Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 17, 1894, Page 11

THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: M DAY, DECEMBER 17, 1894, WHAT 1S KNOWN OF PONPEN Review of the Results of Excavations in the Buried (ity, HALF OF THE WHOLE CITY DUG OUT " for Eighteen Centuries the Greatest Living Describes the tory Treserved ~Prof. Mann, Anuthority, Discoveries. The city of Pompell already existed in the sixth century, B. C., as is proved by the remains of its oldest public building, the Doric temple. But the date of the first foundation of the city is quite unknown, says Prof. Mann in the London Dally News. It was inhabited by the Oscans. a race whose language is fmperfectly known through some Inscriptions. The name of Pompeii is derived from a word belonging to this ancient lan- guage, the word “pompe,” or “fiv The oity was wrested from Its original inhabitants by the Samnites, when they advanced from the mountains to the coast in about the year 420 B, C. The Oscans and Samnites together, under the influence of the nelghboring Greek colonfes, developed a civilization probably far outstripping that of the contemporary Ro- mans. In the years 342 B, C. and 200 B. C the Samnite wars led to the subjection of Pompell by Rome. The city was drawn into the Roman confederacy, during which it pre- served Its Independenco as to home affairs. It was only in the year 80 B. C., when the Bamnites were conquered by Rome, that Pom- pell became entirely Romanized, beir occupied by a colony of veterans und Bulla, .a nephew of the then dictator. clty was presently named Cornelia Veneria Pompelanorum, after the family name of the Dictator Sulla, and the goddess of whom he was a special devotee, and who then became, as the Venue Pompelana, the tutelary divinity of the city., At the same time a suburb was Yfounded, probably by the eltizens who ha been driven out In favor of the Roman vet- erans, which was named Pagus Felix, after the by-name of the dictator, and later, in honor of Augustus, Pagus Augustus Felix. The descriptions which have‘been found at Pompeli show that man: e offices existed in pre-Roman times. There was a Komben- nion, national assembly or senate, it is not known which; a medix or medix’ tutix, the ohlef of the city; a koalsstur or quaestor, who was probably intrusted with the city treas- ury; and two aldili, aediles, employed in the making of roads. Under the Romans, after 80 B. C. there were the usual decuriones, aediles and other public officer > many priests, pricstesses, ministers and magis- trates. Pompeii was built on the point of an ancient stream of lava, running toward the sea, close to the then full-flowing River Siirnus. The city was the natural southeast- ern port of the plain through which the river flowed. The sea was the not more than 1,600 feet distant from the city, the river serving as a harbor. On the banks of the river stood a small suburb of the city. From the busy port were exported not only the produce of the country in the interior, but also the products of the plain itself, namely, wine and vegetables. The lava was cut into millstones, which formed a large article of export in the second century B, C., but later on this scurce of profit ceased to be culti- vated, and millstones were even imported into Pompeil from abroad. The harbor town grew more and more wealthy, from the fact that the Roman aristocracy, attracted by its beautiful situation and fine climate, began to settle in the environs. The inhabitants of Pompeii at that time numbered probably 30,000. It will be remembered that the volcanic mountain on the slopes of which Pompeli stood reawoke, after ages of inactivity, in the year 63 A. D., when many buildings were damaged or destroyed. Traces of the earthquake that happened then are still to be seen in the excavated city. Then, in 79 A. D., came the awful eruption which, while the people were still repairing the damage done in 63, buried the city to a depth of more than six feet, in small pumice stones, and, some time later, with a rain of ashes to a slmilar depth. Those pumice stones and ashes were not red hot, as is generally be- lieved, as the wood has been found seemingly carbonized. has only been thus changed by chemical processes. Traces of real burning on the mural paintings are very easily dis- tingulshed from the red tint which, in some unexplained way, overspreads a great portion of the wall paintings when these have come in contact with the ashes. The manner in which Herculaneum was buried was very different, for there the pumice and ashes do not lle in regular strata, as in Pompell, but are mixed together in a sort of muddy paste, which, hardened into stone during the course of time, makes excavation difficult. After the catastrophe the upper stories in the houses in Pompeli protruded above the ashes, showing where the city lay. Digging on a large scale then took place, and build- ing material and valuable objects were carried away. Al the marble, except a very few fragments, was removed in anclent times. Later on the remaining upper stories of the houses were destroyed by time, as very little of them has been found. In 73 A. D. most of the Inhabitants escaped. It has been calcu- lated that only 2,000 of the 30,000 were killed on the spot, but how far the fugitives were able to run is not known; the fact fs that many of them were overtaken and buried by the falling ashes at a place on the banks of the Sarno, not far from the city, for in 1880 and 1881 many skeletons, together with many valuable cbjects now kept in the Na- ples museum, were found there, UNCOVERING THE CITY, ‘Though the existence of Pompell under the flolds that then covered it was discovered as early as 1694, the city has only been reg- ularly excavated since 1748, and till then year 1825 only the public buildings round the Forum, the theater and the street of the tombs had been laid open to the view. The present reasonable and sclentific mode of excavation was begun by Prof. Florelli in 1861, and continued by Prof. Ruggierl, who has only just resigned his office in conse- quence of his advanced age. At present nearly the halt of the whole city Is ex- cavated and the cirele of its walls deter- mined. It is probable that the still unex- cavated part will not contain many public bulldings, perhaps a few temples and baths, but If the present slow rate of excavation be continued it will take another fifty or sixty years to lay the whole city bare. The shape of Pompell is nearly oval; the city walls fol- low tho slopes of the lava hill on which it 15 bullt, only crossing that hill at the part whera it rests against Mount