The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1896, Page 33

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1896 Three Surprises of Nature. The Biggest Turtle on Record, a Snow-White Deer, and a Jrio Think of a turtle more than a century old. After it had reached that age the thought that it was too old to fight woula be justifiable. Fact is a great enemy of supposition, and the truth of the state- ment has just been proved off Cliff Island, near the coast of Maine. Jokn Pettingili is the man to whom this remarkable ex- perience fell, and it came very near cost- ing him his life, for a battle with a sea turtle weighing 362 pounds is something that no man is anxious for, especially when he is located 1n a frail dory and his enemy is in its native element. The story of this battle between fish and man is thrilling enough by itself. This is what Mr. Pettingill told the writer: “On the morning of October 29 I pushed out to pull in some lobster traps. After I bad pulled in a few Isawa dark object sculling along about thirty yards away I was standing up, pushing my dory along, and so I rode near to what I had seen. I managed to get quite close to the object, and then I saw that it was a turtle and a big one too. At first I did not know 5/* A GIANT TURTLE A CENTURY of Pure White Grows. heard anything so remarkable as three white crows in a nest. In my time I have owned some very curious freaks in the bird line, but never anything like this. I never before saw a white crow, excent one that was in a circus and that was about fifteen years ago. When Mr.Veatch wrote me he had three white crows [ thought it was a joke and no one was more surprised than I when they arrived.” While a white crow is seldom found, a | white deer is still more rare. In all the United States only three have been killea within sixty years and the accompanying picture, drawn from a photograph, is the first evor printed of the third of this re- markable trio, which fell victim to a hunter’s prowess near the Little Canada Falls on the Penobscot Riverin Maine. Elijah Lukens, who journeyed all the way from Wilmington, Ohio, for a hunt up the Maine wood~, was the fortunate man who shot and brought down the rarest animal that has been seen in the Maine woods within the memory of the oldest guide, and guides up in Maine live to a very old age. oLD little school in its own premises where the cash-girls can ohtain instructions one or two hours eyery day, as also those older ones whose early schooling has been neglected. In one of the large dry-goods stores of Chicago a day and nightschool is maintained, with competent teachers and all the modern accessories of a first-class schoolroom, where the employes of the store are given free education. In Mil- waukee one of the greatest breweries con- ducts a school, library and reading-room for its employes, who are over 10,000 in number. All three were established, de- spite the protests of those who said the advantages would never be utilized, and allriumphed from the outset. The school compares favorably with the best public schools in the city, the reading-room is well patronized and the library is em- ployed to its full capacity. e The Minister's Mistake. “You have a daughter, have you not, sir?” said a minister to an old gentleman, THREE WHITE FROM BAcTo) whether I had better try to get him or not, but then I made up my mind that he was worth having, and that I would try. “] sized up the situation the best I could and then I tackled it. Now, I don’t mind saying that there was a commotion around there. You see, I had a big steel gaff about smix feet long. I made two or three drives at the turtle, and then I hooked the gaff in his right flipper. This seemed to make him want to bite some- thing. So he reached up his head and opened his mouth and tried to bite the gaff or the rail of the dory. We had a lively time of it, and for some minutes I really did not know who would come out ahead, myself or the turtle. He thrashed all around it with bis flippers, tried to upset me and to bite holes in the boat, but I managed to keep clear of him. “You see, I had him hooked solid, so he stayed at his end of the gaff, while I kept 8 tight hold on mine. Whenever he got a chance he would try his jaws on the rail of the dory, and incidentally reach for me. Isaw I was going to havea pretty hard time of it, but I made up my mind to give him a good try. After he had flounced around and splashed awhile 1 tried to get ahold of his flipper. In the struggle one of my oars siid overboard, but as luck would have it it drifted the same way that the dory was going, and so I managed to get hold of it again. “After a long fight I succeeded in get- ting hold of the end of his right flipper. My next aim was to get a rope fastened to him. Ihadarope with an eye splice i it, so I made a slip noose, and forked It on over his flipper, hauling it down tight. While I was doing this the turtle was doing bis best to bite the rope off. After I had got one end of the rope zood and tight around the flipper I took the other end and made a balance. Then I watcaed my chance and got it on the other flipper. “The turtle would not have it tiat way st all. First he would try to break away with one flipper and bit off the noose. Then he would try the other side, After