The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 26, 1904, Page 8

i HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1904. * Turkish Flagellants. Special Corresponden . CONSTANTINOPLE, April 6.— Availing myself of the influence of & Turkish friend, which procured for me & privilege seldom accorded those who Jowers of the prophet, I have ssed what are probably the and bloody exhibitions | tor- Just wi most grewsome licted punishment and lesale scale, that can be within the confines of | of selfl ture, on a wh where 1 think that your nerves can said my friend to me, “I will u samething hat I guarantee you wii rember as long as you live, but 1 warn you that it may cost you | bad dreams.” intment a few days later Palm Sunday—we | i1 and wended our way Vallede Khan mother here most of the elect of | f you ¥ show one or tw S to be or 1 jan residents of the capital The only entrance was through a vaulted passage, which was guarded by a str stachment of Turkish troops, but my companion produced a dor nt which the leader carefully and at a word from him s made way for us. i ourselves in a square, each hich was about 200 yards long, \ded by houses of two stories in with wooden balconies project- | {old crime of the Persians. one’s nerves. ‘Meanwhile attendants light lamps and torches around the square. Now comes another procession, but this time all the figures in it are clad in white. Following the banners are two superb white horses of purest Arabian breed, each led by two men. Two crossed swords adorn the shoul- ders of each horse. Behind the swords are perched a pair of white doves. The iong white trappings of the horses are smeared with blood, which affords a sinister hint as to the purpose of the 200 men who follow behind them, armed with yataghans, which gleam in the light of torch and lamp as they whirl them around their heads, wail-| ing as they advance, “Has-san! Hus- | sein! A-1i!" One sees at a glance that these are ‘. men of a different type from those who formed the first procession. They are dervishes, their eyes are ablaze with frenzy; their strong features dis- torted with the fierce fervor of (annbt jcism. As I glance around the square I note that it is now lined with Turkish | troops, with backs to the wall and | bayonets fixed. Their business is to prevent any of the fanatics from run- ning amuck. Headed by some dozen men who carry aloft gigantic flaming torches | the procession slowly moves around the square. Before it has made the! cireuit one, to the oft repeated cries| | of “Has-san! Hus-sein! A-li!” an old | white-bearded priest receives an ugly | gash in the throat from one of those whirling, gleaming yataghans. But as he is being carried away my Turk- ish friend assures me that it was “a | mere accident”; that there was no in- tention of offering him up as a vi- carious atonement for the 1320 yem’! The cries of “Has-san! Hus-sein! A-li!” grow fiercer. A note of denun- clation appears in the wailing tone in which they are rendered. The mur- derous yataghans cleave the air more viciously as the second circuit nears completion. And then, suddenly, by| what preconcerted signal I could not discern, the crv ““Has-san! Hus-sein! A-li!” was delivered with redoubled | volume and energy and immediately, | so gquickly was it done I did not see | one of the self-inflicted blows deliv- ered, each face of those 200 fanatics | was drenched in blood and their white robes were dyed red. n front of some of the windows. Walls and windows were draped In the center of the square was decked in the same somber Men of melancholy visage, lad in black robes, moved hither and thither.. Their sal- complexions, delicately chiseled low and intellectual features indicated that they w Persians, most of them, but among them were some Turkish Mo- hammedans, men of a more robust and physically vigorous type, and white- bea ts. imediately a black-garbed after inspecting something t which my friend showed conducted us to an upper of the houses, and when ad squatted on the floor, Turkish the iron-barred window nd aside the black drapery sufliciently to let us see all that went Turkish companion explained 1 meant shion, before pushed he said, “that f the Persians, nbeliever,” harrem sian eath of Ali and his (8% Ha and Hussein, true f the prophet. Misled and | e devil, t slew them the anni- s for it by twenty- ing aid lamentation, weeping, they expiate the and rrible crime of th stors by un- dergoing self-inflicted punishment and torture.’ At this moment a stir among the silent throng announced the arrival of the Persian Embassador and his suite, who were conducted to a kiosk at one side of the mosque. Then the square was cl ed and e priests gathered on the steps of the mosque. The dirge-like wail of funeral music reaches us and relieves the temsion of E k-robed men appear rching with slow and solemn steps Learing on staffs, surmounted by silver hande, pointing heavenward, banners of purple, green and black silk, with inecriptions upon them of pious im- On the banners is white. n foll a band. It consists only , drums and cymbals ic is restricted to six bars, ed agaln and again, with monot- tency, but despite its lack elody its effect is as mournful as f the “Dead March.” Following the band, in double rank, btut with wide intervals between, some fifty men, dressed in black save for the le breast, which is bare. At the end of of music they strike their left ts with their right hands, mournfully wailing the while, “Has- san! Hus-gein! A-li!" Their form of penitential onement, though impres- sive, is a comparatively easy one. But behind them follow a still larger num- ber of men, walking two and two, bare- shouldered, but for the rest clad in the all-pervading black. Each right hand wields a short staff, to which bunches of steel chains are attached. As they march, with the pendulum-like regu- larity of some gyvmnastic exercise, they smite themselves over each shoul- der alternately, keeping time to the music, and uttering in chorus the mournful refrain, “Has-san! Hus- sein' A-I'" each mame being punc- tuated by a cruel blow. Round and round the square they march with what seems exasperating slowness to one who feels for the pain they are enduring, voluntary though 1t is. Black welts soon give place to red streaks and then the biood flows freely, but for an hour they keep it up, show- ing no abatement in the fervor of their self-inflicted penance, with each repetition of the sacred name smiting their raw flesh and allowing no sign of suffering to show itself on their set and stojcal faces. It is with r. uch relief one sees them retire at last, leaving the square occu; pied by elderly meén, black garbed, who rend the air with their loud lam- entations, the tears trickling down their cheeks attesting the sincerity of their grief. But it cannot be classed as physical suffering and does not try Mohamme- | Still they pursued their course uround the square, slashing and hack- | ing at their own shaven crowns with their ragor edged weapons, with each utterance of the sacred names and | never flinching. Their features indis- | tinguishable, their drenched garments leaving a track of blood behind them | most of the dervishes succeeded in making that horrible third march around the square. A few reeled and | fell and as a special honor were car- ried to where the Embassador sat and laid at his feet, to die perhaps in the blessed assurance of being immedi- ately transported to paradise, for| such is the reward promised those | who perish of these self-inflicted wounds. Six hundred more fanaties in batches of 200 went through the same ghastly ceremony. Long before they | had finished the square looked like a | shambles and the air reeked with the odor of blood. My friend had spoken truly. It | was a sight that I shall always remem- ber and the like of which I have no wish to see again. How Koreans Dress. ] It is only the lower class of Koreans | whose garments are dirty. The better | class Korean wears an attire the im- maculate cleanliness of which is prob- | | ably unexcelled anywhere on earth. It| | is certainly the quaintest in the Orlem.‘ and as its owner invariably swings | along with a supercilious swagger, as iH’ he and he alone were the owner of | | the street and all he surveyed besides, | | the incongruity of his manly gait con- trasted with his exceedingly effeminate | dress is a thing which must be seen to be appreciated. He is clothed in white | from head to foot, the white belng; sometimes varied by cream-colored silk, | every garment being of spotless clean- | liness. He wears the baggiest of baggy | breeches, tightened just above the an- kles, and his padded white socks are partially inclosed in white and black cloth sandals. He wears—in summer—a silk or grass cloth coat of gauzy tex- ture, which is tightened under the arm- pits and spreads loosely from there downward, and, being stiffly laundered, sticks out in a ridiculous manner all around his legs like a starched frock of a little child. On his head he wears a hat not unlike that formerly worn by Welsh fisherwomen, only the crown is not so high. The hat is black and glossy, and a close inspection of that of a yangban (aristocrat) showed that it was made of finely woven silk and bamboo in an open mesh that resemt- bled -crinoline, while those worn by the less prosperous are made of horse hair. The truncated cone does ngt fit the head, but perches jauntily on top of it. At its base is a round brim about four inches wide, and the whole is kept in place by a black cord or band tied under the chin. The office of this pecu- liar capillary attire is not alone to pro- tect the head from the weather, but to form a receptacle for an equally curiously shaped skull cap, which in turn contains the topknot. This hat is worn on all occasions, both on the street and in the house, and its gauzy construction enables the topknot to be plainly seen within its airy walls.