Vesuvius, Pompell was laid out on a fixed plan. The two principal streets, Stradi di Mercurio and Btradl di Nola, crossed It from north to south @od from west to east. The side streets run crosswize to these two, and only slightly de- Viate from the straight line at certain polnts, The city wall s preserved in its norhern part and a great portion of its southern course, but on the west and at the west corner of its southern course it was already puiled down In anclent times, and its place necupied by bhouses. The wall has clgut gates, to which distinguishing names have been glyen, The public bulldings that are being fouad are situated In two great groups—one around the Forum, and the other near the Stabian gate. But the public baths are distributed irregularly all over the city. The most jm- portant houses have been named vccording Lo very different reasons, some After distin- guished persons who have witnessed their excavation, for example, “House of the Gran 1 Duke of Tuscany;" others after subjects of art found (herein, as tho “House of the Faun," and others ugain after their supposed roprietors, as the ““House of Sallust.” jt well to take notice of these names, as it s undes them that the gwides point out tho bulldings. A more reasonable methol of uaming is that from the bronze seals dis- vovered in the houses, engraved with the fawes of the owners, or from inscriptions. WHAT THE BUILDINGS PROVE. The oldest bullding in Pompell is the de- stroyed Dorle temple, which belongs to the sixtk century, B. C. The city wall is also extremely anclent, but even an approximate dato cannot be determined. The rest of the buildings Lelong to two distinct groups, #ccording as they were bullt, before or after the founding of the Roman colony in 80 B, C. The pre-Roman edifices are artistically the best. They were bullt under the direct Influence of Greek culture, and show the Ez:l. beautiful forms of the Dorle, Ionie and inthian styles. Bspecially remarkable E the spirited style of the Corinthian cap. bullt of no costly wmaterial. The col- | tional, umns and the beams are generally of gray tufa stone, conted with white or colored stucco; marble {s rarely found. The tech- nical work Is also imperfect But the Roman buildings, though of an inferior and often coarse style, are made of superior ma- terial, such as marble or the fine lime- stone called travertine; and the workman- ship fs better. The basilica, the temple of Apollo, and probably the temple of Jupiter, the oldest portlons of the forum, the so- called “school,” the Stablan baths, the large | theater, the colonnades of the triangular forum, the barracks of the gladiators, the palestra, the outer portion of the porta ma- rina and the inner portion of the other gates all belong to the public edifices of the pre [ Roman period. To the early time of the Roman colony belong the baths near the forum, the small theater, the amphitheater, the temple of the Capitoline divinities and the inner portion of the porta marina. All the other public bulldings were built In the later Roman style ANCIENT PAINTINGS, The mural paintings belong to four sue- cessive styles. The first style, that of the pre-Roman period, consists in imitations of marble decoration In plastic stucco-work. | There are no figures or pictures in this style. The second style, belonging to the | time of the Roman republic, consists in | painted imitation of marble, and also in realistic, not fantastic, pictures with archi- tectural subjects, showing edifices such as might have actually existed. The third | style, that of the Roman imperial period, till_about 50 A. D)., is ornamental decoration in the Egyptian taste, distinguished by pure and beautiful forms in tender and graduated coloring. The fourth style, belonging to the time immediately previous the destruc- tion of the cit shows a peculiar love for fan! o, elender, playful architectural subjects, and is the kind generally under- stood when we speak of Pompelian whil | paintings. The coloring is less delicate, the ( ornaments not so pure in form, but all are stronger an1 more effective, Especially admirable is the rich fancy displayed in the architectural decoration. Almost all the figure subjects in the paintings of Pompeli belong to the third and fourth styles. Pompeli was well and entirely paved in its earliest days and well provided with drinking wate n in- scriptions engi or painted in red color generally relate to elections; a few are an- pouncements of games; what can be de- ciphered of the affite’” or scratcher in- scriptions show that they are individual effusions, the expression of good wishes, the mention of games, verses, etc. A num her of wooden tablets coated with wax and inscribed, which were found in the house of the banker, L. Caecilius Jucum lus, have now been deciphered in the Naples museum, and are mostly receipt The few fragments of the ancient Dorl temple on the triangular forum show that it greatly resembled the famous templ of Paestum and Selinus. The temple w already destroyed in the early days of Pompeli, and a shabby sanctuary erected i its place. oot A P Should Work 'oth Ways. Chicago Tribune: His Wife—George, becoming a confirmed smok Suburbanite—My dear, I am_compelled to ride in the smoking car so much that I often have to light a cigar in self-defense, Same Suburbanite (a few hours later)— Amanda, you smell frightfully of raw onions. His Wife—My dear, Bridget frequently cats raw onfons, and I've been eating one in self- defense, you ar. KELIGIOU “Sam’ Jones has become one of the editors the Tennessea Methodist. The Christian Endeavor societies of Aus- tralia number 1,020, with a membership of 30,503. The income of the British and Foreign Bible society for 1893 was larger than the year preceding by $566,000, and reached the goodly sum of $1,161,000. Bishop Thomas March Clark (Episcopal) ot Rhode Island will celebrate the fortieth anni- versary of his episcopate December 4. He is now more than 82 years old. The number of Protestant missionaries (men and women) laboring in South America is 330, representing seventeen missionary so- cieties, and reporting about 20,000 communi- cants. Y In New Mexico the woman's executive committee of Home Missions has more schools than all the government and other denomina- including Roman Catholic, schools combined. Misses Judson and Lamson, of wealthy Cleveland, O., families, the former the daugh- ter of a judge, have joined the Salvation army, and are living in the army barracks in that city. All formalities.attending the retirement of Dr. Talmage as pastor of the Brooklyn Taber- nacle have been observed, and the severance of his relation, which has existed for years, is now complete. 