The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 1, 1904, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, I\IIONDAY, AUGU T 1. 1904 The Lake of Taupo.v In the Wholt vurlefl range -of New Zealand scenery it is doubtful if there is any one loe-.le #0 rich in different at- tractions as the lake of Taupo—Taupo | Moana, the great inland ‘sea, as it Is| called by the Maoris, who have their principal strongholds close to its plc-- turesque borders. It is situated at an sititude of 1300 feet'above the sea level, is twenty-five miles long-by sixteen and & half across, and since its depth has been tested to over ninety fathoms it can be understood how a stiff breeze from the northwest stirs its’ surface with turbulent seas. “The township of Taupo, which takes its pame from the lake, lles on-the morthern shore, end for its chief inter- est has the old Maori redoubt, situate on & high bank of the broad Watkato River, and rich in memories of stirring doings in the days that are sone. Maor! canoes are regularly seen paddling ecross this river, which here emerges from the ‘clear. lake and shapes its course in a rapid rush through deep -gorges-and wide plains to the sea. The :Watkato serves as a-dividing line be- ‘tween the- European. séttlement:-of. ““Taupo town.and ‘the -native.village ebove, which stood a. fortified nmpm in the war perfod of 1865-71. 7 ‘Looking across the lake toward the south one can see rising from the table- lands that ‘back Rotoalira the magnifi- cent spectacle of fthe three great snow- clad ‘volcanoes Hfting their peaks, which renge from 7000-to 9000 feet in height, under & masstve drapery of perpetual ice and snow and from whose summits isete clouds and spires of sulphurous steam and smoke. These remarkablé | mountains were until quite recently con- sidered” sacred by the Maoris, and on| the eerie altars of their snow-capped craters and glaclal recesses the natives offered homage and - propitiation to their deified- ancestors—the gods of “thelr.race. The whole pllbe teems with interest— anecdotal history and mythological and Jegendary traditions of the tribal heroes of the past. Every hill'and glade, even the trees and flowers, have mystic'as- sociation’ with demigods and demons, for -thé folk lore of the New Zealand | Maoris is-the richest in the world. Half-. way across Taupo Moano is the little | . forest-clad island of Motutaiko, v\hich‘ in the visionary past was the fortified - habitation of a mighty tribe, but which |. for many generations has been used as 2 tribal. birying place—the campo sauto in our own day of Christian Maoris.” . 3 On the northern coast, within a short distance of the township, is the extinct _wolcano Mount Tauhara, rising clear into the air-for a height of 3600 feet and | now covered on all sides by a heavy wooded. growth. Clearly definable through all formations is the terrace, which encircles the entire lake a hun- dred feet above its present level, show- ing that in former times the Taupo ‘waters were that measure higher than at the present day. The western shores of the lake are famous for the tremen- dous rhyolitic steeps of Karangahape, which rise i a perpendicular precipice 1000 feet high above sixty fathoms of water. There still exist many evidences to show that these cliffs were once used as 2 last refuge resort by natives flee- ing from desperate invaders. Caves abound in these cliffs, all of which were at one time or another used | as living places by the Taupo natives, who were cave-dwellers to a very great extent. When giving evidence at the native land court of Taupo just twenty wears ago the old warrior, Hitiri, said: “I was born in a cave at Kawakawa. ® * * At Waihaha there is a cave called Oruawaikaha belonging to two tribes. The chief and his father are buried there. &t Karaugahape Point there is a cave which was used as pa (fortress) and called Omumutu. There are many other interesting records of the same character, showing that these caves served as the birth and death places and the fighting haunts of the Maoris, who distin- guished them by names as they do houses and even trees in their customs of to-day. An abiding charm of Taupo Lake is the great diversity of its shores, and close to the Karaugahape cliffs is.a native setflement, -numbering among its residents the old chief Hitiri te Paerata, just quoted. Hitiri is a war- rior of long descent, the' hero of many | about 30 saimples. 1ing one c. c.