Evening Star Newspaper, November 26, 1898, Page 23

‘ANCIENT REPUBLIC ——— San Marino Has Managed to Preserve Its Independence. ON A ROCK AMONG THE APENNINES One of the Quaintest Little Places in All Europe. 'rs INTERESTING HISTORY ee Piom the Chicage Chronicle. Wh it is remembered that not so very many years ago all Italy was a Jumble of kingdoms, duchies and little independent states, and that the suc ful revolution of Garibaldi and the Sardinian government depended upon the fascination of thelr cry for united Italy, it seems little short of a miracle that the only survivor of the old state of things should be a republic with an area of thirty-two square miles and a population of about 8,000 peasants, earning # precarious existence upon a rock among the Apennines. lt is strange how few people have taken the small amount of trouble to visit this extroardinary spot. There is no difficulty whatever in reaching San Marino. Rimini fs on the main line to Brindisi and there- fore to Egypt or India, and thousands of avelers who have passed that way must have discerned from the windows of their trains the three castled crags scarcely leagues away to the west. Those w whose love for the middle ages has tempted them to stay and sce this their last surviver have generally contented mseives with an afternoon drive and y with but scanty and fleeting impre: Founded in the Third Centary. The history of San Marino has been cu- riously uneventful. compared, that is, with the exeiting romance of the whole neigh- borhood. tury It was founded in the third cen- hy a quarryman, or, some say, a her- mit, named Marino, who fled there from a tion of Christians, and appropriated the rock for himself and friends. The fact that it belonged to some one else did not Be listurb him, and when the owners tried to evict him they were struck down by a mysterious illness and only relieved from it on consenting to make over their broperty “as a free gift until all time.” A still narrower squeak—indeed, the nar- rowest squeak which republic ever w--was in 1739. ei the when Cardinal Alberoni town and proclaimed its annexa- to the papac However, the sturdy Mountaineers did lose heart, and when he mbled their notables in the church to swear allegiance he was met with shouts ot defiance, in which the very priest at the allar took part. The only result of this was imprisonment and pillage, but after th the was months the traditional good fortune the republic came to the rescue, and by ntervention of Louis XV independence stablished. apurte Wax Politely ¢ siderate. hext dangerous visitor was Bona- who discovered the existence of the je durirg his Italian campaign of 1 go00d-hum: ly sent a messenger oer an increase of territe ly refused and he wrote a ve exempt and This was far from being « the citizens from four inquiries a slutionary general been somewhat less ic oligarchy. vas consiant!y com little s were » the modern ac- » word republic. There are of nobility and the cap now of iz th md being wait sit Known as the camerie: i riain to the prine tw lined te it nt alias for the sov- er rta struck r chamberlain to the pri i he son of my landlord, © Was very useful in getting me ac- ts. He even if I were could probab! rather he, upon return for to the libra: fave Modern Democratic Ideas. In spite, however. of their aristocrs and their various royal attrib- izens are iously imbued with temocra tic No doubt in the present y a theory, to their old . but they take good care or lot in it, having a its conseription d My landlord, who was ufter explaining at constitution, y that “the to do with th and when J drew h ypieal cit th to me the de ords, “We demand uni- ich had been scribbled walls, he replied indig- Was merely the work of a bblers and did not re the sentiments of the nds out against the d more imposing rf acquaintance. Searcely anywhere in tHe world may you see a natural k so fantastic in its appearance. Every bears out your conviction that it ne stness of some media 1 ver duke. not the abode of a giant if » one seems to trouble about San Ma- and the strangest instances of forget- Ss might te quoted with regard to it For instance, when Austria made peace with Italy she forgot that the republic of San Marino had also declared war upon her. so no separate peace was concluded, trictly speaking, the tiny republic remains at war with the dual mon- ny. 3orgo, a flourishing village at the neck of the hill, just before the ascent begins to be serious, is the aristocratic part of the town, where the nobles and other rich peas- ants resiae and the best of the humble shops are to be found. As a town San Marino would be very like «cy other remote corner of Italy but for the consequences of being upon a sheer and still rock. Each street is either a precipice or a staircase When Garibaldi Took the Town. On the way down to the entrance gate is ac house with an inscription to the t that “On the Sist of July, fs19, Joseph Gartbaldi, hard pressed by the Ger- man arms, refused the conditions of sur- render, reserving himself for better times.” Nowadays he is as much of a hero to the San Marinese as he is to the most ardent Ita But when he visited them tn 184 they were by no means so pleased to see him as they would have us belleve today. mt _naving yet afforded themselves the amusement of declaring war upon Aus- tria, they pleaded the neutrality of the re- public when Garibaldi proposed to pass through their territory. He was, however, in no mood to consider punctillos of inter. national law, and next morning he forced his way in and demanded food and shelter. The republic was now in a quandary, with several hundred redshirts clamoring within its walis and Austrian bayonets glittering upon the neighboring heights. The captains regent attempted to play the role of medi- ators, but the Austrian terms were too severe for Garibaldi, and he preferred to make a dash for it, with 200 picked men, across the hills to Venice, leaving the re- pubiic to explain her connivance to the Austrians as best she might. Altogether the incident was not so agreeable as is now sought to be represented. Gartbaldt’s let- ter is, however, preserved among the great- THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1898-24 PAGES, est treasures of San Marino and runs as follows: “Roman Republic, Command of the First Italian Legion. “SAN MARINO, Sist July, 1819. “Citizen Representatives of the Republi The conditions imposed upon you by the Austrians are not acceptable, and we will therefore quit the territory. ‘J. GARIBALDL.” Handsome Revenue From Post Office. In the middle of Big square is a giant statue of Liberty, which figures conspicu- ; ously upon the postcards of San Marine. At one end is the post office, with the standard measures of the republic on th2 stone let into the wall. The post office is fone of the Institutions of which the citi- zens are most proud, and they derive quite @ respectabl» portion of their revenue