3 Bishop Hott and his party of missionaries sailed from New York Thursday for Liver- pool on their way to Frectown on the west coast of Africa, the headquarters of the United Brethren mission. The Congregational Home Missionary so- clety reports that for the past seven months the income has been $61,349 in advance of that of last year, and that $21,000 of this has been in contributions. The permanent fund of the Board of Re- lief of the Presbyterian church has been growing from year to year until it reached at the end of the last fiscal year the hand- some sum of $1,386,776.74. Woman's work in India has made great progress. There are now 711 women mis- slonaries—foreign and Eurasian—in India. These have access to 40,513 zevanas, and have 62,414 girl pupils in the mission schools. Chinese Christians are conducting an agita- tion against the cruel custom of foot binding. At a gathering in the Central Methodist Epis- copal church, Shanghai, numbering 600 per- sons, a committee was appointed for an active crusade, . The Presbyterian Board cf Home Missions reports total recelpts for seven months, $316,670, a gain of $89,291. Of this $60,504 s in legacies, $33,689 in the women's donations. The regular church donations have fallen off about $7,000. The venerable Dr. Bartol, still living in retirement at his old home in Boston, is almost the only survivor of the famous writers and thinkers of old days and the last one of the Transcendental club, which in- cluded Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, and others. Rev. Mr. Watson of Kingston, N. Y., who has carried ritualism in his chureh to the ex- tent of swinging the censer, is in a fair way of losing all his parishioners, But he is obsti- nate and says: ‘““Though they sway the sun on my rght hand and the moon on my left, they shall not prevail.’ The American Board of Commissioners for foreign missions has received $17,600 through the State department at Washington from Spain as indemnity for the loss of property and other injury inflieted upon its work at Pouape, one of the Caroline islands, by the Spanish authorities a few years ago, Bishop W. B. W. Howe of the Protestant Episcopal dlocese of South Carolina dfed at his home in Charleston Sunday afternoon Bishop Howe was disabled by paralysis about two years ago, aod at the diocesan conven- tion in the spring of 1893 Rev. REllison Capers was elected assistant bishop and has since been the acting bishop. By bishop Howo's death Rey. Mr. Capers becomes the bishop of the dlocese. A story is told of a country clergyman whose finances do not apparently extend to banking operations and experience. Golug | to a bank with a check, the clerk handed it back with a request that he would in- dorse it, and It should then be cashed. After much deliberation the reverend gentleman came to the conclusion that he could, with- out violation of his conselence, accede to the request. 80 he took the treasured plece of paper and wrote across the back of it: “I heartily indorse this check." A new church has been organized in St. Louis, modeled after the church of the same name in Los Angeles, Cal., which, organized two years ago by a wmall band, has grown to a membership of 10,000. Belief in a Deity, in the divinity of Christ, or in a future state is not required of its members. Its avowed design i “to meet the soclal, in- dustrial, intellectual, moral and spiritual demands of such liberal and progressive minds as do not find these demands sufi- clently met in any of the existing organiza- tions to satisfy “the requirements of the present and approaching era,” ——— Oregon Kidney Tea cures all kidney trou- bles. Trial size, 26 cents. All druggists, of {a sman | stopped woving and fell dow HINDU MAGIC OUTCLASSED Wonder-Moving Feat: that Sober Scientists | Perform, MARVELS OF THE ELECTRIC WAND Dancing Plates and Nuils and Fiying Rings | <A Lamp that Burns Under Water— The Magical Hoop and Tesia's Flery I (Copyrighted, one of our ild, by departing from the of his calling, launch out as a professional magician and make a fortune on the stage. Nikola Ye:la, Edison, Prof. Elihu Thomson and many other earnest workers surpass in their laboratory experiments anything done behind the footlights. No Hindoo jug- gler can do more in the gentle art of mysti- fying than the electrician. His apparatus is simple and his results are amusing enough to a recall A. Edison several motor which ran parent electrical connection. a table and whirled rapidly mystifying the then sclence and savored of perpetual motion The real s lay in the fact that projec from the base of the motor were two sharp metal pins which, when the motor was laid upon a table, penetrated the thin veneer of the table top and made connection with wires underneath An electrician would disdain such a device now. Recent progress has shown that it is ot necessary to have even the connecting wires. Motors now run and depend for their driving power on the electrical excitement of the atmosphere. They may be far removed from the appliance genorating power and yet work away merrily. Nesla will hold a lamp in his hand, stand in the mid dle of a large room, away from all wires or metallic_connections, and the lamp will glow and send forth a radiance not to bs equalled What could be more maglcal than this? TH BGG Could Christopher Columbus have visited the Chicago exposition he would have found his trick of making an egg stand on end very much improved by aid of electricity. In on of the exhibits was a larae cgg on end upon a table. Visitors wondered what made egg stand on end. Then it was discoy ered that the was not standing, but Whirling—whirling with such rapidity that it seemed to stand still. Suddenly the egg n upon its side, Now, wonderful as this seemed, it is a very imple phenomenon, easily producad, and eviry day occurrence In the laborato! ha egg belonged to Nikola Yesia, and is at pres- ent in his laboratory in New Ycrk City. In- side the egg were arranged several coils of wire, and these were acted upon by several other coils near by, but unconnected by any echanical process with the egg itself. THE ALTERNATING CURRENT. When the alternating current of electricity as it is called, began to be understood several years ago, it was noticed that very peculiar phenomena were attendant on its action. When, for instance, a peculiarly wound coil of wire was placed near another coil tha was traversed by an alternating cur- rent, a repulsive action took place and tho coils were driven away from each other. Unider other conditions attractions re- sulted. By manipulating the colls a