— Harper's Weekly. Je Dope. | matting if The Parisians have found a new use of the verb “to dope.” Its original vogue was on the race tracks in this | country to designate the drugging of | horses just before races to increase | their speed. As all French sporting | slang is English, “dope” came to be | used in the same sense at the race | tracks by Paris. Now, however, it is in general use. If a Parisian takes a cab and the horse does not go fast enough, he says to the cabman, “Je dope.” The horse begins to go as if by magic. The words mean an in- creased tip to the cabby, THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Propriefor . ... ... ... Address All Commonications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication OffiCe ......cccccceccesiesevascncens MODESTO AND TURLOCK. HE successful completion and inauguration of the T two great adjoining irrigation districts at Modesto and Turlock are cvents of the greatest interest to the whole State. Last Friday and Saturday 5000 visitors gathered at Modesto to join in the jubilee with which the new system was installed. It is worth remembering that this irrigation has been secured under the Wright law and that the title to the water is joined to the title to the land. The cost of put- ting in the system is a little less than $10 per acre against $20 per acre cost of Federal irrigation in Nevada. At this very low cost a tract of 260,000 acres is put under water. The land is suited to all the purposes served by land at Fresno and already large orchards of Smyrna figs are planted on it, and the new settlers are planting crange and lemon groves around their houses. The city of Fresno has become an important business center off the product of 60,000 acres of irrigated land, and what has been done there may be done on greater scale on the larger irrigated area at Modesto and Tur- lock. The settlers are crowding into the new districts and are buying land in tracts of from twenty to eighty acres, which promises an ideal condition and a dense rural population. With nearly 4000 families settled where twenty years ago there were not 400 the new dis- tricts will have a rural population of 20,000 people and their products will employ in the towns as many more. All this has been wrought out under the Wright law, This is a revelation to the State, for many supposed that law had been either obsoleted by the courts or had be- come a dead letter. Now it is shown to have been ef- fective in the acquisition, diversion and distribution of water to more than a quarter of a million acres of most fertile land and that it has provided title to the water as secure as that to the land. A statute that can do this is worthy of study in other parts of the State. California must depend upon irrigation to settle the vast tracts of land in its great valley. There is more than enough wa- ter to serve it all, but progress has been blocked by sup- posed need of a statute adequate to the neceds of the situation. The Wright law was attacked by the irrigators who ir- rigate with breath and imagination. It was impeached by the same men who have infused into the Federal ir- rigation scheme glittering vagaries and scintillating hopes that can never be realized. They attacked the Wright law so vigorously that the people who would have been helped by it were persuaded to distrust it and to refuse to proceed under it. The battle was finaily fought out in Modesto and Turlock districts, and though a few men sacrificed all they had in vindicating the law it stands justified in onec of the largest, finest and most economical irrigating plants in the world. Yet the work was long advocated by 2 minority of the people against a majority inflamed by fear induced by the irresponsible statements of the atmospheric irrigators. The minority, however, was composed of practical men and their per- sistence finally changed the minority to a majority. It remains now for the Sacramento Valley people to get together and again try what the Wright law can do for them. We assume that its application to their needs may be even more economical than in Stanislaus County, since the water of the Sacramento may be diverted with- out using the costly head works that were necessary in the Tuolumne. The Sacramento Valley is ripe on both sides for irrigation, in that respect differing from the San Joaquin Valley, where on the west side it is difficult to get the water. The water of the Sacramento, Feather and Bear rivers may bc diverted on either side where there is land it may serve. San Francisco has a vital interest in further experi- ment with the Wright law, for every acre of land brought into action makes more secure the progress and pros- perity of the State’s commercial center. This city will, through its press and other agencies of publicity, do its full share in making known to intending settlers the merits of the irrigated