The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 1, 1896, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1896. 19 MOOSE-HUNTING IN ALASKA Junning for Game on lcy Wastes Inside the Arctic Gircle Gordon C. Bettles, who runs trading yosts at Nulaito, Tanana and Arctic City," n the Yukon country (the latter post seing in latitude 64 deg. 35 min., is half of 1 degree inside the Arctic Circle), is here, ind he tells of remarkable adventures with moose, bighorn sheep and other animals. Mr. Bettles captured ana reared Jerry, the big moose in Golden Gate Park, and sent him here. He also sent a mate for Jerry, but it died on the tay. He has tamed ind worked moose in teams, and says they are in all respects remarkable animals. “I raised Jerry and had him and bis mate broke to harne-s,”’ he sa.d yester- day. “A moose has got the greatest sense of any animal in the world. When wild they can smell a man at an enormous dis- tanc, like a wild horse, and can se¢ and hear further than any other animal of which [ ever heard. When they are tamed they are as tractable as a dog, and will do anything—come when you call them, lie down and roil over. I had a big moose, that would weigh 1000 pounds, come right into the cabin with me. ~The moose would do this with me, or anybody they knew, but not with a stringer. With them they are treach- erous, and will kick, strike or use their borns in a second. “The moose up at the post of Tanana are very numerous, and on the snow they are much faster than a horse. Their legs are so long they step right over a log four feet high and go right along. Logs thata man would have to climd over donot bother them at all. “I have seen as many as fifteen moose together there. I have seen them in win- ter in their corral. A moose corral isa peculiar thing. The moose make it by tramping around and around on the snow, the big ones ahead and the little ones behind. In this way they get down to the willows and weeds, and there they feed. I have seen them beat down the snow in this way till there was a round wall of snow six or seven feet high about them. *“When the willows and weeds sre eaten out the big moose lunge out, and the little ones follow. The big ones break the willows and gouge out the snow with their horns. When they get out of one corral they make another. The moose work their lips like a horse. *I have been ona two weeks' hunt for moose while the thermometer was from sixty-five to seventy degrees below zero all the time. I had three dog teams, with seven dogs in a team, and two natives to each. Two of the teams were to haul meat for the dogs anad provisions for me, and the other team was to haul me when 1 got tired walking. ““We made from forty to fifty miles a day between camps. It wasovera flat country and through brush. One native went ahead and marked out the way for the dogs and the other followed and drove them. They would go on the run all day The natives wore net snowshoes, and I} did myself when not riding. These shoes are the only thing that can be worn over | such ground. The Norwegian shoe won't do. 5 “On the high summit where the cariboo the moose because of their extraordinary sense of smell. “At the foot of Arctic City, which isa half | degree inside the Aretic Circle and on the | Koukuk River, I once visited with thirty | miners. There are moose there in plenty and it is tne home of mountain sheep and goats, I killed seven moose within five miles of the post and there were thirty- seven moose killed there that winter. “T e sheep were the bighorn sheep and they were very fine eating. Take them in September, when they are in good condi- tion, and I know of nothing finer. By the way, I brought down two heads of the sheep with me. *But, alluding again to the moose, Mc- Questin, who has the post at Forty Mile, had two moose which he broke to harness, and with them be used to haul freight and plow his garden. They weighed over 1000 GORDON C. BETTLES, MOOSE-HUNTER. are we used boots of sealskin and walrus hide. It is mainly, however, a tundra country, covered with low brush and moss in summer and being wet and swampy. We had to be careful in our advances on pounds each. Iused some moose I had in this way to plow a potato patch at Tanana. The feet of the moose are very big. They spread out like a cow’s hoof, and there are a couple of big deerclaws that aid in keeping the moose up ont of the snow and giving him a basis. “T e deer, too, in that country are not like the deer here. A deer that will weigh 150 pounds will make a track in the snow as big as a jour-year-old steer.” Libraries in America. The Englishman, it is said, is not a book buyer but a book borrower, says the Lon- non Times. In America the reverse has bithérto been the case. There have been few facilities for borrowing books, at least books which people want to read, and so genuine booksellers have been a necessity. ‘Why circulating libraries have not long ago made headway in New York or Bos- ton is not aitogether cléar. Probably the cheapness of reprinted novels (combined with the natural spending proclivities of Americans) militates against their chances. In England when ail noveis were issued in three-volume form it was practically impossible to reaa them except by the aid of Mudie’s; but in proportion as the price of a book is lowered the func- tion of a circulating library disappears. In America there were not enough copy- right novels