The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 24, 1904, Page 32

FRANCISCO CALL, SUN Y, JANUARY 24, 1904. Sh Elephants. AM "7A."l‘:~ CHERRY : srer and Bix Game ts at Hunt 1904. by Joseph B. Bow ng when I was at Rafia a me and told me of an near village had been trying to kill which was lways got awa. e spear wounds they could He « however, go tusks, which large t » could not carry without setting them on the les. uid not, ere s om far tusks ie purpose as the lcge of a table. He toild me all this with excited speech and gesticulations, going through all the motions of the elephant tusks plowed the ground or villars for the sup- port of h hwm‘ I thought at first he | was lying to me and merely wanted to | get the village to kill him some t ided tnat such a de- could not be .dmgethvr a of the imagination; so I loaded brass shells, putting twen- s of powder and 160 grams each. This was a heavier n 1 had been using, but this ary elephant, and I vell afford to get kicked over in bag such a prize. we came upon the uld put my two feet, one in e other. in the tracks which ade, and soon I found where thing AVY en resting his tusks on the chase Tk became very excit- wing the trail and plowed his way 1d have known he 1 followed him until 12 gh the prize bush we and then sat down to a hasty anch of buffalc 1e and cold sweet « My anted to return ying “yangora mangy.” a long wa) ¢ said: “There is tting back until we have found So we started out on following it hotly 1 we came to an big trees in it with a nore than knee-high. hinking what a fine place that would be ty interview an elephant, who were ahead of me, ving that they 1 lordship in an n a little distance be- ] first sighted him his tusk er i 1 the ground. as he wa cigur srass. He presented a magnific t as he stood there like 2 colossus heavy columns sup- poerting his huge body. He had turned | Y d crosswise upon his trail, and, there ping off the around to stood in all his majest flies with his big e his back and then flap- made straight for »t up to within fifty yards; cut a quarter circle almost round to his side; kneeled down on one kns resting my gun on the other, steady aim and fired. He came down 1 opened my gun to fill the empty chamber and had a lot of treuble in getting out the brass shell, it had expanded so. I knew that he was trying to get up, for there was a big commotion in his direction, but the shell had stuck fast. It seemed an age before 1 got loaded up again. When I ooked toward my elephant he had got on his feet, and bad turned around, facing me, and looked at me for an cternal moment. He was furiously mad, for his tusks had half broken his neck in falling and in getting up. He was coming at me. 1 cocked both bar- rels and before he had taken many steps fired at his trunk low enough down to cut it off if possible. I knew the front brain shot too weil to try it under the circumstances. Both barrels went off at almost the sam: time, and the violent concussion was more than I could stand. 1 scarcely knew what had happened until one picked me up and 1 he ves beginning to howl. “Bungue bungue que”—that is to say, “White man dead.” But Bungue was not dead, and gath- ering myself together I went to take a -look at my big elephant. I mever for a moment doubted he was dead. When I got to the place where he had been shot, and where he ought to have been Iying, I could not see clearly, as my glasses had been broken into a hundred pieces, and the blood was streaming down into my eve. Wiping it away and jooking hard I tried to find my ele- phant, but no elephant was there. I got on his trail, expecting to find him every second; but ¢n going a few hun- dred vards 1" began to realize he had got away. Then I commenced to find out the extent of my damages. The heavy charges had broken the stock of | my gun at the grip, and the recoil caused the hammer to hit me in the forehead just above the eve, nearly cutting through the skull. The blood was running down my faee in a stream. 1 got my wound bandaged and started back to camp a sick and discouraged man. I inwardly vowed never again to 80 on an elephant hunt. I staggered like a drunken man, feeling at every step that 1 must surely have to give up going to camp and ¢ 1y where T was. About 10 o’clock at night I reached my journey’s end and lzy down on my bed. 1 @id not sleep much for thinking of thz: elephant. The mnext day I was toa sick to go after mim, but on the following day my blood wés up, and after tyving my gun together, I resolved to find him. 1 was afraig that no cne would believe what large elephants we have out here unless I could produce [N@TRUCTIVLJTUDM' d on them—the | 1| his tusks in evidence. I was deter- mined to find him even if I had to con- tinue the search for four months, but after a fortnight, just as I was pre- paring to g4 back to Rafia for rations, 1 was saved all further trouble by hav- ing the natives come and tell me that they had found my beast. I lost no time in going to see him, but he was