The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 13, 1896, Page 18

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1896. STARTLING REVELATIONS IN A STRANGE NEW LONDORN CLUB LONDON, Dec. 1.—Far be it from me 10 LL\n\lG'\' Mrs. Whitehat’s attitude in regard to one of the momentous ques- | tions of the day; far be it from me to en- courage her indifference, her flippancy | and disrespect toward one of the most use- | ful and one of the most serious clubs for | women in London. Mrs. Whitehat's char- | acter shows an appailing lack of those | severe virtues that meke the worthy | women of the New Age Club so justly, so | universally revered. Itis the prerogative of schoolgirls and Americans to laugh at everything, even the grave and intellectnal subjects so learnedly treated by various members. Sach levity cannot be too sternly con- demned; a sense of humor should be dis- carded in the entry with overshoesand | umbrellas. In the first place the inappropriateness of her costume was shocking, Instead of a simple masculine garb and a knock- about hat, worn with the careless, uncon- scious grace with which an animal wears his fur, Mrs. Whitebat had attired berself | with her usual delighted attention to de- tail and that s-nse of enjoyment and suc- c which might well be the resultof nobler employments. +I woula not,” she remarked, fastening her opera cape, “'look like a ‘frump’ to oblige the Queen herself!” Her gown was— | I hate to confess it—made in the very latest fashion and had a most audible rus- tle and quite a flutter of silk and lace and ribbons about it. One of the regulations of the cluband a | most admirable regulation is that bonnets must be removed during dinner. Mrs, Whitehat expressed a most unnatural re- luctance to remove the wreath of roses, which she dignified by the name of a bon- said,with indignant scorn: “How s It’s so much more becoming on my he ad than off!” Becoming! Such a word in this high place, where vanity is | not! Fortunately she was not overheard save | by a most minute and dejected male door- | aged 8, who regarded her with a | of melancholy approval. “I smell a faint, far smell,” “‘as of the festive cauliflower!” With agony in my heart we swept into she added, the dining-room—that is, Mrs. Whitehat | did all the sweeping. I tried to slide in | unobtrusively, feeling that her presence was a hideous mistake. Itwasanimpres- | sive scene. A number of the club mem- | bers were seated at a long table; they | each of them had a book or a magazine | propped up before them and they read with ap expression of deep absorpiion, | They seemed to regard dining as a sort of mechanical assistance to literature, and | exhibited that superiority to the material satisfaction of the baser apvetites it has always been m§ fervently economic hope to acquire. Mrs. Whitehat greeted our hostess with almost florid effusion and flashed her smiles upon every one with quite bewilder- ing impartiality. Her eyes immediately atiached themselves to a portrait in an oval frame above the fireplace. “What a2 handsome face!” she said in lively tones. “Whoisit?’ “The president of our clubd,”” said our hostess, with a kind of mental bow. “Indeed!” said Mrs. Whitebat, with great interest. *“What a curious idea to have a man as president of a woman’s ciub!” There was a moment of terrible silence. “A man!” echoed our hostess in icy tones, “J cannotconceive what you mean, unless in your idea character aud face | and strength of expression should be limitetl to men.” “I—I was deceived,”” said Mrs.Whitehat humbly, “by the coat and necktie and the short hair.” “That face is womanly in the highest sense,”’ said our hostess; “it is a repre- sentative face, baving all the delicacy of woman and all the power that is supposed to be peculiar to man.” Mrs. Whitehat asserted that she pro- nounced the obnoxious word with a kind Homen:ry dRUn:fy of a neigh like an ancient warhorse or a goat. The solitary waiter slunk out. There is no other word that could convey the en- tire humility of ais manner. He was crushed by the degrading consciousness of his sex. After this faux pas Mrs. Whitehat was Recewved e The Fold slightly subdued. The dinner was served, with long periods for reflection between courses. Mrs. Whitehat attacked each plate as it was placed before her with great ardor, which seemed to fade away with the first or second mouthful. I re- gret to say that her apnoetite is another of her failings; she is always hungry and her expression of anguish as the meal pro- ceeded was eminently unbecoming. When the dinner concluded in a little tombstone with red trimmings, she secemed to feel that it would be a pity to disturb the charming shape and let it go from her un- touched. It had a curious taste; 1am unable to state what it was composed of, but if swallowed hastily, in throat masti- cation, I am sure no taste at