to support the three-volume system prior to the international act of 1891, and now that the system is being dis- carded here it is hardly likely to make fresh headway in the United States. For a circulating library to be successful its subscribers must live within a certain radius; otherwise the cost of carriage makes the process of exchanging books too expensive. In America the distances are so vast that Mudie's library could never have served the whole country. They must have established branches in all the great centers of pobulation, and the expense and time occupied in keeping their depots supplied and organized would have made the business unprofitable. Some idea of the difficulty even now of supplying books in large quantities to the far-off Western States may be formed from the fact that it is not uncommon for New York publishers to send consignments to the Pacific Coast round Cape Horn and that it is nsual to allow a month or six weeks for transit by freight trains to the same destination. During the last few years, however, the gap caused by the absence of circulating libraries has begun to be filled by the public libraries wkich have sprung into existence in nearly every large city. At the present there are over 500 of the public libraries which are regardea as standing sufficiently high to be entitled to gratu- itous copies of all the Unitea States Goverpment publications, and the num- ber is constantly increasing. Most of these libraries have a reference depart- ment and a lending department. But the lending departments are much more enterprising and up-to-date than those of similar English institutions- They lay themselves out to meet the re. quirements of the citizens. When a new book is in demand it is not considered a sufficient answer to reply that it is “‘out’ and leave you to solace yourself with one of the old masters. The American libra- rian considers it his duty to supply enough copies to give reasonable satisiac- tion to his clients. For instance, one Jiorarian informed us that be had bought thirty copiesof *‘Trilby,”” sixteen or seven- teen of “Marcella,” and so on. Of how many English libraries could this besaid? THEY ROBBED THE SUNBEAMS Mégne’cic and Electrical Virtues of Our Precio us Stones Any one in whose nature is imvianted the love of the beantiful, as it is expressed in color and form, fresh from the labora- tory of nature, cannot but receive a pleas- ant sensation upon meeting unexpectedly the sparkling iridescent gems exposed for sale in this land of mist and sunshine. Go where you will, on the train or in the city, you will see some one or something which will remind you that gems are a product of the soil in this section. From a diamond to an agate, the so-called pre- cious stones abound, more or less perfect, resurrected from the grave of ceaturies, hidden in the cold ‘and rocky mountains, or under the sands of the remorseless deserts. You may feast your eyes and revel to your heart’s content in the bright offer- ings of these geometrical children of the elements, who are of many races, kith and kin. They seem to bhave robbed the sunbeams of their prismatic hues and bor- rowed fire from the stars, while ‘‘mother Moon’’ herself has been obliged to pay tribute with some of her soft but cold smiles. In fact, you may run the entire gamut of color-tones in this jewel king- dom; and if it be true, as spme one has tried to demonstrate recently, that each color represents a sound, what divine anthems these aristocrats of the mineral world must sing—whbat melodies and har- monies to touch the soul of nature! Two important lessons, it seems to me, are offered to man—the bully and the monarch of this little earthb—by these crystatline brothers of the metals, and they are “accuracy’’ and *‘harmony.” | There are some curious legends con- | pected with gems. There always has been | and probably always will be something about them which makes them precious | other than the value arising from tie labor of obtaining, and their relative scarcity. Whether it be superstition or truth, there ia a common belief in the minds of men, and has been from time immemorial, that gems have exercised & specific power upon the human organ- jsm. Itis well known that amoung other minerals precious stones—at least some of them—are possessed of an influence which is analagous to electricity ana mag- netism, if, indeed, it is not really these forces themselves that contribute the in- nate virtues to inanimate (?7) crystals, But are they inanimate? What is life? It has been stated more than once re- cently that everything is alive, down to the very atoms floating in the air, and in making this staiement nothing new is of- fered, as we find the same beliof incor- porated in the views of the ancients. In fact, it was proclaimed and believed in Eeypt, that land of pyramids, sphinx and other mysteries. Even in our ownday the greatest scientific minds have come to the conclusion that life is a universal, omnipresent principle. Nothing, let me say, is without life. In scme forms, as stones, life acts slowly, but none the less truly. This 1s a queer tenet, no doubt, to modern minds, but we find it being em- braced by many intelligent people, and it 1s worth mentioning here as offering pos- sibly a clew to tie action of stones and meials when used therapeutically. In some fra,ments of ancient lore we find the statement that it was imagined