in a very advanced state of decomposi- tion. The tusks, however, were intact. They are now in my collection in Amer- ica, and can speak for themselves. Sleepily, and feeling like a martyr, I crawled out of my bunk one cold fall morning as reluctantly as a man can feel under such conditions. The natives were clamoring at my door, saying, “Demby Creecy, Demba Creecy, duree otta yacco yangora pepy.” They had !round three elephants not far« off. i After much questioning I learned that | the elephants were in' the low grass along the banks of the river. The| %\\'alcr had been high and it was miry | there in many places, but since the water had gone down the grass had grown waist high, and this was what | ateracted the elephants. Back of this low land was a grassy ridge. 1 was | soon following along this with my big gun, and before walking half a mile I was as wet as though I had been wad- ing neck deep in the river. The dew was cold, and the men’s teeth were chattering in spite of their efforts to keep warm. The sun was just peeping | up now, and the heavy mist lay on the bottom land like a soft, fleecy blanket, obscuring the whole scene. Suddenly, as if it were the raising of a curtain on the stage, every vestige the mist disappeared, and I was scanning the low grass lands for ele- phants, but there was not even an ante- lope in sight. I went on up river half a mile farther. We crossed a gully in the ridge, wading the swamp waist | deep, and as we came to the top of the ridge. again there was a sight to make a hunter forget any predicament. Some 500 yards up river were the three ele- phants. Soon my glasses were on them, and I saw they were all tuskers, and good ones. Making the natives stay behind, all | except my gun-bearer and trackers, T was soon abreast of the quarry. The breeze was sireng in our favor, carry- ing the scent toward us. I crept through the grass and swampy low- | land, in what a state of excitement and suspense may be imagined. I was try- | ing to keep a little knoll on which some date palms grew between me and | the elephants, and after much effort 1} arrived there. 1crawled in between the | leaves, regardless of stickers, and rest- | ed a second without looking out on the | other side. The excitement and ner- vous strain had lasted nearly half an | hour. When 1 peered out from the | covering the date leaves there were | the three big elephants so close | that T could see every wrinkle in their hides. and almost count the | hairs in their tails. Their rumps| were toward me, which was al good thing for my nerve; it would have | been too great a striin to have faced | | all three at once. My heart was throb- | bing so that I could hear it, yet out- wardly 1 kent a’ cool front. 1 could | not handle my gun, however, in this state; hauling myself through the mud at double quick time was exhausting, my were not clear. for they | had been in the dew as well as the rest of me, and there was not a dry thing | |to wipe them on. At last I thought of leather band inside my hat and | used that. After a few moments of this diversion I was cool all the way]| | through and ready to commence the duel. The great big elephants, each nearly eleven feet at the shoulders, were standing there pulling grass with their trunks and beating the mud from it against their legs, and after rocking it, like a child being put to sleep, in the cradle of their trunks, they swung it into their mouths. They were wag- ging their heads from side to side, | while their big round ears, five feet in | diameter, were waving about as though | swung on a pivot. An African ele- | phant’s brain is almost impossible m| Jocate from his forehair. 1 had missed | that shot so often that I had no con- fidence in it. They walked away about eighty yards, when one of them grew | restless. He had a scent of something | irregular, out went his big ears at! right angles and up went his trunk. | While he was turning to locate the | smell I touched the trigger, and my ! old gun thundered out its sentence of | death, nearly knocking me over, as I did not have a solid footing. A Knowing Official. During the examination by the ;Luna?y Commission, a few days ago, of a man suspected of being insane, one of the doctors desired to be in-! formed as to the physical condition of | the patient. “What's his temperature?” he inquired of one of the stewards at- | tached to the hospital, who happened to be a green one. 1 “I'll find out,” said the steward, dis- appearing into the cell occupied by the alleged insane person. “Sixty, doctor,” he said when he re- appeared. “What's that?” said the physician; “that can’t be.” “Well, it is, all right,” retorted the steward. “I'l! show you.” Again he disapneared into the cell, reappeared a littie later with a ther- mometer fully a foot long, one of the | kind placed about the hall by the Board {of Public Works. *“See for yourself,” he said, with an air of triumph. “I had it on his chest for a minute.” rlasses The Mouse Reigns. The cat has long been a pampered pet of society, says a French writer. Fair Persians, uncanny Chinese, haif- finished Manxes, sleek English tortoise- shells and lucky black grimalkins have been cultivated as carefully of late years as Shorthorns and race horses, and certain breeds of dogs. Pussy has had shows and a society all to herself, and one could name some famous “catters” belonging to well-known members of society. A great insult is now offered her, however, in that the mouse has become a fashionable pet, and has already attained the distinc- tion of “points.” A mouse show is in contemplation, to which every good cat should be taken for a treat. , rubber ficus, grow NTHE SAN: ERANCISCO CALL LTS N e S o JOHN D) SPRECKELS, Proprietor . . « « . .. . . . Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, ‘Manager Publication Oflice .. @ riiiteiereee......Third and Market Streets, S. F. RUBBER IN CALIFORNIA. ILD RUBBER, or that taken from the W native tree growing in the forest, is de- « creasing evefy year. This is due to a vari- ety of causes, among which forest fires hold first place. Then, too, in such forests the taking of the rubber is done by natives wio use no care in preserving the life of the tree. Tapping becomes a girdling process, of course with fatal results. Instead of any increase in the supply of “wild rubber,” to keep up with the constantly increas- ing demand, we have price affected by decrease in sup- ply. It is only recently that much attention has been given to rubber planting. Only a few of the plantations in any part of the world have begun to yield, and by the time they are all in action the price of the product will have largely advanced. So far no substitute for rubber has been discovered in nature nor invented by science. Some patents for such substitutes have been taken out in this country and in Europe, but that they were not practical is shown by their non-appearance in the mar- ket. The progress of art has vastly increased the use of rubber. In the beginning it was used only for over- shoes and rain coats. Before the discovery of vulcan- izing by Goodyear, these articles had no wide use, be- cause the gum was soft and sticky in warm weather, and brittle to breaking in cold. But Goodyear’s process rev- olutionized the whole trade, in fact created it. Since then the application of the gum to new and necessary uses has been so rapidly extended that the world would not know what to do without it. steady advance in the value of copper, due to the very recent extension of the applications of electricity. that advance is eclipsed by rubber, the non-conductor of electricity. Its first use as a-wheel tire for bicycles was soon extended to wagons and carriages, and now a buggy or carriage without a rubber tire is becoming the exception. The multiplication of automobiles, a ma- chine that is here to stay, has made another extensive demand. In view of these facts, it becomes of importance to | know where the rubber trec may be grown, and the Ag- ricultural Department at Washington may well interest itself in the matter. The tree is allied to the fig, and is classed as a, ficus. Those familiar with our ordinary fig tree know that when the bark is punctured a milky fluid exudes, which upon exposure becomes viscous by evapo- ration. That fluid, yhich is the sap of the plant, in every respects resembles the milk of the rubber tree when it first leaves the tree. The milk of the rubber, however, possesses greater viscosity, and evaporates into the familiar gum without much loss of bulk. There are several varicties of the rubber ficus. We have giowing in California, as a quite common outdoor tree, a very close congener, which we call the rubber tree. It made ornamental by its large oblate and | shiny leaves. On the west coast of Central and South America the true rubber tree flourishes. Those familiar is | with physical geography know that the Pacific coast of the tropical Americas does not share the lurid tropical conditions that prevail in the same latitude on the east coast.. The west coast conditions may be said to vary from tropical to semi-tropical types. They do not differ in a marked degree from the physical characteristics of The palms, that share the forests with the here. The orange, a distinctly tropi- cal tree, the native of moist swamps, is domesticated with us and flourishes. Why not the rubber tree? Experiment would cost so little that some one should make it with the rubber trce. We grow the tea plant, and produce tea for the whole courtry, except for of that form of labor which would make it profi- In the case of rubber the labor question offers no { impediment. Granted that the tree will grow here, and | yield gum unimpaired in quantity and quality, it would be a lasting resource of wealth, greater than any other related to the soil. The ornamental ficus we have grows in the natural rubber forests, and perhaps is a yielder of gum. We do not know whether it has been tested here. But the fact that it flourishes