The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 5, 1896, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 1896 HERE was a time when the arri- val of an ocean vessel in San Francisco harbor was a matter of much more importance than it is now, when the whole worla is covered with telegraph lines and the com- ing of trains from tlie other side of the continent are matters of daily occurrence. As soon as the American flag was raised in Monterey in 1846, and people from the East began to come to California, San Francisco at once became an important seaport, and the entire new population took an almost vital interest 1n the arrival of every vessel. It meant, in most cases, the arrival of perhaps months, and a few words from those whom the hardy adventurers had left on the At. lantic side of the country were almost be- | vond value. In the very early days, men have been known to walk along the beach, near where the Cliff House now stands, for days and weeks at a time eagerly scan- ning the horizon that wonld most likely bring them news from home. And when a vessel did come the people seemed to go wild with joy, for it was almost sure in some way to affect every man in town. It was this feeling that led to the estab- lishment of ship exchanges ata time when the City people. nately destroyed by the fires of 1850 and 1851, 1 all' the knowledge to be obtained on the subject at the present time is from a | few copies of those records and the memo- ries of some of the men still fiving who | were in the prime of life in 1849 and took | active part in‘the early history of the | he first exchange established in San Fra Montgomery. I ar on It was opened by E. E September 10, people. It room and the rep news. the district burned the following must have been destroyed by fire and never re-esta The next e e was started in 1850 & Gower, and it survived a num- It was o a small room in the only mail for | for the sightof a ship | had only a few thousards of The early records were unfortu- icisco was on Washington street, near 9, and was | maintained by the subscription of mer- | as also a sort of read- | ory of all the ship Of the fate of this institution there | is no record, but as it wasin the heart of | year, it | Clay. In the same year Troyon & Hurl- | burk opened an exchange on Clay street, between Montgomery and Sansome. Neither of these institutions made much {of an effort to get news, they simply ‘‘posted’’ it when it came to them and fur- nished a meeting place for business men | where they could discuss the arrival or non-arrival of a vessel in which they were interested. The fate of Troyon & Hurl- burk’s Exchange is a matter of doubt, as there is no record of its failure, and the memories of old residents vary on the sub- ject. Itis known that Sweeney & Baugh established an exchange in the same lo- cality on Clay street in 1851, and it is thought by some that they bought out the old firm. Several men, however, insist | that Troyon & Hurlburk failed and that Sweeney & Baugh simply took the same building. Inany event Sweeney & Baugh began i to make things “hot” for Wills & Gower. | They made an attempt to get news before | the other firm and generally succeeded. | | Eureka House now stands. They engaged a boatman named ‘‘Billy”’ Elison and erected a wharf at the foot of Dupont street, just in front of where the They kept a man out at Bakers Beach to watch for vessels and ride to town with his report as soon as he saw one and made out what it was., They started correspondence with other parts of the world so that they al- ways received some important shipping news with every vessel that came to port. Nor were they content with simply get- ting the fact of the vessel’s arrival. “Their boatman at once started in his “whitehall’” and often rowed half way out to the Far- allones and got the ship’s papers and all the news. The exchanges frequently had this a couple of days before the vessel came to anchor as it was difficult work get- ting across the bar when the wind was ad- erse. 3 Sweeney & Baugh pleased their patrons so much that in two years they were able to move into the new exchange building | on Battery street. How Wills' & Gower managed to keep afloat is a mystery, bug | 1 Billy Elison, the First Boatman of Sweeney & Baugh’s Ship Exchange. [Sketched from life.] 33 om, however, it is said, They always had the news augh, although It is true to keep them there and make the neigh- borhood lively. But in spite of all advan- tages the Wills & Gower Exchange died a natural death about 1860, and Sweeney & Baugh had things their own way. But it was this that caused their ruin. During the years of the war, when ship- ping was at a low ebb, the news obtained was not of so much importance to mer- chants as to the general public, and the subscribers did not pay much attention to the way the institution was run. But when peace was declared again and ship- ping became lively the men who sup- ported the exchange became dissatisfied at certain “arrangements’’ that Sweeney & Baugh were said to have made. Hav- ing things all to themselves they could do as they pleased with certain bits of infor- mation. They generally knew to whom it would be the most valuable and sold it jor all they could get, often to the great disadvantage of their other patrons. They also refused to improve their service in any way, as the patrons thought the in- crease of business demagded. In