all could be detected. Tne distinguishing characteristic of the menials in the establishment seems to their veracity. It shows a wonderful Jg of prejudice and broad-minded that they bave a male waiter an keeper; for some services men g be entirely disearded. ““Have you some good cl manded our hostess. FAMOUS NATURAL BRIDGE AS I “That is where they let down the rope to the boy. He jumped from that little | ledge you see way up there—that bird just flew past it—and caught the rope as it swung toward 4im.” w oked up, stretching our heads back until our necks ached. “Is that story really true?"” “The ola settlers around here say so. The boy was a student irom Washington- and-Lee, which is not very far from here, course, the account of the feat, usually found in fifth readers, is 2 good deal ex- aggerated. There was no crowd watching | while he climbed, as the story says; only a few of his friends were with Lim; but it is true that a boy really did climb nearly to the top of the bridge. You see that ledge up there almost under the arch? When he reached that place he counld climb no further on account of the arch- ing over the ‘brid.e. Then they say he looked back to see how to climb down, again. You know it’s a fact that you can climb up much easier than down.” There may be a deeper significance to those words, I though! “When you look downward everything appears to be smoother. So there the boy hung, nearly 200 feet from the ground, unable to move one way or the other.” We looked agair: up to that tiny projec- i tion; not much bigger than the bowl of a spoon, it seemed from th#t great distance. It was awinl. Later, when we wenttothe top of the bridge, we looked down; frightful. ‘We were standing under the shadow of that fearfui monument of the Builder who knows no limits, the bridge whose walls are mountains, and whose buttresses are peuks, says a writer in the Atlanta Jour- nal. The ravine is so deep the sun shines in only about noon. And all this mag- nificence of architecture royally thrown away on a mere wading stream! Its fish no bigger than minnows. But the Build. er’s quarry, likewise, knows no limits. The approach to the bridge is by a nar- row, tortuous, rapidly descending path, A small stream tumbles down the moun- tain beside us all the way. The deep foli- age of the trees keeps us hidden from a view of the bridge, until a sharp turn to the right suddenly brings us up almost under it. But the first sight, perhaps, is a little disappointing. The mind has to take time to adjust itself to these enormous dimensions. As we approach it, at length stand just under the bridgeitself, and look upward, perbaps even then we are still a little disappointed, until suddenly we are startled by a faint-erying flock of swallows flying under the bridge; then we begin to comprehend its dizzy altitude. The approach is not so impressive as the opposite view on account of the dipping of the arch on that side. To walk 100 feet further on, passing under the bridge, and then look back at it, one catches the ¢curves of its enormous convexity ana the lift of its span. On this side also the two moun- tains that buttress the bridge rapidly rise for some distance further on; conse- quently the ravine walls are much higher. All these things combine to make the lat- ter view of the bridge very impressive. Cathedral wall, nearly 300 feet high, straight as the side of a house, buttressed and turreted, towers up on one side. Across the ravine from it, overhanging the abyss below, is a little ledge of rock rot ten feet square, Pulpit Rock. Here one may stand and look below—if he can— and try to realize the hortor of that boy when he ‘“‘caught the faint echoes of the people beneath him shonting to him to jump for the rope.” In an old Virginia history there is a statement that when the boy was drawn up his hair bad turned white. Nothing grows down the sides of this ravine, It is all rock, solid and ghostly. If one were to slip he would strike agalnst nothing on his way until he struck the | ground. There is scarcely place fora bird to alight. How dia the boyclimb it? The story goes that he had a knife and cut footholes between. the rock rims. And it is narrow, that liftle silyer run- ning ravine, just room enough for its brook and a footpath beside it. It is nar- row and cold urder the shadow of these eternal ramparts. When birds fly down into it they merely drop; there is not room to use their wings. They spread them out to break the fall and drop down 1t was like leaves. If a Niagara were spilling over one of its sides its leap would strike | against the opposite wail. Above nature has so coyly softened the edge of the hideous precipice, so hidden it with blossoming trees and mossy turf that a dreamer walking there would unexpect- edly feel asharp slip of his_feet, would catch out at a tree, a bit of grass—the sud- den flashlight