from the sale of their vartous issues to collect- ors. In 1894 there was a special commem- orative stamp issue, by which they made a handsome profit. The republic has also is- sued a number of p»nntes and half-pennies, which are accepted az currency in Italy, but these are rarely to be met with in San Marino itself, where the ordinary Italian paper fs the regular currency. At th» other end of the square is the gov- ernment palace, a gaunt, gray brick bulld- ing, with two of its walls standing sheer from the side of the precipice. To look out of Its windows is one of ths giddiest of ex- perlences. The council chamber is of se- vere ecclesiastical aspect. On one wall is an elaborate fresco of no particular artistic pretension. In the background it has a view of the three-turreted peaks of San Marino; in the foreground a variety of mediaeval personages are doing homage to the saint himself, who is being wafted upon a cloud, attended by a couple of angels. In front of the fresco is the thron> of the cap- tains-regent, which, with an array of stan- dard candiesticks, a dais, a long desk and the fresco, might easily be mistaken for a simple form of altar, while the rows of arm chairs along the walls suggest cathe- dral stalis of a primitive pattern. Th» library, or museum, which was a council chamber before the erection of the present palace, is perhaps most remarkable for Its confusion. There are some 11,000 Yolumes, the great-r part modern works of no importance, all in the utmost disorder and destitute of a catalogue. A Madonna by Giullo Romano jfostles a portrait ¢ George Washington; an ugly medallion of Victor Emmanuel chaperons a modern al- legorical picture of the saintly found=r con- ferring liberty upon a buxom maiden, in- tended to represented the republic. ‘The people of San Marino seem to have no s of proportion, for as much store » be set by trumpery coins, ribbons. ious documents relating to Victor Emmanuel or Louls Napoleon Bonaparte as by an old charter of the year S85 and a document signed by Caesar Borgia. An Army Mostly “Colonels.” The cathedral is a large, bare building containing a life-size statue of the saint nd a gilt bust, said to contain some of his remains and elevated on the occasion of his feast day for the adoration of the popu- lace. Two of the castles are little more than ruins and the third is now used as a gaol The whole army consists of soldier: who, like the people of another republic, appear to be “mostly colonels.” Some of the uniforms with thelr cocked hats and plumes are distinctly magnificent, and every man struts about with as ferocious anid self-satisfied an expression as any Prussian veteran. Honorary rank in this army, con- ferring ‘he right to wear a uniform, is as easily cbtained as the titles of nobility The laws and constitution are not the least remarkable points about this extraor- dinary little state. The captains-regent are eiected in April and October by the coun- cil; one of them must always be a nobleman and the other a commoner. The council of sixty comprises twenty nobles, twenty citizens and twenty country men, and, whenever a vacancy reated | ath, the remaining councilors elect a suc- sor. All legislative and executive powers belong to the sixty, who govern the siate in true peternal style. There are regulations prohibiting locksmiths from selling latch keys to young men, determining the open- ing of drinking shops and Dillard saloons and forbidding games of chance either in public or tn private. In this connection may be mentioned the fact that the repub- lic is vory proud of having refused a con- cession for the establishment of gambling tables, although this would, no doubt, have greatly assisted the budget. Samples of Penalties Inflicted. There are fines for “doctors, chemists or blood letters revealing prof. nal se- crets:” for people disturbing Roman Cath- olle services, but not those of heretics, 2 for “usucpacion of public esteem,” by tak- irg unauthori: tides. There is impri enment of one to three months for “curs- * most holy name of God or the Ho! Virgin or the founder of the republic,” i : and for King out into invectives on the Publication of a law," while to write or Speak in favor of a dissolution of the coun- cil exposes a culprit to ten years’ penal Special licenses are required for growing tobacco, keeping she goats, p up in balloons or climbing the town w It would be rather amusing to prese humble petition to a council of sixty town walls of a soy is will the quaintest ared by its big. ‘ig The beginning of the end will come when seme enterprising tourist agency persuad to sanction a railway and provide cheap tickets to the republi Already n prs in Italy must ha regretted their omission te explo strangest group of villages in th ula, if not in Europe, and, San Marino would derive a for their advent. But s had led to its natural consequence the little, old, wizened repuh ad been swallowed up in the great parvenu | kingdom, the whole attraction wou'l be nd San Marino, bereft of her sp ivileges, would once more be forg ten by the world. Already politicians a Rome speak cf her as an anomaly and a blot upon the unity of the country, and in 1805 the Ltalian government de 1 the Jireaty of protective friendship which it oneluded in 1872. oe A Rainy Das. Ludgate. It is not until we take the rainfall in the buik that we can realize what a stupendous quantity of water showers down in Great Britain and Ireland in one year, and even when we have the figures before us it is difficult to realize their magnitude. To say. for instance, tha 000,000 cubic feet of rain on an average fall annually on the United Kingdom conveys little or nothing. though it implies something moist, and when we further learn that the weight of the same amounts to 258,126,500,000. tons, except for a feeling of thankfulness that it did not fall on our toes all at once, we are only conscious that {t makes a very pretty row of figures. With the laudable Intention of making these latter figures jook small we will merely say that*the total weight of the rain that falls in one year on the British Isles is only equal to 1-119 part of the weight of one paltry square mile of the earth's surface, from the surface to the center of the earth. When we consider that there are 121,000 square miles of such surface in the United King- dom alone one can understand what an In- finitesimal fraction of the total weight of the British Isles the annual rainfall would amount to. Why, 4,300,000 Forth bridges wouk! almost equal it. a The Height tor Brandy. From Pearson's Weekly. A steeplejack who was engaged in repair- ing a tail chimney at som? works in Devon slipped and fell a distance of some thirty- five feet. Fortunately, he alighted on some soft sand, and, though stunned and hadly shaken, no bon>s were broken. After wat had been dashed on his face he recovered consetousness. The manager, who stood by, having been summoned to the scene, put