a long struggle I managed to get the turtle over on his back. Then I hauled him snug against the stern of the dory, and started in to tow him to the shore. Don’t get the idea that it wasan easy thing to do, for the wind and tide were both against me. However, after about three hours’ hard row I landed the turtle on shore, and got some people to help me take care of it. 1am sure ke is more than a hundred years old, for anybody can see that he is an old-timer. He is fairly cov- ered with barnacles, and looks not unlike the hull of a ship that has been under the water for a good many years.” Clear over the other side of the conti- nent,'a bird fancier of Oregon has secured three curiosities just as noteble in their way as the big turtle landed by the Ciiff islander. The trio of naiural wonders consist of three white crows. They are rare birds indeed, and one might travel several months of Bundays where crows abound without dreaming that such a thing as a white crow was in existence. These are genuine articles. however, all three, and, oddly enough, with them is a brother. a full-blooded brother, as black as the blackest ace of spades. The owner of these curious feathered specimens is E. A. Stubr, the Seventb-street bird man, of Cottage Grove, Or. They were brought to him by F. M. Veatch, who found them in a nest in the vicinity of the Bohemian mines, not far from Cottage Grove. The curious part of 1t all is that Mr. Veatch found the three white crows and the black one in one nest, so there can be no. possible disputa regarding the fact that they are all of the same family. Mr. Stuhr says regarding his curious property: “In all the twenty-seven years that 1 have been a bird fancier, I never crows. | ¢ It seems queer enough that men should go from Onio to the Atlantic Coast for a hunting trip. Still, thisis just how the wonder that is described in this article came to pass. A few weeks ago a party of sportsmen at Wilmington, Ohio, decided that nothing would do them but a regula- tion deer hunt in what the dime novelist is fond of calling “the trackless woods of Maine.” The destination of the aunters was Jackman, Maine, and its location is about that which was given in describing the place where the deer was killed. There were nine persons in the party—Mr. Lukens and his son Carl. George Haworth, Morris James, George W. Collins, Dwight Moore, William McCoy, William Kirk and Alonzo Babb. That they were entitled to be called hunters is indicated by the fact that 1n a four weeks’ trip they killed seven- teen deer and a large amount of small game. In fact, they ventured close to the State law, for under that each hunter is allowed to kill but two deer. Mr. Lukens had a very interesting ex- perience and he told it to the writer in these words: “It was on the fourth day atter our ar- rival that I succeeded in securing what was considered the greatest prize of all that we killed or saw—the white deer. That morning my son Carl and I left the camp about sunrise, going down the Penobscoi River for some d‘stance and then starting up a small stream which we had denominated Second Creek. When about two and a half miles from camp I observed an animal slowly approaching me from up the stream, with 1ts head down, apparently as if scenting some other animal. “Its appearance puzzled me. I could not make out just whatit was. It seemed to be snow-white and resembled a sheep, L thought, more than anything else. Still I realized that there could be np sheep in that locality, ard as it was the custom to shoot any animal ranging over the section where we were hunting 1 fired at it when it had advanced to within about sixty feet of me. The shot took effect and it fell to the grovnd. Almost immediately it arose and bounded into the woods. When I shot it it was in the edge of the water. Then it ran perhaps a distance of fifty yards and feil again. “I hurried to where it lay, and to my great surprise when I reached it I found I had killed a white male deer. The shot bad taken effect just back of the shoulder. ‘We dressed the deer, and put in the rest of that day caring for the skin and head, which we preserved intact, and have had mounted since by an expert taxidermist. 1t wasa fine specimen of deer, and weighed about 250 pounds. According to the cus- tom of estimating the age the deer was six yearsold. Ihave had a number of offers for the deerskin within the last few weeks, one man expressing a willingness to pay $60 for it.” A white deer, as stated, is exceedingly rare. Only three have been killed 1n Maine in the history of that State. One wds killed in Michigan several years ago. In 1840 one was seen by hunters along the Ohio River, and this specimen was be- lieyed to have been afterward killed in Wisconsin. No white deer was ever shot in Maine that could comparein size or ap- pearance with that killed by Mr. Lukens, and never before a white stag captured, dead or alive. The deer that Mr. Lukens shot bad been seen by other hunters, but no one was ever before able to approach it within shootinz distance. 