Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 18, 1891, Page 9

A 4 [ ~ & TWENTIE “*"Colorado raised train load PART TWO_ THE OMAHA SuUNDAY BEE H YEAR. OMAHA SUNDAY MORNIN . JANUARY 18, 1801 ~SIXTEEN RRICATION IN NEBRASKA. The Bubject Ilustrated by the Successful Expirience of Colorado. HOW WATER IS APPLIED TO ARID LANDS. Operations in the South Platte Coun- try, Just Across the State Line —How the State Assists tho Work. (Third Article.) The arld region of Nebraska adjoins the state of Colorado on the west and south, On both sides of this imaginary line the soil, the climate and all natural conditiohs are the same. But on one side there is agricultural prosperity of a high and growing order. On the other side there s poverty and distress. On one side lies the garden, on the other side the desert, During the past seasou the farm- ers living in the valley of the South Platte in of potatoes and sold them for fabulous prices, In the same period the farmers living in the val- ley of the South Platte in Nebraska raised scarcely anything, and wany of them aro now receiving food and clothing from the stateand they must look to the samo source for the seed of future crops. Nebraska had the advantages of earlier settlement. She has a larger population and more weilth in the aggregate, but in the matter of irrigation she is butan infant to a man when compared with Colorado, And ir- rigation in Colorado has only begun. ‘These facts are not, however, as discredit- able to Nebraska as av first appears, Nobody ever pretended that Colorado could depend on rainfall. Western Nebraska, with the aid of unscrupulous land agents, was persuaded that she could. Experience is a hacd mas- ter, but we are learning the lessson at last, and the late severe drouth may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. As tho best possible means of illustrating how irrigation can be accomplished here, this paper will undertake to trace how it has been accomplished in Colorado in the face of simi- ar difficulties, L—BrarnxiNes oF THE WORK 18 CoLORADO, The total area of Colorado is 66,560,000 acres. Of this vast domain 26,560,000 acros s mountain land, hopeless for agri- culture, but rich in minerals and timber. The balance, of 40,000,000 acres, 1s composed of plateau, plain and valley, and hasa soil fit to grow any crops that will thrive in this latitude and altitude. But it 1s nerfectly arid. ‘When the first pioneer settler pushed his ‘way . act0ss tie plains and mto Colorado, sover thirty yoars ago, ho found ouly a few thousand of these millions of acres under cul- tivation, and those only by means of rude ditches constructed by unskillful Mexican farmers. Now, according to the latest statis. tion of what is locally known as the “English | company," an association of Scoteh capital- 1sts, Thelr first undortaking was the con- struction of the Larimer and Weld eanal, | which takes its source In the Cache | la Poudre river, two miles morth- west of Fort Collins, and runs enst across Larimer and Weld counties for a distance of five miles. Itis twenty-five to thirty feet wide and from flve to seven feet deop, It has acapacity sufficient toirrigate 40,000 acres, almost all of which are now In a high state of cultivation, This large canal has now been in oporation nearly ten years. Three small resorvoirs are used in connection with this enterprise, The success of this canal led the same capi- talists to undertake a larger and more dif- cult project. This was to tap the Plitto riveras itleayes the mountains and develop the lands lying around Denver, The scheme 1 been long talked of and for years had waited only for tho assist- nce of capital. The construction of this “High Line canal,” as it is called, was begun early in~ the spring of 1830 and con- tinued without cessation till 1833, It is a fino piece of engineering, with its dam in the its tunnel at the head of thd canal, its flume in the canon, and its.numerous flumes across the creeks that lie in its course, The main canal is seventy miles long, and forty fect wide for alareo part of its length, It has a branch _about twenty-five miles long and of smaller dimensions. It waters be- tween fifty andsixty thousand acres. It cost £050,000, This was tho bej ning of irrigation in Colorado. It demonstrated that if water could bpe applied to the arid soil the desert would blossom as the rose. It converted timid, unbelieving capital intoan aggressiveally of tho state's devel- opment. With the success of these two undertakings of the English company, irriga- tion was cstablished as a greatand promising factor in the life of Colorado, Capital came from England, from Holland, from New York, from Chicago and St. Louis, to seek investment where returns were assured. And Denver itself-a hint for Omaha—readily in- vested in frrigation entorprises tho capital it had accumulated with phenomenal rapidity in mining and real cstate. Nebraska stands today where Colorado stood ten years ago. X COLORADO. From a N cbraska standpoint tho most in- teresting part of irrigated Colorado is that portion lying between Denver and the Ne- braska line, and especially in the valloy of the Sowh Platte. The accompanying map shows the developments 1n this regionata glance. This part of Colorado is