Decatur Democrat, Volume 35, Number 14, Decatur, Adams County, 26 June 1891 — Page 6

©he decatur?ind. ■a BLACKBURN, ... PvBUSHM. A, fair young editress of a paper in Georgia denounces a rival editor as “a liar and a beast of a man.” A distinguished Egyptologist has recently unearthed with a lot of mummies a will probably made 4,450 years ago, but, curiously, quite modern in form. Our minds are too limited to take in more than a fractional part of the subjects which come Under our notice; all we can do is to make a selection, knowing that we must in any case leave out much that is of value. A surgeon in Manchester, who has opperated in 139 cases of cancer of the tongue, reports 119 recoveries and twenty deaths. In Russia there is one doctor to every 100,000 inhabitants. The women doctors number 700. > The yearly exodus from the Canadian provinces to New England has begun. Maine Central Railroad officials eay that about 48,000 persons will go from points beyond Vanceboro toward Boston this year, and about 25,000 will go back. Pearls, it is said, fall sick and need a change of air and scene, like human beings. Upon, this fact an enterprising burglar who has taken a pearl necklace out for an airing may base a plea of philanthropy which appears unanswerable. The strength of spider silk is incredible. Size for size it is considerably tougher than a bar of steel. An ordipary spider thread is capable of bearing a weight of three grains, while a steel thread of the same thickness would support less than two. The oldest woman preacher in this country is Rev. Lydia Sexton, who was born in New Jersey in 1799, and who still preaches in various parts of the West She predicts that she will live until 1900, thus extending her life into three centuries. The deepest well in the world is to be drilled near Wheeling, W. Va., by the National and State Governments for the purpose of scientific investigation. The State will drill to the depth of a nile.and then the National Government will take charge, going as far down as possible. , The humps of camels are mere lumps of fat, and not provided for in the frame ■york of the skeleton. When ithe animal is in good condition the humps are full and plump. On a long journey ♦here food is scarce the humps are entirely absorbed, the covering them hanging over the flank nke an empty box. ’ One’s first impression on seeing an ostrich is that he needs another prop under him. The feeling is heightened when he goes to walk, and he himself seems conscious that his center of gravity is a long way above ground, for he goes teetering along as though exercising great care to keep his legs well under him. There are about twenty-eight hundred Counties in the Union with an average size of a thousand square miles, but this average is enormously exceeded in many instances, and has also frequently fallen below. Leaving out the great unsettled counties of the West, the average county would be about five hundred square miles in extent. A tell-tale clock in connection with the London-Paris telephone keeps the record of seconds while the patron talks. When 180 beats have been counted a bell rings and the circuit is cut off. Another three-minutes’ talk may be secured on payment of the ordinary fee of $2, but no more than six consecutive minutes are allowed to any one There are two or three reasons why peace-loving citizens of this glorious republic cringe as they see the awakening signs of another national political campaign. First, there is the man who goes through the train taking votes—he, of course, will soon be epidemic; and then, there is Ignatius Donnelly, who, even this early, has passed the sporadic stage. There are two Donald Mackays in Englewood, N. J., both prominent men, whose mail always getting hopelessly mixed, but neither will change his name even to the extent of putting in an extra initial, and there is no prospect of any end to their trouble. There’s a whole relume on Scotch stubborness for you, with illustrations, appendix, and glossary thrown in. A French authority, recognized in the scientific world, states, the ordinary rate of a man’s walking is four feet per second; of a good horse in harness twelve feet; of a reindeer in sledge cn the ice, twenty-six feet; of an English race-hosce, forty-three feet; of a hare, eighty-eight feet; of a good sailing ship, fourteen feet; of the average wind, eighty-two' feet A German chemist has invented a preparation which, it is claimed, when applied to the soles of shoes, has the effect of increasing their wearing capacity from five to ten times, besides making them water-proof. The preparation is applied after the shoes are finished and the soles are buffed. The right to use it has been sold to the Bavarian Government for the army. The inventor says it has been tested in the German army satisfactorily. In the last two years New London {Conn.) lobstermen have bagged in their deeb-water traps in Fisher’s Island Sound not less than five or six indigo lobsters, which are so rare that