~and deposit- it in a jar {mulllplied by 10,000 in’ order to find ‘of .undiluted milk. Sometimes there great fights. In 1864 he took part in 2 brave but hopeless defense of Orakan pa, which fell to an overwhelming Brit- ish force under General Cameron. Hi- tiri’s father and other relatives were kiiled, but he and his sister, Ahumai, who was badly wounded, escaped. These sole survivors still entertain travelers with tales of how they held the fort against tremendous odds and at last broke through the line of mili- tary in their daring rush for life. Ahu- mai, who is now a doubled-up, old de- crepit, tells how she shot two soldiers herself on that occasion, for the Maori women frequently bore arms wflh the men. Waterfalls, valleys, rapids, boiling springs and icy fountains all lend their variety to this partis shore, which is further enhanced fine stretches of primeval bush, which In many places elopes its soft, green way right down to the water's edge. In summer time the stdtely branches of the Christmas tree wave their gorgeous crimson blossom above the clear blue lake, and along the eastern shore there is a perfect feast of flowers all peculiar to the place, Groves of native evergreens are fes- tooned with delicate lianas, and in sea- son beautified with the blossoming floss of the wild clematis. .Then there is the wonderful yellow kowhai, which showers the lake and land with golden petals and of which Kipling wrote: The kowhal's gold, Flung for gift on Taupo's face, Sign that spfing is come—. According to geological opinion this lake of Taupo was once an immense volcano, and a final touch of variety is lent to its remarkable surroundings by the miles of pumice deposit which at intervals -coat many miles of the country. This gray surface obtrudes its | melancholy dullness in.sylvan groves‘ and forbidding cliff land alfke, but| often forms an indefingble, appropriate background for the picturesque Maori villages, where the dignified native | pursues his mystic and isolated way in the very heart of the thermal district, and yet only 200 miles from the bust- ling city of Auckland. A.G. M. Counting Bacteria. In a great many citles where the quality of the milk supply is given some attention the bacterial test has been adopted among the others for the determination of the quality of the milk. This has just been done in Bos- ton. In that city & stanfard which would amount to about 1,200,000 bge- teria. to the quantity of milk which an ordinary. household . tumbler would. hold has béen adopted. It may be -interesting to learn how the bacteriologists ever counted all these germs, or how they -manage to count the germs in samples from 25 to 30 different places every day. Dr. Slack, says the Boston Transeript, who attends to it all personally, goes out every morning to collect samples. He. visits the dairy stationf§along the rail- roads, and eventually will visit stores and restaurants also, and collects He draws the milk from the can by means of a small ster- llized and marked glass tube. The large |- tube is-then placed-in the box, and the small tube is put out of commission | for the -presént, or until it has been | sterilized again. Another tube is filled in the same way from another can, perhaps ‘at another station, and when 30 samples have been taken the bacter- fologist returns to the laboratory on Sudbury street to begin his research | work. The temperature of the milk | in the big glass tubes is kept just above freezing, by ice in both ends of the’ copper ‘box, so that the germs in the | milk have 'no opportunity to multiply | Irom the time the sample is taken until its purity has been tested. At the Jlaboratory the bacteriologist draws about 15 drops from'the suppiy in the big tube—the exact amount bg- containing 100 c. ‘c: of sterilizad water.- He shakes the jar well and then draws one c. c. from-the diluted contents and drops it into another bottle contairing 100°c. c. of pure sterilized water. Only | one o . ¢ (about 15 drops) from the contents of this second bottle is ex- |- amined and’it- is only a matter of | arithmetic- to. determine that the milk | subjected to. the actual bacterial test | has been diluted 10,000 times, so that the nuiber of germs found in the 15 | dreps from the second. bottle must be how much bacteria there is.in 15 drops are so many ‘in the diluted.drops that it is impracticable to count them all. But the germs in milk are so infin- itesimal that it is impossible to isolate them and find even the comparnlhely\ few that exist in 15 drops-of so highly | diluted milk. The 15 drops, therefore, | are emptied intd -a shallow glass dish | that. can be closed air-tight, and spread | out over a coat of agar-agar jelly,.on’| which the germs will feed 'and multi- ply. In 24 hours each germ multiplies.| so enormously that it becomes sur- rounded by a cluster as large in cir- cumference as a pea, and under a read- ing glass magnifying about three times each cluster may be distinguished with- out the slightest difficulty. Each clus- ter represents one original germ, and the total number of clusters found in the glass dish is multiplied by 10,000 to find how many germs there were in one c. c. of undiluted milk, and 'the second total may be multiplied by 240 to find how many germs there are in a tumbler full of such milk, since a tumbler holds about 240 c. c. Delicate Taste in the Home. In furnishing a house the processes of imitation and of assimilation both come into play. There setms to be no | such thing as absolute originality, but | by absorbing one idea here and another there one finally produces a composite which is in a way one’s own. Eut in this assimilative process com- mon sense must hold sway. Things which will look well in the great roomy country house of a friend may be