preciscly like our arid region. It has the same soil aud climate and draws its water supply from one of the sources which we must utilize. The stato line that separates Nebraska from Colorado is only imaginary, but. the line that runs be- tuween irrigated prosperity and arld distres 1s areal line, plainly marked on the surface of the earth. The association of foreign capitalists al- ready alluded to undertook the development _—— NORTHERN COLORADO. % 1Y OV ELAND V\_/‘le‘\ 1 ties available, Colorado has 4,004,409 acres under diteh, for which she has paid, through the investment of private capital, $11,150,000, Bettar than this, she has organized all the public and private forces, enacted tomprehensive laws, and done various other things to secure tho furthor develop- ment of irrigation on the grandest scale, How has all this been done} It isa story of persistent encrgy and untiring efforts airected against dificulties, but aiming av great and certain results, The first attempt to build a large ditch in Colorado was undertaken in 1850 by a few citizens of Denver. They spent $10,000 and managed to mako a complete failure of it, owing to tho lack of experience and the un- fortunate fact that their verdant engineer _bad omitted to give any fall to his grade line, Both the citizens and the engineer retired from tho business, but the spirit of enterpriso kept on. Two years later the Platte water company's ditch was huilt with better success, and it still furnishes Denver with its irrigating water. Between 1862 and 1880 the frmgation movement got well under way. Numerous small ditches were mude, fully demonstrating the feasibility of the project, and a systematic effort begun to interest large capital. Colorado had first to overcome the skepticism of capital, as Nebraska still has in some measure, ‘The real development of the arid regions in {o&nwunlu state boguu with the forma- Ehowing how theSouth Platte and other streams are harnessed to systems of irrigation,, of the wide-stretching plamns in the northern part of the state. The Platte valley canal takes its source in the Plalte river, about three miles north of Lupton, a town twenty- six miles north of Denver, The canal has an appropriation of 400 cubic feet per second and can irrigate 20,000 acres, The construc- tion cost about $35,000. There is a substan- tial dam in the river, 200 fectlong, which cost about §3,000. F'rom the fact that there aro no flumes norany timber work of any kind on the canal, with the exception of the dam, its maintenance is comparatively inex- pensive, The Loveland and Greeley canal is another of thé enterprises with which this same com- pany is connected. Its head is located on the Big Thompson near Loveland. It is thirty- one miles long, twenty-six feet wide and five feot deep, with a variable grade. Its appro- takes its water from the north fork of the Cache Ja Poudre river, in tho northwestern portion of Larimer county. The dam in the canon is as good u specimen of this class of work as is to be found in thestate, The dam cost §7,500, These are the largest freigation enter- prises in the portion of Colorado nearest Nebraska, though there aro hundreds of smaller canals and ditches of great value to the region. HL—SOME L\RGER COLORADO ENTERPRISES, In other parts of the state, especially in the San Luis, the nnison and the Arkansas valloys, there ave still larger works of irriga- tion, Prominent among them is the Empire canal, inthe San Luis valley, which takes water from the Rio Grande fourteen miles above Alamosn and extends southward to the Rio Concjos. This Is thirty miles long, sixty feet wide at the head and five and a half feet deep; discharges 1,400 cubic feet per second; neer, who should have the oversight of all these enterprises and see that they con- formed to the wise laws of the state, The provisions of these laws will be more fully dwelt upon in a subseguent article, In bis message delivered to the legislature during the past. week Gover- nor Routt admirably summed wup the present relations of the state to this subject, He said that irvigation was the most vital and pressing subject that would come before the legislature; that the people were holding mass meetings in various parts of the state to discuss priority of rights and the use of water for domesticpurposes ; thatthis matter called for an early and decisive opinion from the supreme court, and that the legislature should pass effective laws on the subject. He also advocates the ablishment of reser- voirs, and urges the legislature to call upon congress to assistin this work by speedily donating the arid publiclands to the states, Besides the assistauce directly obtained from the state, various forastry, agricultura e T R S NN PO~ Finfowg < THE METHOD OF IRRIGATION, The water enters the lateral from the main eanal when the gate is ralsed, and runs intoa dis- tributing ditch atthe head of the field. It is then diverted to the plow furrows, which are dammed at frequent intervals, cansing the water to distribute itselt over the entire field covers 120,000 acres, of which the company owns 74,000. Tt has cost §120,000 and promi- ses to be a most, profitable investment. The Del Norte is the largest irrigating caual in the United States. It is sixty-five