it is not known that more than two of the kind had ever been taken in the world before. In the same time two blue lobsters were caught by Maine fishermen. Blue lobsters are as blue as the summer sky and extremely beautiful. ' ‘ A Kentucky man was two years ago smitten with paralysis. He regained his physical health, but was unable to speak a word. A few days ago while watching a game of ball he received another stroke, which threw him into violent convulsions. He was put in bed, and the next day astonished everybody by sitting up in bed and talking. He has regained his voice, but has lost his recollection of all events during the past two years. It is believed he will recover. It has been found impossible to maintain beavers in the Philadelphia Zoo. They would/fiot bear restraint and did not take kindly to artificial homes. A constant watch was needed to prevent the animals escaping from the wire inclosure and cutting down valuable trees in the vicinity. Logs were laid beside the stream in the inclosure and one family partially constructed a house. Before it was finished, however, the entire cSlony died, and the attempt to cultivate the perverse animal was given up in disgust. Thieves in India have hit upon a novel way to conceal valuables of small size, such as diamonds and jewelry. A heavy lead bullet is allowed to slide down the throat a short distance, and is there kept in position for half an hour at a time. In the course of a year a pouch is formed, into which articles not larger than an inch and a half in diameter may be kept for days without interfering with speech or breath. Iu the Calcutta jail there are now twenty prisoners who have these peculiar throat pouches. Considerable fun, good-natured and otherwise, is being indulged in by the newspapers of the country over the fact that a distinguished party of antiquar-. ians, headed by Senator Hoar, visited the jurying grounds in Boston, and yet, we Suppose, that there isn’t a single one of these alleged humorists who would not find pleasure and profit in a similar undertaking. The old burying grounds of Boston are about as interesting spots as are to be found anywhere in this country, and those who visit them are the last persons in the world to be laughed at. A German editor, who had declared that he could himself do all the work of legislation for Bulgaria after his office hours, has been sentenced to nine m on ths imprisonment for the disloyalty of this utterance. What he said was quite likely true, though legislation by one-man power, even by one who uses the editorial “we,” would be pretty certain to lack in quality what it exceeded in quantity. The editor should have expressed his contempt for the dilatoriness of legislative bodies in more dec-, orous terms. It quite often happens that when the legislature is in a deadlock, it serves the public quite as well as when engaged in active legislative work. There is nothing treasonable in this opinion. An electric novelty is a direct acting electric elevator. The motor is suspended beneath the car, and is equivalent to about three and a half horsepower, while the movements of the cars are easily controlled by switches. The motor is connected with a system of gear wheels, and they grip the ropes on each side, and the car moves up and down only when the motor is in motion. Should any accident happen to the machinery the gear wheels are automatically locked and the car steps. In case such an accident happening while the elevator is between the floors, the elevator boy may attach a crank to the gear that extends inside the car, and the car be wound up or down until a point is reached when the passengers may alight without difficulty. A grateful republic—-and when it comes to matters of grave moment republics can be grateful'—will be rejoiced to learn that Assistant Postmaster Ernst, of Boston is doing his utmost to break up the pernicious practice' of using the vulgar word “Hello” as a telephone salutation. It is bad enough to speak to the beautiful young lady at the central office without ever having been introduced to her. It is simply dreadful, when you stop to think of it, to salute her with that vulgar and familiar word “Hello.” Mr. Ernst should be aided in this noble enterprise of his by all polite citizens, and when he has accomplished this reform he should be encouraged to bring beforeJhe'public the advisability of sending one’s card and letters of reference to the young lady and receiving her permission before speaking to her at all. Educated Baboons. The Hottentots say that baboons can talk, only they will not for fear they should be made to work, and there certainly is but little work to be got out of those cunning hands. Nevertheless we read of some baboons who have been taught to do useful work. There was an obituary notice a year or more ago in all the Cape papers of one of these trained baboons, well known in the colony, who used to act as signalman on the railway, in place of his master, who was lame. The story was doubted by the English papers, which copied it; but we have met with many people who had seen the animal at his work. Mrs. Carey Hobson, too, in one of her pleasant little “South African Stories,** tells of a baboon which had come under her notice, which had been taught to ride after a Dutch Boer as groom, and to dismount and-hold the horse by sitting on the dridle when his master went into a house; and we have seen a troupe of monkeys of various kinds taught to do a great many curious tricks, says Chamber’s Journal; but in these, again they have been rivaled by dogs. "When it comes to a question of society the best is not always the cheapest.