of a yawning abyss—death! One comes shouting and iauching down the steps toward Pulpit Rock—suddenly stops himseli aghast, qmvering on the very edge of the frightful drop. In 1779 a great mass of rock was split off from the arch by the ireezing of the water in its crevices and was hurled below, crashing into a million fragments. The ground is littered over with bits of rock, with here and there a boulder half embed- ded in the soil. There hangs on theleft of | the arch as ore approaches another mass just ready to fall; a wide crack extends from the top of the hiil almost down to the ground. Half a hill yawns! A col- umn of earth and frightful rocks half as big as freightcars stand up there in the air, held back bya few clods, a slender stone, aroot or two. When it falis one power exists that may clear it away—the river. “G. W.” There it is: graph—Washington’s, It is one of the great “‘prize-boxes’” of the bridge. It is cut deep into the rock about thirty feet above the ground. Several other names are cut above this, but they were not put there by climbers; some engineers placed ladders against the rock and thus reached the point. The “G. W.” is said to be really gennine. The old settler vouches for this fact also. The “W.” is quite plain, but the “G.” is somewhat uncer- tain. Other points of interest are Lost River, an underground river whose running can be heara by stooping down close to a hole in the side of the mountamn. Baltpeter Cave, a new crevice unaer a large ledge of rock, which furnished niter to the sol- diers of 1812; the “Keeper of -the Bridge,” a perfect profile of avery old man near the arch of the bridge. A glimpse of the rushing waters of Lost River can be seen through the hotein the hill. It is per- fectly clear and cold, and as pure as if it had been filtered. Over the hole, cut into the stone, by whom no one knows, is the legend: ‘‘He who drinks here shall re- turn.” Our party felt doubly sure of re- turning, for we drank of the water unwit- tingly, and saw the words oniy after- ward. ‘What caused the bridze? We cannot fail to ask it as we gaze up at the tremen- dous mass. 1t is unreasonable to suppose that it is to-day in the same form that it had “in the beginning.,” Was the eutire ravine once a long and tortuous cave? Did the little creek rippling along beside us throughout the ages, stretching so far back that we cannot even comprehend the number, thread that enormous needle and work on down and down, painfully drill- ing the eye, until it is the frightful thing we see it now? Was it once a mountain lake, checked by a great stone-capped dam that one day, while mastodon and levia- than. disperted themselves in its waters, long before the ancels ever dreamed of man, one awful day, suddenly burst through these bounds on its maddened way, that, roaring and hissing, grinding and shrieking, plowed its horribie furrow between two affrighted, gaping moun- tains? His own auto- Some Queer Industries. Occupations open to the thrifty indivi- duals of both sexes have grenlv increased during the last two decades, or even since the taking of the last decennial census in 1890. i The extraordinary progress of science during the time specified and the applica- tion of its principles to the practical prob- lems of human life have not only had the effect of greatly increasing the capacity for production in the trades already estab- lished, but have opened hundreds of queer side alleys which lead direct to the avenues of trade. There are, of conrse, dozens of these new and remarkable cccupations with which science does not deal, even in the remotest sense, says the St. Louis Re- catcher, the skunk farm makes his living by 7 things in depots, theate] and returning them to the the expectation of being clock-winder, the man who | and lemon peels, and the L syndidate, which 18 now eng) ing black cats for their fur, raising these cats on water, AN inferred from the title, but have ¥ island in the great lake, which plentifully stocked with both sexe screeching felines. There are still others in the non-scien. tific category of queer occupations, but it will only be necessary to- mention a few. One is a “rattlesnake farmer,” who lives in the Ozark Mountains and makes the products of his “farm’’ bring money from three different directions. The oil he dis- “Not very,” said the slave, blushing modestly. ‘We ascended, after this episode, to the drawing-room, quite free from the vulgar sense of repletion which often accompan- ies a meal ordered and cooked by a man. Our intellectual capacities were notdulled and rendered sluggish by overeating; it was with quite a sharpened sense of our inward yearnings for a higher life that we settled ourselves for the lecture. Quite a little time was spent in discussion as to who should take the “chair” to introduce the lecturer, Edward Robinson, whose labors in the way of