feet wide on the bottom at the headgate, car- rying water five and ahalf feet deep, with side slopes three to one, making the top width at water line ninety-eight feet. Four miles from the head it is bifarcated: the larger branch being forty-two feot wide at tho bot- wide. There are about fitty wiles of main chanmnel. It carries something over 2,400 cubic feet of water persecond and is circulated to irrigate over 200,000 acres. It islocated in the San Luis valley in southern Catifornia, takes its supply from the Rio Granderiver and covers the land in the northern end of the valley, It cost $300,000. The peculiar feature in the conmstrnction of this canal was tho rapidity of its completion, the entire work being accomplished within a period of four mouths, The Citizens’ canal is in the same neighbor- hood, taking its supply from the Rio Grande river, eight miles below the Del Norte and on the opposite side of the river. It is de- signed to irrigate the lands in the southwest- ern part of theSan Luisvalley. It covers 120,000 acres and cost §200,000. The Uncompahgre canal, in the west cen- tral part of the state, covers about sixty-five thousand acres of the lands of the Uncom- pahre valley. The entire valley has a consid- erable fall to the north, about sixty feet to the mile, which gives the canal the appear- ance of having an ascending grade, and ne- cessitates the frequent use of drops or over- falls, The entire cost of this canal was $210,- 000. The Grand river canal system, in the ex- treme western part of the state, is a combi- nation of three canals, projected and largely built by the farmers of the Grand river val- ley, but purchased ard united by the present owners. The combined appropriating capac- ity is 080 cubic foet per second. There are apout sixty-five miles of main channel, cov- cring some forty thousand acres, A striking feature is numerous overfalls or ‘drops,” ranging from four feet to thirty-six feet in height. The Fort Morgan canal, in the northeast- ern part of the state, takes it supply from the Platte river, about ninety miles below Den- ver. Itis twenty-eight miles long and thirty feet wide at the bottom: carries water three and one-half fect deep and has a slope of one in 3,300; capacity somethiug over three hun- dred and forty cubic feet per second, It irri- gates 20,000 acres and cost about $95,000, Besides these large enterprises many oth- crs are under way and ivrigation is still in the full tade of development. 1V.-TIOW TIIE STATE FOSTERS IRRIGATION. It is meither possible or necessary within the limits of this article to describe more fully the progress of irvigation in Colorado. The object Is to show that our neighbors have successfully overcome every dificulty which wo are now facing, and thereby point the way to thespeedy and complete reclamation of our arid lands. For this purpose, how ever, it is very essential that the work done by the stato should be understood. In his report to Governor Adams of Decem- ver, 1888, J, S. Greene, state engineer of ir- rigation, used these words: “But, however energetic ler peoplo may have been, how- ver skilled in constraction or fruitful in resources, it was in the legislative hulls and the court rooms that they fostered best Col- orado’s wonderful development in irrigation enterprises”” In other words, there would lave been no capitalists, no grand undertak- ings, If the executivoand legislative officers of the commonwealth, and all manner of pub- lic associations, had not united in en effort priation of water is 446 cubic feet per socond, | o push the agricultural development of the and it is capable of irrigating 22,000 acres, of which nearly one-third is under cultivation. This canal cost about 130,000, There are two reservoirs near its head, which have each asurfuce area of nearly fifteen hundred acres, A reservoir has also been constructed state, That is the polut which the people of Nebraska must comprehend at this juncture In the first place, Colorado hus given great attention to ber laws bearing on the subject of irvigation. She has constantly broadened them to meet the growing demands of the subject and ounly recently bhas appointed a (Greeley, which is capable of holding 2,000,000 | commission to completely revise them, The cubie feet of water, The North Poudre canal is worthy of men- tion in this connection, It is a private en- terpriso and presents some engineeving fea- ture of more thun usual interest, The canal ill its lower end, on the nilloverlooking object has been to encourage capital, to pro- tect the water supply, to guarantee equal op- pgrtunities to all parts of the state, A very important step in reaching theseends was the appointment of a competent state cngi- and truit growers' mssociations are giving their influence systematically to the de- velopment of irrigation in all directions, and are euarding ‘it from overy stand- point, from the proscrvation of the water supply on the mountain tops to the fortilization of the farthest acre on the edge of the arid belt. It was by means of this deep and carnest conviction of the valte of irrigation that the work has been brought to: in-Colorado. <1t operation with private capital and local en- terprise, that a great empire west of the 100th meridian in