UNMASKING A HUMBUG. THE HOME MARKET CLUB ON THE WOOL DUTfc The Great Protectionist Club Puts Its Foot in It—?ays that Wool Prices Are Lower Under Protection—The Argument to the Farmer and to the Manufacturer— A Fast and Loose Game. The great Home Market Club, of Bblton, has just struck a deadly blow at the duty on wool. This dub was organized for the special purpose of propagating the notion that the agricultural classes of the country are benefited as much by protection as the manufacturers them- ' selves, since protection creates a home ' market, in which the farmer can sell his produce—never mentioning the fact, of | course, that this same home market will not pay one penny more for such produce than the despised foreigner will pay. ; Recent developments in the woolen Industry have brought before the lords of the Home Market Club the greatest problem which they have yet had to face. Many of the best woolen manufacturers in New England have joined in an organized effort to secure the removal of the wool duties: and the Home Market Club has recently published a pamphlet to concert these manufacturers fS’om their error. This pamphlet is entitled, “Protection of Wool —From the Standpoint of the Manufacturer.” Every farmer who grows wool ought to send to the Home Market Club for a copy of this pamphlet in order to see the style of argument used upon the manufacturer, and to compare this with the arguments made to the farmer- The protectionists are loud and earnest in their defense of th6 wool duty before farmers/ since, as they claim, it increases the prices of American wool. Last fall when McKinley was running for Congress his backers went all over his district offering to make contracts to buy up all the sheep in it at 85 a head in case McKinley should be elected. This meant high wool duties, high wool prices. But the great Home Market Club takes exactly the opposite line of argument. It defends the wool duty on the expressed ground that it keeps the price of z\merican wool lower than it would be under free wool. This protectionist elub seeks to prove to the manufacturers that the price of wool in this country for the past ten years has been from one cent to nine cents per pound lower than it has ever been abroad, and that the American farmer could have sold his wool from one cent to nine cents higher in Liverpool or London than he could sell it on his farm. Here are its words, which are printed in its pamphlet in large type, as the final argument and last appeal to the wool manufacturer: “It is a mistaken idea with many manufacturers that foreign prices of wool are necessarily lower than home prices under protection. They average higher. They would be much higher but for a largo and certain domestic supply. The following table is instructive. ” ‘ Here is the table it gives: Foreign average Average price price of all -wools at of all Ameriport of exportation can wools at without duty. the farm. Cts., lb. Cts., lb. 188131 1-5 31 189231 9-10 30 1883....34 2-5 29 158429 1-10 26 188532 1-10 23 188632 1-5 24 188729 1-10 24 Here the wool grower may see what a fast and loose game the protectionists have been playing with him. They have beeri carrying water on both shoulders, telling the farmer that the wool tariff makes the prices high, and then facing about and drawing tables of figures to slMw to the manufacturer that it makes prices lower. In this connection it may be of interest to the farmer to note the difference in domestic wool prices now and last year. Here are the quotations from the Boston wool market for some of the bestknown wools last August and for the current month: Aug. V, vtme 11, 1890. 1811. Cents. Cents. Ohio and Pa. XX and ab0ve....33@34 31’«@32,' Ohio X and above 32(« Ohio No. 1 35 (« 36 Michigan X....28«29 1 !3 28 @29 Michigan No. 1 34 <a 35 Michigan unmerchantable22@33 21 @22 Is it not time that farmers open their eyes to simple and indisputable proofs like this that a high wool duty does not raise the price of his wool? However deeply set the Republican wool-grower may be In the notion that the wool duty helps him, ought lie not to listen and be convinced when the greatest protectionist club in the land agrees that the duty keeps prices down? Let such a woolgrower send to the Home Market Club for its wool pamphlet and see for himself. It is doubtful, however, whether he can get the pamphlet fcr love or money, if he makes it known that he is a grower of wool. The Tax on Gloves. The glove paragraphs of the McKinley law show how much more heavily that measure bears upon the poor than upon the rich. On silk gloves the old duty was 50 per cent, and this was increased by the McKinleyites to 60 