The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 3, 1904, Page 13

13 Emperor as Host y 119 souls alive 9,000. One's ccording to . gore gowns r only 54 while alige ears, or about surks grand continues. proz £ J 4 be reached hall have see: me 1304 w Sun. threatens so many of our forests throughout the land—the sawmill and conversion into the fleeting materials of commerce. The tree of which we have spoken, after defying storm and fire »ver twenty centuries, fell a tim to the desire for money about ears ago. Only ten isolated bese trees remain. and only one giove is protected by Government ownership. The nation cught to own them 1!, and it is earnestly to be hoped that Congress will act favorably ypon the President’s request te buy two more groves—a modest emough ambition. Some of these trees are twice the size has been ascer- be some fifty centuries 'ssibie long lives ahead. to save these ancient and allows them to flit buildings to a speedy i have added one to i failures and omitted the ppert: ¥ to add eome to its acts of wisdom and utility.—Collier's Weekly. 3 . Curious Dog Tax | 5 4 In Drussels the dog tax is managed on a very odd system, dogs being taxed according to their value instead of at a fixed rat The " various suburbe have different rates, 100, so that a ing at Ixelles pays perhaps a trile less for doz than he would had 2 house in Boisfort. A rich who was noted amorz his friends as being a trifle “near.” as the Scotch gay. owned a very valuabie dog. looking about for a house in to catch the mooring ropes as they are thrown ashore from such vesseis, and faithfully performed ng up his position on the landing stage, he catches the rop~ in his mouth and runs with it to men, who then make the steamer fast. A i oo Cask | f AR R T B | Largest A cask recently comstructed for = California firm has put the famous tun of Heidelberz in the background. It holds nine thousand galions. It is made of California redwood without, and the selection of timber and making re- quired two vears. Eleven out of every twelve trees selected were rejected as unsuitable. Two entire trains of wagons were needed to convey the selected tim- ber to the vineyard. The hoops of the cask, which are of the finest steel, weigh eighteen tons, while the completed cask is thirty-sight feet high and seventy-eight feet in cir- cumference and large enqugh to form a three-story house, where three hun- dred people could dine in comfort. This encrmous reservoir would, if its con- tents were placed in ordinary casks, require thirty wagons for its transport, and the contents represent a vaiue of 2 million dolars. : + Panama Hats + = 2 In a report to the Departmrent of Commerce and Labor United States at Consul General Alban G. Sayder facture of Panama hats. these hats are made on solid w biocks by from two to four person generally women, sitting opp each other and working stead women can make an average q hat in six or seven days. wheres fine one recuir from three to weeks. The Consul states that 3n ex- pert hatter cannot make as good a hat in the dry summer weather as du the rainy season. These hatters v every day from early in the morningz, Odd Memorial Mark's Chu st the Ducal E ed por- with the portraitures = gentlemen of Alban were brothers who went a ship laden with vast couple plotted against secure all the treasure each duo of plotters The signory of In Ancient Tree | - + ms indeed but a long emough “to £ e when existence of a tree e of the sequoias A Uni y made publ d by him stored § years of age. a for- its trunk a scar three of pi D. , in 1441 A the tree, then 208§ attacked by a fire een feet wide, 3 years, to four- I atures e fate which . Act Amazes * — = Handless Fiddler he orig- saucer- ghten himself and rider untii with only four gu the very uneven bal- oping pesition at t de in order to allow the cycler to land the stage safely and gracetally. rted en- a5 n 0 K number of which when 300,000 f ears,” as e burial places h were cut Japan alse, for wsome relics were e conque: »f the equines is said which had its origin the present g _ society In . it is sald, have bad et e t coats-of-arms punctured ‘o>'_ -~ o PEDESTAL 1 des of the horses, and the = reported’ to have already Europe. The new R I zhout Fond of Shackles HE cost of constructing some of the little k-water” lines in Peru is enormous. One contractor had 600 laborers die while he was building 115 miles of track through a swamp. The andling of this mongrel labor is an problem. If you beat them le good. They would gat up after a thrashing and kiss your hand. If you put them in chains they feel like martyrs. Instead of feeling disgraced the shackles seem to add to the native's sense of importance. He feels that he must be a bold, bad man te be treated in such a decisive way. It rather glorifies him In his own es- timation. B ik - al he selected one in the dis- trict where he would have to pay the ast for his dog. Unfortunately, his cleverness was misplaced on this oc- casion, for