1t wes an Englishman who said that America was filled with natural curiosi- ties from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The facts presented herewith indicate that for once a Britisher has told the truth about the United States. Schools for Gash-Girls. Following the lead of Chicago, a New York dry-goods house is about to starta with whom he had formed a casual ac- quaintance as a fellow-passenger. The old gentleman essayed to answer, but the question had strangely affected him., 1 beg your pardon,” said the minister, “if I have thoughtlessly awakened in your mind recollections of a painful nature. The world is full of sorrow, sir, and per- haps my question recalls to your memory a fair, beautiful girl, whose blossoming young life had withsred inits bloom. Am I right, sir?” “No, not exactly,” replied the old gen- tleman, sadly; “I have five unmarried darters, mister, an’ the youugest of the lot is 28 years old.”—Sphre Moments. Dining in London. Upon every hand great new dining-halls are rising in London. Good places in which to dine are not merely embellish- ments or attractions of modern cities; they are necessities; and the character of them may fairly be taken as marking the degree of civilization which any particu- lar capital has attained. In this regard Paris fora long time led the world. It was almost necessary to betake one’s self to the “Ville Lumiere’” in order to find a table, outside the range of private taste and magnificence, where a con- noisseur of good food, delicately dressed and washed down with fine and suitable wines, might ‘‘dine’’—in the loftier sense of that misused word. The cuisine of Paris gave laws and methods— nay, even an establisned vocabulary of the art of eating and drinking—to a grate- ful foreign world, which had, however, to pay pretiy roundly for illustrations of the art. In the latter years the renown of Paris has a good deal diminished, or has, at any rate, been successfully rivaled elsewhere. In London even they begin to know how to offer to her vast public good, wholesome and inexpensive dinners. By these we do not mean the splendid banquets of city magnates, the choicest menus of good clubs, or, best of all, the sumptuous boards which are from time to time spreads in the houses of well- to-do London amphitryons. What a great city wants are plenty of pleasant and handsome buildings where the luxu- rious appointments of a good establish- ment can be bad, gracing really scientific cookery and well-chosen edibles, and to be able to command these, not as a matter of every-day habit, but at choice of occasions, and with the certainty of getting the best entertainment possible for the expendi- ture. There is a universally acknowledged charm experienced very often in a nice dinner eaten away from home with agreea- ble company. This is such an established fact that everybody will accept it. The ap- petite jaded and languid at the family ma- hogany returns by magic amid the bright surroundings, pretty dresses and cheerful chatter of the public dining-room. Cares are forgotten, friendships are cemented or renewed, business is well settled and plans happily formed under the magic wand of good caterers and skillful cooks, with none of the trouble and confusion of an elabor- ate entertainment in the house. Bo all- important is it to the welfare of a great city for its inhabitants to be able at will to dine well that those capitalists are positive benefactors to their time and kind whose enterprise takes the course of improving the machinery and the ma- terial for furnishing gooa dinners to all and sundry. The recently built restaurants have be- gun to make it possible to dine decently outside a club or private mansion. One wants a litlle splendor at a dinner away from home, as well as pretty crystal and snowy linen and swift, trapquil attend- ance. Music, too, is welcome at sucha time, for it dignifies even plain tare, as the poet sings, *‘To eat roast mutton to the sound of trumpets.” Certainly the opening of fresh establishments of this kind is good news to the Londoner. Apart from the successful inauguration of a new place of pleasure and refection, where he can break the monotony of his old-accustomed haunts, and perhaps find new ideas in the. old-fashioned menus, the uprise of the Trocadero from the deplorable ashes of the by-gone dancing and music saloon will put exist- ing establishments on their mettle and in- evitably raise the standard of public en- tertainment. The Trocadero in turn if it flourishes as may be expected will have rivals striving to outdo its excellence in viands and festal surroundings. We wel- come this emulation. It is a most legitimate and useful form of modern luxury, for the science of right cooking and proper use of the dietetic gifts of nature spreads around downward and the watchful wife, who dined well aud wisely in the company of her lord in such a sumptuous palace, will never again scare him from the domestic board with cold mutton or a careless pudding; also the multiplication of such well- equipped and handsomely endowed places of pleasure and refreshment for the mid- dle classes makes London more and more attractive anJ agreeable as a city of resi- dence, which is what should be steadfastly aimed at. We are only as yet at the be- ginning of the art of ameliorating the life of her swarming citizens. For all classes in their turns there is much to do, and much that may and should be done. We are on the right road when private capital seeks profit by first gaining pubiic appro- bation and flavor. That programme is, we believe, almost boundless, for, in pro- portion as caterers and maragers study to please and to serve Londoners, there is almost nothing too large or remunera- tive to expect irom the exhautless re- sources of a metropolitan public well treated and well satisfied.