the latter part of 1865 matters reached a climax when a number of merchants banded together and started the fund for the present Merchants’ Exchange on Cali- fornis street. The most active workers in the enterprise were: William C. Ralston, R. J. S neath, Joseph A. Coolidge, Thomas H. Selby and Alvinza Hayward. The present building was put up in 1866 and then the real rivalty of the exchanges commenced. Business methods had be- come such that it was not a matter of simply getting "the news, but it was a matter of getting it first. The new exchange fitted up a house for boatmen at Meiggs wharf, and sent to New York for Bob Martin, a then famous marine reporter. Theyemployed an army of men and put semaphores on all the hills around San Francisco. A man’ with several fast horses was stationed as fa away as Pigeon Point. From that po: tion he could see a vessel when it was nearly a day’s journey from San Fran- cisco. If the weather was clear he used a semaphore to signal a man on Mission hills, who in_turn signaled to a man on Telegraph Hill in the City. From that position it was sent to 8 man in the tower of the Merchants’ Exchange, who in turn sent the news 1o the crowd in the hall below. In those days the principal thing to look out for was steamers, and as soon as word came that one was in_sight crowds flocked to North Beach. If the weather was not clear, the man at Pigeon Point would ride to San Francisco as fast as possible, changing horses as often as necessary. This vigorous fight of the new exchange was felt by Sweeney & Bangh at once and they made an effort to fight back, but not having kept up with the times they could devise no plan of their own. To offset the Merchants’ Exchange they sent to New York for a marine reporter named Bob Silby, who had been an old rival of Bob Martin in the past. Billy Elison, the first boatman em- ployed by Sweeney & Baugh 1n 1851, was still with them and put all of his energies into the ficht. Billy 1s still alive, although not as strong as he was forty years ago. He is living out at the Old People’s Home, Pierce and Pine streets, and is alwaysin a mood to talk of the days when he pulled a Whitehall. “The Wells & Gower Ex- } change didn’t give me much trouble,” he said when speaking of the matter, “but the Merchants' Exchange made us hus- tle. Bob Martin and I always went out to- gether every morning and we were always they did for a number of years and their | sure to have the other fellows near us place was nlwai:s crowded with busi: men, most of w. paid no dues. shortly after Sweeney & they made little effort to get it. they were at smali expense and the owner of the building put the rent very low so as somewhere. When a ship came in_sight, it was a race I can tell you. We pulled as hard as we could, and” the man who got there first got the news. The worst of all was the efforts of the second man to catch up with the other on the way home. Sometimes he would, but more often he wouldn't, for we were well matchea. “I don’t.;remember the name of the man who pulled the boat for the Merchants’ Exchange then, but he’s dead, anyhow,” continued Billy, after a reminiscent pause. “So_are all the other boys, I think. It used to be a fair race as long as it was con- fined to rowing all the way home, and I teil you we made some record-breaking time. But after awhile the Merchants’ Exchange got to sending horseback riders out along shore and as soon as their man got the news he pulled to the nearest land and handed it over to the man, who gal- loped to town with it. Our people tried the same thing, but, of course, goth got the papers at nearly the same place and the race back to town was a killing one on the horses. The riders were nearly all oid cowboys and they galloped through the streets like lightning. Sometimes they knocked people over, and a few months of this work used up a band of norses.’”’ According to Billy’s story there was some excitement every day and all the people in town were interested in the out- come of the fight. During the three years that the fight lasted Billy and Bob Martin were lost in a fog outside on several differ- ent occasions. Once they got caughtin a gale and did not get home for days. They were kept on the jump and had scarcely time to eat or sleep. ?t was their business to always be on the lookout for ships and as soon as they had reported one to go and look for another. The awful strain and excitement were telling on everybody, and Billy Elison was about to give up his job when he was told one morning in May, 1869, that Sweeney & Baugh had quit the fightand sold out to the Merchants’ Exchange. Since then he worked at his old business until he became too feeble, but says he never had as much fun as ke did when the Tival exchanges were running. Mr. Joseph™ Coolidge is one of the few survivors of the days of the rival ex- changes. Heis nowin his eighty-second | year, but is still able to attend to business. Mr. Coolidge is a "49er, and spent the first years of his residence here in the United States Custom-house. It is to his fore- 7 Joseph A. Coolidge, Who Has Preserved the Earliest Records of Shipping. [From a photograph.] thought in copying the old records that | any memoranda of them is in existence | now, as the original books were destroyed in the fire of 1851. By much labor he | completed a record of ‘all the ships that | came to or departed from this port be- | tween 1846 