a giass of water to his ps, saying: “Hers, Bill, drink this, better. The injured man raised his head feebly and, gazing first at the glass and then at the high scaffolding from which he had fallen, remarked in a weak voice: “What I should like to know is, ‘ow far @ man have got to fall in those blessed works afore they gives him brandy?” —— 0+ The most wonderful vegetable in the world is the truffie. It has neither roots, stem, leaves, flowers nor seeds. ‘When the ratiroad across Siberia is com- pleted it will be easy for a person to go from London to Japan in thirteen days, and you'll feel IN THE FACE OF DEATH Entombed Miners Often Show « Wonderful Display of Nerve. Laugh Impossible — Foot Batt Amid d@ Sing When Escape Seems Strange Surroundings. m Casselé's Saturday Journal. A mining story would be considered in- complete without a harrowing descriptioa of the nero’s sufferings during an under- [ground catastrophe. People expect it, and never doubt that the sensations of the im- prisoned miner are accurately piciured. But those who have had experience in res= cuing colliers from living tombs know that the men do not always act In the sentimen- tal mannor attributed to them. On the con- trary, not a few of them face their horribl> ceath smilingly, refusing to give way to vi regrets and tears. When a great mass of coal fell in a northern pit, completely bie king up the side passages, twenty men and hors were trapped in a remote part of the workings. To dig these unfortunaic felows out a reef party worked madly; bro the coal was hard, and at the close of th first day the tearful women at the pit brow were still waiting for news. Another Cas passed without good tidings, and it was rot until the third morning that a faint humming svcnd Gitered through the frown- ing blockad: of coal. “They're alive!” snrieked one of the party, “and singing hymns to show their faith.” A Ger that all worked with redoubied er- uy, straining their ears meanwhile to citch the chanting of the underground cholr. It scon became evident, however, that the mirers were not singing at all. Trey were laughing and shouting I'ke chil- dren, and the familar ery of ‘‘Duck’s off!’ ws clearly heard by the anxious rescuer: ‘Two more hours of superhuman effort f Je wed, and then the black partition gave wy, revealing the pale and haggard miners in the very act of playing a game dear to th: collier’s heart. ‘Hello, lads, we didn’t expect to see ye,” laughed one of them, tooping to replace the lump of coal which ed as the “duck.” “Ah. reckon ye'll stop an’ hey a game wi’ us afore we go beck And the half-famished men and zctually insisted on finishing the game ® they would allow themselves to be taken to the skaft. After a very similar aceident in another collery the rellef party did not get through the coal in time to be of service, and five sturdy miners were found dead behind the tucl barrier. That they had died coolly anc fearlessly, though, was beyond ques- tion, for on the damp floor were scores of litte marbles made from compressed coal dust, and two of the men were lying at full length, with their fists screwed up ready to ‘ip. Their wan faces smiled even in death, and this touching proof of their un- ling optimism brought tears to the eyes of cvery one who entered the pit. Falls of coal and floods are terrible catastrophes, but the average collier fears n «xploston of firedamp most of all. One tred not :o very long ago in a little Midland pit, and fifteen good men and true were shut off from the cage by tons upon tens of coal. The anxious crowd at the pit mouth waited until the foul gas had been cleared from the cutting, and then began their work of rescue, with little hope of saving their mates from the suffocating fumes of tke firedamp. Progress was rapid, however, and before long the relief party got into the narrow passage. Here they saw a sight which fairly made them gasp, for the fifteen colliers were on the foor, some of chem dead, and others sit- ting up and unconcernedly singing comic songs. A little further on was a foot ball, vised from the colliers’ shirts and and bearing unmistakable signs of and rough usage. “We thowt, as & got to dee, we'd dee kickin’, explained one of the survivors, “so we rig- ged up a toot ball an’ punched it abart in t dark. George theer fell dahn dead as he wor scorin’ a goal, but we went on play ing to pass time on, and then t' gas cleared oft a bit.” Only four of that brave bevy of mi came out of the pit alive, but they assured their questioners that the others had laughed and sung in the very face of death. vent oe PASSPORTS NOT NEEDED Now. They Are Really Required in Russia and Turkey Only. From Tit-Bits. ‘There are few countries in which travel- ers now require passports in order to p! mote their convenience and security In Brazil and Veneauela a passport must be shown to the officials before one is allowed to leave the country for a foreign port. ‘This is a atious measure, enforced, ap- parently, for the sake of enabling a few Officials to collect small fees. In Russia passport regulations ar forced with great stringency. No tray is allowed to enter the empire until he has obtained a passport and convinced the Rus- F sular officers at the port from which he sails that he is neither a Roman Catholic priest nor a Hebrew. The ques- tion ordinarily asked is: “What is your religion?” but it is designed to provide against the entry of either of these two When the traveler arrives at a Rus port with a passport, which has been 1) erly viseed and countersigned at a cor office, it 13 critically examined by a p officer and duly registered. At the entrance of the hotel another po- lice officer takes possession of the docu- ment. and in the course of twenty-four hours returns it with a permit for a lim- ited residence in the country. When the traveler departs for another y in the empire, he must have the pass- port countersigned by the police. This process continues until he reaches the fron- tler, which he cannot cross unless the pass- port has been viseed and stamped by the police. Not infrequently tourists are stop- ped at the frontier, and subjected to serious inconveniences because they have neglecte to comply with the police regulations re- specting passports. All this red tape causes annoyance and irritation among tourists, who are apt to overlook the fact that Russians, as well as foreigners, are compelled to observe these police regulations. It is the business of the police to know where everybody lodges. A permit is required if a native removes from one quarter of a town to another. Every- body 1s registered by the police when he arrives or departs, and foreigners, when they are in Russia, are dealt with on equal terms with residents. The same system prevails in Turkey, where it is not practicable for a foreigner to travel without a passport. Elsewhere in Europe passports are not required. They are relics of a bygone period when commu- nications