series of attractions and repulsions were produced and thus it became possible to gt any num- ber of strango effects, one of them being the apparently causeless whirling of the egg. Another is the action of a bunch of keys, which, thrown upon the table in place of the egg, whirls so rapidly that its form is undis- tinguishable. A copper plate or a copper ring Is aftected precisely the same as the coll when placed near an alternating current cofl. It will be driven away or attracted. How easy, then, for the electrician to turn magician and mystify an audience. A simple coil underneath a table will create more mys- tery for the uninitiated than a spiritualistic seance. The intervening wood of the table cuts mo figure in the general calculation. The alternating current Is a great levele It cares for nothing. A coil traversed by the current will create all around it an electrical atmosphere that will penetrate wood, glass, or anything else of the same nature. Prof. Elihu Thomson of Lynn, Mass.,, has per- formed a number of experiments which show the great possibilities for amusing which may be got out of the alternating current. THE FLYING RING. Perhaps the most wonderful trick of all is the one in which the current overcomes the force of gravity. A short, stout column of wood stands on the laboratory table. Near by Is a copper ring a trifle larger than tho column. -~ Concealed in that column of wood 18 a coll traversed by an alternating current, Now, strange as it may seem, it is {m- possible to keep that ring on that column Place it there and it will fly off the moment you take your hand away. Throw It on, it will balance itself in midair around the column until the electriclty overcomes the forco of gravity, and then it will fly away as before. The repulse action has taken place and forced the ring away from the imme- diate neighborhood of the concealed coil. The effect is really magical. The ring can be made to stay near the coil in one way— by taking advantage of the attractive action, You may stand oo the ring edge, as it were, on the projecting core of such a coil, and the attraction at this spot will hold it firmly. A LAMP BURNS UNDER WATER. It is one of the principles of the alter- nating current that when a coll Is traversec by It, it has the power to induce a curent to flow in another cofl, it tho latter fs brought within the electric atmosphere of the first coil. Prof Thomson has taken ad- vantage of this fact to produce a very mystifying and very beautiful experiment. You may walk Into his laboratory some day and behold an incandescent lamp floating around in a jar of water, and connected with a dynamo. You may safely lift this lamp out of the water and examine it. The light will be extinguished immediately, and i you will examine the lamp, a small coil will be found in the base of it. Put the lamp back into the water, and it will immediately relight. Yet there Is no substance in the water to cause the phenomenon. It fs pure water. But there 15 a coll concealed undes the table, traversed by a powerful alter. nating current. By means of it a current {x Inducted n the coll which {s eecured in the base of the lamp, and the latter s thus lighted. Such an affair used upon the pro- fessional stage would cause the greatest wonderment. The far filled with water |5 merely used for effect, for it the lamp fs taken out of the water and laid on the table it will light up just as quickly, Such an ex. hibition as this ought to cause grave fore. bodings to be experienced throughout the match trade. BALLS AND PLATES SPINNING, The queerest aquarium in existence, prob- ably, is owned by Prof, Phomsun. For it he uses the same Jar and water in which the lamp was exhibited. His flsh are differently shaped and constructed from any that the sea, In fact, they consist of some small metal balls and & metal plate. Tossed lightly into the water they imm diately re- volve at a speed sufficient to churn up the liguid to a degree. They strike eac.. other and careen from side to side at a great rate, and the physical action is very Instructive and interesting to watch. As In the case of the lamp, the water is not necessary, The balls may be laid on the plate on the table and they will whirl as fast as did Tesla's egg. It is the old story of the coil concealed beneath the table. A MAGICAL HOOP, In the same laboratory they take a metal plate and sp'n in on & pivet, not by any me- chanieal means, but by surrounding the plate and pivot with what appears to be a large hoop attached to a handle. The hoop, how- ever, is really the core of a large electric coll, wire belog wrapped round and round It. The repulsion and attraction set up in the hoop causes the metal plate to revolve, If the bunch of keys before mentioned were thrown on the table and within this hoop, it would whirl as rapldly as in the first in- stance. N0 would the egg. Prof. Thomson has described how he has lald a common steel file on a table under- neath which a coll was fixed, and caused metal discs to revolve in his hands by merely holding the discs near to the file. But even 184, by m dern McClure.) slectrical Any tists o sclen sound Thomas years ago had without any 1t stood It ap- upon very stage of electrical in ng dignity | ply | ——— | | this fs not as curfous as a feat performed In another laboratory 1t long since. A number of metal plates were laid out on a table as though In preparation for a dinner party. Then some. pédple wero asked to seat themselves at the tible, and no sooner had they done so than the plates suddenly began to jump into the dir. Nothing could have been more stattling and thers was a general and instantaheots stampede. Then It was disclosed thdt each had been 1ald directly above where was placed under the table Following 1s an iflea obtainsd from the above: One of the persons present suggested that church contribution boxes could be made | on this plan with cirious results, Such a box has been made, aud it Is simply impossi- ble to get money to #tay in it Pennles es- pecially have no Iiking for it and fly out in a surprising mance THE DAN. principle ING NAIL, The same which governed the above was applied in another direction during | an exhibition which was given by the Frank- lin institute of Philadelphia some time ago In the middle of the hall stood a plain pine table and on it was a handful of ordinary tenpenny nails. The nafls lay in a heap and it looked as though some workmen had thrown them there. Spectators were busy watching other things and the nails were passed with a glance. However, the eyes of ona old lady and gentleman nearly popped out of their heads when happening