ab- surd when transferred to a city apart- ment. The cast of the “Singing Boys"” hung in a niche especially built for it may be a dominant note of beauty in | a room, but in a small house, hung on a figured wallpapey, it may become the one discordant thing in an otherwise pleasant little living-room. This indis- criminate usé of plaster casts is dis- tressing, for a note of pure white in a | room where the color 1s of a low rich torne is seldom pleasant. The white hits the eyes, as it were, 80 unless the cast is 8o beautiful that you dare let it challenge the attention do not buy it; or if it is a gift, rclezzte it to some obscure corner. It takes a little courage to dismiss from a room an article absolutely good and worthy, simply because it is inap- ropriate, but it is the thing to do. Sp alsc in buying. Unless where you consider buying an article you can pic- ture it in your mind’s eye as occupying -the production of print cloths. .ditions caused by the labor-disturbances. _dr_agging all over the country. the very position for which you design it, pass it by. It will not do. When this lesson is learned the most impor- tant step toward economy, and fitness also, has been taken.—Anne Higginson Spicer in the House Beautiful for Au- gust. “Look at that piffed-up thing coming this way!"” sgaid the first tack, as the pneumatic tire approached. “If it makes any attempt to run over me,” said the second tack, “I'll take t.bewlndntoflt. '~New Yorker. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor « « « o « o« « o . . Address All Commanications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication OfMiCe ....oacssecesesssscans. s 00 5b ol pd sBbs Gos 500 h50 0208 PR 2P hens e s b v em s RIEN AIND Markes Strects, B ¥ MONDAY L L i s srenansavassuabunsanansosssnsanerst names ol shgecssosnatsers nonnns AUGUST. 1. 1004 TRADE AND THE STRIKES. HE exhibit of general ‘business last week was hardly as favorable as for several weeks past, owing. to the extension of the Western packing- house strike. Ten days ago it was supposed that the acuteness of the situation was over, but after working a day the men walked out again, and from that time there bas been a slow but steady expansion of the difficulty, Which now extends from New York to the Missouri River-and involves many thousands of employes, besides disturbihg all markets connected with the meat in- dustry, including the very important lines of hides and leather. Hides have already advanced in consequence of the strike, and the tanners say that if it continues much longer they will become actually scarce, in which case there will be a marked rise in the quotations. Live: stock, which finds its chief markets at the six or eight packing centers, is being held back on the farms and ranges, and those districts where stockraising is the leading industry will very soon feel the effects of the suspension of the movement. Right on the heels of this Western packers stnke comes another at Fall River, where 25000 mill hands have struck against a reduction in wages, the immediate effect of this being the almost complete suspension of Furthermore, another coal strike, involving 80,000 men, is threateried, whilé the packers’ strike is leading to sympathetic disturb- ances, among whicl is a possible strike of railroad em- ploycs. "Of ¢ourse, all this distarbance nflects trade, It offsets, more or less, the _buo;,ant feeling created by the excel- lent crop prospects and restricts the operations of the large merchants and manufacturers, who do not care to run the risk ‘of stocking up with large lines of goods .which they may not be able to work off for an indefinite period. It may explain the less favorable showing of the bank clearirigs, which showed a loss for the week ‘of 10.3 per cent as compared with the same week last year and a decline in the aggregate clearings from over $2,000,000,000 to $1,844,000,000, with-all the leading cities except Boston, Cincinnati and Minneapolis ranged on the adverse side of the list. The failures for the week were 220, against 190 last year. _Tt is unfortunate that these large fmkes have occurred just at the moment when a business revival seemed well under way. They have décreased the demand for a num- ber of. commodities in the trade areas subject to their in- fluence, have restricted credits and retarded the opening of the fall trade, which promised to be larger than ex- . pected several moriths ago. They haye impaired invest- ments in }aili—oad' shares by threatening to cut down the earnings .of .the railroads, ‘though the latter are making a_very fair showing; those for July being only about 2.7 per cent less than last’year. They have given capital another ‘shiver- just at the moment when the timidity and h:sltancv whxch kept it in'a condmon of stagnation for months were dlsappeahng The staples all along the line reflect the adverse con- a Provisions are :Numerous textile mills in the East are shutting down, or-running on reduced time in consequence. Wholesale prices for cattle, sheep .and “hogs are going down and -the stock raisers are obliged to pay out a good