and 1852, when Sweeney & | Baugh’s exchange came into existence. The | first vessel of which there is any record | after the raising of the American flag1s the | whaling ship Jeannette. She arrived in | | Boatmen’s Wharf for Sweeney & Baugh’s Ship Exchange as It Appcared in 1851, |From asketch by C. A. Gifford, in the possession of Levi Burr.] | ment in the records. San Francisco July 31, 1846, in command of Captain Atkins. The first warship of which there is any record is the English frigate Herald. She was here in August, 1846. The first American frigate men- tioned is the Portsmouth that arrived September 21, 1846. The Independence arrived March 19, 1847. Mr. Coolidge’s records show that the first steamer in San Francisco was the Rainbow, built in Sitka, Alaska, by an American. She was brought down here on a ship and put into service on therivers. There is one rather astonishing state- It is that on April 12, 1849, there were only thirty-three ves- sels in the harbor, and that on April 17 there were 360! Mr. Coolidge thinks that the success o! the Merchants’ Exchange was due to origs nality. In all the fight of three years Swee- ney & Baugh never sprang a new thing. ‘Whatever the new exchange did they were content to follow, until the pace got too fast for them and they had to give up. “The races on the water were always mighty exciting,”” said Mr. Coolidge when speaking of the matter, “but they were nothing to the horseraces through the streets. The pavements then were mnot what they are now, and dozens of horses were rendered useless by falling. Riders were often hurt, but generally they man- aged to look out for themselves. But we have the telegraph now, and there would be no need for such things ever happening again even if there were a dozen rival ex- changes.” ‘When Sweeney & Baugh sold out they turned all their books and records over to the Merchants’ Exchange. These are com- vlete as far back as 1851, and the recordsin the possession of Mr. Coolidge give a com- plete list of all arrivals and departures of vessels in this port since California has been a part of the United States, TERROR OF RUK ISLAND, Levi, the Medicine Chief of 10,000 " Natives, and His Queer Whims. YARDS OF SHELLS IN HIS EARS. He Boasts That He Introduced the Missionaries, and Says He Will Drive Them Out. ng those who arrived here a few the steamer Australia from s of the Pa was Miss E. ho for the past ten years has v in the Caroline, Gilbert slands. r experiences and wit- ble scenes during ce she first went among and been making her head- n the Caroline group, eer Pacif he lady b rsat K t ral station of the m ries of the American Board of Foreign Missions | Congregational church, which she sents. The island of Kusaie is about -five miles in circumference and has ains reaching to a height of about Kusaie is in the easternmost v of the Carolfne Islands. is a training-school there for the voung men of the Gilbert group, and also one for the young men of the feet. Marshall Islands. Besides these there is a training-school there for the girls of the two aforesaid groups. These schools are to train the young natives to become mis- sionaries. ‘A missionary family has charge of the Marshall Island training-school, another missionary.family and an assist- ant has charge of the Gilbert Island school, and two young ladies have charge of the girls’ school. According to Miss Crosby the mission work is progressing pretty well in the main, but there are some hard problems to solve. Just now the natives all over the islands-have been overcome by a fit of dancing. The dance is infectious and has spread everywhere. It is worse than the Miss Crosby has | ghost dance, which raged among the American Indians_some years ago. The | natives Lave been dancing for nearly eight weeks., They dance all night and in the daytime, too, till they fall down from sheer prostration and weariness. No one knows how to account for the singular dancing which has spread for thousands of miles through the queer archipelagos along the equator. % “I had a strange experience in the island of Ruk, one of the Carolines,” said Miss Crosby. *This is the scene of the farthest station occupied by the American Board of Foreign Missions. Ruk is a mountainous island, or rather group of islands, around a lagoon. The mission work there is carried on in the same way as in the other islands, but the difference in the people is enormous. “The Rukites are people with clear-cut features, bright intelligent faces sand slender lithe figures, Their every move- ment is full of grace. Altogether they are of a higher type of manbood than I found in any of the other groups. ‘“‘However, their heathenism and de- ravity surpass everything with which f had previously come in contact. I thought the Marshall Island people were bad enough. The Gilbert people were wilder and more lawless, but the Ruk people of the Caroline Islands surpass im- measurably all of them in wickedness. Their heathenism is indescribable. The Ruk people are the only ones inany of theisfim&’s who use paint. I saw a little caild, scarcely 4 years old, whose little body was reeking with dirt and cocoanut | oil. " Its bright eyes looked up at me from i a face made hideous by the yellow paint, or tak, as it is called. “Around the child were many of the | savages, all daubed with paint. It wasa | remarkable sight. “The ruler of these savages is a powerful | witch doctor