land of the valleys as fast as the reople will make yse of their legal and natural resources. One may judge of what irrigation will do when it is known that at Riverside 10,000 acres of irrigated land support a population of 13,000 people. That proportion can be considerably scaled and yet the proof will remain that irrigation can make of California the most densely populated and the richest country in the world. The University of California is about to have a new kind of rush. It is not intended for the campus, but for a bog. The rush is to be used for the manufacture of the agricultural station faculty succeed in POLITICAL MISSIONARIES. their experiments. HE campaign of Hon. William Randolph Hearst T for the Presidential nomination has been full of pi- quant surprises. It is said that the oldest living Democratic statesmen are aghast at its features, and we have no doubt the oldest dead statesmen of the same party would join them in aghasting. Mr. Hearst’s per- sonality is furtive and secretive. He is not in evidence publicly. But his representatives are everywhere in evi- dence and their energy is amazing. Ex-Governor Jim Budd is in Texas charged with the duty of securing a delegation for Hearst. Now it is a distinction to have ex-Governors as political drummers. Hearst had one al- ready in Texas in Governor Hogg, and now Budd and Hogg are rooting together, but with poor prospects oi success. The lone star twinkles, but not for them. Hearst's system of sending agents into States of which they are not citizens as his “commissioners” to get dele- gates is absolutely novel. But its novelty is not the most amazing part of it. He is able to enlist, apparently at so much per, men in this business who have records and ex- perience. He has in the north now a distinguished com- mission from this State in Messrs. Murphy, Mooser and Tarpey. They told the Oregon convention what they wanted and that obdurate body refused it! Such effron- tery is execrable. What can the Oregon Democracy mean by it? When three distinguished gentlemen ask of it merely a delégation to a national convention for their personal use a refusal is just what Commissioner Tar- pey called it, rank ar}d hageful treason. Mr. Mooser, who is treasurer of the California State Committee and there- fore deals with high finance, threatened to buy the dele- gation after it was elected. Such devotion to a-high pur- pose ought to impress people. Mr. Mooser explains that he said he could buy the delegation. Upon exdmination of this it is found to mean either that the delegation would sell or that he had the means to buy it if he chose. What possible objection could the Oregon Democracy have to that? The California commissioners are there to do business. Why receive them in an unfriendly way that amo to a restraint upon trade? Any but an Ore- * X gon Democrat would go out and die of appendicitis after ‘hearing Mr. Tarpey’s rebuke of that unfriendly conven- tion and witnessing the attempt of its members to kick Mr. Mooser's.abdomen off for talking plain finance. They seemed ignorant of the connection between Mr. Hearst’s campaign and the quantitative theory of money. Yet quantitation was preached to them by Mr. Bryan in the last two campaigns. As one reads the sad experiences of these eminent fel- low citizens of ours among the Oregon Democracy mem- ory goes back to the earlier and better days of that com- monwealth, to Delusion Smith and Jo Lane and Nes- mith, to Kelley and Eugene Cronin and his ripe, red nose, and even to Tony Noltner—all gone like a beauti- ful dream, leaving behind them a sordid set who don’t treat visiting statesmen often nor right, and want to whip a financier because he merely suggests the possible hy- pothecation of a delegation instead of capitalizing the whole convention. We say to Oregon and we say it now, hoping not to be misunderstood, that when Californid puts on the road an inimitable aggregation like these commissioners of Mr. Hearst we expect them to be treated with proper respect, and when their money converses it should be listened to [ and not brutally denied a hearing. When a Texas Hogg holds out the hand of hospitality to our own Budd and they console each other in defeat and lift the same wicker-covered glassware, it is time to be ashamed that Oregon joins California at all. The commissioners have left Oregon and all its sad memoriés and shabby treatment behind them and are going to hold the Democratic convention in Washington and pick up a delegation there in time to return home and convene at Santa Cruz. We hope that Washington will recognize these statesmen when they arrive, for we assure that young and growing State that they will be found to be gents who know what they want and are abundantly able to pay for it. Hearst's motto is “virtue must be indorsed—at any cost.” Stung by experience, the Regents of the University of California are discussing the propriety of giving the gentleman