deal of money to feed this held-back stock, ‘which otherwise. would have been sent to. market and got out of the way. In brief, dozens of lines.are affected by these new labor disturbances. The crop prospects, which, as already meritioned, form the basis of business calculatiohs this yeas, continue very encouraging. Experts are néw figuring on 2,500,000,000 bushels of corn, 625,000,000-bushels of wheat and 11,500,- | 000 bales-of cotton, and as all three products are bring-+ inig 'very fair prices it is reasonably expected, that the coyntry will have a very good season, provided the labor troubles do not increase to such proportiéns as to para- lyze trade in. their respective districts. In anticipation of moving these-large crops some Western ‘railroads are said to be placing:liberal orders’ for supplies and ma- tetial,.in spite of the recent damage ‘to the wheat crop, and tlie president of one of the leading systems operat- ing wstward from Chicago is quoted as.saying that the year 1905 will make up for all the inactivity in construc- tion work and betterments during 1904. The war has suddenly loomed up intc increased im- portance as a trade factor during the past week. It had practically ceased to figure as an’ issue, when the un- expected activity of the Russians in seizing ships in the Red Sea and Oriental Pacific created apprehensions of new international complications and sent a ripple of ex- citement all over the world. The stock markets of Lon- don and New York, not to mention the bourses, at once became unscttled, sensitive and fever- ish, exchange fluctnated and the bonds of different nations showed the effect of possible complications by weakening more or less. On this coast the effect of the seizures was pronounced, for vast amounts of goods are now being sent from San Francisco to the Orient, and our export trade is bound to be affected if the scizures continue. In fact, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company on Saturday announced that it would receive no more freight for Japan. The feature of the week locally was the throwing open by the Government of the Panama Railroad to all shippers of freight. As already shown by The Call, this will be a great stimulus to the commerce of the port of San Francisco by enabling it to regain from New York, Chicago, St. Louis and other large Eastern distributing points a vast trade area wrested from it years ago by the acquisition of the control of the isthmian railread by the transcontinental rail and ‘steamer lines, Years ago we were the distributing point for about all the territory on the Pacific Slope extending as far east as Colorado; but when by reason of the passing of the Panama line into the control of the overland railroads the Chicago and St. Louis merchants’ could undersell San Francisco,-even in Oakland, not to mention Sacra- mento and other important cities, we lost a fine plum. It looks noJ: as if we were to get that plum back again, and if we do it behooves us to keep our commercial fist closed over it in the future. It is too fine a prize to be carelessly guarded. It is easily lost and with difficulty regained. For the rest, conditions in Cnhforma remain about as before stated. The growing conviction that our wheat and barley crops will be lighter than expected several months ago has caused heavy buying of both these grains in the three large interior valleys, where buyers have been cagerly paying the farmers more than San Francisco prices to obtain supplies. Speculators have supplemented these purchases, hence pronounced ac- tivity is reported in the grain market. All the other important crops are turning out well and are bringing first-rate prices as a rule, so the agricultural and com- ammumwhmmm“. | cellent. Strictly mercantile business is reported more: or less quiet, but not to the point of dullness, and all lines are looking forward to another good year. The energy with which the Auditor of San. Francisco is resisting the salary demands of those municipal em- ployes that have been appointed to public office in de- fiance of civil service conditiofis or in contempt of them has at least one merit in forcing these petty politicians to submit to some worry if not to perform some work for the mythlcal service they render to the clty gov- ernment. THE RATIFICATION MEETINGS. HILE neither of the ratification meeiings held in this city can be justly called notable in any W respect, they none the less served to show something of the sentiment of the people. on tlie issues of the time. They may be accepted, therefore, as more or less significant of the trend the campaign will be forced to take as soon as it passes from control of the politicians into that of the masses to whom the spellbinders will be compelled to appeal when they take the stump. that reason they are worth studying as straws whose drifting shows the way the wind blows. The sentiment of the Republican meeting was clear and unmistakable. - It is expressed completely in the »hrase, “stand pat.” Every word of indorsément given to the record of the party, to its principles, to its plat- form, to