named Levi. It seems that | when Mr. Logan, the earliest missionary, arrived there Levi was very friendly to him and gave him land for the mission at Wala. He afterward professed to be con- verted, but it appears tbhat his ideas of what was to come were far-fetched. He expected that when the missionaries were settled he would live with them and they would have everything in common. When he found out this was not to be he threw |up his professions of Christianity and | friendship. Now he goesaround braggin, that he Introduced the missionaries ang their religion to the island and says he will drive them out. “This witch doctor I found was a tall, slender man with masses of coarse, tangled hair, caught up by a skewer at the top of his head. His thin, cadaverous face was fearfully daubed with the yellow paint. There were immense apertures in his ears, and they were fillea with strings of heavy ornaments cut from the cocoanut shell and dangling to his shoulders. His clothing consisted of two strips of native Miss E. L. Crosby, the Missionary of Ruk and Othfr Islands. [Drawn by a “Call” artist from a photograpn.} . The Central Mission Station of Kusaie, in the Carolines, Where the Training-Schools Are Located. |Drawn by a “Call” artist from a photograph.] cloth thrown over the shoulders and caught together at the back and front. It was_profusely ornamented with broad bands of native beadwork. Theremainder of his bedy was eutirely nude, except for its coating of yellow paint done in oils. A more repulsive-looking creature I have never seen. “He is theruling spirit of the island, and all the people stand 1n awe of him. Heis a formidable opponent to Christianity on the island of Ruk, because the people there are afraid of him and because he uses his power in the line of their inclinations. “There are a few rays of light on Ruk Island, however, nalwithsmnsing what I have told you. There isaschool there in charge of two missionary women, attended by twelve native girls. There is also a training-school for boys, which was started by Mr. Logan. Besides the schools there are a few native Christians here and there which with the new missionaries who went there last year promise in time to redeem this strange island of the Pacific. We need some new missionaries, and I hope we sball have them before long. I suppose. there are about 10,000 people on Ruk Island. It is properly made up of six small islands which circle round a lagoon. The curious clay which the natives use as a lpaint is brought by them from Mortlock Island, between Ponape and Ruk. Levi, the medicine man, who rules Ruk, is between 39 and 40 years old. Itisa hard matter to tell the exact age of these people. “The Ruks speak a language of their own. Itisvery different from that of the Gilbert or Marshall Island natives, but more of a language. The hair of the Ruks is very straight, black, coarse and long. Ihaveseen a half-dozen yards of strings of cocoanut shells dangling from the ears of the natives. These people tat- too themselves in blue in a fantastic way. They tattoo the lower part of their faces and extremities. The chiefs tattoo only the upper part of their face and forehead.” Miss Crosby’s home is in Massachusetts, Her health has been poor in the islands lately, and after remaining in California awhile she will go East. An Old-Time Minstrel. An old man with a white beard, walking with difficulty and supporting himself on a oane, was seen on lower Broadway the other day. He was “Billy" Birch, the old-time minstrel, and he had gone out to look for the store which now occupies the building in which the San Francisco Min- strels appeared first as an organization. Somebody had told him that the ring which marked off the parquet seats was still to be seen there, and he had gone down to look up this scene of his earlier successes' in New York. Birch is old and disabled from the effects of a stroke of apoplexy, .but he man- ages to get around to the variety theaters, and he takes the interest of a philosopher in observing the differences in the performances of to-day and those of atime in which he was active. He is the one surviving founder of theold company, and he has no means to show as a result of so many years of work. He lives mod- estly on Seventh avenue, at times kept in the house for several days. He is rarely seen outside of his home, unless it be at thé theaters, without the society of a faith- ful dog, which keeps close to him indoors and out. Many years ago Birch was a figure in a_very different phase of New ork life. He owned fast-horses, and no- body drove them on “‘the road” in those days with keener enjoyment or apprecia- tion. Only a few months ago his situation was so hard that his friends organized a benefit for him.—New York Sun. A PAYING INVESTMENT. Values of the Properties Enhanced by Village Improvement. “The property-owners of a village can- not make a better paying investment than in the maintenance of ‘a well-organized improvement society,” writes John Gilmer Speed in April Ladies’ Home Journal, ““Through such a society the value of every piece of property in a village, and the neighborhood thereof, may be enhanced in value; village life may be made to take on new interests and new dignities; stag- nation may be kindled into an exhilarat- ing activity. Let the people become in- terested in a village improvement society and they will soon begin to discuss plans and policies with a gratifying alertness. They will discuss how best to secure a Z 7 4 7 s Y ‘v 2" 7] e Medicine Chief Levi, the Terror of Ruk Island. public library; they will talk over the ways and means of getting running water into the town; they will argue over the best way of establishing a fire department; they will study drainage and sanitation; they will recognize the value of street lights when the moon is shining on an- ofiwr part of the world; and when they vote on these questions they wili vote with entire intelligence, and they will go away from the meetings refreshed by what they have heard and what they have done.’’ ————— A GREAT BOULEVARD. It Will Lead Out of New York and Cost Twenty Million. Gotham will some day—and not a very far-off day, either—possessone of the most famous thoroughfares in the world. Quietly and irresistibly as the operation of the tides and other forces of nature, New York has proceeded toward the realization of one of its inevitable improvements—a grand concourse or boulevard extending from the Harlem River to Mosholu park- way. Itwill bea grand drive and prome- nade connecting the park systems of the metropolis. This enterprise, when real- ized, will surpass even the famous boule- vards of Paris. Itis to run for four and a half miles along the river,dividing the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, beginning at the intersection of One Hundred and Sixty-first street and Mott avenue, its northern ter- minus being Mosholu parkway, just east of Jerome avenue. No streets will cross it at grade, but ail will go beneath it, a result that is particularly practicable by the nat- urally elevated situation of tbis unique highway. Its costis to be about $20,000,- 000, $3,000,000 of which, it is estimated, will be required for the acquisition of right of way. The time allowed for its construc- tion is three years. Within a year, accord- ing to the engineers in charge, the work will be well under way. The last Legisla- ture gave the city authorities in charge of such improvements all the law needed to condemn property, make preliminary sur- veys and perfect arrangements for prose- cuting the work, which is to be unique among the famous streets of the earth. A glance at the plans prepared shows that the width of the concourse will be 182 feet, and every inch of this space will be utilized so as to make the thorougfare at. tractive. In the rough sketches which have been made the engineer has pro- vided for a sidewalk on either side. Next to each sidewalk will be an ordinary drive- way. The speedways will be in the mid- dle, flanked on either side by a promenade. It is likely that this plan will be altered so as to provide two_bridle-paths skirt. ing the speedways. Mosholu parkway, into whicg the concourse will run, is 600 feet wide. It connects Van Cort- landt and Bronx parks. Another wide streets connects Bronx Park and Pelham Manor Park. 1t will thus be seen that from the new bridge over the Harlem the concourse will provide ‘a splendid means of communication with the great parksin North New York. There will be at least five rows of trees the entire length of the thoroughfare. The fifteen streets which will run beneath the concourse will also connect. with it, but will not cross the main street. This magnificent highway will be a paradise for bicyclists, the poss- essors of high steppers and those folks who still stiek to the good old-fashioned constitutional. And its relations, logical and materisl, to the further development of uptown New York cannot well be over- estimated.—Pittsburg Dispatch, DISCUSSED THE CHARTER, American Socialists Speak For and Against Its Adop- tion. Eloquent and Able Addresses by Messrs. Clement, Scott, Rey- nolds and Others. There was a large attendance at last night’s meeting of the Society of American Socialists in Kohler & Chase Hall, on | O'Farrell street, and the merits and de- merits of the proposed new City charter "were thoroughly discussed. Morrison I. Swift ovened the meeting with a few words of welcome and an invi- tation to non-socialists present o join the ranks of the society. The central thought now, he said, was not that monopolies and trusts should be broken up, but that they should be taken in hand by the people and managed by the people’s representa- tives for the public benefit. This political work would not preclude members from joining other parties and voting on the old lines, provided that the candidates voted for promised to work for the good ends held in view by the Social- ist party. *‘If you are foolish enough to remain in the old parties after you join with the Socialists,”” he remarked, in conclusion, *you may do so; butI believe you wiil soon tire of irying to make professional | politicians walk straight, and when that time comes we may hope to see the dawn- ing light of a new ‘Government-ownership party’ whish will renew the face of the Republic.” 