between countries were slow and infrequent. Now that all nations are drawn together by the ties of constant intercourse, @ passport is out of date, except in coun: tries like Russia and Turk ee Dusky New Wome From Pearson's Weekly. Many an Arab lady never leaves her house from the time she is married until she is carried out to be buried. A woman of the middle class is allowed more liberty, and occasionally goes out for walks, ac- companied as a rule by a servant. The poor creature is enveloped in masses of white drapery, which make her look like a walking bundle, and in front of her face she arranges a large black scarf embroid- ered with blue, red and white flowers. {t falls low in front, and, even by holding up the ends, she cannot see more than a foot or two of the road before her. I often won- er that she does not get run over when she goes out alone, for 1am sure she needs a dog to guide her quite as much as any blind man. Servants and other women of the lower classes wear pieces of biack cre- pon wound tightly round their faces, leav- ing just a slit for their eyes to peep through, and they are equally muffled up in white draperies. Seen from a_ distance, they might be men with masks or thick black beards, as in Arab countries it is by no means easy to tell a man from a woman at first sight. The older and uglier a wo- man is the more prudish she seems to be about covering up her face, which, after all, is rather considerate on her part.’ Even the greater number of negresses wear the yashmak, but the Bedouln women never do. Indeed, I am told that in the interior there is one Arab tribe whose men wear veils, and whose women go abeut with their faces uncovered. These are probably the “new women” of Africa. n .p- Y ce RANDOM VERSE. The Degmat' Creed. Belicve ae I helleve “no more. no less; That 1 am right, apd no ane else, confess; Feel as I feel; think only as T think; Eat what I ear, and drink but what I drink; Leck as I look; do always as I do. And then, and only then, Tl fellowship with yon. That I om right, and always right, I know, Because my own conyletious tell me 80; And to be right is simply this: ‘To be Entireiy, in all respects, like me. ‘To deviate a hair's Dreadth, or begin ‘To question and t» doubt Or hesitate, is sin, I reverence rhe ble. if it be Translated first. and then cxplained—by me. By churchly laws ard customs [ abide. ? they with my opinioi Ali creeds and dectrinea T eo Excepting these, of course, ‘ide. ede divine, Which disagree with mi Tet sink the drowning, if be will not swim Upon the plank that I throw out te him: Let starve the hongry, if he will not eat My kind und quantity ‘of bread and ment; Let freeze the neked, if he will noi be Clcthed In such garments , As are cut for me. “Twere better that the sick should die than live, Unless they take the medicine I give; ‘Twere better sinners perish than refuse ‘Ty be conformed to my peculiar views: "Twere better that the world stand atili than move In any other way ‘Than that which I approve. ooo, who but oft hath marveled why ‘The gods who rule above Shonla e’er permit the young to die, ‘The old to fall in love? Ah! why should hapless human kind ished out of season y listen, and perhaps you'll find My rhyme mey give the reason. Death, strolling ont one summer day, Met Cupid, with bis sparrows: And, bantering fn a merry w: Proposed 4 change of arrows. “Agreed,"” quoth Cupid, “I foresee ‘The queerest game of errors; For yor the King of Hearts will be, And I'll be King of Terrors!" And so ‘twas done—alas, the day That multiplied thelr arts! — Each from the other tore away ‘A portion of his darts. And that explains the reason why, Despite the gods above, ‘The young are often doomed to die, ‘The old to fall in love! JOHN G. SAXE. —soo-- The Average Man. Margaret E. Sangster in Harper's Weekly. When it cones to a question of trusting Yourself to the risks of the read, When the thing fs the sharing of burdens, The lifting the heft of a load, In the hour of peril or trial, In the hour you meet as you You may sifely depend on the wisdom And skill of the average man. ‘Tis the average man and no other Who dues his plain duty each day, ‘The small thing his wage is for dol Who pilots Over land, Just th Soon through the days of existen All mingling in shadow and shi We may count on the every-day he Whom haply the gods may divine: But who wears the swarth grime of his calling, And labors and earhs as he can, And stands at the last with the noblest, The commonplace average man -o—_—_____ Regret. J. J. Bell in November Pall Mall Magazine. I hear a bird that sings of yesterds A lonely bird, but none so lone a ‘Whose life is leaden as a wintry sl © heart, bow weary are Love's woods and ways When trod in singleness! ~The sight ob The soul, and sees no beauty far or nigh Unless the soul says, ‘Look And so T sizh Thro’ this fair spring when I should tune my praise. I know not why the bird is sa od knows And He knows why my song. For T am burdened with the grievous weong Of hard words said to one whose calm repose I would give all to wake. Ah, dear, how long. How dark the night until your a The House That Jack Built. From the Doluth Herald. Bebold the mansion reared by daedal Jack. heart mates out no es unclose See the malt stored in many a plethoric sack, In the proud eiryue of van’s bivoune. Mark how the rat’s folowious fangs invad The golden stores in John's pavillon latd Anon with velvet foot and Tarquin strides Subtle grimalkin to bis quarry glides Grimalkin grim that slew the fierce rodent Whcse tooth insidious Johann’s siekeloth rent. Io! That vexed the avenger of the stolen ialt, Stored in the hallo inets of that hall That rose complete at eutive call. ww the desp-mouthed canine foe's assault, p Jack's © Here stalks the impetuous cow with crumpled horn Whercon the exacerbating hound was torn, Who bayed the feline slaught ‘The rat predacious, whose keen fangs ran through The textile fibers that involved the grain Which lay in Han's tnyiolate demain. Here walks forlorn the damsel crowned with rue, Lactiferous spoils Crom vaceine dugs who drew Of that corniculate beast whore tertnons horn Tissed to the clouds in fleres vindletive scorn ‘The harrowing hound where braggart bark and stir Arched the lithe spine and reared the Indignant fur Of puss, that with verminicidal claw Stuck the Lay reeking m ‘drat in whose fnsatiate maw It that erst in Juan's courts we saw. Robed in sene ‘oo Tong ps Behold the Full with ent garb that seems in sooth ¥ to Chrocos’ Iron tooth. in whose amorous Hps incline, ms’ osenlative sign, rtalbie hands Drew albu-ta poyine wealth from lacteal glands Of that Imm bovine, by whose horn Distort to realm ethereal was borne The beust catulean, vexed of the sly Ulyrses quadrapedal, who made die The An To the lorn maiden whose I tie us rat that dared deyour cedanecus ale in John's domestic bower. Lo! here, with hirsute honors doffed, succinct Of saponaceous Jocks, the