in our climate is evidence | that the rubber tree would also. ty years ago it would have been thought fantastic and preposterous in any one to predict that we would be- come exporters of citrus fruits, olive products, figs, pome- granates, T ns, grapes and wines. But we produce and export them in such quantity as to affect the world’s markets and control our own. And now we are pre- paring to turn our dreariest desert into a date orchard, by creating upon its blear surface oases that will grow the choicest date of Their habitat is the tropical Sahara. That they will grow here is scttled by the most reliable observation, and by actual experi- ment. So it may not be a wild prophecy to predict that fifty years from now California will be an exporter of California. table. commerce. make it the most profitable of our products. Men now living may wear garments or use wheel tires of Califor- nia rubber. Emissaries of Japan are scouring among the peace- locked navies of the world to secure expert gunners for | service in the event of war with Russia. The money of the little brown men may be able to buy the marksman- ship of foreigners but not the spirit of patriotism, which is vital to any national success in war. S ceipt of a report from Ernest Lyon, United States Minister to Liberia, in which he sets forth the des- perate plight of some lately arrived negro colonists from our Sofithern States and strongly advises against the in- discriminate colonization schemes which are yeariy send- ing to the African black republic hundreds of helpless LIBERIAN COLONIZATION. ECRETARY of State John Hay was recently in re- men and women to fight against disease and even star- | vation. After recounting the his(ory'uf one group of | hapless colonists whose number was reduced from sixty 4 to thirty-six and whose few remaining healthy members _are making their best efforts to get ou of the country, the American Minister says: “Owing to the agitation now going on in the United States on the subject of ne- gro emigration to Liberia by irresponsible persons whose literature has wide circulation among the innocent and poorer class of negroes, the question becomes one of gravity for the consideration of both governments.” Minister Lyon’s report calls official attention to abuses which have been carried on undisturbed for years. Few people realize tha® in blindly advocating a return on the. part of the American negroes to the home of their an- cestors they are acting purely upon a sentimental im- pulse and may be doing immeasurable harm to those whose best interests they have at heart. We have seen the ! But | | which American soil as to become thoroughly imbued with its traditions to cut all home ties and pack their families to a tropical land upon a strange continent where utterly unfamiliar conditions both of agriculture and society ob- tain. Not only are the colonists to Liberia thrown upon these new and untoward circumstances, but they are brought face to face with climatic conditions which affect them as seriously as if their forefathers, five generations removed, had not lived in the jungle. Africa is no more suited for the American negro than for the American white man. Tradition will not furnish him health, wealth and happiness. Emigration to Liberia had a worthy beginning. When, in the year 1811, the American Colonization Society con- ceived the laudable purpose of sending back to the Dark Contipent those freed or run-away slaves who found the South only as darkest Egypt was to the chosen of the Lord, they planted sced on fertile soil and the Liberian colony grew until it gained the dignity of an independ- ent state. Those early colonists who went there, how- ever, did so under the protection and with the assistance of the American society. They were given financial aid and put in the way of making for themselves comfortable Jvings in that Jar-away land. Conditions have changed now. Those who were fortunate enough to get to the new land first have taken up all of the finest opportunities, organized their trade relations and have their society based upon principles of their own evolving. The milk of human kindness does not spout more plentifully on the west coast of Africa than in any other portion of the globe. The Liberians have ceased to welcome penniless immigrants, and ac- cordingly negro colonists from the United States find on their arrival a far from hospitable reception. ' Some of the theatrical managers of Chicago believe that they are victims of injustice in being forced to close their showhouses until they are absolutely safe. A list of these men should be published everywhere and the public should be persuaded that under no possible condi- tion of time or locality should their entertainments be patronized. Fven in this age of commercialism human life has some value. G an interview with a representative of The Call, on the exhibit which the Territory will make at the St. Louis exposition, gave 3 marvelous showing of ALASKA’S