per cent, which is an increase of 20 per cent, upon the old rate. Upon cotton gloves, however, the old tariff rate of 35 per cent, was changed to 50 per cent, or an increase of 43 per cent upon the old rate. The same inequality is seen in the case of leather gloves. Under the old tariff the duty on all kinds of leather gloves was 50 per cent ad valorem; the McKinleyites changed the duty to an ad valorem rate, claiming that the new specific rates were equivalent to the old rate. But this is not the case. The duties are so arranged that they run far above 50 per cent, on the cheaper kinds. On men’s plain gloves, for example, the present duty is one dollar a dozen and 50 per cent, ad valorem. On gloves worth S 3 per do; en, therefore, the present duty is equivalent to 83 per cent, while on gloves worth 86 the duty is only 66 per cent The same thing is found in the duties on women’s kid gloves. Some time after the new law went into effect the New York Dry Goods Economist pointed out its effects upon these goods by saying: “In women’s gloves the cheapest kid will be forced out of the American market for the duty imposed on them is all out of proportion with the value of the goods, which are those patronized by the poorer classes, who are supposed to be assisted by the new duty. ” Woolen gloves, which are worn mainly by the poorer people, come in for •an enofmous advance. Under the old law these were taxed at from 10 to 35 cents per pound and 35 to 40 per cent, ad valorem—making sing e duties ranging from 63 to 73 per cent Under the McKinley law all woolen gloves are taxed as “wearing apparel” at 49X cents a pound and 60 per cent, ad valorem. This of lays the heaviest burden on the cht ipest goods. Protection by False Pretenses. One of the most frequent arguments before the Ways and Means Committee, at Washington, from people who want new duties imposed or new ones increased, is that such duties will develop home competition, that this will force prices down, and the consumer will be benefited. None of these applicants for Government aid will confess that the protection asked for will keep prices up. On the contrary, we see the singular spectacle of hundreds of men paying the expenses of a trip to Washington to ask

for duties on their goods, on the ground that these duties will bring prices down. Before the committee these men have much to say about promoting competition; they seem, in fact, to have overcome the law upon which every business man proceeds—the law that the less competition there is the greater profits will be. Every business man dislikes competition; but a deputation to Washington on behalf of any industry always appears to be willing to have as much home competition as any consumer could possibly wish. When, however, competition or other causes have reduced prices competition becomes unpopular, and the result is the formation of a trust to defeat the very competition which the manufacturers profess to be so anxious to promote. Are we to believe that the ifianufact- ■ urers are so superpatriotic that they wish more competition and lower prices, £?nd all this for the good of the dear , people? The numerous trusts and com- I bines to prevent competition ayd raise , prices are a sufficient answer to this i question. Are we to believe that they | want protection in order to raise wages? The great number of wage reductions since the McKinley law was enacted is satisfactory proof to the contrary. The truth is that manufacturers, like everybody else, want to put as much money into their own pockets as possible. The difference is that they run to Congress with false and hypocritical pleas to get laws which will enable them to feather their nests at public expense, while the great masses of consumers and 9 > per cent, of all the producers of the country are trying, by hard labor and small savings, to gather about them a modest portion of this world’s goods. THE AGRICULTURAL MINNOW. XVhy He Cannot Be Pin-Hooked—Protec-tion Helps Him Not —Europe’s Demand lor Wheat. Minnows will bite readily at an unbaited pin-hook to the great delight of the small boy. A similar unbaited pinhook was thrown tn to the agricultural pool by the McKinleyites in the shape of increased duties on wheat and corn, but the agricultural minnow will not bite. Although the price of corn is double what it was a year ago, and the price of wheat is very much higher, too, no farmer has yet been found who is silly, enough to say that McKinley’s increased duties have had the effect of raising prices by even a fraction of a cent. Not even the wildest or most rabid McKinleyite organ, either, has ventured to claim the increased prices as among