bringing practical and popular science to the East End have met with such deserved encomiums. Such modesty as was displayed by those worthy and intelligent women of the New Age Club; such a reluctance to take the prom- inent position. Each one advanced the most conclusive reasons why the other one should do it, and they exhibited the most gentlemanly deference and courtesy! It was perhaps somewhat confusing to an outsider not used to parliamentary rule. “You take it—dear me—I couldn’t think of it. Why, Miss Cully, how can you! Why, I took it last time. It's quite sim- ple. You’d do it magnificently. You do speak so fluently and without preparation! Why, I heard Miss Pimmins last week, and it was a disgrace! No, really; such a cold, and besides—" Miss Cully was finally induced to take the chair, which she filled admirably and in w3 foreign shipuccore, wee gh tulip, poplar, sh, zum and black walnut, whenever a & little over. Mr. Robinson was intro- duced in 2 fitting manner, with a quota- tion from Wait Whitman. Mr. Robinson was an earnest man, with a north country burr in his speech. He was to lecture on “‘Humane Science.” He had a fineand characteristic head on the top of a very narrow and emaciated Where s fhe Goal ™ frame. His voice had a slightly monoto- nous drone, but his sentiments werg grand. It is a curious thing that in order to really appreciate grand sentiments it is | necessary to close or very nearly close the eyes. “In the pure, dry light of (he intellect,” said the lecturer—I am afraid I did not quite gather what that pure, dry light was to illuminate. How bitterly did I regret my defective education when I saw the rapt expression in the faces around me. The woman next to me seemed almost overcome by emotion. She was a very large woman and swayed constantly to my side. A look of great peace was on her countenance and she was drinking in the great words of the lecturer with a little whistling sound between her teeth. She also evidently found that closing the eyes made her faculiies for i acute. It was in the spirit of sincerest ulation that I attempted it also—just a moment—but I fear that 1 must have for 1 suddenly sat up, with a terri- tart; there had been a great noise, as ‘we one falling from a chair. Every tening more | some kittens, in the third or fourth gener- one sat bolt upright and had a painful, glassy stare. It was quite a moment be- fore the excitement subsided. It was this incident ihat brought Mrs, Whitehat to the notice of her immediate neighbors. 1 discovered, to my horror, that instead of listening with that respectful attention which was so admirable a feature of the audience she had her face buried in her handkerchief and was indulging in laugh- ter, the most unseem!y and uncalled for and untimely imaginable! The lecture was deeply impressive, I am sure; it was—well—as [ have said, the subject was ‘“Humane Science,” a most interesting subject, the development of which cannot fail to elevate the listener. A young lady behind me (Mrs. White- hat had remarked her gown, which was nobly suggestive of an antique—a very antique) applauded continuaily. Her en- thusiasm found vent in this manner: Her bands met with a concussion like a pistol shot immediately behind my ear. 1t must have been a great encouragzement to tiie lectdrer, and served as a kind of punctuation. Behind me another en- thusiast murmured, ‘‘Hear, hear!” in a deep, bass voice. “When we reflect on the vast changes,” said the lecturer, “that have made the last century [applause from the Jady in the Roman drapery] that have made the last century so’’ [“Hear, hear!” came like the muffled stroke of a drum.] The lecturer completed bis argument and sat down, while the applause was Jong and continuous. The lady who oc- cupied the chair arose and said that Mr. Edward Robinson had kindly offered to answer any questions that might be put by doubting minds. Everybody iooked at everybody else with an expectant, an encouraging or a repzoachful stare. The lady in the chair repeated her demand for questions with a raised voice, that had a subdued threat in it. At last there was a response. “I was afraid,” said the deep, bass voice behind me, ‘to occupy the attention too long, My question is, with an apology to Mr. Kaward Robinson and my grateful acknowledgments of his absorbing and deeply scientific facts, whether introspec- tion, as he asserts, can have a wholly beneficial effect upon a wholesome and sane organization ?” Here she consulted a small table and put it and her hands in her coat pockets. “I have made a special study of heredityl in cats,”” she continued. ‘‘Some kittens have shown a remarkable sense of color; t ation, have developed a distinct u. standing of sounds. It isthe same Lhu one sees illustrated in a man with dé- lirium tremens, therefore my q'|r‘<hou is, How does Mr. Edward Robinson intend to verify