that the garnet was conducive to joy, the chalcedony to courace, the topaz promot- thereby an action upon the mental sphere of man, as well as upon kis physical organism. It 1s the dream of science that every- thing in the universe has originated from one primordial substance, which not many years ago v/as claimed to be carbon. Whatever it 1s this primordial substance bas been differentiated into incalculable species of matter, and everything is des- tined to return thereinto. Among others Mesmer claimed that the secret of healing lies in the know!edge of correspondencies and affinities between kindred atoms. Find the metal, stone or plant that has the most correspondential affinity with the body of the sufferer, and, whether through internal or external use, that par- ticular agent, imparting to the patient ad- ditional strength to fight disease and to expel it, will lead invariably to his cure. Gems are used in this way because of the results to be obtained from the molec- ular motion of the crystals, but more often their influence is of a more subtle nature, acting on the subjective plane, causing emotions or sensations because of vibrations set up in the mental spkere through the color of the peculiar stone used or the idiosyncrasies of the subject. It will be remembered by the careful reader of some ten years ago what a sen- sation was caused tbroughout the think- ing world by the researches of General Pleasanton upon the benefit to be derived from utilizing the color blue, which sug- gests the sapphire stone. The marked re- spect paid by the Buddhists to this stone (the sapphire), which was sacred to Luna in all other countries, may be found based upon something more scieniifically exact than a mere groundless superstition. “They ascribed to it a sacred magical power, which every student of psychologi- cal mesmerism will readily understand, for its polished and deep-blue surrace pro- duces extraordinary somnambulistic phenomena. “The varied influence of the prismatic colors on the growth of vegetation, and recognized by science. The academicians quarreled over the unequal heating power of the prismatic rays until a series of ex- perimental demonstrations by General Pleasanton proved that under the b ue ray, the most electric of all, animal and vegetable growth was increased to a magi- cal proportion. Thus Amoretti’s investi- gations of the electric polarity of precious stones show that the diamond, the gar- net, the amethyst are minus E, while the sapphire is plus E. Thusit will be seen that what science has recently discovered was known to the Hindu sages before any of the modern academies were founded.’’ There is an old Hindu legend that Brabma, repenting biterly for a certain sin committed, in his grief dropped a tear on earth, the hottest that ever fell from an eye, and from this was formed the first sapphire. The Buddbists assert that the sapphire produces peace of mind, equanimity, ana chases away all evil thoughts by establish- ing a healthful circulation in man. Among a few curious fragments we find some interesting matter bearing upon the use and supposed virtues of precious stones; we give them for what they are worth, ‘ The talisman stones, says Zeina the ing chastity, the amethyst assisting rea- son, and the sapphire intuition, showing vestal, are as follows: ° *‘for Aries, the Brazilian amethyst; Leo, especially that of the ‘blue ray,’ has been | | the ruby; Sagittarius, the carbuncle. They are the first, the third and the fifth of the same card, and when worn prop- erly augment the power of tha wearer by adding strength to his or her vibrations. It is a scientific fact.” Birth stones and natal flowers are given by some ‘‘authorities,’”’ and the list bas been frequently published. Pliny remarks that the diamond is the companion of gold and seems only to be produced from gold, for all he diamond mines have been brought to light in pur- suit of alluvial gold washing. The medieval Italians believed a diamond maintained concord between husband and wife. The blue diamond combines the azure of the sapphire with its own adamantine luster and becomes ““most lovely” by the addition. The rose-colored far eclipses the ruby, as does the green the emerald. Where any of these three tints is decided, but especially the green, it enormously augments the commercial value of the stone. An infallible test to distinguish the ruby from the garnetis to hold each so as to reflect the light directly. The garnet, however pure and lustrous, will appear black and opaque, while the ruby retains its transparency and true color. Both these stones are notable for great electrical qualities; the rarnet negative and the ruby positive. The true Oriental ruby presages to the wearer by the frequent change and darkeningof its color that some inevitable loss or misfortune is at hand: and, 1n proportion to the greatness of the coming evil, does it assume a greater or less degree of darkness or opacity. According to Levi, the seven kabbalistic precious stones are carbuncles, crystals, diamonds, emeralds, agates, sapphiresand onyx. *No precious stone i$ more liable to de- fects than the emerald; an emerald with- out a fluw is a proverb for an unattainable perfaction.” “Turquoises are believed to change color and turn pale 1if the owner falls ill, and it | loses its sptendor all together if worn by | Persian mines are most noted for tur- quoises.” The precious