trom the reservoir afford a margin of profit. It is a novel arrangement, but the financiers have risen manfully to meet it, and the days are now numbered when the Nile will be able to run riot in its dis- astrous freedom. PREMATURE BURIAL, Famous Men Who Have Left Dirce< tions to Guard Agatnst It. From Chambers’ Journal Wilkie Collins left a missive among his papers directing that when he died a thor- to be Burton, ough examination of his body was made by a skilled surgeon. Lady wife of Capt. Sir Richard Burton, that her body should be pierced needle in the region of the heart. Mr. mund Yates of the World, Miss Ada Cay endish, Miss Harriet Martineau, the au- thoress, and Hans Andersen, the writer of so many fairy tales, may be mentioned as instances of men and women who have left instructions that they shoukl not be in- terred until everything possible had been done to make sure that they were lifele: In some cases it was the severance of @ vein, in others even decapitation, that was resolved upon. Others, with a similar end in view, have aGopted different means. The signaling invention of Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote this subject up in his char- acteristically weird fashion, is familiar to all readers. Then, there is the apparatus of a Russian inventor, which consists in a mcchanism placed in the throat of the corpse. If consciousness returned, an effort were made to breathe, the effort set in motion certain wires, which resulted in a bell ringing in the cemetery keepet lodge. In “Jezebel’s Daughter” the idea is very similar, save that instead of a throat apparatus, wires were fastened to the hands of the corpse. Last year Sir Henry Little- john told his students at Edinburgh of a fancy coffin, fitted with patent springs so constructed that on the slightest indic tion of rethrning life they would imme- diately open the coffin and thus save the victim. This may have been a reference to the Russian invention, seeing that the idea is the same, though there is @ slight difference in detail. — Making It Right. From London Punch. Wife—“By the way, Clive, I had a letter from my banker while you were away. He said I had overdrawn my account.” Husband—“Yes, dear; and what did you ao?” Wife—“I told ‘him not to be so rude again and I sent him a check for the amount.” IN THE SICK BAY. sir. I well, een beet ote ee 5-3 a ‘ Grinks well, an’ I sleeps