to look at the nails the latter all got up on end, heads up, and actually bowed and scraped to the astonished couple. The table was surrounded in an in stant by astonished people, before nails paired off and danced and waltzed fell on their sides, but immediately g bowed an apolog Coils beneath 1id it all. The head of the nalls more bulk than the points, repulsive action and consequantly go! away from the cpil, which in its regulated from another part of the NIKOLA T A'S EXPPERIM Mr. Tesla, in the course of a recent even- ing lecture, requested that the lights be turned off. It was done, and then the audi- ence saw a truly magic sight. There stood tha electrician with a mall lamp in his hand and his hand above his head. Rays of unequaled beauty came from the lamp and spread down over the hody of the man. The lamp was a simple affair and no wires con- nected it with a hidden source of supply. It was as if the lamp of Aladdin had been rubbed and beautiful jewels were gleaming forth. This followed by ancther and even more startling experimer Again the room was darkened, The lecturer became invizible t5 the expectant spectators and then a human hand, plain and distine!, a hand of fire, reached out from the darkness and, all trans- parent, w 1 waving aloft, while shooting out from it were sparks and streams of light Tn exposition of these sceming wonders let me give Mr. Tesla’s own words: EXPLAINS THE WONDERS, “When two conducting bodies are insulated and electrified we say that an electrostati foree is acting bet them. This force manifests itzelf in attractions, repulsions and stre \ the bodies and space or medium without. So great may be the straln exerted in the air that it may break down, and we observe sparks or bundies of light or stream- ers, as they are called. These streamers form abundantly when the force through the air is rapidly varying. I will {llustrate this g tion in a novel expertment in which [ will employ an induction coil, The coil is con- tained in a trough of oil and is placed under the table. The two ends of the secondary wire of the coll pass through two columns of hard rubber which protrude 40 some height abovesthe table. Attached to one wire run- ning through the hard rubber is a large sphere of sheet brass. : “I now set the coil to work and approach the free terminal with a metallic object held in my hand, this simply to avold burns. As I approach the metallic, object to a distance of eight or ten inches a torrent of furious sparks breaks forth from the end of the secondary wire which passes through - the rubber col- umn. The sparks cease when the metal in my hand touches the wire. My arm is now traversed by a powerful electric current, vi- brating at the rate of 1,000,000 times a second. AIl around ms the electrostatic force makes Itself felt, and the air molecules and par- ticles of dust flying about are acted upon and are hammering violently against my body. So great is the agitation of the particles that when the lights are turned out you may see streams of fecble light appear on some parts of my body. I can make these streams of light visible to all by touching with the metallic object one of the terminals as before, and approach- ing my free hand to the brass sphere which fs connected to the other terminal of the coil. As the hand fs approached the air between it and the sphere, or in the immediate neigh- borhood, is more viclently agitated, and you sce streams of light break forth from my finger tips and from the whole hand.” THEODORE WATERS. e Jnggler's Tricks. Cinquevalli, the French juggler, says that it is hard to tell which is his most dificult trick. “As a usual thing,” he goes on, “‘the easiest trick is the most showy and gets the most applause, while some very difficult feat ‘will not get a hand,' as we say. For in- stance, the trick of throwing a potato in th air, dividing it with one storke of the knife and then catching the two halves, one on the fork and one on the knife, is perhaps the most difficult, and took me nearly two years to learn. It is so quickly done, however, and apparently so easy, that an audience cannot appreciato it before it {s over. Let me pur- posely drop the potato and catch it on the knife blade just as it is only an inch from the floor, and they burst into appluase. It is 50 unexpected. “Two others of my most aifcult tricks, ote, balancing a cigar on top of another on my forchead and tossing it from there o that it turns over once and falls point first into a cigar holder in my m the other, twirling & hoop in my right hand with glass of water balanced inside its rim, and passing two bal's through it with my left hand, have been watehed with stolid Indif- ference by an audience that went wild over juggling two plates in the air, one of the simplest tricks.” ———— OUT OF THE ORDINARY. Next to rice, wheat is eaten by the greatest number of human beings; and then comes maize. Conslderable experlmenting is done in Eng- land at the present time on bamboo bicycles, A wheel complete of this material welghs twenty-two pounds. There s a negro in Covington, Ga., who 15 six feet six inches in height. He is now 42 years old, but when 18 years old he was only one inch shorter. Many razors have been 'found in the ruins of Pompell. They are of different shapes, some resembling “kniyes, others being not ‘unlike the razors of the'present day. The barber shops of antlquity were also pro- vided with bottles of perfume and boxes of pomatum, “Treated birch,” says a Philadelphia bullder, “hecomes mahogany of rare beauty, and ‘soaked’ mapla. goes into all ‘ebony’ planos now. o cleyerly, is the ‘fake’ wood ‘weighted’ that nothing short of borings will prove the deception. = Maple mahogany is soaked through to a depth of four inches, and will polish even better than the genuine wood A towering ghost was laid out Saturday night in Benton, which {8 up in the coal re- glons. It was a ten-foot stroller in black, which a colored girl on her way to a store knocked in Lalf by hitting the under lad in the forehead with a stone mug she threw at the apparition. The lad that stood on his shoulders got away’ unkurt, but neither of them will play ghost again. The number thirteen played an ominous part in Alexander III's life. He was the thirteenth emperor since Poter the Great and was thirteen years on the throme, He as- cended on the 13th of March, 1881, and was born on the 26th (twice thirteen) of Febru- ary. He escaped an attempt on his life on the 18th of March, 1887, and his youngest daughter, the Grand Duchess Olga, was born on the 13th of June, 1882, Tho most costly fewel in the world fs owned by the royal house of