—London Tele- graph. CHRISTMAS TREASURES. Eugene Field. Icount my treasures o’er with care— The little toy my darling knew, A little sock of faded hue, Alittle lock of golaen hair. Long years ego this holytime My little one—my all to me— Sat robed in white upon my knee And heard the merry Christmas chime. “Tell me, my little golden-head, If Santa Claus should come to-night What shall he bring my baby bright— What treasure for my boy?”’ [ said. And then he named this little toy, While in his round and mournful eyes There came a look of sweet surprise That spake his quiet, trustful joy. And as he lisped his evening prayer He asked the boon with childish grace; Then, toddling to the chimney-place He hung his little stocking there. That night while lengthening shadows crept I saw the white-winged angels come With singing to our lowly home And kiss my darling as he slept. They must have heard his little prayer, For in the morn with rapiurous face He toddled to the chimney-place And found this little treasure there. They came again on Christmas-tide— That angel host so fair and whitel And singing all that glorious night They lured my darling from my side. A little sock, a little toy, A little lock of golden hair, The Christmas music on the afr, A-watching for my baby boy! But if again that angel train And golden-head come back for me To bear me to eternity My watching will not be in vain. The approaching Christmas was under discussion in a Bellefield household. “What would you like Santa Claus to bring, little girl?”” asked the papa of his small daughter. “I would like him to bring Christmas sooner,” replied the maiden.—Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph, Old Scotland's Lore and Love. The Famous Plighting Stone and the Mystic Story That lts Eloquent Silence Tells. A famous relic of ancient lore and love has just been placed in the Canadian Institute Museum at Toronto. Itis *The Plighting Stane o’ Lairg.”” Its history goes further back than any one can re- member, far beyond the time when records were kept. It is known, however, to have been used by the mystic Druids centuries before Robert Bruce and his bold clan made Scotland ring with their shouts and the sound of battle. For it is a Scottish stane of course. Its name tells that. Itis declared by those who know that thousands of trae Scottish hearts have plighted troth through an oritice well toward the top that was made by nature more centuries ago than one likes to think of. This remarkable Druidical relic would be a fit companion to the Blarney stone, for while by one the tongue gains power to charm, by the other one is enabled to win the charmer, There is nothing like the stone in all the world, and it is con- sidered a matter of very great surprise that the good folk of Sutheérlandshire, the original home of the stone, ever allowed it to be taken from the place where it has stood so long that centuries have grown old and gray. David Boyle, curator of the Canadian Museum, treasures the stone as he would the apple of his eye. He is greatly en- thused over the addition to the museum. This is what he writes concerning it: “To the Editor: What is probably the oldest European stone relic in America, not excepting even Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park, is the ‘Plighting Stane o’ Lairg,’ now in the Ontario Archeolozi- cal Museum in Toronto. This ancient memorial of the faith and superstition of our ancestors 1s supposed to date as far back as the days of the Druids in Great Britain. For centuries it was connected with the life history of the people in the north of Scotland, where it was regarded as a silent witness to the vows and pledges of young and old in matters of love and commerce. “Scottish marriage ceremonies have always been characterized by simplicity, and those brought about through the Plighting Stane o’ Lairg are regarded as peculiarly sacred. Here the lovers met in the first instance, merely to promise each other faithfulness and on a subsequent occasion 1o renew their vows and accept each other for better or worse. Disgrace eternal or even death was supposed to follow the violation of such a pledge, and so universal was the belief 1n the virtues of an oath or affirmation made through this stane that it was resorted to by all A RARE COMPILATION OF IRISH BULLS. One of the most interesting of recent “Handy Book of Literary Curiosities,”” by William 8. Walsh, published by J. B. Lippincott. From this book is gathered the collection of Irish buils hereto appended: *‘My dear, come in and go to bed,” said the wife of a jolly son of Erin who had just returned from the fair in a decidedly how-come-you-so state; ‘‘you must be dreadful tired, sure, with “Arrah, get away with your non- sense,” said Pat; “it wasn't the length of the way at all that your long walk of six miles.” fatigned me, 'twas the breadth of it.”’ A young Irishman who had married when about 19 years of age, complaining of the difficuities to which his early marriage subjected him, said: “He would never marry so young again if he lived to be as ould as Methuselah.” An invalid, after returning from a southern trip, said to a “Oh, shure, an’ it’s done me a wurruld o’ good, goin’ away. I've come back another man altogether; in fact, I'm friend: quite myself again.” An eccentric lawyer thus questioned uncle, Dennis O'Flaherty, had no family?” Honor,"” responded the client. The lawyer made a memoran- dum of the reply ana thus continued: “And your father, Pat- rick O’Flaherty, did he have chick or child!I” Two Irishmen were working in a quarry when one of them fell into a deep quarry hole. The other, alarmed, came to the a called out, ‘“‘Arrah, Pat, are ye killed intirely? If ye're dead, spake.” Pat reassured him from the bottom by saying in answer, **No, Tim, I’'m not dead, but 'm margin 6f the hole spacheless.’” A domestic, newly engaged, presented to his master one morning a pair of boots, the leg of one of which was much longer than the other. *‘How comes it that these boots are not of the zame length ?"" compilations is the “Iraly don’t know, sir; but what bothers me the most is that the pair downstairs are in the same fix.”" An Irishman, having feet of different sizes, ordered his boots to be made accordingly. as he tried the smallest boot on his largest foot he exclaimed, petulantly, *‘Confound that fellow! I ordered him to make one lurger than the other, and instead of that he has made one smaller than the other.” That was a trinmphant appeal to an Irish lover of antiquity His directions were obeyed, but who, in arguing the superiority of the old architecture over the new, said, ‘“Where will you find any modern building that hasg 1asted so long as the ancient?”’ An Irish magistrate, censuring some boys for loitering in the streets, argued, “‘If eva‘rybod_y were to stand in the street a client: “So your “None at all, yer mon.” how could anybody get by?” 5 An Irishman got out of his carriage at a railway station for refreshments, but the bell rang and the train left before he had finished his repast. & madman after the car, “hould on, you murther'n old stame injin; ' you've got a passenger on board that’s left behind.” An old Dublin woman weat to the chandier’s for a farthing candle, and bemng told it was raised to a halfpenny on account of the Russian war, ““Bad luck to them,” she exclaimed, *‘ana do they fight by candle-light?” e i An Irish lover remarks that it is a great comfort to be alone, ‘'especially when yer swateheart is wid ye.” A Hibernian gentleman told a friend studying for the priest- hood, “I hop» I may live to hear you preach my funeral ser- Another expressed the grateful sentiment, “May vou live to eat the chicken that scratches over your grave.”” A phy- sician said oracularly of a murdered man: *This person wa 80 ill that if he had not been murdered he would have died half an hour before.” *‘Hould on!” crie d Pat, as he ran like and in the making of every kind of bargain. *‘Bales of land, exchanges of cattle, pur- chases of all sorts and agreements to per- form military or domestic service were ratified in the presence of a witness at the Plighting Stane. Nor aid the practice cease when better light dawned on the people, Even the reformation did not eradicate a belief in its virtues, and ap to a very recent date it was the custom of the people to travel for many miles in or- der to avail themselves of the peculiar sacredness that attached itself to promises sanctified by this medium. “It is on record traditionally that nu- merous attempts have been made by eccle- siastical authorities to do away with the superstitious belief, but in vain. Kirk shall each assume a costume in keeping with some period during the many cen- turies of existence of this ancient me- morial to Jove and faith. One lady to whom the suggestion of this party was made stated that she thought it would be a very good plan to present a tableau of Faith, Hope and Charity in this connec- tion—faith in the stane’s past, hope that it might influence the people of to-day who went through the ancient ceremony to keep the faith that they pledged, and charity for those unwise persons who pin hope and faith to a woman’s word. The fame of the stane is even spreading into the country about Toronto, for there has never been anything like it heard of before. To the Scottish-American it is almost like having a bit of Edinboro town The Plighting Stone of OId Scotland. sessions protested, but the people be- lieved. The schoolmaster, however, ap- peared and faith in the stone began to wane, 8till, it was not until the ancient relic was removed from its old place in an offshoot from ome of the church walls, that its glory departed. Ir was presented to the Ontario Museum through Hugh Nichol of Stratford, by Miss Mary Bu- chanan of Lairg, and it may interest the donor to know that even in the New World, and in the light of almost twentieth cen- tury knowledge, some affectionate couples still stand on opposite sides of the stone and surreptitiously grasp hands. *‘Davip BoyrE.” It was quite a victory for the Canadian institution to gain this stone, as it had a formidable competitor in Oxford Uni- versity, the faculty of which had no lik- ing for the thought, even, of this famcus old relic leaving Bonunie Scotland. itis told that when the day came for it to be boxed