who shall serve them next as secretary a salary in keeping with the importance of his position. Assuming the justice of the discussion, might it not be well for the Regents so to fortify the good reselutions of the néw secretary with a modern system of book- ' keeping that he may be strengthened in the narrow path of duty by the knowledge that dishonesty will be in- evitably followed by detection? A million for the benefit of its School Department. That city had already excellent school build- ings and facilities, but its rapid increase in population has outgrown them, and it must have more. There be some who complain when a city has to vote bonds in such an amount to increase its school facilities, but the OAKLAND SCHOOL BONDS. T Saturday’s election Oakland voted nearly a necessity which requires such a provision is an adver- | tisement which brings back to the city many times the | amount of the appropriation in the attention it attracts and the new people it brings. Enterprise attracts enter- prise. People don't like to go to a stagnant town that stands still. It is not economy, but waste, to omit proper and honest expenditures for needed public im- provements. OQakland has shown an excellent public temper in this vote for the schools, and now should continue the good work by voting the bonds for park and boulevard im- provements. That city can more easily acquire a half- million of people in the next ten years than she ac- quired her 80,000 in the last thirty years. The impulse given by public improvements is irresistible. No city ever died of improvements, but many have expired for the lack of them. It is a mistake to suppose that the taxation necessary for such improvements is a draw- back. All that new settlers want is to see substantial results for the money spent. A dollar’'s worth of im- provement work visible for every dollar of taxation s better for a city than a tax of 25 cents with no results in sight. Oakland should spare no effort to organize and work for the success of the improvement bonds that are soon to be voted on. With Oakland and San Francisco jointly spending about $23,000,000 in public improvements, this whole bay region gets an advertisement greater and more important than any other part of the United States. | Nowhere else is such an expenditure for public construc- tion being made. Indeed, we doubt whether two such populations have ever equaled it at one time and in one lump in this country. It presents to the mind of people everywhere not only a picture of the wealth -of these two communities, but of its devotion to such public uses as make more wealth by furnishing vast amounts of work and creating values for the future. These considerations should spur Oakland to great activity and make sure the indorsement at the polls of the proposed issue. Having set her face to the morning and the future, that fair town should not now flinch and turn back. Detectives, shrewd, designing and insistent of pur- pose, have discovered the cabin in which the daring highwaymen hatched their recent audacious attack upon a Shasta train. If walls had tongues as well as ears what a revelation might reward the endeavors of the sleuths. Until walls do have tongues it is safe to cata- logue the rural crime among the mysteries that contribute not a little to the desperate romance no less than to the picturesque lawlessness of the West. AR B S An Towa matron, bending under the weight and sad- dening experience of eleven years of life, has petitioned the courts for a divorce from her spouse, who is still re- cuperative and buoyant under the snows of sixty win- ters. When such a tragedy can occur in a twentieth century American community is it still possible to meas- ure the intelligence or the morality that marks the dif- fergnce between men and beasts? —— Christian workers, militant in their search for souls, have demanded of the courts of Kentucky that Caleb Powers be granted liberty or a new trial. As Caleb is conceded to be a person of sound judgment he might decide if he were consulted that liberty would be dan- gerous and a new trial positively fatal to his life. Ameri- can communities have not yet lost their reputation for justice. R —_— Oakland is to be com@atulated on the success of her election to provide for the issuance of $960,000 worth of school bonds. Municipalities, like individuals, some- times make mistakes, but establishing increased school facilities is mot ome of them 3 TALK OF () Clothes and the Man. “Why, old man, you look as if you had gone through a hard campaign in China with that same blessed old coat on that vou used to wear back at col- lege.” The red-faced, sleekly dressed man clapped the little minister on the back and roared his greeting heartily enough after three years’ separation. The man of the cloth looked down on his greeny-black coat, tightly buttoned up to the threat so that the lack of a shirt underneath would not be mani- fest; he