EXHIBIT. OVERNOR BRADY of Alaska, in the course of the agricultural resources and products of that far north- | ern land, which most people believe to be a frozen waste of ice and snow. He also spoke much of the fisheries and the fur industry, saying comparatively little about the mines, evidently for the purpose of making clear to the public that Alaska has a variety of resources and is not to be looked upon as a mere mining camp. The intent of the Governor was excellent, but while an exhibit of the agricultural products of Alaska may be pleasing to the public as a curiosity of nature, the great | popular intereest in Alaska is centered in the gold dis- tricts and in the marvelous output of gold that has come from the placer claims, where fortunes are in reach of men of moderate means. on exhibit in this city a display of Alaskan nuggets, 15 average man than any possible display of Alaskan grain or vegetables could be. The world is interested mainly in gold. It was the de- sire for gold that led to the upbuilding of civilization in California and in Australia fifty years ago, and which draws adventurous men. to the heats of Africa and the frozen wildernesses of Alaska to-day. The fact that | grasses can be profitably grown in the Nome district is but a little thing in public estimation to the fact that the same district is the richest placer mining ground now known to the world. The development of Alaska is a matter of great inter. est to the United States. At the present time we are lu>mg considerable number of ourt pioncer class of “citizens by emigration to the Canadian northwest and to the Klondike, and yet we have in Alaska ample room for the exercise of the energies of all of our people of that kind, not only for this but for the coming generation. In order to hold them to their native allegiance, it is evi dently necessary that they be fully informed of the man- ifold advantages Alaska holds for them. 71t is of course right and proper that the agricultural possibilities of the E] country be exploited and published, but at the same time | it is not to be overlooked that the most potent attraction of Alaska for settlers and for capitalists is the immense and varied opportunities it offers for gold mining. In one important respect the Governor’s interest in | agriculture is wise. No country can be permanently prosperous unless it can support its population on a scale of comfort equal to the best civilization of the time. It cannot do that unless it has ample agricultural wealth. It appears that Alaska has that wealth in iali rubber and that the value of the gum by that time will | The o i potentiality, ‘The miners and the men engaged in the fisheries will not have hereafter to import all their food products. Enough can be grown in the Territory itself to support a popula- tion sufficient to develop its mineral wealth. Tt is worth while having that fagt made plain at St. Louis, and from the earnestness with which the task has been undertaken by ‘Governor Brady and the lady manager, Mrs. Hart, it seems quite likely the Alaskan exhibit will be one of the most notable at the exposition, carrying with it a sur- prise for well nigh everybody. In his campaign for tari " legislation and the strength- ening of a vast colonial empire Chamberlain has spoken to London and, if reports be justified, has made a deep and favorable impression. He is experienced enough to know probably that cheers at a mass meeting do not mean votes at the ballot box. It is the silent army that forms its own opinions and attends no demonstrations [which throws the balance toward victory or defeat on election day. The Commissianers of Public Works have notified the public that most of the theaters in San Francisco are ab- solutely safe as far as danger from fire is concerned. It is seldom that a decision of any such vital importance to the community is promulgated, and it certainly is 4he hope of every one that the commissioners have been in- spired by the highest, most unbiased purpose in their in- quiry and are fortified by the most thorough investiga- tion in their conclusions. —_— The astute observers who are chronicling all that hap- pens in the Far East and a great deal that doesn't say that Korea is very panicky because of the quarrels of the Mikado and the Czar. It is safe to suggest, however, that Korea's panic is nothing to ours since information has been given that the denizens of the Hermit Kingdom For they are intend to annihilate all the Americans unhappily resident urging a people who have been so long attached to'in the heastly country, At the present time there is | more attractive and more instructive to the | After Fifty Years. A few weeks ago there arrived at the almshouse a crabbed old fellow whom the driver of the cmbulance called Dan. He was cranky and crotchety and bossified to boot and he had been an inmate of the institution but three days when the other paupers unanimously voted him king of the poorhouse. His word became law, especially