Germany, be- ing a superh supphire valued at $18,000,000, The emperor of Austria possesses the most valuable opal, which weighs seventeen ounces and is worth $260,000. The “Mattam,” be- longing to the rajah of Borneo and weighing 867 karats, is said to be the largest whie dlamond, and the largest blue-steel diamond, called the “Imperial Kimberley,” from the famous mines in Africa, welghs 180 karats and s held by a London syndicaie, which values it at $1,000,000, Some up and the table containing sustafned more farthest turn was room. NTS. whom the | | teri THE GROWTH OF THE MATCH Lews Than Ninety Years Since the First Was Made, ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS OF GENIUS Matches Produced In Such Vast Quantities that the Individoal Match Costs Next to Nothing—Fatience, Ingenn- ity and Skil, Few people waste a thought about a match Merely a little commonplace, everyday trifle of a thing, made of wood or wax, tipped with latent flame, wherewith they kindle fires and light the soothing pipe or comforting cigar. It does its humble work and is contemptu cast aside. And yet the match, says | the Pittsburg Dispatch, is an evolution rep- | resentative of much human patience, in genuity, and skill, and is one of the best glfts eought out and elaborated by human | genius for the benefaction of the race. When Prometheus stole the sacred fire from Olym pus it wasn't in the form of a lucifer match that he did so, or his punishment from Jove might have b because | en_even more tereible than it | its usefulness to upstart man would have been so much more formidable. | Long ages had to pass and the nineteenth | century after Christ be well on its way before the match, as we see it today, was even thought of. Trifle as it is, few things | have had more thought and ingenuity ex- | pended o their production. In Great Brit ain alone, during the first ninety years of this century, considerably more than 100 patents have been applied for, having re evce wholly or in part to the improvements or novelties in machinery for the manufac- ture of matches, and during the same period at least as many more patents were applied for with reference to the composition of the inflammatory part of the matches, the ma- al composing the stem, etc. As an industry the manufacture of match very imposing proportions. There is s:me- thing impressive about figures to the average mind, and a few statistics will carry weight Just to take one o/ the largest Boglish fac tories for example. Ordinary ~ wooden matches are turned out of that establishment yearly at the rate of 2,500,000 gross boxes Bach box contains from nintey to 100 indi- viduals. 1t any one has the curiosity to figure out what this amounts to he will find it means a great total of 36,000,000,000 of these wooden splinters, each one of which is a tiny magazine of fire and potential agent of mighty mischief. The same factory pro- duces “safety” matches to the amount of | about one-seventh of the ordinary matches i e., about 5,000,000,000 in the year. It also produces out 52,000 gross boxes of vesuvians, while wax vestas are poured out at the rate of 25,000,000 a day, or 10,500,000,- 000 annually. This is all very imposing, and is calculated to inspire increased respect for the match. For the vestas produced by that e factory three tons of wax are used e working day, meaning a total of some tons in the year. Cotton to the amount of 50 tons is also annually required to produce these little effects. Th: same factory's an- nual consumption of vitrcous phosphorus is thirty tons or more, while the number of persons employed is in the neighborhood of 2,000. Now, in the neighborhood of London alone there are about a dozen factories of varying sizes, £o that from facts like these ono can begin to have a faint concsption of what the match making of the world really means. The total annual value of Engllsh match manufacture has been estimated st from £1,500,000 o £2,000,000, and England & not the greatest producer of matches. The man who grumbles because he must rise betimes of a cold, frosty morning and light a fire for the nousehold while it is yet dark should thank his stars that, unlike the ancient Roman similarly situated, he does not meed to spend his strength rubbing to- gether two pieces of hard wood until the spark comes. .He has no such troubls in starting a fire as many a better man than he among his forbears has had with a fiint and steel. For 400 years, from the time it made its appearance during the fourteenth century, the clumsy and ill-smelling tinder box, with its assortment of steel, flint and sulphur-tipped “spunks,” was the mainstay of thy forefathers when they wanted to start a fire. It was the discovery of phosphorus in 1673 by Brand of Hamburg that set human ingenuity at work searching for improvement on the old crder of things. The first efforts, though not gropings in the dark altogeth:r, were far enough from successful. Phosphorus was soon found to be both inconvenient and dangerous. One of the earliest schemes for its utilization was to rub a piece of it between two folds of coarse paper and allow the spark of fire so produced to fall upon a ‘“spunk.” was, A FORCED SALE $230,000 WORTH OF G0ODS ON SALE AT A BIG SACRIFICE. THE GREAT FORCED SALE of Household Furniture announced in Sunday’s papers is now on at The People’s Furniture and Carpet Company's establishment, aud such a veritable foast of bargains has sel- dom been seen in this city. On account of being over stocked every sin- gle pieco of furniture, carpots and stoves and all the crockery has been groatly reduced in price, Do not delay, but, como at onco. Remembor, ‘‘The succulent worm awaketh the early bird.” NOTE THESE LOW PRICES. Chamber Suits. . ... .§19.75 ¥oreh | Art Squaces. . oo} 198 Folding Beds...... 17.80 %suh | Smyroa Rugs...... 1.4 Yoro Chiffoniers. ...... 7.45 Nouh | Mistit Ingeains 6,65 Noran Sidetoards. . ... ... 13.25 ¥oreh | Iron BedS. .o v ouu. 675 ore Extension Tables. ... 495 &y | Hall Racks. ... .... 5.90 A China Closets ... .. 14,00 %67t | Baby Carriages. ... 6.50 Ygrsh Kitchen Chairs..... .24 | Center Tables...... 1,65 Yort PIRUTCSIRAR o] | Parlor Suits....... 2475 Mattresss. cevvvee 3,40 Lounges......... 4.90 PIIWSETEE R e 1 08 [ Ol Heaters....... 3.75 Blankets......... 1.2 | Base Burners. ..... 12.50 Lace Curlains.. ... 