priest who lin in Uymen's golden bands the torn unthrift, Where means exiguous stared through many a rift, as he kissed the virgin all forlon, milked the cow with Implieated hor in fine wrath the c#nine torturer skted, dared to vex the insidious murieide, let auroral cftiuence through the pelt Of the sly rat that robbed the palace Jack bad bulit, ‘The ond cantankerous Shanghai comes at last, Whose shouts aroused the shorn ecclesiast, Aho sealed the vows of Hymen's sacrament, ‘To him, whe, rebed in garments indigent, Exosculates the damsel laehrymcse, Phe cmulgntor of that horned brute morose, ‘That tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that kilt The rat that ate the mali that lay in the house that Jack ilt, p ———__+e-_ Courage. ~ George Edgar Montgomery in Harper's Weekly. Tt is not that they never knew a Weakness or fear whe are the brave: Those are the proud, the knightly few Whose joy is still fo serve and save. But they who, in the weary night, Amid the darkness and the str fave struggled with disease and bli With pitiful world-weariness: yearns to stand among nighty of the earth, spiring Sonls are wrung nt sad, With starless hope and hollow mirth— Who die with every day, yet live ‘Through merciless, unbrightened years, Whose sweetest right 1s to forgive And smile divinely through their tears: ‘They are the noble, they the etrong, They are the tried, the trusted ones, And though their way is hard and tous — Straight to t God it ri The Purple Balustrade. Flavian Rosser in Coll! 's Weekly. Spaces Infinite, to which we fa re 18 puiple balustrade, where dusk anerts day, ‘Though frostrite in all else. 1 shall not care, For to the Love, that holds us, T shall say— “Let me sit here a little while, Let me sit here a vety little while." And to the Law, that guides us, 1 shall say— “Let ceans for me the song of spheres, that roll below; Let me not know’ the fragrant Aramanth, I pray, Let me foiget the swinging stars,” and so T shall sit there a Httle while, I shall sit there a very little while. ‘Then if I can forget the grave from which I came, And lean across the bondage of the misis that rise, T may remetuber how my Earth-lights fome Onur candl: and the Love-light in your And so find Paradise awhile. At overy dusk, a very Httle while. Khartum Vanity Fair, Warham St. Lege “Vengeance Is Mine, aith the Lord of Hosts. His vengcanee, marching feot to foot with Time, O'erwhelms the guilty at their ark of erime And blots in blood their Dleod-cmblazon'd boasts. F aM the desert land the warrior Gather to chaut the Memnou-sovg sublime That greets Hope's glerious sonrise in the clime Where the Queen's Peace shall glidden Nile's red consis. Oh. unforgotten, dearly cleansed stain Of the deserted martyr? England's heart In that foul fantasy had never part; But in bush'd patience beat the hour of doom, When with the fierce battle-volleys o'er his grave They came, not Gordon, but the land to save: And Britain's banner overlords Khartum! MAY YET BECOME A FAD So Far the Game of Quoits Has Never Had o Boom. But It Has Many Advantages an Well Worth the Playing—Clue to Its Orig! From Physical Culture. There are scme gi.mes which have never had their boom, and quoits is one of them. Still, as nothing happens but the unexpect- ed, it may be that the time is nearly ripe fo: quoits to be taken cut of its undeserved obscurity, to be exalted to the status of a national game, to have weekly papers nam- ed after it and to have columns in the sporting press devoted to the doings of its champions. Stranger things have happen- ec. Who, for instance, would have said, when, at the end of the sixties, a few ener- getic sportsmen went wobbling about on bone-shaking bicycles, which it would have been far easier to push than to ride, that at the end of the century considerably more than a hundred thousand bicycles would be manufactured annvally in Great Britain alcne, and that the vast majority of the population would adopt this means of loco- motion? One cannot imagine that quoits will ever attain such popularity as the bi- cycle, but the unprejudiced person can see no reason why it should not become as fa- vorite a pastime as golf, which a very few years ago was almost unkeard of south of the Tweed. : Quoits is a very fine game, especially in the winter time. It is splendid exercise, and trains the eye and the hand to act together in a way that few other sports can do, for the very essence of it is accuracy of aim at a mark placed below the level of the land. It has been objected that throwing quoits makes the player lopsided, but after all that is easily remedied, there is nothing to prevent the player throwing the quoit with his left hand if he so vleases, and such a change would make a variation in the game and also afford an excelient method of handicapping the men of un- equal skill. Quoits strengthens the arms and shoulders, but it is not a pastime which primarily demands strength. A great ad- vantage of the game is that it can be play- ed in any small space, and that the ground need not be particularly level. Any rough field or waste of ground is good enough for a quoits pitch, and no rolling or cutting is required to satisfy the demands of the most exigent. For cricket you need a care- fully prepared wicket, for lawn tennis and croquet a piece of turf like a billiard table and for golf the best part of a country all to yourself, hut for quoits you only need a few yards of rough ground, and you have as good a pluce for throwing as any one ay require. certainly might play quoits mere do, but the taking up of a game is usually a matter of fancy, and perhaps two things stand in the way of quoits. First, there is an idea that it is a “rustic” sport, and -an only be played by the rough country lads: and, second, there is the legend that the game is derived from the classical discus throwing. a suspicion which it must be confessed is enough to throw a slur en any well-regulated game No treatise op quoits can begin without the time-honored pedigree of the quoit from the discus. Stratt, who lived at the end of the last century, of ccurse. dealt with it, and, equally, of course, he dragged in tne discus even if he cid not invent the descent of quolts from the sports of anclent Greece. The thing, of c is absurd. To make a discus the artisan did not, in the words of the inmorial Irishman, take a hole ar put some tror around it. The discus was more like a flattened Dutch cheese, and Was a solid m Moreover, it was not held in ‘he seme manner as a quoit, but was bowled underhand, in which, indeed, it alone differs from putting the weight. That quolts is now played chiefly in the ecuntry is the fault of those- who do not play it and Lring it iato fashion. It is no doubt a very ancient than the: English -me, aad its beginnings are lost in the nist of ages. Hakluyt mentions it in his book of “Voyage: so it was well known in Queen Elizabeth's time, when it proo- ably was one