after he had enforced it with a blow, and he fairly reveled in the things called lux- uries out at the county farm. The little box that stood at the head of his bed was filled almost to overflowing with choice cuts of chewing tobacco and cigar butts of extra length. One day when King Dan had been in power about a month the ambulance brought out a little weazened old fel- low, who pgssed by the name of Tom. In due course of time Tom and Dan met, and the King let Tom know in very short order that he was expected to pay tribute. But Tom did not take kindly to the suggestion, especially when Dan demanded three-fourths of his plug of navy. “Not a bite,” quoth Tom. “T'll have all of it for that,” growled Dan. “Take it." T wil” King Dan really did try, with the result that in a very few minutes the poor old fellow was in the dispensary, receiving treatment for a pair of badly blackened eyes, a split lip, a bruised nose and several black marks about the body. Tom, with his little eyes twinkling 1.errily, and without a mark on his wrinkled visage, sat upon a soap box 1in his room. About him were dozens | of gray-bearded old fellows offering him their congratulations. In the midst of it all the c'1 fellow arose, and tak- ing from his pocket a worn, old pocket- book, abstracted therefrom a news- paper clipping, yellow with age. Care- fully unfolding it he spread it upon the floor, and pointed with pride to the picture of a fine, sturdy young fellow | inyring costume. Placing a bent and trembling forefinger upon the picture, he said: “That's me. Fifty years ago.” 4 Case of Conscience. Sentiment has little place in the daily | grind of the average Jnew.spapnr work- er. The toiler in the ranks is bound by a stern law of “get there” and can | stir from the straight path of duty {only with peril of disgrace hanging over him. But there are times when the circumstances tempt strongly, when a sidestep might bring to some wretched mortal a glimmer of hope. So {it was in the story that follow: “I was detailed one might to find a | man who had been accused of a serious jbreach of truct,” said a veteran news- paper reporter. After much difficulty { I located him, at his residence in the | Mission. It was very late, nearly mid- night, and I had only a few minutes leeway to get my story in time for the paper. Without this man’s statement, the story could not be published. I knew that well. He did not. - “He didn't know why I had called, | but he ushered me into a room. In a | corner was a trundle bed with two children tumbling in a fever. The mother was there, sitting at the bed- side, wearied by long watching. The man, haggard and marked beyond a question by mental tortures, said: “‘You must excuse me for bringing you in here, but we have had much trouble. Two of our children are gone | —died from the fever that these little | ones are sufferers from. I have been | out of employment for some time and we are doing the best we can.’ “I knew why he was out of employ- ment, only too well,” continued the re- porter. “I looked at him, then at the mother, then at the babies. I told him 1 was sent to inquire about the chil- | dren, a rumeor being they had been poisoned by tainted milk. And I got out as soon as I could possibly get out. Then I 'phoned to the city editor that I couldn’t land the story. My con- science did not disturb me a bit.” | The Voice of the Sea. There comes a voice from out the sea, A _vibrant clang along the wave, As Thor's huge hammer heedlessly Had smote the rim of heaven's concave: A distant, deep and solemn knell, Now cléar, now faint upon the gale; Now like 2 far-off minster bell, Now like an echoed drowning wail. Thus might some peal sound fitfully Frem surk Atlantis’ buried towers, Or_from the lone Sargasso Sea Some ghostly carack mark the hours. It holds the myst'ry of the sea— Of lost armadas, where they lie; Where swelling-breasted galleons be, Their golden hoards piled cank'ring by. The hollow throats of guns long mute Their lost reverberations pour Across the tempest’s frenzied flute, / The breakers' intermittent roar. The long swell lifts beneath the moon The derelict's fell menace, where The liner's drowning clamor soon Swells the far sound upon the air. The solemn knelling of the sea Hath all these voices blent, and more, And its whole soul full ceaselessly Into dcep utt'rance seems to pour. There comes a voice from out the sea, Somewhat it speaks to ev'ry heart; But tell me wkat it says to thee, And I will tell thee what thou art. Youth's Companion. Don't Like Treatment. Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, in a recent interview with the Sofia corre- spondent of the Berlin Lokalanueiger, accused the European press of system- atically making fun of him and his pecple. He said it was absurd to call him an absolute ruler. The Bulgarian constitution is one of the most demo- cratic in Europe, and he is hardly more than a President of a republic, His chief ambition is to be the teacher of the people and to lead Bulgarla toward a higher civilization and a broader cul- ture. He suggested that writers in Eurcpean papers should make a jour- ney to Bulgaria and study the country. Then they would stop joking and begin to appreciate the great civilizing work he and the Bulgarian people have ac- complished. He aldo e i to the correspondent that in spit® of his long reign in Bulgaria the west European papers still call him “the Koburg.” “Why don’t they gi . that surname to the Belglan King?” he asked. “I, take,” he continued, “King Carlos of Roumaria for my model. He too | + had to suffer from the shallow jests of the European press for twenty years. To-day one has but to go through Rou- mania in a railroad train to see what great things the King has accom- plished. He attained this by main- taining a position of strict independenca of all classes and parties, and by going along quietly, without noticing his critics.” The Pope’s Portrait. ' Many painters have aspired to the honor of painting the new. Pope’s first portrait, but to a French artist has fallen the prize. According to “The London Globe,” M. Gabriel Ferrier won the gold medal at the last Salon with a picture of “Mary Weeping Over the Dead Christ,” and Pius X inquired from one of the staff of the French Embassy the name of the painter, after seeing a small repr.duction of the work. This led to M. Ferrier's commission. The Pope gave the artist many sittings, and the sketch is now almost complete, though a few more touches are still re- quired. M. Ferrier has elected to paint what may be described as a state por- trait, with the Pontifical throne and the tiara. One detail of a personal nature is of much interest. Though the face of Pius X is full of benevolence, M. Fer- rier, in all the lengthy sittings and con- versations accorded to him, never once saw a smile upon it. Threw in the Tobacco. In ¢y stores, where clerks have ne control over the prices of gogds, the old-time practice of “throwing in" something with a purchase has gone out of fashion. Years ago, however, | when “Long John™ Wentworth. after- ward Mayor Wentworth of Chicago, was a clerk in a grocery store, it an established custom. A certain e tomer was particularly urgent in appeals lr what in New Orleans nappe.” caned v, Johnny, my boy,” he said, on one ncmsnm when he had bought a gallon of molasses, “can’t ye just throw in a trifle of fine cut?” Young Wentworth lopked at him for his |2 moment. Then his eye twinkled. “Certainly,” he said, and uncorking the jug, he “threw in” a handful of chewing tobacco. It cured the man of his habit of asking for a benus, if not of the habit of chewing tobacco.— Youth’s Companion. The Antiquity of Korea. The authentic history of Korea be- sins at a date some hundreds of years anterior to the foundation of Rome. It was in B. C. 1122 that Kitsu, brother of Woo Wang, fled trom the Chiness court, and was elected King by the Ko- reans. He is said to have taught the Koreans etiquette, integrity, agricul- ture and rearing of silkworms and the spinning and weaving of silk. For the better government of the country he established eight laws, which were so well observed that, in that golden age, theft was unknown, and no house was barred. Seoul, the capital of the Korean king- dom, to which marines have been sent for the protection of the legations, is about fifty-seven miles from the port of Chemulpo. It is situated in a hol- low, surrounded by rocky hills up and down which run the city walls, inclos- ing an area of about ten square miles. The interior has three streets, about sixty yards wide and well kept, but the remainder is a labyrinth of narrow. filthy, uneven lanes. The city was founded originally as far back as 1397. Answers to Querics. MISSISSIPPI — Engq., City. The height of the Mississippi River at New Orleans, 19.8 feet on March 20, 1903, was the greatest ever known. LAST CHA F. W. G., Seattls, Wash. Last Change, by Duke of Nor- folk and Vidette, raced in 1897 under the name of E. F. Smith and the Oak- land stables. EASTER SUNDAY — Subseriber, City. Easter Sunday will fall this year on April 3 and next year on April 23. In the nineteenth century it fell as early as March 22 in 1818. ELECTORAL VOTE — Voter. City. Under the apportionment of 1900 the aggregate of the electoral votes of the several States of the Union will be 476 for the next Presidential election. Cal- ifornia has ten electoral votes, New York has thirty-nine. SPANISH COINS—T. J. M., Los An- geles, Cal. This department is in re- ceipt of many communications rela- tive to old Spanish eoins. None of such, even though more than 200 years old. are worth more than one-half of their face value in the United States. 7O COLOR SHELLS—O. M. S, City. To color shells dissolve a lttle lac dye in a solution of chloride of tin: the dye should be first boiled and allowed to stand so as to settle. The shells, thoroughly cleaned, are then dipped in the solution until they at- tain the desired color. ‘rm;'nd's California glace fruits and