Nebraska can be made prosper- ous, Colorado ranks high among mining states. It abounds in silver, gold, iron, coal and other mincrals, But, withouta singie foot of natu- rally arable land, its agricultural product in the year 1800 exceeded 1n value the output of all its mines, Could there be u more elo- quent tribute to irrigation? In closing this sketch of the progress Colorado I lcaye untouched a mass of mater- ial on the subject for lack of space. But enough has been said to prove the truth of an old proverb, which, revised for the occasion, would read: *“What Colorado has doue, Ne- braska can do,” Next week’s article will deal with the firi- gation laws of Neoraska and the urgent de- mands for their rovision and enlargement, a subject rendered timely by thé approaching convention at McCook, WiLLiam E, Syyrne, ey CONNUBIALITIES, “Is Bronson a singlo man ! “Not quite. He's about half a man." The average wife hates to ask her husband for money and in most cases he bates to have or. “So your wife has left you?? ©Sho has.’” “What were her 1ist words on leaving youi “Is my hat on straight!” laBachelor—Does your wife always have the ost word ¢ : o Hevedict (sadiy)—Never: I ivariably get Grand Rapids leads the world i its por- centage of divorces to marringes, This year tho ratio was one to five aud last year oo to six, Somehow papa tells his fairy tales to mamma instead of to the little ones. And mamma is generally not enough of a little one to swallow them all. He—Are you intimately acquainted with Mr. Wilson? She (from Chicago)—Only slightly. T was married to him onc Memn frau is gone, divorced away— 1tells you dot 13 funuy. 1 haven't got zwei doiiar left, And she got alimony, A New York husband was so insan jealous that he would take his wife's shoes with him when ho went to work so that she could not go out in s absence. He—What remedy would you suggest for the deplorable condition of the marriage laws ¢ She—Appropriate penaitics, Firstoffence. short sentence; second, for life ! Hicks—Maria, I don’t believe you would wake u‘h if Gabriel were to blow his horn! Mrs. Hicks —You would; the faintest sug- gestion of & horn would rout you out early, Judge— You are charged with bigamy, Mr. Smith, Have you &iything to say tothe charge! Prisoner—No, sir. I'm not fool enough to talk against two women, Mrs, Grumps—If that stranger you were talking to said nothing about his wife, how do vou know he is married Mr. Grumps—Oh, belooked sosort o sym- pathetic when T told him I was. Bingo—Dear me, Tm tired me up at 6 o'clock this mornix : Kingley—What did she get you up so early or! My wife got he wanted to catch the noon train. For seven years a Hoosler named Pete Dayton had obliged his wife to support the fumily by washing and be had left un_aver- age of § per week in the salaons, The White Caps took him out and thrashed him and in loss than eight months he had carncd §200 and kept sober every day. It is the women who do the proposing in Dabomey. When a girl reaches the age of eighteen she is eligivle for matrimony and she at once sets out to find some one willing to marry her. Frequently she takes a hus- band on trial for a month or two before choos- ing him for better or wovrse, James Paris, a Tennessean, was going out to hunt, and ls good wifo loaded bl gun for allday, When be drew a boad on a squirrel there was @ crash and a_bang, aud, while the squirrel escaped, Mr. Parls returned home with a broken jaw, five teeth gone and two fingers ready for amputation, A DAY IN DARKEST OMAHA. Expericnce of The Bee Reporter in the Homes of the Needy, THE STRUGGLE FOR MERE EXISTENCE, Tales of Suffering Which Should Touch the Hearts and Purses of the Happy and Frospero Whateverof just cause the ice dealers may have had for complaint regarding it, the mild weather that has characterized tho winter thus far has certainly been a God-send to the unfortunate poor, In a city the size of Omaha there are many such, and the amount of suffering that has been averted by the merciful tempering of the wintry blasts is not to be caculated. There are, within the limits of this happy, prosperous, well-lighted and wellfea city, scores of cheerloess and forbidding places where ‘poverty and hunger are constant though unwelcome guests, The needy ones who, from necessity and not from choice, are wont to call these places ‘home” find in them no realization of the comforts and enjoyments that, to the majority of the human family, are so closcly associated with that sacred word. After visiting them, one doubts the sentiment of John Howard Payne, that has found a responsive chard in so many hearts, aud is will nigh convinced that when home becomes so humble as this there ave other places far more desirable, True, no cases of h trending destitution have been discovered this winter, and it is possible that the cases that have heeu re- ported do not meet with so ready and gener- ous relief because of the absence of this feature, When the details are particularly agonizing, there is u tendency on the pirt of everyone to give ~ spontane- ously to relieve such abject want, and the object of the cha is amply pro- vided with necessities and even luxurie: which will last until the @ has entirely slipped from the mind of the greater number of the