his work lay at some dis- tance from his house. and the sums expended for ecab hire more than made up the extra dog tax. Y 5 i Peel BasKets i 2. | i ¥ Wnsex In view of the numerous accidents which are constantly occurring in the l.onden streets through persons slipping on pieces of orange peel which have been thrown on the pavement the city autherities have recently instituted a system of wire baskets, in which eaters of oranges are requested to place the and there in the crowded thorough- fares, and all that persons who are eat- ing oranges have to do is to place the peels in them as they pass by. At regu- lar intervals the baskets are emptied, and care is taken to keep them bright and clean. So successful has this inno- vation proved that other cities in Eng- land intend to adopt it Dog Deckhand ! —_— In Portsmouth, England, is a doz which does a man’s work—not because he is compeiled, but evidentiy because he likes to make himself useful in that way. He is a fox terrier and his name 18 Jack. Early in the morning he trots down to the pier and there he stays all day, ever on the lookout for a steamer, for he got into his head some time agw the idea that his mission in life was wasting very little time in eating and often carrying on their work by cardle- light. This is done so as to finisk in time for market day, for the loss of a hour may mean the loss of a mark:t day. - - ! Bell Absurdity | An ipstance of the absurdity of some of the notions held by our ancestors was the notion that the ringing of the church bells had a counteracting effect in a thunderstorm. It was supposed that the vibration of the air caused by the movement of the bells resulted in the dissipation of the electric fluid in the air. The belief was so common at one time that the priests had the beils violate our belief in the herves! may see to-day Agamemnon’s tomb at Agamemnon did not die of old age, cov- + — . Strong Man’s Great Feat strong man has just trom Europe will make HE newest come over trick that ordinar; strong men turn pale with envy He lets an automobile run over him! Some ordinary o lens—none too wi ingly, it is true—hav though bridge. The further rests on a ilar planking on stage. The auto or five passengen ed in. ThH» with its heart of bras lungs of steel radiators, i toughest st like set in socke! hungrily. From the t com growlings, maut sighs, that begin in a sp In flerce, crashing barks. way the strong man he goes way: “Pang The stage is shaken by the th of the monster pre g to leap. The vibrations are car y the beams and girders A into t ca s exhausted. restore his dazed, hel - ered with hono! popuiar end of heroes in those strenu- ous days. Homer says he was sldin by Aesi tells that Queen Clytemnestra ki both Agamemnen and Cassandra. The tomb supposed to have held his b must have beem an imposing p architecture when it was first erect — + With its brosd streets, squares and parks. its wide river and its conce Petersburg is open summer it has a tion of North fing naphtha gliding gond noble » of the great avenues Embankment the clear, beautiful nd leaving com- of the wo or quay, river for t P the Gulf of Finland, and unequaled place of ts are full of life and color The little droshkies, which seem like Tom Thumb vehicles, in which two persons squeeze with dif- ficulty. are everywhere. The small, scraggy horses under their douga or yoke match the conveyanece, and the full-haired istvestchik, with his cor- nered plug a2nd the iong blue caftan covering bis entire figure like 2 monk's robe, is the only considerable part of the equipment. The private establish- ments are finer. Instead of the little, rugged ponies are the magnificent. biack, gazelie-eyed Orloffs. The fat, padded driver with his rich velvet pin- cushion cap suggests the prosperity of his master. As they dash through the streets with their bright red, green or blue snow nets stretching from the heads of the horses over the front of the sledge and down to the ground. they make a vivid picture of spirit and color. The sleighbeli is never heard and in the swift and noiseless drive the pedestrian maust look out for him- self. Occasionally the picturesque troika is seen with the high-headed Orioff in the center and his two curved-necked and prancing mates on either side. Now and then a battalion of Cossacks trots by and in severe weather the flaming braziers around which the istvostchicks gather to to the anima- day Evening palm of t iature figure FreaR “Devil” Meachine el S FASTEST SUTC TN THE wOoRL T ERE is a freak electric “devil” wagon that has woz the repu- tation of being the fastest auto- mobile in the world It is, in- deed. nothing more or less than a marvelously strong motor on four wheels, with a light metal “cow- catcher™-like kood to cut the wind and protect the driver, who, with the ex- ception of his eyes and the crown of his head, is wholly concealed from view when this terribie racer is traveling at full speed, which is very much faster than a mile 2 minute.