the administration, to the candidates, was heartily applauded. The rank and file of the party are evidently satisfied with the condition of the country and gratified over the relations of tlie administration to our’ existing prosperity. They desire no change except that which will come in the steady advancement of the coun- try along'the lines already established by Republican statesmen. The maintenance of the administration will paign, and it is safe to say that in Republican ‘meetings there will be hardly any other issue discussed. cratic ratification was by fno means so clearly shown, nor can it be so terselysgtated. The speakers of the evening were many and their arguments were various, Taken altogether they may be said to -have spread a dr‘agm‘t over the whole sea of politics, but. failed to European | bring to the-surface anything of importance. The state- ment of one of the speakers that the trusts sell amcles of American manufacture cheaper in foreign countries than at home brought forth applause, and it would seem that some kind of a tariff fight might rouse the ardor of a portion "at least of the Democratic’ masses. On the other hand "an attempt by one of the leading orators of the evening to impress the audience with a conviction that we are upon the eve of hard times, that the cost | of living has increased, that the Republicansyhave given the country. what is vlnually a seventy-cent dollar, failed utterly. Thus it appears that if a tariff fight be made at all it will have to be made upon very narrow lines, for the people cannot be persuaded that they ‘are. not pros- perous and well paid under the protective system. : Another significant feature of the' Democratic meeting was the coldness with which the name of Parker was received. Even the speakers of the evening did not show enthusiasm for him. Several of them, indeed, had not even taken the trouble to learn his name, and while one of them spoke of him as'Alton G. Parker, Gthers calfed him Allen G. or Allen B. It is evident that tq the Democracy of this city Parker is a nullity. We may- look, therefore, for a campaign on the Democratic side made up largely of appeals to the memory of Jefferson and Jackson, with a little talk about tariff and trusts afd a good deal of windy denunciation of the grand oId party and ns cand.date:. A sc'wol far truant boys will soon be one of thc established features of our local public school system and another goblin will have been’ created to zfinght the dreams of that irrepressible genius, the bad small bqy. The prmcnpal of the school, at a single bound, has leaped into the ranks aof modern martyrs. He ijs one m#n at ledst who will earn his salary from the munici- pality. O year when reports cf forest fires will form a frequent and sometimes a notable feature of the news of the day. Already such reports have begun and ere long we shall be having them from every part of the United States and in a marked degree from the States of the Pacific Coast. Our yearly tribute to negligence and carelessness in this respect is enormous, and in this year, as in those that have preceded, many millions of dollars’ worth ot precious woodlands will be burned away solely because we are too indifferent to their value to undertake their preservation. FOREST FIRE TIME. NCE more we have reached the season of the In California the campaign of education on this sub- ject _has been carried so far that well nigh every one whose opinion is worth anything is already convinced of the importance of devising some practical means of protecting the forests of the State. Furth®& argument upon that phase of the question is unnecessary, and if insisted upon would be tiresome. The next step to be taken is the formulation of a fairly comprehensive and scientific plan of forest protection and its presentation to the Legislature for adoption. Associations that have been ‘formed for the purpose of conserving the woods and forests should at onge set themselves to the task of achieving that step. i We are to elect a new Legislature this fall and we are to have a legislative session next winter. This, there- fore, is a good time to press the question upon public attention as ome of practical politics. The forest fires that are sure to be blazing from the Oregon line to Ari- zona during the dry season will help on the work of rousing the minds of voters to a sense of the imperative need of making at least a beginning in the way of scien- tific forestry. If then the right use be made of the lessons they teach we may get some profit out of dis- asters that in the past have caused nothigg but loss. At any rate the topic is a timely one and remedial action cannot be too persistently urged. Wu Ting Fang, who recently distinguished himself as the representative of China at Washington and then re- turned to his native land to assume duties of adminis- tration of the highest character, has decided to abandon his public career, give up the honors and emoluments of official life and retire to his private estates. Can any one blame him for suffering from ennui after leaving the hotbed of