givers. The scores of cases that demand attention and assistanco this winter present their needs in a general call for charity and the response is neither as prompt nor asgenerous as would be the if harrowing details were pres ented to awaken the sympathies of those wh are naturally charitably inclined. There are undoubtedly many cases where all needed assistance is given by kind-hearted neighbors, and all knowledge of them is withheld from the public, but where the case demands constant support the strain is oo heavy for a few to bear, and it is then that an appeal is madeto the gencral public for systematic giving. f Omaha s Comparatively fewof the citize: are accustomed to bestowing their cha systematically. The nearest approach to a board of relicfoutside of theoffice of the county poormaster is that in connection with St. Timothy’s mission and superintended by Missionary Reedy A Big reporter accompanied Mr. Reedy on one of his trips to note the condition and sur- roundings of some of the familics who are de- endent for support on their more fortunate Feltows. It was found that the majority of them ex- isted in one room hovels, some of them fairly wind gnd wenther proof, and others offering but litule resistance to the encroachments of the elements. The first place visited was thelittlo hut of Twentioth and Castellar, (b0, 1. & whose case was recently publ shzflm'flm Ber, when her husband was sent to the hospital for the insane at Lincoln, Previous to that time the destitution of the family was not known, but when Tire Ber called public attention to it a number of charitably disposed ladies and gentleman in- terested ‘themselves in the case, and it was ( ater taken in eharge by Mr. Reedy. The mother of the family of five children is al- most helpless, suffering from an organic trouble, to remedy which a surgical opera- tion 15 required. The operation is provided for, together with the necessary medicines, and it is stated that §20 will furnish such ap- phances and bandages s may be needed. Two of the b and one girlare now large enough to be of some service, and the family would be self-supporting with the mothe health restored. mrs. Reed is a very ener- getic and intelligent woman, and appreciates keenly her dependent position, The next case investigated was out among the hills south of Hanscom park, where a family by the name of Taylor reside in a rough board cabin. Sickness was tha cause of their destitution, and the medical help that has been donated has put them on their feot again, and it is not probable that they will need further help. A family named Miller was next visited, They livein a 10x12 box near the corner of Twenty-seventh and Mason, The ground is leased for §2 a month, and the occupant owns a few hundred feetof lumber that entered into the constraction of his humble abode. Justnow, in addition to other caves, he is worried because of a notice to quit the prem- ises. Allof the surrounding property has been raised to grade, and the wretched' little crib is down iu a nole ten feet deep, so that the roof scarcely rises above the level of the adjacent strect, This, of course, s another one room affair, and the furniture consists of two beds, two chairs, a threelegyged chair backed up in one corner, a badly cracked cook stove aud two children. A few dishes momentarily threaten to fall from anarvow shelf over ihe and two or three show bills and _ady. calendars serve as bric-a-brac and cov cracks in the walls at tho same time, The head of the family who was formerly a canvasser in the ploy of the Metropolitan company is very low with consumption, and looks as though the end might come at an, time, His cough seems to shake the hous: from foundution to ri Mrs. Miller is energetic: ng to support the family by washing, but the cost of wedicines makes it almost hopeless work, One o was buried about two v people defrayed the fu sistanceis being rendered the family, but the outlook for the brave little woman who is struggling along ugainst such overwhelming odds is anything but encouraging. The next stop was at the habitation of Jens Larsen, a day laboror, who resides with constantly increasing family on Fougteonth street just moth of Nicholas, Lans is “away up” compared with some of the fami- lies visited, in that he has two rooms in which to divide kis poverty His rent has been paid by the Danish so- ciety, and free medical assistance has bronght him through a severe caso of blood poisoning. With a litile more help Larsen will be able to again provide for his famil Muys. Sisse is a widow with three children who reside in a primitive little hut on Locust street, east of the railroad tracks, One boy, agedthireen years, is a cripple, with a false joint in one leg below the kuee, and the mother is afflicted with a running sore on one hip, that renders her helpless much of the tine, She makes an altempt to eke out an existence for herself and chiliren over the washboard. The family is sadly in need of continued assistance, and a physician who examined the ‘case says thut a brace ought to be secured at once for the crippled boy. Assistance was asked by a family namod Ruby living near the corner of Ninth and eld avenue. I'he father is seventy-six rs of age, and is suffering with asthma, There