tucked back out of sight one frayed cuff that had slipped down the bare wrist, then he laughed a little un- easily. “No, I will not go up to your club, Jim; I hardly look fit to-day.” “Why fit enough! Come along.” The red-faced chap was not to be put off. He was not a fellow to be thoughtful | of little things. “Buf, I say, Freddy,” he continued, “you must be in love when you forget to keep that button there sewed on. Back at Dartmouth | you were spotlessness itself. You re- member when we used to go out to see that Hackett girl and I—" The little preacher, who had been getting more and meore red, interrupt- ed with an upraised finger. “Jim, maybe I had best explain. I always used to like good clothes I admit— maybe I was quite a dandy in college. But Jim, old man, I am not getting very much salary now, down at the chapel—only forty-five dollars a month | —and sometimes that is not regular. | And besides,” the tired eyes lit up with |a gleam near akin to triumph, “we have a new altar in the chapel now | and—and—1 helped with its purchase a little bit.” “Freddy,” said he of the sleek tweed and the figured vest, and his voice was sunk to a note of awe, “Freddy, you | are the best dressed man in San Fran- cisco to-day.” His Only Desire. The face that peeked out of the small | wicket in the door of the cell reserved at the Central Emergency Hospital for youngsters destined for the Juvenile Court. was as black as the ace of spades. It was the face of a boy about ten vears of age. The whites of his eyes appeared to be the color of snow, | so great was the contrast, and the great big even white teeth shone forth like a row of pearls on a piece i of black cloth. It was a happy-go- | lucky face, and its owner, though | dressed in rags, and shoeless and stockingless, gave every evidence that | { it did not belie him. “Hullo, boss,” he ®ould say, with a merry laugh, to those who, in passing the wicket, would stop and look at the *pickaninny.” Such a cheery remark ! would naturally call forth an equally cheerful response, and then, the ice broken, the urchin would poke his | black, shiny face up to the wicket. “Say, boss,” he would then invari- ably say, “any chance to get a fellow : some doughnuts?” A Wizard. In the belief that he possessed the supernatural power to cause rain or sunshine at his pleasure, the man re- moved his shoes, coat and vest, and by making a good imitatiog of a wind- mill of his arms attracted quite a crowd | about him. Just then a meddlezome | police officer hove in sight and had the | man removed to the detention hospital | for the insane at the City Hall. An ex- amination of his effects brought forth a conglomerate assortment of odds and ends. Among these were two small phials of oily matter, said by him to be the oil of green snakes captured in the garden of Eden, which possessed ' supernatural power when placed in the hands of a divinely gifted person, such as he himseif. In the soles of his shoes he had a layer of red sand which he claimed came from the site upon which stood King Solomon’s temple. One grain of this sand when thrown in a certain direction would produce rain or drought at the will of him so gifted. To confirm the poor demented crea- ture’s notions of his power it com- menced to rain just at the time of his capture. This omen of supernatural ! power excited him to the condition in . which he was found. He is now mak- ing grass grow at pleasure in the lawn at the Napa State Hospital for the In- | sane. } Order of the Golden Kite. The reports of the bestowing of the | Order of the Golden Kite on Japanese officers for conspicuous gallantry read rather quaintly, sandwiched as they generally are between items of news which show how very much abreast of the times and Western ideas is the Land of the Rising Sun. Still, they serve to recall what a very large role kite-flying plays in the life of the East. According to ancient Chinese records the first kite was invented about 200 B. C., and since that date the national pastime has advanced to a very fine art indeed. Perhaps the most ingenious and wonderful kite is that which was recently acquired by a museum of na- tural history in America, which meas- ured from head to tail no less than | forty feet, and was made to fold up | accordion-like. The front of this kite | represented the fierce, large head of the | famous dragon of Chinese mythology, | with its huge eyes, gaping mouth and | long, protruding horns. The eyes were | in themselves a work of genius. They were contrived from a series of bamboo sticks run crosswise, to the center of which pasteboard disks, painted in cir- cles of black, red, yellow and white, | and measuring a foot or more in diam- | eter, were fastened. By a simple me- | chanical contrivance these pieces of | pasteboard revolved by the action of the wind while the kite was being flown, | thus representing the awful rolling eyes of the dragon. Saved Her Baby. The hippopotamu$ is