Washington public life and the hurly burly of American politics to fall into the dull, dreary routine of Chinese officialdom, where only the headsman offers a relief to daily monotony? For | therefore be the chief feature of the Republican cam- | The temper displayed by the ‘audience at the Der‘no-‘ TALK OF THE T OWN Put Up or Simt, U “The home-coming of the special cor- respondents from the Far East recalls an amusing incident concerning Eddle Morphy,” sald one of the old guard the other day. “Morphy was sent across to report the Fhino-Japanese war for one of the local papers. He was rated as a ‘star’ and of course great things were ex- pected of him. Days, weeks and even months passed, but not a lin& of news came, The cable tolls on his appeals for money, however, reached a consid- erable sum, and the managing editor began to fret. Finally a request for 3500 roused the chief and the follow- ing reply was sent: “No stuff, no money.” To which Morphy responded: “No money, no stuff.” 4 = Morphy never came back, and he is said to be doing well In one of the | Far Eastern countries. Hot Off the Wire. John M Sweltzer one of the dele- gdtes to the Republican National Con- ventipn from the Philippines, tells a good story on Captain Andrew Rowan, dent’s message to Garcia won for him a place among the heroes of the Span- | ish war. Rowan was stationed at a post in one of the remote provinces of the isi- ands. A backward season had been disdstrous to crops, and the priceg ot provender had gone skyward as a re- sult. About this time several wealthy Chi- nese merchants had been arrested for smugeling. Rowan. put the Mongols ut werk cutting grass.© This orought forth a protest that finally found its way tc the chief authorities at Manlla. In due course of time the following | telegram re;xched Rowan: “Why are you compellmg ‘wealthy Chinese merchants to cut grass?” “Because grass 1s.high,”" was Row- an's laconic response. The Religion of the Wood. Under the great ~athedral of the sky, Far down the pillared aisles of ash 3 and piné, I join the prayer of poppies bended low, And- count the beaded rosary of the vine. A transept of blue heaven overhead, A choir of birds half hid in copse and scar, My worship Is the pleading of the pine, The burning adoration of a star. i i 1 | | | The pleadmg of the pine that reaches up With nutiidtrett‘hed arms, confiding as | are they not born Into the The !rm‘q faith That when the sun has shined, then God has smiled? The Joymls lnrk high-mounted on his | g, | Ih- lfltod e in rapture from the sod: | Ana’ though I tarry. humble in the grass, | I am a little while the guest of God! And lJike this untaught winged heart of song, " Sweeter for liberty, the breezes fill The vale with hOly incense of the flow- ers, And consflcmte thé altar of the hill. The sunlit altar of -the hi]l, far up The pillared aisles of arching ash and pine, Where nature offers daily sacrifice, | - And night and day keep watch before | her. :hrlnm And now, at eve, the priestly hour has donned A purple vestment for mass; The stars have lit the tapers of the dew, | | And hare and lark are kneeling in the | grass. the vesper ‘Throstles intone the nflnrtory note, And lo! upon the altar-hill of gray, A blood-red host—the saerificial sun— The immolation of a dying day! —Aloysius Coll, in August Lippincott's 3 Magazlne £ ‘A Question of O/VM: What color is least easily seen at a distance? One would naturally say some dull neutral tint, a somber gray or brown. This has been the conclusion | of most military men, and our brilliant | dress unitorms have given way for practical campaigning to khaki and other dull colors. Is this a mistake? Possibly so, according to the results obtained in recent experiments in Eng- land. It has been found there that masses of dull color are very much mere conspicuous at a distance than mixtures of bright tints. For instance, a battery of field artillery, whose car- riages and caissons were decorated with stripes of red, blue and yellow, could be made out with difficulty at 1000 yards, while other batteries painted a uniform brown or drab were easily seen at great distances. It would seem as if, on the same principle, a regiment of gayly dressed troops might be less easily vis- ible than one wholly garbed in dull colored khaki.—Success. Another Lady of the Lake. The variants of the Lady of the Lake Legends are more numerous than most of us realize, but none of these stories is more delicately tinged with Celtic fantasy than that of the Maiden of whose exploit in carrying the Presi- ask her why she weeps when every ona else is gay. “Because they are enter- ing upon trouble,” she says, and warns him that he has given her the second blow. The third biow - follows at a funeral, when she has burst into laughter amid the mourning—as she says, “Because at tkis third and last blow she starts off, and calls in all her cattle and sheep bred from the lake creatures; even the oxen at the plow obey her call, and drag the plow after them. Herewith she bids her husband farewell forever, and returns to the Van Pools it it seems she still felt some pity for the human race she had married into. She returned | at onee to bequeath to two of her sons the secrets of the herbs and their heal- ing powers, and they became ghe fairy doctors kucewn as the Physicians of Myddzal, whose descerdants still live in the neighborhood.