the “benificences” of the new tariff law. “Why is this thusness?” The farmer is too well informed to believe that McKinley’s wheat and corn duties can be worth a tin whistle to him. since he is selling millions of dollars' worth of these very products in foreign markets; and the McKinleyites are too well aware of this to try to force ths naked pin-hook into his mouth. They know too well that the farmer will “shy off” under such treatment. The main factor in Raising the prices of wheat and corn, aside from our own shortness of crops last year, is the large demand certain to come from Europe for this year’s crops, owing to an unusually bad wheat crop this summer. Already it is reported from New York that freight engagements are being made with the great steamship lines far out into the fall months for transportation of grain I to Europe; and it is already predicted that Europe will take more of our wheat i and corn this year than ever before. I That is a pin hook with a fat bait on ; it, and no deception about it. McKin’ey tries to belittle the foreign market, ask- ! ing “what particular sanctity hangs about it.’’ At any rate, the foreign market is a mighty good place to sell wheat and corn; and McKinley's agricultural minnows, though they refused j utterly to bite at bis naked pin-hook • duties, are quite intelligent enough to see that the more freely we buy Europe's products the more largely will Europe buy of us. And the farmer is quite willing to pay for those foreign goods on a basis of what James G. Blaine calls “friendly barter.” We ship away our surplus which we do not need and ship back Europe's surplus, and both parties are richer by the operation. The agricultural minnow knows this, and hence the “reciprocity” bid for his vote. Our Thriving Shoddy Business. Last year, when the McKinley bill was before Congress, and many woolen manufacturers were opposing its increased duties on wool, it was said by the New York Dry Goods Economist that, “Msinufacturers of goods from wool substitutes applaud the measure before Congress and are championing its proponents and abettors. ” The shoddy men were right in their forecast of the effect of the bill on their industry. They judged that by putting heavy duties on foreign wool, the new law would increase the use of shoddy and give the shoddy business a great boom. Well, the boom has come, in fact, it has been here ever since the McKinley law was Dassed. The following table, giving the prices of different kinds of shoddy in the Boston market last August and at the present time, will show that the confidence of the shoddy men in the McKinley law was not misplaced: ■. Prices. Articles. Aug. 7, ’9O, June 11, *9l. New clips— Cents. Cents. Fine merchant tailors ...11 @l3 13 @ls Good mixedlo @l2 11 @l3 Fine darkll @II 13 @l4 Good light clipsl7 @lB 18 @2O Fine bluesl7 @l9 19 @2O Black merinos, unseain’d.lo @ll 12 Clear hoods 9H@Jots 12 @l2*s Cut cloth, dark... 3%@ 4 4 @ 4% Cut cloth, b1ue....;8 9%@10 New pure indigo— Blue shoddy2B @3O 30 @33 New black shoddy, extra fine 23 @24 23 @26 Light yarn shoddy, extra fine3l @33 85 @..„. Extracts— Medium lightl6 @lB 18 @2O Light 24 @25 25 @2B Fine light merinos2s @26 28 @.... Fine black merinos 23 @25 24 @2B Ordinary mixed..... 13 @l6 18 @2O As an index to 'the present situation of the shoddy business the following from the latest number of the Dry Goods Economist will prove instructive: “During the past six months the building of now shoddy mills and the extension of old ones have been of frequent report. * * * The most curious feature in this connection is that the largest manufacturer of all-wool shoddies is in Ohio, the home of the finest flocks. Another mill in that State is making such additions that by running double time, which it is reported it will do as soon as it begins operations, it will i rank as the second concern of the kind in the country." The same paper estimates the shoddy consumption of the country at 80,000,000 pounds, “or a quantity that equals onefourth the wool clip of the country. ” The shoddy and other wastes consumed in 1880 was 52,000,000 pounds. Are we ! not rapidly becoming a shoddy nation under the wool tariff? 'Difference in Gold. “Most people suppose,” says an assayer, “that all gold is alike when refined, but this is not the case. An experienced man can tell at a glance from what part of the world a gold piece comes, and in some cases from what part of a particular gold district the metal was obtained. The Australian gold, for instance, is distinctly redder than the Californian, and this difference in color is always perceptible, even when the gold is one thousand

Aug. 7, vtme 11, 1890. 18 >l.