3 eferring to the discussion of the even- ing, Mr. Swift said the new charter doubt- less had its good and bad points, and called upon N. Clement for a word in its favor. Mr. Clement commenced by stating that he was one of the framers of the new char- ter, and was conscious that it was not perfection. Btill he considered it prefer- | able to the consolidation act under which the City is at present governed. It should be remembered that however good the consolidation act might be, the new char- ter might be better, and however faulty the new charter might be it was possible that the consolidation act might be far worse. “This consolidation act,” gérsned Mr. Clement, “was framed in 1 by an old lawyer, Horace Hawes by name, and would have been good enough for a large village. But it was only a makeshift for a charter, and had no sooner been adopted than it was found to be radically defective. Then commenced a reign of trickery and intrigue. Supervisors, city officials and schemers, seeing that special legisla- tion was, so to speak, kept on tap at the State capital, combined to carry on jobs of all sorts until the scramble for power, favor and boodle rendered the California State Legislature a scandal to the country. The consolidation act as framed by Hawes covered thirty-one pages. If it were to be published in the same volume with the special enactments which have grown out it 1160 pages at the least calculation would be required.” Mr. Clement then proceeded to outline the features’ of the new charter which in his wnce&)tion would remedy the evils mentioned. With laborious and pains- taking care he instituted a vigorous com- parison between the two documents, and arrived at the conclusion that the new charter would be a better power to rule the City than the Board of Supervisors, which he characterized a3 *‘a corrupt and venal body, notorious for its constant gras ping after power.” J. E. Scott took exception to Mr. Cle- ment's view. Heo said what the City wanted was a charter for the people and not for the classes. He made an eloquent appeal for the laborers and the poor, who, in %eis opinion, would not be benefited by the new charter. John M. Reynolds was also opposed to the charter, and denied that the consolida- tion act was at the bottom of existing | municipal evils. The new charter would be no better, he thought, since it would not do away with boodling, franchises and special contracts. | He contended the main trouble lay with the Supervisors, who were too easily in- fiuenced in favor of rich and powerful cor- porations. Other members discussed the charter from both standpoints and it was decided to continue the consideration of the sube ject at the club’s next meeting. B — NOSAFEREALLY BURGLAR PROOF Give Burglars Time and They Can Get Into Any Safe, Says a Maker. A reperter of the New York Sun asked the manager of one of the biggest safe building concerns in the world whether & safe had ever been built that was absoe lutely burglar proof ? “There never was,” he replied. “Most big safes are called burglar proof, but they are not. No man can build a thing that some other man cannot unbuild. Now, there's a safe,”” he said, leading the re- porter to the back of the store, “that is as near burglar proof as any made.” The safe he pointed to looked like a solid block of steel, with two enormous hinges in front and a steel lever that ran across the block diagonally. The door was round. “That safe,” said the manager, “is ale most what it appears to be, a solid block, but a properli equipped burglar could get into it nevertheless, provided he had time. It is this question of time that makes it possible for us to be more or less truthful when we speak of the safeas burglar proof. It requires so much to getone of them open that before the work can be done it is almost_certain that somebody will come arcund and then the jig is up. By the way, it is a mistake to talk about blowing a safe open. Most people have an idea that a burglar comes along, punches a hole in the safe, and throws in a lot of dynamite, which he touches off. What the burglars do is to drill a hole in the door near the combination, and then, by exploding a small quantity of powder, or sometimes only a cartridge. smash the comtination. This enables them to work at it with their fingers, and the opening of the safe is not so difficult a job, though ex- plosions of this kind have been known to lock safes tighter than they were locked before; so tight, in fact, that they could not be ovened without a second explosion and the use of a largely increased amount of powder. Burglars will not, as a rule, take chances on that, for, I don’t care how nervy they are, the noise of the first ex- plosion never fails to frighten them half to death.” ——————— Coins in Lotters. When it is necessary to inclose stamps in a letter, cut two parallel slits in the top margin of the sheet and slip the stamps through them. They will thus be held in place until removed and save the busy re- cipient a hunt for them after they have slipped through the miscellany on the desk or dropped on the floor. Small coins may be sent with compara- tive safety in letters if first wrapped in tissue paper to prevent slipping about and wearing a hole 1n the envelope. Or, a touch of mucilage will secure the coin to the inside page of your paper, if it is not convenient to obtain the coin cards which come ready, with holes of the right size to take in the coin, and sealing over before placing in the lette: NEW TO-DAY. [ From U.S.Journal of Medtcine Prof. W. H. Peeke, who makes a specialty of Epilepsy, has without doubt treated and cur- ed more cases than any living Physician; his success is astonishing. ‘We have heard of cases of 20 years' standing E cured b hi Hy : large tle of his absolute cure, free to any sufferers who may send their P. O. and Express address. We advise any one wishing a cure to address ot W. B r.n..téem—a.. New Yors h bot-