are five children, all girls, the young- est only two years of age, Missionary Reedy intimated that a man with the apparent vigor of the head of the famnily ought to contribute more to their support. A little clothing and a few provisions together with places for the older girls to work will probably be all they Will requi The most pitiable case that was founa was that of Mrs, Relph, ut the corner of Thirty. third and Maple streets, Her husband was addieted to dvink and finally ran away and deserted her, leaving her with four simall ebildren and no means expenses, years of age, and the youngest is about six months old. ' The motlier is nursing the two younger children, being forcea to thus nour- Ish the older of the two because of her i ity to provide for itin any other wav, The house is A dulapidated brick, with one win- dow entirely gone, and several paes of lass missing from the others, One of the doors is badly demoralized and is little less than a lic. The uelehbors have been coutribu ting for the relief of the family. The case was brought to the ate who was not aw of the state of affairs, and who finally offered to let mily hiave the houso free of rent for the ance of tho winter, A fuel merchant, ose altention was called to the case, r,-.umn\-wm halfa ton of coal. Food must »esupplied atonce, Mrs., Ralph is sadly in need of clothing, both for herself and her lit- tle onos, Medicine will be supolied through co dispensary connected with St mission, ages contributed for tho use of the left at M. O. Maul's, or will be called forin any part of the city if Mr. Reedy is notified at telephone 2 ODDS AND ENDS, The cotton crop of Alabama is valued at £30,000,000. “There ition of the landlord, ro 15,000 brass bands in this coun- try, with 150,000 performers, The rails in the United states would go around the earth twelve times, A large oak tree known to be 140 years old has been felled at Flint, Mich, The decpest hole ever bored into the carth is the artesien well at Potsdam,which s § feet deep. Lake Maitland, Orange coun cornet band composed of thir dies and wo gentlemen, Sixty thousand people are out of work in the city of Berlin. Ninety thousand are out of worlk in the cast end of London alone, The deepest ocean in the world is the Fa- cific, Near the Ladrone islands a depth of 4,475 fathoms, or over five miles, was found. The number of telephones now under rental by the Hell telephone company is 4 an inerease of ast year, Mary Eddy, colored, of Cincinnati has sued a bookbinder to recover her family bible, which she claims she placed with Lim to be rebound. But one letter is duplicated in _the follow ing sentence, which contains all the letters of the alphabet: “Quiz Jack; thy frowns vex G. D. Plumb," A Ch n, who for ive years had slept a_revolver under his pillow as a protection against burglars, found it was not loaded in all that time. South Carolina seems to have a fondness ess for the old soldiers of the rebellion. Dver one hundred confederate soldicrs are in the legi of that state. A jeweller says that itis a rave thing for himto sell a gold watch chain. Everybody buys the plated article nowadays, even those people who are well aple to afford the solid. Cwesar Hornbeck, colored, who died at Montgomery, N. Y., last week, was known 0 be over one hundred yearsold. He claimed to be about one hundred aund five years of age. Animals are kept on the roofs of the houses in Lima, Peru, andit frequently happeus that a cow passes her whole life on a roof, being taken there as a calf and brought down finally as fresh beef, Oliver Wendell Holmes has just invented two more admirable words—pseudopathy” and ‘‘pseudotherapy,”’ one signifying the quack science of disease and the other the quack method of healin A sweet potato weighing twenty-seven ounds, raised at Waxuhachie, Tex, und u obster weighing twenty pounds, raised out of deep water off Atlanticville, L. I, it tho latest champion heavyieight edibles. Different classes of substances have been I3 s of taste it '.halo;: stances, sweets and alkalies. The taste nerves are nearly 2,000 times as seusitive to quinne as to sngar, The strengtn of spider silk is incredible. Size for size it is considerably stronger than a bar of steel, An ordivary spider’s thread 1s capable of bearing a weightof three grains, while asteel thread of the same thickness would support less than two, M. L, Levi, near Newtonville, Ind,, had an apple tree which bore three crops in one season. Thisled to newspaper comment, a paragraph fell under the eye of Mrs, L.ou Clifford of McCordsville, his sister, whom he had not seen nor heard of for thirty years, and they were reunited, The orange was originally imported to this country years ago by thémission fathel who brought the sceds from Spain, They were planted about the old missions, tho fruit being used for domestic purposes, and the crop bemg simply suitable or large enough for these nurpose: It is said that college journalism originated at Dartmouth in 1500, Daniel Webster being editor of the paper, There are now 180 col- lege papers in the United Statos and only one in England. The four dailies are the Cornell Daily Sun, Daily Crimson, Yale News and the University of Michigan Daily, A negress named Caroline Jenkins, living