his assertions, triumphantly as he has expressed them?” This was a tremendous poser. Mr. Rob- inson mopped his brow, but shortly and decisively 1n a most sa tory manner. Here a lady in the corner, with her hat worn over one ear, arose and announced that she also had a question: “Humanity ith unity,” she began, “but if philanthropy ith made emothional, how would Mr. Eiward Robinthon ever ac- complith anything?” The answer was received with deserved applause. Then the young person who had clapped so cleverly and continunously rose and declaimed her question in sonor- ous tones, speaking slowly and with deep pathetic emphasis on every word, her voice gradually rising till it rang through the roomr: “Ii,” she began, “I have understood Mr Edward Robinson aright, be points to a. path of glory on which we all—all mem- bers of the New Age Club—will tread, but he must point the path, he must show us the way. My question to M. Ed- ward Robinson, if I have understood him aright, is ‘Where is the goal? Where is the goal? With one upraised hand she vointed ec- statically to heaven, with the other she transfixed the lecturer. Mr. Edward Robinson was spellbound with admiration, or some emotion that held him silent, while a strange spasm convulsed his face. To my overwhelming sorrow and shame I regret that I aid t hear the answer to this question, for Whitehat rose suddenly and precipitafiec berself from the room. I hurried after her and found bher in the lower hall, seated in the hatstand, wiping away tears—it is in- credible but true—tears of deep enjoyment and uiterly unappreciative laughter. All the way homein the hansom she indulged herself in this heartless ana unfeeling manner. “This serious and elevated place,” I remarked, sternly, “‘should be sparec visits from the unthinking and the frivolous! In the pure, dry light of the intellect——"" “Stop, please,” groaned Mrs, Whitehat, *“that’s just it—if it were only not so pure —or 80 extremely dry!” Which only goes to show that Mrs. Whitehat had not thoroughly understood the drift of Mr, Edward Robinson’s re- marks. Vax Dyck Broww. oman lawyer is largely a develop- the last twenty-five years and of ‘ntry, says Leslie’s Weekly. There 8 women lawyers in the United in 1890. Thougzh no census has sken since then it is safe to say that lamber now is at least 500. No other try has half as many women inthe il profession. The prejudice and op- tion which so long obstructed their progress are rapidly disappearing. Women are now being received and recognized by their brother memters of the profession, as was very recentiy illustrated when a New York Judge appointed several promi- nent New York women lawyers to re- ceiverships. This is the first time women nave had such appointments, and the act good quality can be secured, are in some | of the court is regarded as a distinet step demand. European consumers hke the quality of American oak, and, since it is in their progress at the bar. The courts for a long time discouraged REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN LAWYERS OF AMERICA. poses of to druggists, who have regular customers that believe it 1o be a panacea for a hundred different ills; the skins he sells to would-be cowboys, who use them as hat bands, and the skeletons are always a ready sale, the purchasers being the curators of the natural history depart- ments of the different college and society museums. The man who wakes people up in the morning, the old cork collectors and the dog catchers are well-known char- acters in every !arge city. 4 The individuals who gain a livelihood in pursuits tbat are strictly scientific are equally as numerous as those who follow the more humble callings. In the list of occupations that are strictly scientific is the manufacture of artificial eggs, arti- ficial coffee and false diamonds. Also the industry of making buttons, combs, en- holders and other articles of a simiiar nature from blood collected at the slaughter-houses. The man who makes billiard balis, buttons and rinzs irom po- tatoes which have been treated to a solu- tion of nitric and sulphuric acids is also the proprietor of an “industry’ wherein the fundamental principles are strictly scientific. But the queerest of all is carried on by public. In this class we find the rat-| two young Pennsylvanians, who are mak- known to be plentifut here, it will prob- ably be in increasing demand. Cotton- wood has been shippea to Germany in considerable quantities, where cheap woods required for furniture and other uses. Much of this lumber is forwarded from New Orleans, and since a great part of the oak, ash, poplar, cottonwood and other timbers demuanded by the foreign market is in the Southern States, it is not improbable that lumber for foreign mar- kets will be largely shipped in fature from the Gulf ports. In speaking of this mat- ter, the Northwestern Lumberman says that the European market requires lumber cut of exact thickness and of accurate length, trimmed so as to have the batts square and true. Space for piling in the yards of the Old World is an object, so that random, uneven lengths are objec- tionabie, and, since the foreign buyer in- sists that he shall have just what he bar- gains for, quality should be strictly at- tended to.