fine. Again, the gold obtained from the placers is yellower than that which is taken directly from quartz. Why this should .be the case is one of the mysteries of metallurgy, for the placer gold comes from the veins. The Ural gold is the reddest found anywhere. Few people know the real color of gold, as it is seldom seen unless heavily alloyed, which renders it redder than when pure. The purest coins ever made were the SSO pieces that used to be made in California. Their coinage was abandoned for two reasons: first, because the loss by abrasion was so great, and, secondly, because the interior would be bored out and lead substituted, the difference in weight being too small to be readily noticed in so large a piece. These octagonal coins were the most valuable ever struck. THE STARCH TRUST. HISTORY OF A SPECIMEN TARIFF COMBINE. Dividing; the Spoils for Six Months—A Case ot High Protection Where None Is Needed—A Prosperous Industry Exporting Its Product—How Home Market Prices Have Advanced. A few years ago the manufacturers of corn starch were loudly complaining that there was no money in their business; but a little more than a year ago they formed a large trust composed of practically al! the manufacturers of starch in the country, and now they are happier. Before the trust was formed the price of corn starch at the factories was as low as 2 Jg.cents a pound, but as soon as the trust was formed in March, 1890, prices at once took an upward jump, and 3 now range from 3% to 3M cents. The trust having gotten in its work of raising prices, the business is now announced by a responsible trade paper to be very profitable. As an evidence of this it is stated that the National Starch Manufacturing Company, or starch trust, just declared a semi-annual dividend of 6 per cent on the second preferred stock. XVhat the first preferred stockholders received is not stated. Last year, about the time that the trust was formed, a careful estimate was made by a prominent starch dealer showing that a starch factory could easily earn 38 per cent, clear profit ou its capital. This estimate was said to be made on actual facts, the factory in question having a capital of 8100,000, grinding about 1,500 bushels of corn per day, and running 300 working days in a year. Corn could then be had at 30 cents a bushel; but, though the price is now more than twice that figure, this difference is more than .counterbalanced by the higher prices for starch exacted by the trust. The McKinley duty on corn starch is 2 cents a pound, the same as under the new law. Notwithstanding the valiant talk of sundry Republican statesmen about reducing duties, in cases where a domestic industry Is controlled by a trust, no effort was made by the McKinleyites to lower the starch duty. This duty was equivalent at the time when the trust was formed, to 88 per cent, of the factory price of American starch. If there is any industry in the whole country which needs absolutely no protection, that industry is the starch business. Why so? Because our starch manufacturers have demonstrated their ability to compete in the markets of the world against the starch made by the so-called “pauper labor” of every country. They sold nearly 20,000.000 pounds in foreign countries during the two fiscal years 1889 and 1890 —the greater part of this being, of course, corh starch. Os the exports last year, 2,000,000 pounds went to England and 4,600,000 to the Netherlands. If our manufacturers are able to send so much starch to foreign countries, why is it necessary to protect them at home against those same countries? Could anything more absurd be imagined? The only purpose this starch tariff can serve, is to enable our precious home-market starch trust to nut up prices to the domestic consumer, while perhaps selling at lesser prices abroad. The Second of Its Kind. There was unveiled in Decatur County, Ind., twenty miles east of Columbus, a monument to mark the “center of the population of the United States.” Ten thousand people were present. This is the second time in the history of the United States that the center of population has been ceremoniously marked with a monument. The first time was in 1810, and the place was several miles northwest oi Washington, D. C., where yet remains a small stone on which is engraved “Centre of Population.” The center oi the population has traveled westward each decade about forty-five miles, and has varied from a straight line west from Baltimore as the population increased in the North and South. The only time when the exact center could not be accurately fixed wag from 186 C to 1870, when a perfect census could not be taken in that part of the United States where the civil war occurred. The following is the location of these centers each decade since 1790, when it was twenty-three miles east oi Baltimore: X In 1800, 18 miles west of Baltimore in 1810, 45 miles northwest by west oi Washington; in 1820, 16 miles north oi Woodstock, Va.; in 1830, 19 miles west by southwest of Moorefield, W. Va.: in 1840, 10 miles south of Clarksburg, W. Va.; in 1850, 23 miles southeast oi Petersburg, W. Va.; in 1860, 20 miles south of Chillicothe, O.; in 1870, 4S miles east by north of Cincinnati, O.: in 1880, 8 miles west by south of Cincinnati, O.; in 1890, 20 miles east oi Columbus, Ind. A protectionist organ rejoices that the tariff reduced the price of galvanized iron sheets from 7% cents a pound in 1880 to 4J£ cents in 1889. This is used as an argument to show that the tinplate duty will have a similar effect, since “tin plate is only sheet iron dipped in tin. ” But the average price of foreign tin plates for that same yeai (1889) was 2 8-10 cents per pound. How can we beat that when our galvanized iron is itself 41a cents? The Mosque of St. Sophia in Constantinople is always fragrant with the odor of musk, and has been so for hundreds of years, ever since it was rebuilt in the.ninth century, the curious part of it being that nothing is done to keep it perfumed. The solution to the seeming mystery lies in the fact that -when it was built, over 1,000 years ago, the stones and bricks were laid in mortar mixed with a solution of musk. The first iron-plate furnaces un thia country were built in Virginia between 17 IU and 1730, under the old Colonial Governor Spotswood. Yet in the yeai of grace 1891 we are still protecting pig iron as an “infant industy. ” A hoary infant that! A New Yobe man, who had been kicked by a horse, and but slightly injured, sued the owner of the animal foi $50,000 and recovered a verdict of |6»800 recently.