near Houston, Tex,, is a veritable Samson. Four police oficers went to arrest her, when she took them one by one, threw them out of the house and locked the doors upon them. She can break a half-inch rope with ease by stretehing it from hand to hand. Itis not always the coal oil or gasoline stove that burns to death, Mrs. George Redpath opened a stove door ut Marengo, I, with an apron, which caught fire and burned her 30 badly that she died in a few hows. In attempting to put the fire out ner busband burned the ends of his fingers off, Fla., con young la- 88,885 over the same tim Mr. trd Mi.W. Strong of Ottawa, Kan., had arrangod to celebrate the ffty-first auniversary of theie marriage recoutly, and relatives were present from vavious parts of the state to participate In the festivities, In the morning Mr, Strong died and in the afternoon Mrs. Strong pissed away The greatest meat eaters in the world are the peopla of America, whose average con sumption is 175 pounds per annum, The English come noxt with an average of a littie over 110 pounds. The French eat only half as much me e English aud the people of Germany, Austria and Italy still les In the mayor fow ourtat Anthony, Fla., a days ago alad for violation of un ordi- e was flied 52 The court eranted the s mother tho p of paying the fin or whipping th open court. She ac- vor had to check L whipping, Spectacles were snted just 600 years ago. The use of glass to aid the sizht of d fective eyes is, however, much oldér. Nero looked through o concave glass in watch- ing the gladiatoriul games, and many other historical men of his day were de- pendent on similar devices for lengthening their sight. Following is a scientific description of what happens when you light a fire: ‘The phosphorous on o match 18 raised by friction 10 o temporature of farenheit, at which It ignites. It raises the temperatio of tno sulphur, if ithe a sulphur mateh, 500, when tho sulpbur begins to buen, The stlphur raiser the heat to 8002, when thewood taxes up the work and prodices n temperature of 1,000=, at whieh the coal ignites, Sud i ke Fairfield, who s the auth 1 Waltz," “Sunset B dmalia_Exposition Wi now musical compos v Boyd's Inaugural Mareh, shortly to bo d by Oliver Ditson c pany. Critics who haye heard the march d clare it is the t work and written lad in cepted the latter and the n her to prevent an unmerci in has just finished o entitled +G . ' the new pl on of the " at Niblo's, which_is to antomine of “Bubes ow York, lato in iptive of the days in the W Februar 'y, i not at all de of the flood, but deals with life in the big city. Noah, in this caso, belng a pawn- broker, and the “Ark" the itle by which his loan bureau is known, s The 100th performance of “Phe Last Word? was reached at Daly's last night, and t comedy will bhave achieved one of best of all the su ss At this house. ensuing Tuesday Sehool for the ‘Tho Scandul” 1 of support. 'The oldest child is under uvul will be revived ina form varied by Mr. Daly, PAG [S 9 TO 16 — | 214 VERDI'S LAST GREAT OPERA, NUMBER A Humorous Exposition of Sir John Fale stafl’s Doings, ARRIGO BOITO, THE BOOK MAKER, The Crowning Composition of the Great Macstro — Ready for the Op'ning of La Scala During the Scason of 1801 and '02, At intervals, for many ye ian composer, Vordi, nas friends u desire to write o comic opera—or, s ho phrases it, & musical comedy as apart from opera bouffe. But thedifficulty in finding a good libretto deferred the attewpt so long that tho possibility of success passed from the minds of those around him—and after vainly ropeated searches through the plays of Goldon1, Moliere and other noted playe wrights, the maestro himsolf apparently abandoned the idea, and produced “Othello’ as the finale of his life work, But evidently fate, or providence, or whate ever people in general put their faith in, de« creed otherwise, for in the summer of 1850 Verdi spoke of his cheated hopes to Arrigo Boito, his collaborator—-and the clever coms voser of “Mefistofelo’—who, pondering, re- tired to Nervi Ligure, near Genon, and after forty-cight hours’ close meditation and worlk (s0 it is said), put into Verdi's hands a brie iant sketch of the libretto of “Falstaff,” and urged the immediate elaboration of the theme, Verdi1s a jealous guardian of bis privacy, and grasping the manuseript with eager hands enjoined upon Boito the greatest secrecy, forbidding even the mene tion of the task to Ricordi, his publisher, who incurred his dispie: re before the pro- duction of “Othello’ ain hints to the press without recciving permission to do so. Such was the composer's caution upon oceasion that, to avoid excitig suspicio sent to Venico for his score paper. of this, it is a fact that Verdi makes use more paper {han any other musical author, not infrequently writing a few bars upon a hundred shcets, only to toss them aside cons secutively with nervous disgust, us unlucky and vain attempts, Verdi avish in @enuine praise of Boito's libretto—considering it a chef d’oovre and of so0 thoroughly comical a nature “as to afford the greats amusement to himself and the author whilo working upon it. Boito has made as much as possible of the character of Falstaff—uot confining the ap; pearance of the *“‘Comical Gallant? that “Most