—Garden and Forest. the legal aspirations of women. When the late Myra C. Bradwell #pplied in 1870 for permission to practice law in Illinois the Supreme Court of that State denied her application, and its decision was af- firmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, the only dissenting opinion being that of Chief Justice Chase. Three years afterward the Legislature of Iilinois passed a law providing that no person should be precluded from any occupation, except military, on account of sex. This started the movement in favor of the women, and now It is not believed that any State would offer serious objections to women practicing ip its courts. Most of the ]Jaw schools aceept women pupi although three of the most prominent— those of Columbia, Yale and Harvard— still take the old conservative view of the matter and admit men only. The law de- partments of the University of Michigan and the New York University have grad- uated more women than any others in the country. The first woman graduated irom a law school in this or any other country was Mrs. Ada E. Kepley of Illinois, who completed her law course in the North- western University, Chicago, in 1870. The experience of Mrs. Clara Foitz, who is mow a practicing lawyer in this’ city, iilustrates the difficulties women have had to contend with in the past in follow- ing legal pursuits. Left a widow with children while yet a young woman, she determined to practice law in California, despite the fact that the Stiate code gave no authority to women to enter the legal profession. That obstacle was soon re- moved, and she attempted to enter the Hastings College in Saa Francisco. The faculty refused to admit her, and she brought a suit which was finally decided in her favor, Bhe was admitted to prac- tice in- the District Ccurt of California, then in the California Supreme Court, and finally in the Supreme Court of the United States, achieving, aiter many dif- ficlties, a complete triumph in her fig zht | for legal status as a lawyer. Anocher‘ woman who was early admitted to prac- tice in the Upited States courtsis Mrs, Emma H. Haddock, who 18 now a mem- ber of the faculty of the Jowa State Uni- versity. Chicago is said to' have more women lawyers than any other city in the coun- try. Of these Eilen A. Martin is one of the most prominent and has been longest a practitioner. She made her first essay at the law in Chicago nineteen years ago. A remarkable woman lawyer of Chicago is Miss Blanche Fearing, who is a poet as well as a lawyer and has done excellent werk in both fields in spite of a great handicap. She is totally plind. Milwau- kee has a family of women lawyers. Mrs. Kate Pier and her three daughiers have all been admitted to the bar and are in active practice, with a business which is already large and is rapidly growing. Thege are many other prominent women lawyers in the various cities, and their work proves the falsity of the old belief that women have neither the inclination nor the ability to master the intricacies of the l]aw. It istrue thata woman arguing a case before a jury is a rarity, but it must be remembered that the great bulk of legal business is done out of court and not in it. In a talk with the writer on women in the law Mrs. Cornelia Hood of Brook- Iyn. who is the founder ¢f the Women’s Legal Education Society, has the follow- ing to say: “I think the time is coming when a knowledge of the law will be considered an essential part of the education of both men and women. In the last few years the Legisiatures in most of the States have very considerably augmented women’s civil rights and are continmng to do so. To understand and reap the benefit of her new position in the eyes of the law woman must have some legal knowledge; when she acquires the right to take part in the affairs of government through her ballot she will be at a great disadvantage if she does not know some- thing of legal principles. I believe that women lawyers will be in demand in the near future, and therefore I think that the law is a good profession for bright women. It is no more difficult than other professions for women whose reasoning powers are good and just as interesting when once entered. “The woman practitioner need not go into the courts unless she desires to. A great many lawyers have lucrative office practices, ana a clever woman may do a great deal of business managing estates for women and advising them in matters of law. 1 do. not believe, however, that women need have any trepidation about practicing in the couris. The few who have attempted it have been remarkably successful. Tuey have received the closest attention from juries, and the judges have in most cases treated them in all respects like their masculine fellow-lawyers. The public is rapidly becoming accustomed to women lawyers. It is beginning to appre- ciate the fact that they are careful, con- scientious and capable.’’ Insects With Parasols. How true it is that we most frequently overlook most interesting things near at hand, while searching for wonders far away, says a writer in the New York Her- Itis as true in the forest as in the city thet one is rarely acquaintec¢ with even his nearest neighbors. 4 I once bad it brought home to me in an VOMEN LAWYERS OF AMERICA unobservant of the things immediately about me. It came about in this manner: I was camping alone on the island of To- bago and had taken the trail leading irom my hut on the beach into the deep forest— a path over which I had walked at least a score of times before—and I presently reached a spot where the shade was so dense that it made a sort of twilight. Snddenly there appeared to my astonished eyes something which cansed me to rub them in doubt whether I was not dream- ing, for right in front of me, crossing the path, was a band of green, stretching across the brown, dun-colored earth, and as my eyes became accustomed to the dim light, so that I.could observe it mioré par- ticularly, I saw that this green ribbon was moving regularly along, like the belt over a factory wheel. At first it seemed tc solid and unbroken, but soon I detec many divisions in the line, and saw tha. was composed of thousands of bits o! leaves, each about half an inch in diam- eter. Upon turning over some of these leaf fragments I found that the motive power of each one was a big red ant, who clung to it desperately, and a3 soon as re- leased took its place in the ranks again. For many minutes I watched the verdant procession, but it seemed no near the end than when I first saw it. Out of the dusky woods on one side the path it emerged and into the depths of the other it disappeared, traveling tire- lessly onward to.some destination un- known to me. I could not very well trace its course, the forest being so dense; but there must have beeu mililions of ants in the column, all marching in perfect order and evidently with some definite end in view. These insects, which are known as the great-headed red ants, not only use their powerful scissor jaws upon the leaves of trees and plants, but should they find a tablecloth or handkerchief or anything of that kind on the ground, will cut out of it neat little semi-circular holes, taking the pieces away to their nests. Whether or not they use these bits of cloth for lining their nests, or put them to their proper use as napkins and handkerchiefs, I can- not say. . Gabins of Shakes. There are several kinds of structures in California that are peculiar o the soil, but most of them really belong to the early inhabitants—the Indians and Mexicans. The house of ‘*‘shakes,” however, came with the white man, and those who buly the first of these structures most likely got the idea from the sycamore shingle of Flori da. Many people do not know what a shake is, 80 a little explanation will not be out of order. Shakes are made from almost any kind of wood, although some hard variety is generally used. Logs of straight grain are selected and cut into pieces about three feet long. These are then split into boards about four inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick. Of course the boards are very rough and also uneven, but possess great strength, as the grain always runs from one end of itto the other. When made of oak it is almost impossible to break one of mgg crosswise. §¥ The style of bui/ding for which they are used depends on the occupation of the owner. Lumbermen, miners and sheep- herders are the most numerous of those who use this style of structure. The sheepherders’ are perLaps the most pie- turesque and substantialand are generally of the same shape as the one in the accom- panying drawing. They are usually lo- cated in some barren spot and used during the feeding season. The miner generally makes his the same shape as the wedge tent, which presents a grotesque appear- ance. Those built by the lumbermen are often very elaborate, but since sawmills have been located 1n the mountains they are not as common as they were. The; is practically no wear out to this style structure. In time they become coyery with 8 rich growth of moss, that ¢ pletely closes the cracks that originall existed, so that they are impervious to hardest rains, In the mountainous dj tricts of this State there are dozens shake cabins standing to-day that impressive manner that I had been yvery | built almost half a century ago. >