1.8 | Oak Heaters ...... POLUCTIS PRI A e 219! Ranges. . . .. Baussels Carpet .... .59 Wire Springs Ingrain Carpet..... .29 | Dinner Sets. ...... Linoleum . W09 N l piano Lamps. ... .. Worth £60.00 Worth £6.00 Worth .00 Worth £3.00 Worth #3 Wo 7.0 Worth $1.25 Worth 0.75 .75 S 6.75 4.90 #14.50 Worth £12.50 Terms--CASH OR EASY PAYMENTS Formerly People’s Mammota Install maas Hous Open Monday and Saturday Evanings, soon was wrestling with the beef. gelting along nicely when suddenly something happened. About the same time that Mr. Milligan or- dered his supper Che Varille, the Frenchman who runs the shooting gallery next to the restaurant, had also got into trouble. A B B shot had become lodged In the barrel of one of his rifles, and he could not poke it out with a ramrod. he put in a 22-caliber cartridge, and, wishing to shoot at his target with a double- shotted gun, he took aim at the floor and fired. as Milligan took a large bite o fhis steak a rifle ball came tearing through the restaurant wall, whizzed past the face of a woman who was eating lunch in a “box,” and, crossing the room, lodged in Milligan’s right arm. The gallery floor and passed into the adjoining building, and had attempted to go through Mr. Milligan, but in this it failed. He was | plo and friends were silently surveyed by the band of witnesses. Then the bride was placed in one chair, and the bridegroom in another at a respectful distance. The papers were produced. The bride told all about herselt and the bridegroom told all about himaelt and the friends and witnesses told all about both of them. The mother of the bride e sured the assembled company that this man was not insiduously defrauding her of her daughter. The company began to breaths more freely. The bridegroom heaved a sigh of relief. The tired bride moved in her chair wearily. But the legal functionary was not going to let them off so casily. He shook his head” over the papers, pursed up his lips and then turned on the whole crowd amd asked them flercely for their passports, O course, no one had such a thing about him, 50 the jaded bridegroom had to rush off in a droschke to secure as many as were neces- sary. Meantime a German couple appeared. Their bapers, of course, The ball had to come out, so not And this was what happened: Just bullet had glanced from the shooting The long and the methods was that phosphorus fell into disuse. It was another chemical discovery about the boginning of the present century that gave an impetus to invention, and finally led to the match as it is today. hemist, and aclds.” called “oxyma of wood, contact with time, also, honey to the air. there were phoric light producers more or less in vogue. One of these was known as ‘‘pyrophorus.” It was prepared by roasting alum with flour and or sugar, and inflating by exposure last of the discovery the principle of the oxidation of combustible bodies by chlorates in the presence of strong Making practical application of this principle, Chancel, in 1805, produced his so- in which strips tipped with a mixture of chlorate of potash, sugar and gum, were ignited by About riate matches, sulphuric ac nu f such id. merous As early as 1780 there were “ele matio fir of hydrogen spark, longed to a lat: Bi inum. uso in parts nited by frictic It was not until 1827 that the real pre- match appeared. In April of that year John Walker of Stock- ton-on-Tees invented lucifer matches, or con- greve, as they were called, after Sir Willlam Congreve, inventor of the rocket groves consisted of wooden splints or strips of cardboard tipped with a mixture of sul- phtde o/ antimony, chlorate of potash, gum No phosphorus was used. They were ignited by rubbing on glass or sand- cursor of our and starch. paper, From this time on incessant attempts were made in different places to produce a really practicable and satisfactory friction match. In 1834 wooden friction matches containing phosphorus were made in Vienna, Darmstadt, was ignited by cd About was inflamed er date, 1823, toget on, present day and other places in Burope, gum. From time to time loud outeries were made about the dangers attending the use of phos It was not only polsonous and tos inflammable, but th men employed were subject to a curious diz- case of the jawbon and distressing. was phorus in ma 1805 there these pohnts. ployment of su ventilation, enforcement o part of the w teh making, much war impregnation o factory with the vapor of turpentine and the cleanliness on ot abs:lute ork people which by her. The first patent in the United States for phosphorus friction matches was granted October 24, 1836, to A. D. Phillips, whose ingniting composition was a mixture of phosphorus, sulphur, chalk and rm 1 the In 1% regulations were put in force in tories. of 187! lowed. the use of any but safety matches. in 1856 that Lundstrom of Jonkoping, Sweden, the first true put his oxidizing mixture on tho splints and red phosphorus phorus) on the box. same made the ented ths various mach matches o phorus was forbidden ntaining by and in Denmark since 1 wedish safety matches” only has been al- In 1882 the Swiss government forbade was “safet Thi year in ines have be of less success, [ One ¥ ol Dialag (a safe law in v form en i an clumsy Berthollet” was the was known tro-pneu- producers” in use, in which a jet eleotric The Dobereiner “platinum lamp” be- In th's hydrog n tact with spongy plat- this time also there were in of Prussia small glass containing equal parts of phusphorus and sul- phur carefully fused splinters of wood were thrust and then ig- Into These con- was loathsome Between the years 1810 and discussion It is by this time pretty well established that the danger cf “phosphorus disease” Is reduced to & minimum by the em- preventative means as good air 34 stringent rman fac- In Denmark and Switzerland the use the ordinary phos- 1575 and the use of It matches. of phos- process was pat- Eengland. then there have becn no very important de- partures in the art of match making, though inveuted and various igniting mixtures tried with greater Since T Mike Milligan, a miner, atepped into the Queen City restaurant shortly before 8 o'clock last evening, says the Helena Independent, and ordered a nice, julcy, plaln steak. this nonphos- tubes th work- of the | g The bullet entered Milligan’s right biceps and ranged upward toward the shoulder, The wound bled freely. Milligan was taken to his apartments in a lodging house and Drs, Steele and Rockman were called. They so cured the bullet and dressed the wound. ikl i bl je | 1IF YOU MARRY IN GERMANY. Obstacles American Couples Meet Over the Rhine. It is often almost impossible for an Ameri- can to secure the papers necessary to make a Buropean marriage valid, especially in Ger- many, writes a correspondent of the New York Sun. The lovers are frequently obliged to wait until they can repair to some less in- quisitive land, where a priest or legal func- tionary will consent to