of the favorite sports of merrie Pagland. In some parts of the coun- try the rustics used to employ horse: for want of properly made quoits there are districts in which called a “shoe” even to this day. Thi: us the clue to the most probable oricin of the sport, iné hints that the first game of qvoits was started by throwing old horse- sboes at the hob or mark, and from this gradually grew up the practice of havi quoits specially made for throwi: much for the discus legend. As for th word “quoit” itself, Its etymology is more than doubtful, and it gives us no ¢lue whatever to the origin of the game. A URIOUS MAINE STORY. lictlons of a Fortune Teller That Came True After Death. From the Montreal Herald. Every French Canadian resident of Maine believes that a miracle has been performed ever the grave of Paul Beaupre, who died and was buried in the woods above Grind- stene Falls forty years ago. Beaupre, or Bo Peep, as he was called by his acquaint- ances, was a fortune teller and ped@ler of snakeskin charms, who traveled from camp to-camp in winter, selling his amulets and preying upon the credulity of his country- men by pretending to reveal future events. Four years ago he was taken ill with pneu- monia while staying at a camp on the East Branch, and aied inside cf a week Before his death he expressed a wish to have his body taken to Montreal for burial, pronouncing a fearful curse upon those who neglected to obey his last request. Among other catastrophes which were to follow a denial of his wish were the sudden death of the camp foreman, the loss of the year's cut of legs and the burning of the camp. He also said ihat if he were buried in the woods a living cross would grow up from his grave, which should serve as a perpet- val warning to all unbelievers. Beaupre died in November, 1834. His body was sewed up in new blanke!s ard carried to a rocky point above Grindstone, where the bearers placed it under*the roots of a great yellow birch tree which had lately been cverturned in a gale. When the remains had been duly disposed of in the stony opening, one of the men chop- ped off the fallen tree trunk with an ax, allowing the stump to fly back, thus filling the hole and burying the body under tons of earth. Two weeks l2zier the camp boss was killed by a falling limb. The following spring the logs were hung up for want of water, and while they were lying on the shore, waiting for rains, a forest fire swept through the woods, burning the logs and the camp where the men had workec. This fall a party of Frenchmen who had been hunting deer stopped at Peep’s grave, and were surprised to find that the yellow birch which covered his remains had sprouted from the stump, sending up three shoots, which had interlaced so as to form a cross about ien feet tall. When they saw that the last of the dead man’s predictions had been fulfilled, they came out and circulated the story all over eastern Maine, since which time the grave has been visited by scores of French Canadians, all of whom believe that a miracle has been wrought above the dead. THE {LISH WEATHER BUREAU, Its Predictions Are Right Eight Times in Ten. From the London Standard. ‘The forecasting of our meteorological office is based cn long observation and an inductive system. The weather at any place, to put it briefly, depends on the dis- tribution of atmospheric pressure, the direc- t'on of the wind and some other factors, over a large surrounding area, and a skilled observer, if only he can obtain suffictent information, can foretell almost with cer- tainty whether there will be gale or calm, rain or sunshire, for several hours to come. In our islands we have not yet arrived at an ideal condition, though observatories are not few and forecasts are made thrice daily. The prophets sometimes prophesy falsely, but for this, as we shall sce, they generaliy are not to blam During the twelve months ended with March last they were successful, taking the average of all the districts and using the evening forecasts, in which the fullest in- formation ts to hand, in 3% per cent of the instances, and were partially so in 26 per cent, while only 6 per cent were complete, and 13 per cent partial, failures. They were accordingiy quite or fairly accurate in 81 cases out of 100. This seems to be about About 23 as near as they can get. for during the last ten years the number ranges between 79 and 84. Curiously enough, these two ex- tremes came in successive years. Of the storm warnings nearly 92 per cent were justified, if not by storms, at least by strong winds, and only eight unforeseen gales broke on our coasts. Hay harvest forecasts also are issued, and, like the other reports, are telegraphed to applicants at small cost. Of these % per cent have proved useful. But why ts it that the record of correct prediction did not exceed 55 per cent? We have only to study the tabulated stetements for the different districts to see the reason why a higher degree of acc racy ts hard to reach. The successes are most numerous on the eastern side of Enc- land—the southern district being at the head—and least so in Ireland and the west and north of Scotland. Most of our bad weather comes from the Atlantic, and the observers often get no intimation of the approach of a depression till it is nearing our western shores; and if it be traveling fast it may have broken on them, and even upset everything in the neighboring dis- tricts, in the interval between two calcula- tions. If It were possible to establish sta- tiens well out in the Atlantic, the percent- age of accurate forecasts would go up with a bound. But as we live in an {sland coun- try, with an ocean on the west and a gulf stream in it, we must, for the present at least, put up with a changeful climate and occasional failures in weather forecasts. tee AT ONE TIME. FIVE Virginia City Treated to a Panorama of Snow Storms. From the Chicago Inter Ocean. “Virginia City,” sald Sayre Noble, a Ne- vada ranchman, “is pretty well up in the world, as any one knows who has ever been there, and there are few localities in all the Rocky mountain region from which a wider range of country can be taken in at one view. Owing to that fact, some beautiful, striking and unusual sights are frequently seen by the dwellers in that favored city, almost within sounding distance of the clouds. I have witnessed some of them myself, and one in particular I remember. In fact, it wes a sight that no one having seen could ever forget. It was a moving panorama, grand and impressive in the ex- treme, being no less than five distinct snow- storms raging among the mountains and deserts to the eastward, while in the city not a flake of snow was falling. The storms represented all degrees of fierceness, and covered an area of at least 100 miles. The one furthest to the east, and at the same time the most northerly one, was ap ently passing directly over the fort desert. It was as black as a thunder c so dense