up far away in Sutherlandshire there were groaning and lamentation on all sides. Would the luck o’ Lairg de- part with the stane? That was the ques- tion that was asked, and many were those who believed that its going signified bad fortune. Thus far, however, it has seemed a stone of gooa fortune, for the clouas of trouble have nov hovered over Lairg, neither has any ill fortune come to To- ronto because the stone was moved. There is an old-time superstition among the peasantry all tbrough Scotland, Eng- land, Ireland and Wales that those an- cient stones which mark places of worship of the Druids so many yvears ago should never be interfered with. To remove them, says superstition, is to invitea fierce contest with the furies. If you live by a river and do anything of this sort look out for the kelpie that comes in the night and brings sore trouble. 1f you dwell in amountainous or hilly district the gnomes will surely descend upon you with hide- ous face and wicked leer and brew trouble the whole night long. Now all these things did the people of Lairg and the courageous museum officials at Toronto face. If what the story-books tell is true, the kelpi: and the gnome can cross the Atlantic Ocean in about five minutes, if they want to. There are un- kind persons, however, who say that these little people never exist outside the story- book and legend, and among them are numbered the persons who have been con- cerned in the removal of this stone. This new importation has become an object of the most decided interest to resi- dentsof and visitors to Toronto. Think of plighting troth with your sweetheart where perhaps Robert Bruce himself once performed the same action. Doubtless, too, those unkind persons who are not in- clined to be trustful may feel that plight- ing their troth to a woman surrounded by these superstitious memories may have sufficient influence over ber to make her stick to her agreement, and not repent in favor of soms other fellow. The ancient custom regarding the stone is, as Curator Boyle says, being revived to a consider- able extest in Toronto. Just the sort of scenes are witnessed thers every day as that picturea in the accompanying illus- tration, which is drawn from an actual photograph. A Toronto genius has suggested a Plighting Stane party, in which the guests set down at his door. To those who have never seen Scotland and wonder at the traditions it is an object of mystery and strange affection. Through this Plighting Stane love has always found a way. Working Up Fame's Liadder. One day many years ago a bright boy found employment in a photograph gal- lery in Nashville, Tenn. His wages were small, but he took good care of them, and in the course of time he had saved up a snug little sum of money. Oneday a friend, less thrifty than he, came to him with a long face and asked for a loan of money, offering a book as security. Al though the other knew thers was little probability of his evar being paid, he could not refuse the request. “Here is your money; keep your book, and repay me when you can.” The grateful lad went away in such haste that he left the book behind. The kind youth with curfosity examined the volume. It wasa work on astronomy by Dick, and it so fascinated him that he sat up all night studying it. He bad never seen anything which so filled him with delight. He determined to learn all that he could about the wonders of the heavens. He began thenceforth to read everything he could obtain relating to astronomy. The next step was to buy a small spy- glass, and night after night he spent most of the hourson theroof of his house, studying the stars. He secured, second- hand, the tube of a larger spyglass, into which he fitted an eye-piece and sent to Philadeiphia for an object-glass. By and by he obtained a 5-inch glass, which, as you know, is an instrument of cousidera- ble size. Meanwhile he worked faithfully in the shop of the photographer, but his nights brought him rare delight; for be never wearied of tracing out the wonders and marvels of the worlds around us. With the aid of his large spyglass he discovered two comets before Lhey were seen by any of the professional astronomers, whose superior instruments were continually roaming the heavens in search of the cclestial wanderers. This exploit, you may well suppose, made the boy famous. He was invited by the professors in Van- derbilt University to go thither and see what he could do with their 6-inch tele- scope. In the course of the following four years he discovered six comets. He was next engaged by the Lick Ob- servatory in California. With the aid of that magnificent 36-inch refracting telescope, the largest ever made, he dis- covered eight comets, and last summer astonished the world by discovering the fifth satellits of Jupiter. He invented a new method of photographing the nebula in the Milky Way, and has shown an originality approaching genius in his work in star photography. Perbaps you have slready guessed the name of this famous astronomer, which is Professor E. E. Barnard of the Lick Observatory, and this iz the story of how he worked up.—Chicago Record. Mrs, Sumatra—1 do wish I could get my husband to swear off smoking for s while. Mrs. Btogie—Why don’t you give him g box of cigars for Christmas?—Phila delphia North American.