unite them without asking superfluous questivns, When the contracting parties are themselves Europeans the formalities are probably formidable enough, for besides the actual marriage papers there are settlement papers and vari- ous mellmllmry documents to be drawn up. But "if you are an American, of course you are a suspicious character, and you will find it even doubly difficult to marry the girl of your cholce. You must first provs your right to live and breathe and have your being, and your bride must prove her right to live and breathe and have her being, and your father and your mother and your brids's father and your bride’s mother must also prove that they were born in due time and have lived irreproachably ever after; and in case they no longer exercise the functions of living, breathing, and having their being, it must be shown that they ceased to do so in a sober and godlike manner. All this and much more must be set forth in a quod erat demonstrandum fashion by means of docu- ments before you will be allowed to bend your neck to the conjugal yoke. The truth of these remarks was illustrated a few weeks ago in Herlin, when the happi- ness of two young Americans hung for a long time in the balance, until German au- thorities finally consented to let them join hands and hearts. The young man was an Egyptologist, and found it necessary ta be in Egypt at a certain time, He hoped to take his bride with him, but almost up to the last moment he was uncertain whether he should have a bride to take. For months lie had been trying to bring about this mar- riage, but the requirements of the German law were enough to drive even a man accus- tomed to the complications of the Tel-el-gh- Manah tablets to despair. The bride had lived formerly on the other side of the world, and as there existed in the cautious German mind the possibility that she might have gone through the marriage ceremony on some previous oceasion it was cessary ta publish the bans woeks beforehand not only in the Berlin papers, but also in the journals of her native American town. Both. parties were obliged to secure certificates of the birth and baptism of themselves and thelr parents, and to furnish an epitome of the family histories down fo date. There is a rumor that testimony was even demanded as to the number of times certain relatives had been vacelnated, and the success of the operation. The Young woman's father had died when away from home, and it was rather difficult to satisfy German authorities a8 to the manner of his taking off. Finally, all the papers arfived, and the couple repailred one day with their friends and witnesses to the office of the legal functionary In whose hands thelr hap- piness reposed. The legal functionary, of course, had wit- nesses on his side. The Germans never trans. act any business except in the presence of witnesses. If you quarrel with the guard on & rallway train he lmmediately summons an- other guard, not to settle the dispute, but to witness it. They put thelr two solemn heads together, shake them at each other and at you, make coplous notes of the facts, and fually take themselves off. This bridal cou- on the He He | one| | position were all right. The Ger- man bridegroom took possesslon of the Amer- fcan bridegroom’s vacant chalr, and the American bride, who by this time was al. most in tears, yielded her seat to the Gerw man bride. By the time they had be:n safely launched upon the sea of lifo the passports had been found, and the America again ook the chairs and wer: finally made man and wife, to the satisfaction cf tho legal tunctionary, themselves and their friends, That wasn't all, of course. They had to rush off, after the legal functionary's fos had been paid, to do honor to the ordinary conventionalities, array themselves in festal robes, and be married again by a minister who spoke the English tongue, shake hands with their five hundred friends and cateh the first train for Egypt. A fine young fellow—a student and some- thing of a Bohemlan—was heard to say the other day that he'd fight for Amerlca and die for her, but he wouldn't live there. But would " certainly choose not only to be married, but alo o be born and to die in the land of the Stars and Stripes. One can live anywhere, but it's very trying to be born in France, for instance, and very difficult to be buried there. Thers is likely to be a little o much publicity about the former ovent, and not quite enough about the latter. One Is expected there to come into the world and B0 out of it armed to the teeth with docu- ments. It they fall in one case, cne can have no standing in the community, must be a sort of a man without a country; In the other case, one may by that time safely have a standing In heaven, but is likely to have no resting place in earth, Still, in spite of the somotimes incon- venlent thoroughness of these continental methods, one can’t help but find them ad- mirable in many respects. It certainly seems a little more fitting that one should learn of the betrothal of Hans to Lischen from the lips of the good pastor as he publishes the bans from the pulpit rather than that ons should read it in some gossipy column of a newspaper. The infinite amount of pains necessary to tle the knot must Impress those tled with the inexpediency of untylng if. Then, too, Tllinols is a long way off. The difficulty of assuming cven the most natural responsibilities should have a tendency to make people appreciato their sanctity, - PRATTLE OF THE YOUNGSTERS, 0ld Gentleman—Why do you weep? Schoolboy—Another greal man is dead— oo, hoo, hoo! Did you know him?" ‘N-0, but for the rext three weeks we'll have to study ourselves blind to answer the teacher's questions about him." Teacher—Teddy, 1 want you to write a come on a horse Teddy—1 can't, mary Teacher—Why not? Teddy—I haven't got any horse to write on. Little Girl—Mamma says I grammar this term Little Boy—Wot's that for? Little Girl—That's so 1 can folks make mistakes. must study laugh when Sunday School Teacher earth made before man was? 8o he'd have room to kick. Tommy—Pa, what is an elastle currency? Mr. Pigg—1 don't exactly know, but it ought to be a kind that would let a §6 bill streteh out enough to cover Christmas presents for a whole family. Teacher—Now, Willie, If your mamma promised you 10 cents and your papa 18 cents, how much would you have altogsther] Willle—The 10 cents mamma promised me, Teacher—Why did you hit Willie Winkuw with & stone? Little Johnuy—He—he gof mad, and looked s if Le'd like to hit me with something, so I jus' chucked the slone oyel 10 Lim, 80 he could throw it L me. Why was the Willie Bright —