pleasaunt and excellent cong ceited Comedie of Syr Iohn Falstaff and the Merrie Wives of © Windsor,” but touchs ing as well upon the role he bears in__tho first and sccond parts of King Heunry 1V, Verdi declares the opera to be more than half completed, and his friends add that that signifies its immediate consummation. Al though a lyric comedy in the broadest signie fication of tho word, and with no grand mass ing of chorus, vetit is adapted to the Scala, where it will be a supreme attraction duriuz ts past, the Ttal svealed to his neas this the senson of 1801 “Ralstaff” is divided into three acts an five scenes, and, s would seemn appropriate, the title rolo is o be sustained by o baritone, and a baritone, morcover, posscssed of a rocione, as the Italians sy, proportionato in strength to the “waist two yards about,” of wlilch the m;(lfiu kuight wus nsed to b;nu ol n o e haored s . paseiblo ok, bir Vari is not to be influenced by avy ono in the se- lection of his artists, There aro many ims portant personages in the opera and but few chorus singers—fifteen men and thirty women, but of superior excellehce, Asido from this, childron will pose before the foote lights in tho ballet. 1t was ata dinuer party at the Hotel M- lano that Verdl and_Hoito first made their work known. Verdi's guosts wero tio publishers, Ricordi and his beautiful wife Ginditta their daughter and son-in-law. Whentho diampagne appoared, Bollo rose glass in hand, gave a toast to the success o the ““Pancione’ (bie fat fellow). Each guest gazed inquiringly at the other without come prehending, Then ho gave u toast to *Fale staff,” and Siguora Ricordi was the fivst to divine that Pancione meant Falstaff, aud that “Falstafl” was tho title of @ new ‘opera by Verdi. Verdi then gave a bricf sketch of the plot, showing that Boito had clung as closely to nakespearean text as ke had in his come position of *Othello.” Ricordi then brought to mund the fuct that twenty-five years ago Verdi announced to him the intention of re- tiring upon his laurels —and, indeed, for several years tho fertile and vivid imaginge tion scemed at rest. But, fortunately for all music-loving people, the genius that gave to the world “Trovatore” and “Traviata? had not finished its course, und furthor efforts ro- sulted in the production of “Aida,” “Don Carlos,” “Manzoni's Kequieum,” “Simon Boceaegra) and *Othello”—-tho latter of which was ot bewun until Verdi had reached lis seyentioth year. "The grand old man of Ttaly, as a conteme porary calls him, is hale and 'ty and in wonderfully good spirits —hoping cven to witness o gala performance of - “Ialstaff o his eighticth birthday, which will occur in 1 1t is strange —almostincongruous—to think of a comic opera fromthe composer of *Aida" and *Othello,”” but no more extraordinary than it scemed to the admirvers of Wagner that he should contemplate a comic opera after the production of *Pristan and Isoldo? in 1505, However the success of the “Meise tersinger’’ a year later more than justified the attempt. ~ The latter masterpiece is us havmonious as itis comical, defending really upon astudy of character. Not at all the Scomic work” that Freneh composers take in hand. And Verdi's “Falstaft™ is of a similar nature, “Theso freaks of genius bring to mind some- thing I once heard Modjos she held that artists in fancied thoms selves especially gifted in an oprovite lino of work to that in which they had gained their atest successos, adding that she ways imagined herself particulu soubrette parts, and Booth had ney his great but dormant ability to e low comedian. In appearance Verdi stronzly resembles the photographs of Longfellow—with shining, wavy hair, dreamy eyes and a sensitive mouth and chin, Almost shabbily dressed and tunid and _retiring in man- uer, he positively suffers when attention is drawn to him i‘public places—where, as o natural consequence he is ravely to bo found and the sight of bis evident distress when dragged repeatedly upon tho stage of La Scala, after the triumphant performance of “Othello” in 1887, would certamly have aps pealed greatly to a loss clamorous and excited owd, He spends most of his tim place, and works for hours « vegetable garden, which & had al- y suited to rdoubted act the at his counury ch day over his gnora Verdi fne sists takes only second place in his affections, asants around are de «d to him, and umble if the “macstro's” tomatoes than theirs, shtly resembles Wags atical writings, and two-fold facuities (for ttist and mu.«.ivhm‘) ab the generation of new forin and original matter, His successful and beautiful opers “Mefistofel® is o bo followed by auother entitled “Nerone," which was to have Leen a novelty of the Milan opera scason this year. But he cheer- tully laid it aside, unwiiling to permit escape of the opportunity of writing @ libretto for or turips bring better price Boito in two way ner—first, in his probler secoud, in niming he is both clever 1i Verdi, . It is known that Boito, though so young and zealous ‘has ' quito fost | Tuith in the illusion of fame, andis more | happy to work quictly with his venerated or, baton in “hand, lead his well tra in an artistie interpretation | of Verdi’s creations, than seek new honors for himsell in the sane tield. Mixiau C. Foxn,