was the whirling body of snow and was, perhaps, ten miles in diameter. Any one in the midst of it would have been wiiling to swear that a snowstorm must be raging over the entire continent, but just to the north of it several tall, stately peaks Tose out of the flerce storm and towered above it in the full splendor of sunlight. The high hills that lay beyond the storm were shut off from sight as though by a gigantic black curtain. “Nearer, and to the southward, another storm. not so black and fierce as the first, but still dense enough to hido all the region behind it, was tn less active progress. It crept along toward the east. reaching from the level of the Carson valley apward to the very cloud whence {t came, nigh in the heavens. Still nearer, and netween the city and the mountains of Como, a tigi:ter storm yet, one only two or three miles in widih passed on its way. Through t the moun- tain peaks could be seen dimls hin fog. A mile further south a f Dew storm, smaller in area tha. even the last one, but as black and tempestuous as the great blizzard that, with che sun touching the crown, was sweeping the forty-mile desert, raged in awful fury. All behind it was hid as with the pall of the blackest night. Miles away, further up to the south- ward, the fifth storm, a vast and violent one. was sweeping along. covering and hid- ing a range of thirty miles of high hi “Between these several storm bodies hills, plains and mountain peaks stood reveaied as far as the eye could see, all tying in the glory of a late October sun. The gleaming peaks that rose golden far ab. masses of storm as they raged in fury the mountain bases and far up their rocky sides made a particularly striking ond awe- some part of that strange picture. ——— +e Some Clerical Stories. From the Cornhill Magazine. Thera are some classes of people who <cem to think that when they speak t a parson they must use certain peculiar phrase wholly strange to th under ordinary cir- cumstances, as, for instance, the famous reply of the laborer to the minister's words of praise concerning a fine fat pig which h saw in his sty, grunting with satisfaction and repletion: “Oh, sir, if only we s fit tu die as that old sow b asked a district nurse how the vartous sic cases had been going on during my absenc from the parish. At once the look which I knew so well crossed her face, but her nat- ural professional pride strove for the ma: tery with the due unctuousness which she considered necessary for the occas At last she evolved the following strange mix ture: “Middling well, sir: some of ‘em gone straight to glory, but I am glad to s others are nicely on the mend.” In a fo mer article I mentioned some curious su perstitions which are still to be found among the people: but here 1s one of the mos: carious, which T happened to hear the other day: A clergyman was walking through the outskirts of his parish one evening. when he saw one of his parishioners very busy whitewashing his cottage. The parson sed at these somewhat novel signs of nliness, called out: “Well, Jones, I se you're making your house nice and smart.” With a mysterious air, Jones, who had re- cently taken the cottage. descended from the ladder and slowly waiked to the hedce which separated the garden from the road “That's "zacly the reason why he whispered as lived in this ‘ere cottage ‘ad twin: io T says to my missus, ['ll tak’ an’ whitewash the place, so as there mayn’t be no infection. Ye see sir, as ‘ow We got ten of ‘em already.” er the whitewashing was effectual not, I have not been able to ascertain. cesar eae! Underground Paris. From the Strand. The Paris of the pavement, gay, bright and exhilarating, fs fairly familiar to us all, but underground Paris, dark, solitary and damp, extending for miles, is eompr- atively unknown, A part of this area is devoted to the catacombs—a valley of dry bones, a garden of the dead; the rest, a garden still more vast, provides for the wants, or, rather, the luxuries, of the liv- ing—it is devoted to mushroom culture. These subterranean gardens extend for some twenty miles under the gay capital, and are from 20 feet to 160 feet beneath the surface. It Is very difficult to obtain per- mission to visit them, and even when per- mission is obtained it requires some cour- age to avail oneself of it, for the only en- trance is a circular opening like the mouth of a well, out of which a long pole stands; through this pole, fastened at the top only at fairly long intervals, sticks are thrust! This primitive ladder, the base of which swings like a pendulum in the impenetrable darkness below, is the only means of reach- ing the caves. * * * “Here,” again cried our guide, with a burst of’ cheerfulness. “See this door! On the other side are the catacombs—as full of bones as this place is of mushrooms.” We smiled: we were not afraid of bones, with an tron door between them and us. not a-doing of this ‘ere job, “but the last two coupl ——- 00 Mount Hood’s Winter Headgear. From the Portland Oregonian. ‘The clouds cleared away yesterday morn- ing to afford the public and such strangers as are sojourning within the city’s gates & view of the snow peaks that ought to go down to history. Mount Hood wore a fresh ermine mantle and a cap of filmy lace that proved on inspection with a telescope to be a flurry of particles of snow whirled about in the wind till they partially obscured the summit. Th2 velocity of the gale that was blowing up there and the temperature of the air could be readily conjectured, and every one was willing to take it out in con- jecturing. Mount Hood, seen through the purified Nov-mber air, is a grand spectacle, especially when lit with almost impossible colors in the sunset glow, but it is not a hospitable home for man or fowl when ar- rayed in that icy headgear, PSE Di An American soldier and a native cab- man were killed by coming im contact with a fallen electric wire in Honolulu the other day. An inquest developed the fact that the interlor of the wooden insulation pin by which the wire was supported had been | sini away by ants, and the thin she! which remained had given way under the stress of a wind storm. BIG PRAIRIE FIRES Mothing in Nature to Equal Thee Horror and Grandeur. FLAMES THAT RUN AT RACING SPEED The Most Terrible Scourge of Life on Western Plains. AND DEATH Denver Corresperdence Chicago Tnter-Ovear The fires that recently devasta in northern Michigan and Wi fires that swept across arcas lands in Manitoba and North Dakota, and still other fires that burned over squat miles among the Rocky mountains hay revived a train of reminiscences among the old-time plainsmen out this way concerning their own experiences in great prairie fires two or three decades ago. One who hax never seen a prairie fire such as used every fall to devastate the plains from the Mis souri river to the Rocky mountains and from the Rio Grande to Central British America can have no tdea what such enor mous