—Scottish-Ameri- can. Jumping Four Bars. At a recent musical festival ‘in a Southern city a local chorus was -to. take part with the Chicago Orchestra, directed by Theodore Thomhas. One rumber had an orchestral prelude, the chorus to come in at certain phrase. Four bars before the cue note was ons somewhat similar and when that was reached the chorus, being possibly overwrought, or seized by some panic mania for blundering, promptly came. In—four bars ahead of the proper place. A frightful discord arose and the manager standing in the wings literally tore his hair. e whole per- formance seemed falling about his ears in hopeless ruin. But the next moment be found to his amazement no more discord, but orchestra and chorus moving along so amicably that oniy those familiar with the score sus- pected the imminent shipwreck. So to the end it went, smootily and per- fectly. When it was over, big-eyed and still mopping his brow, the man- ager sought Mr. Thomas. “Say,” he gasped, “I wish you would tell me how you did that.”™ “Oh,” said Mr. Thomas easily, “1 Just jumped the orchestra ahead four bars; that was all.” But no one yet knows how.—Theodore Thomas, mn Everybody’s Magazine for August. ‘Answer sto Queries. AN OLD DATE—A. S. City. Sep- tember 9, 1364, fell on a Friday. NOT IN . PARLIAMENT—Constant Reader, City. The colonies of Great Britain are not represented by mem- bers from such colonies in the Parlia- ment of England. BRITISH ARMY AND NAVY—Con- stant Reader, City. The colonies of Great Britain do not “pay a direct tax imposed by the British Government for the support of the British army and navy.” Some of the colonies make a voluntary ‘contribution for the support of the royal navy. WIDOW'S PENS meda, Cal. The answer to the question, “Does the widow of a Civil War vet- eran receive a’ pension after his death if she married him after 1896?" is that she does not, unless the soldier died from the effects of an injury received while in the service and in the line of duty. REVENUE LICENSE—E.,, Andrews, Or. A person holding a revenue license in one town and moving to another town in the same State may use that license in the town to which he moves by presenting the same to the division deputy in the internal revenue depart- ment of his district and having the word “transferred” in red ink written across the face of it. STONE—B. C., City. Why England and other countries adopted “stone” as a unit of weight is not explained in any published book, and some anti- quarians who have searched for the origin of the same say “it is lost in obscurity.” It is recognized in differ- ent places, but a stone differs in weight with the articles to be weighed. Re- search shows that the stone was a haphazard unit. In Babylon a stone was recognized as the 360th part of a the Lyny Van Vach, or the smaller Van Pool, in Carmarthenshire, recently brought into public notice by the sad death of 2 boy who was lost on the EBlack Mountains while on a fishing expedition to the Van Pools. The story lake maiden one day sitting by the pool, an¢ at once falls in love with her! His frst impulse is to offer her some of his barley bread. But she returns to the water and disappears, saying his bread is too hard for her. Returning hon.e, ke consults his moth- " was er, who projides him with unbaked Texas in the long ago stones, were used barley dougl to offer the maiden. also she declines, tut in the end she is wen by some fresh-baked cakes. She mgerries the young farmer, with the understanding that if he shall ever give her thiee blows sghe shall leave him. She brings for her dower store of cattle and she-p out of the lake. They live verv happily, and children are born to them. But one day, wheh they are hound for a christening party, he strikes her playfully with one of her gloves. She at cnce warns him that that is iPe first blow. And, again, seme time later, at a wedding, the La<y of the Lake bursts into tears, &nd he taps her on the shoulder to tells hrew a young farmer sees the | °T® talent, and the weight of a t#lent is 113 1bs, 10 0z, 1 dwt and 10 gr. In Eng- land a stone is the S8th part of the 100 weight, or 14 pounds. In delving for information about anciént weights Sir A. H. Layard says that he discov- d that weights fell into two classes: (A) those in the shape of a lion made of bronze and (B) those in the shape . of a duck, made of stome. From this some have deducted that in ancient times a bronze lion as a unit of weight was abbreviated to “a lion” and a duck of stone to “a stome,” and that that the origin of stone as a unit. In as a means, of weighing. For instance, if a farmer wanted to know how much 2 hog weighed he would tie the pork- er's feet together and hang him by the feet to the end of a rail, throw the rail over a fence, then he would put a bag at the other end and fill it with stones