stones for sale in douthern California are largely ‘mined in Arizona, Mexico and California, but the more ex- pensive stones are of Oriental origin, IANUARY. If you would cherish friends! Win sympathy in all you do, Then wear this gem of warmest hue, The Garnet. FEBRUARY. From passion and from care kept fres Shall Februa y's children be ‘Who wear 50 all the world may ses An Amethyst. MARCE, ‘Who on this world of ours her eyes 1In March first ovens shall be wise If always on her hand there lies A Bloodstone. p true, APRIL ‘This sparkling gem, both bright and Each one in April born must wear, Or tears of sad repentance bear, A Dlamond. tfatr, MAY. Born in the flowery month of May, You'll be a happy wife some dey 1f yon take with you on life's way An Emerald, JUNE. June's child may health and weaith command, Ana all the ills of age withstand, 4 ‘Who wears a ring upon her hand Of Agate. JoLY All those who in July are born, No trouble shall their brow adorn, 1f they this glowing gem have worn, The Ruby, AUGUST. When youth to womanhood hes grown, - The August born unloved and lone Must [ive, unless they wear this stone, 3 A Moonstone. SEPTEMBER. It on your hand this stone you bind, You, in September born, will find Twill cure diseases of the mind, The Sapphire, | a lady with a cloudy complexion. The OCTOBER. October’s children born of grief, But with one charm there comes reliet If in it you piace bellef, : The Opal. NOVEMBER. ‘Who first comes to this world below With drear November's fog and snow, Emblems of lovers true must show A Topaz. DECEMBER, Success will bless whate’er you do, You of December's birth, if you Place on your hana a stoneof biue, A Turquolse. Make Your Own Buttermilk. An ingenious housekeeper has hit upon a novel way of procuring delicious butter- milk without the labor of churning. Ac- cording to the Atlanta Constitution the milk is permitted to sour and partially skimmed so as to allow enough cream to render it rich. It can be taken from the icebox, provided you wish it cold, and simply beat it a few moments with an egg- beater (one that turns with a bandle is preferable), and you bave as fine butter- milk as can be made under any process. There are so many invalids that crave it, and yet it is often an impossibility to get 1t pure a&nd rich. It is usually diluted with water, and often there are so many lumps of butter floating through it that it is not very inviting, but by this mode any one who can get any amount of milk, no mat- ter how small, can manufacture ina few moments a drink fiv for the gods. Try it and see how quickly this delightful drink can be had. Some idea of the vast extent of the sur- face of the earth may be obtained when it is noted that if alofty church steeple is ascended and the landscape visible from 1t looked at, 900,000 such landscapes must be viewed in order that the whole earth may be seen. The Snows of Shasta Across the fields all gray and bare, The foothills rise in ranks of blue, And through the shadows here and there *Are flecks of clearer brighter hue— The sunset’s glow. The lower hills in shadow rest, The higher peer above the gloom, To where, against her shining crest, The last beams cast the faintest bloom On Shasta’s snow. In calmest dignity she stands, While darkness gathers round her base, And shadows climb with clutching hands, And clouds approach in billowing race As wild winds blow. The winds will wrestle all the night, And hurl the clouds against her side ; The storm will beat and spend its might, In effort strong to quell the pride Of Shasta’s snow. Yet, in to-morrow’s cloudless day, Her stately head with snowy crown Will sparkle in the sun’s first ray, And mists will chase the shadows down To vales below. Through ages gone the storm has sought To move, to crush that stately form ; But still she stands and yields to naught, And gathers whiteness from the storm For Shasta’s snow. If we, who bear the storms of life, Could calmly patient wait the day, Could bear the beat of toil and strife, And never falter on our way Q’er paths of woe, The light would come, the sun would rise, And we would stand all strong and sure, Eternal sunshine in our eyes, Our doubts at rest, our souls as pure As Shasta’s snow. MARY C. BANTZ. Lives on 873 If all men were like the Rev. Miles Grant of Bostou the question of economics would be quickly solved, for he knows how to live on 8714 cents a week. Rev. Mr. Grant makes one of those peculiar combinations of fact and theory that are rarely found. He invariably practices what he preaches. In practice he is a vegetarian; in theory he is one of that interesting sect known as the Ad- ventists. The question of diet has been decided by him after profound study. The correct idea he believes to be based on four prin- ciples. They are as follows: 1. Eat healthy food. 2. Consume a healthy quantity of food. 3. Eatin a bealthv manner. 