not generaily credited with great intellectual power, but it seems from the following incl- dent that somewhere in that mass of flesh and fat resides a brain prompt to act when necessity demands. For sev- land wearing a hippopotamic | THE TOWN O eral weeks the wonder and delight of I an English zoological park was a baby hippopotamus, which was named Guy Fawkes, because its birthday fell upon the 5th of November. The young hippopotamus was about the size of a bacon pig, of a pinkish slate color and as playful as a kitten. It was only three days old when, as the superintendent of the zoo was watching the little fellow’s antics, It dived to the bottom and did not rise. The grown animals never remain under water much longer than three minutes, 80 as time went on and no baby re- appeared the superintendent became | alarmed. When twenty minutes had elapsed he gave orders that the water be drawn from the tank to recover the body of what he felt sure was a dead baby hip- pomotamus. As the plug was being re- moved young Guy Fawkes appeared, shaking his funny little horse-like ears grin, which seemed to say, “Don’t be fright- ened; I'm all right. You don’t know all about me yet.” The young animals have a great power of remaining under water, which they lose as they increase in years. The next time baby went to the bot- tom, however, was not so much of a joke. He tried to climb up the side of the tank in which there were no steps. He fell back again and again, until he sank exhausted. The Kkeepers were gathered about the tank in great anx- fety, but unable to help. The mother, | however, hurried to her baby with all her clumsy haste. She dived, put her ' broad nose under Guy Fawkes, shov- eled him up and held him above the surface until he had recovered his breath and was rested. It was nearly half an hour before the little fellow was able to make another attempt. Then he made a huge effort, Mamma Hippopotamus gave a big shove with her head and Master Guy Fawkes clambered triumphantly up the side of the tank—Youth’s Companion. A Botanical Freak. Professor Charles Joseph Chambers lain of the department of botany of the University of Chicago believes that the plant called dioon, which belongs to the Cycad group, corresponds in plant life to the “missing link” in the Darwinian theory of evolution. Dr. Chamberlain has just returned from Jalapa, Mexico, where he was | sent by the Botanical Society of Amer- {ica to secure specimens of the rare dioon. Dr. Chamberlain brought back | two of the flowers of the dioon. By the embryclogy of the seeds of the dioon Dr. Chamberlain hopes to prove that the dioon was on the earth as far back as the onaleozoic age, and that some plants of the species have been growing continually ever since. “The dioon is a rare and wonderful plant,” said Dr. Chamberlain. “Every- thing about it points to the fact that it is what we have termed the ‘miss- ing link.’ The dicon can be found in no place in the world except in a nar- { row strip of territory in the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico, near Jalapa. The flower is the * aviest in the plant king- dom. Those which I have brought back average fourteen pounds apiece. It | blossoms once in four years."—New York Sun. Answers to Queries. SULLIVAN-CORBETT—O. A. 8§, City. In the match between John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett, fought September 7, 1892, in New Orleans, Cor- bett won in twenty-one rounds. ASSAYING—W. L. S, La Panza, San Luis Obispo County, Cal. To determine whether rock contains gold, silver or platinum requires some knowledge of assaying. If you have rock which you believe contains metal of some kind, send a sample to the Mining Bureau, in the Union Ferry Depot, San Franeisco, where it will be tested without cost, and you will be advised as to what it contains. NEVADA MARRIAGES—Subscriber, City. The majority of the Supreme .Bench of California has decided that marriages contracted in the State of Nevada by persons who have obtained a decree of divorce in the State of Cali- fornia, though contracted within a year after the divorce was granted, are valid, for the reason that a marriage that is valid in the State or country in which it takes place is valid in Califor- nia. ORANGE TREES—M. H., Tiburon, Cal. The best time to bud the orange - in California is during March and April, just as soon as the trees begin to show signs of growth. The sap is then rising, and if budded at that time almost every bud will take, and in less than a month will start. It is not best to cut the entire foliage of the stock when starting the buds; a little should be left to keep the sap in the stock flowing and induce the buds to start. Orange trees are trimmed after they have been in the nursery a year, pro- vided thev have made good growth. This is generally done in February, and the trees are then left to be budded. —_———— Townsend's California Glace fruits and candies, artistic