conflagrations were. No one has yot adequately described the frightful sublim ity, the grandeur and the awfulness of a sea of lurid flames, tens of thousands of acres broad, rolling, tossing and rushing forward lke an enraged titanic monster and leaving in the trail bdiackened and smoking ruins from hortzon to horizon. Mark Twain has said that the most colox sal awing thing in all nature is a great fir on the plains, such as he saw in Nebraska in the fall of 18A0. In 1874 some hunters started a prairie fire in Bon Homme county, D. T., opposite Niobrara, Neb. There was a strong south cast wind, and it swept to the northwest for over miles, licking up dry ‘airie grass and rolling up great columns f smoke on the soft September air for up ward of a week. This one was compara tively narrow, being kept from spreading to the west by the Missouri river and from making much progress to the east at first by the Jim river, and later by the wind which shifted more to the east, but in some d forests nsin of prairie other places the tract burned reached 4 wi of seventy-five miles, and aver- aged, perhaps, fully fifty. Stopped by Missouri River. It fourd few streams to impede its pro- sress on that side of the Missouri; what few it did encounter it had no difficulty tn leaping. Indeed, the distance fire will jump in crossing these prairie streams, where the grass grows rank and tall to the very Water's edge, seems almost past belief. In cese a fire cannot cress in one p there is usually a place where it can, and so it rushes on, frequently leaving large un burned irregular A-shaped places along the streams or lakes, but leaving the country, as a whole, black, barren and forbidding This fire took over a week to go rather more than 200 miles.) This may seem slow but several things must be taken into con sideration. In many places the grass was short, which necessarily hindered its p: gress. There was little or no wind during the nights, so it, of course. traveled slowly At other times, when it got among blue-joint or other tall grass, it, other prairie fire, traveled at such a rate that a horse, be he ever sc fi - could not long keep ahead. The front Was, of cours>, irregular, and, as usual, it would frequently happen that two long vancing arms would join several miles ahead of the main line of flame and rush onward, forming a new front and leaving a rapidly disappearing island of unburned grass behind. The left of the mighty advancing column of flame was retarded the second or third day in passing through the Bijou hills Later the right became entangled among the Wessington hills and fell behind. It finally died out among the coteaux cl to the Missourt river, in the neighborhood 0! Le Beau and Boise Cache creeks. In fi it was the river that stopped it. for had i not been there, or bad the wind got inte th: south, it would have swept on 250 miles further, out of Dakota and on inte the British possessions, no one knows how far Probably «0 square miles of prai- rie were burned over by this moving sea of About thirty hunters and a few femi- es were caught in that fire and burned to Hundreds of buffalos and antelopes p roasted. Great British Columbia Fire. Among the most devastating of the last great fires on the plains was one in 1880. A prairie fire swept down from Britich Co- lumbia, across the international line into Dakota, until it reached the Northern F cific railroad. At its greatest width. in northern Dakota, the flames were 10 miles wide. Over 10,000 square cov ered by the sweeping fire. . son the rthern P ific railroad had a chance to see part of the awful fire, and to this day there are those among the passengers who say that the sound of the roaring flam and the enormous walls of flame mov over the dry grass in leaps and bounds, lik red, angry, bellowing. fiery surf, were ter- rible beyond description. For two days and three nights the flames could be seen rag ing to the north of the railroad tracks. The great tongues of flame seemed to be shoot- ing higher than the cars and almost reach ing them, though they were really further away than they looked, being held back by iz the company’s fire-break or burned strip along the track. There was no sleep on the trains passing t fire, but the windows nd platforms were crowded with the pas sengers, eagerly watching the rolling flames. Antelopes, deer, prairie wolves, foxes, Jackrabbits and other animals could be seen in great numbers hurrying before the flames ead crossing the track. It fre quently happened that some of them were run over by the train and killed. Those that reached the south side of the track fcund safety for the time being, at least, as the fire did not cross. Later in the sea- sen, however, the usual smaller fires pre- vailed south of the railroad. Many a man has been hanged, or shot to death if the conveniences for hanging were not to be had on the treeless, poleless plains, for starting prairie fires. The cat- tlemen and cowboys, assisted by the sol- diers at the army post on the prairies, al- ways started immediately after a prairie fire to investigate its cause. But very often there was nothing left to tell the tale of the origin of the conflagration. The plainsmen were, however, so angry usually at their losses and the suffering and death of human beings and beasts in the fire that they meant to fix the blame somewhere. No doubt scores of men have been hanged for starting prairie fires when they were either innocent or the fire had been started by carelessness. Fire Breaks in Western Plains. Every town on the great plains of the west. except in communities where the people are criminally careless, still takes precautions every autumn against the pos- sibility of devastation by prairie fires. Fire breaks are plowed by the men in the prairie towns every August and September. A fire break is made by plowing a few fur- rows just outside and entirely around a town. Further out, say 100 yards, another circle is made, and then the grass burned between. This effectually prevents any hostile fire from taking the community. It frequently happens that this fire break is constructed after the fire which it is in« tended to guard against has appeared. On such occasions, while one party goer out with brooms, shovels, phoned — 4 other weapons to stay the progress fire as much as possible, another attaches teams to all the plows that can be found and begins to make the needed furrows. As soon as the furrows are turned the back fire between ts started, and usually the town is saved. The fire breaks, simple as they are, have saved thousands of lives of settlers in the west and protected a vast amount of capital invested in farming prop- erty and homes of poor families. —_+ e+ —___ ‘The practice of dehorning cattle is large- ly increasing in Maine and it will probably not be many years before a cow with horns will curiosity. Seen ousands of situations have been ob- coueak through the want columns of The Star.