4. Katat health v times. Of course the fi t question that arises THIS MAN LIVES ON 87 1z CENTS A WEEK. REFORM DIET OF A PREACHER.! Eschews Fish, Flesh and Fowl and| lof food I became satisfied that | Cents a Week is how {o correctly interpret these princi- ples. Healthy food, according to Mr. Grant, is included in the followine lis: of eatables: Unleavened bread, made of graham meal; porriage made of oatmeal ; beans, peas and the various kinds of fruits, including figs and dates; English walnuts; mild, new cheese; raw eggs in milk. The bread is made by stirring gra- ham meal and cold water till the com- bination is about thick enough for griddie cakes, and it is then baked in castiron gem pans. ! Thess articles are never permitted to pass Mr. Grant’s lips: Flesh, fish and fowl, pies, cakes, tea, coffee, sugar, salt, | ginger, mustard, pepper and all spices. In short, this dietarian uses no seasoning in any food, unless a little milk can be considered to come within that category. The unleavened bread is placed at the front of all healthful food, on which, the doctor declares, he lives well at a cost of 714 cents a week. Thege are no other two things, he alleges, which wiil enable one to accomplish so much work, either men- tal or physical, as will this bread and oat- meal porridge, the latter made after the iashion of hasty pudding. What a blow it would be to the restau- rant and hotel keepers if Mr. Grant could convert even a respectable number of persons to his theory. Think of a hotel menu the choicest article of which would be unleavened bread. Even the Arab, abstemious as he is, could never be in- duced to indorse Mr. Grant’s theorv—that 8714 cents a week proposition—because to bar salt would be to deprive him of the right of exercising the most cherished fea- ture of his code of hospitality. Again, his theory, even if we can live on 8714 cents a week by following it, over- turns one of the oldest medical theories— that without salt we will gradually pine away until death claims us for his own. Just how much can we eat on an 871§ cents a week basis? Dr. Grant says we can get all we need. all that we cught to consume, if we wish to maintain our health at the proper standard. He tells exacily what to do in these words: “In relation to the ‘healthy quantity’ most people ate too much. When I came to decide on tie quaantity that my system needed I first let my appetite decide; but it soon occurred to my mind that my ap- vetite had neither reason nor judgment, and therefore was not competent to direct in the matter. The late Dr. Dio Lewis of Boston gave me a very valuable rule on this subject, whigh was to decide on the quantity before a mouthful is taken. After weighing and measuring my food and noting the effect upon my stomach I arrived at the quantity and quality of food sdapted to a healthy system. I found that when I followed that my stomach made no more complaint about its work than did my eyes when seeing, ears when hearing or heart and lungs | when breathing. I have not had the sick headache once in forty-five years. ‘‘Concerning the ‘manner of eatng,’I soon found that fast eating was a common, bad habit of the American people, and one special cause of indigestion. I had been 1n the habit of eating a meal in five or ten minutes. Instead of moistening my food with saliva, I washed 1t down with tea and coffee. My rule is, not to eat a meal in less than half an hour, but I am usually much longer. All the food should be converted into a complete pulp in the mouth before it enters the stomacn. I drink nothineg when eatin ‘“As to ‘the times of eating’: In my early life I ate whenever I felt an appetite for food, which might be a dozen times a day. I became satisfied that this habit would lead to the ruin of health. For thirty-five years I have eaten but two meals a day and nothing between meals. I take break- fast at 8 o’clock and dinner at 3o'clock. [ have no desire for food except at these hours. “As I grow older, I feel younger. I1can preach every evening, and three times Sunday, and feel as fresh at the-close of the day as in tlie morning.”’ ‘While Mr. Grant's idea may not meet with approval from those of us who are lovers of the fleshpots of Egypt, there is plenty of medical indorsement to prove the truth of his assertions. It is an avsolute solution of the prob- lem how to live cheaply and well. We have all heard of peop'e whe could live on $1 50 per week, but that was only by stint- ing the supply and forcing the system to get along with less nourishment than was needed. Here isa plan that aids health i and helps us to get rich. The only drawback that might weigh sertously against Mr. Grant’s plan would be that which the unmarried man could advance. How is he going to procure the prescribed food prepared in the proper manner? Restaurants do not have food of this sort. So the only way for the single man to live on 87)4 cents a w ek, is to get married or learn to prepare his own food. It is a great question. The new woman, if shes can cook, will find in this problem another to add to the many advantages she has already received over suffering man. ———— The Gonfidence of Genius. “Young man,” said the editor, *'this is the seventeenth poem you have offered me in three days.”’ “I know it,” was the answer. I like to write poetry.” “But don’t you think that it is rather an ambitious undertaking? In lite:ature, as in everything else, a man ought to begin at the bottom and work up.” “That’s my method precisely, When- ever I write a poem the first things I think about are its feet.””—Washington Star. —_————— A New Anesthetic. Sue—I don’t see how you ever had the nerve to have your tooth pulled belforea whole class of dental students. Did you screamt y Mayme—I don’t know whether I aid or not. Assoon as the professor tackled the tooth those lLorrid students set up their college yell and scared me so that I don‘t even know whether it hurt.—Indianapolis Journal, .