a PREHISTORIC CANALS. Traces or Skillful Engineering Recently Discovered in Arlsona. The greatest souvenir left by the aboriginal races of North America is to be foundjn the immense network of prehistoric irrigating canals that gridiron the Salt River and Gila valleys of Arizona. The age of these canals is entirely a matter of conjecture. But one tradition exists among the present Indian tribes regarding them, and that is only of their destruction. When in 1542 Coronado, the intrepid conquestador of old Spain, seeking in the North the seven cities of Cibola, from which he might wrest glory and gain, as Cortez and Pizarro had done in the South, first saw these immense ruins he was astonished at their extent and size, but failed to learn aught of their age or builders. To him, as to many a later traveler, the old Indian tradition was probably told of how the immense valleys had once been peopled by a dense and prosperous population, who excelled all other people in the manufacture of stone implements, the building of great houses, and in changing the desert into a mighty garden by putting on it the waters of the great rivers. No people were like unto them for wisdom, and with time they grew so in numbers and in wealth that all other tribes envied them their land and its richness. As the people of the valley prospered the tribes of the hills grew envious and longed to take for .themselves the beautiful fields of the plains. They were warrior and hunters who feared not battle or death, while the men of the valley were but as women, thinking of nothing but the working of their fields. So the tribes of the hills mane war on the people of the valley untillnot even one of the latter could be found in the land, for those who were not killed fled with all their people southward. \ So a few years went, and then great Storms came. The river grew great and strong with anger, and its waters swept through the canals until they were broken and almost destroyed. No longer could the people water their | fields from them and the wisest men of their tribe could do nothing. Their ; grain burned and died, and the trees grew parched and withered untiL their leaves could be crumbled into dust iu the hand. Then they thought of the people who had been before them, and sent their fleetest runners far to the South to bring them back, that they might learn from them how to repair the ditches in which they could make the water no longer run. Os all the host that had but a few years before been driven from the valley the runners could find no trace, save where thousands of dead bodies covered the southern deserts, telling how the unfortunate people perished from thirst and starvation. Then was it that the tribes from the hills first knew that they in their greed had done wrong, and that the anger of the great spirit burned against them; so taking the little grain that was left, for they had eaten much while waiting for t|ie return of their runners, they endeavored to return to the mountains, but few succeeded, for of the women and the children and weak men many died by the way. Never has the level wf the best of modern engineers been able to improve on the lines of these ruined canals, while in the selection of locations at which to take the water from the rivers is always exhibited the greatest skill and intelligence. It was these ruins that in the early 70s first gave the American settlers the idea of reclaiming the valley where now stands Phoenix, the capital of the territory, surrounded by a population of nearly 20,000 souls, the first canal constructed simply following the line of a prehistoric one. In the selection of the routes of thejsubsequent ones it was merely the qusetion of pickin'g out of the labyrinth of ruins the lines of the main canals and following them. This at times was difficult work, for some of the laterals were of considerable size and capacity. How extensive the entire system of irrigation in the Salt River valley alone was may be inferred from the fact that the amount of land practically covered by the canals was over a quarter of a million acres, nearly treble the area of the lands at present actually cultivated within the county of Los Angeles, Cal. The population supported must have been very great, for it is almost impossible to find an acre within the line of ancient acoquias on which fragments of pottery, shell ornaments or stone implements cannot be found, while the ruins of ancient adobe habitations can be seen in every direction where they have not been obliterated by the settler. These are always of the style still to be found among the Zuni, Moqui, and other Pueblo Indians of the southwest, thick, strong walls, with few openings for doors and windows, and small rooms, with the buildings clustering so closely together as to form almost one tenement Estimating the acreage of the past as being one acre to two persons, the present rule among the Pueblo tribes, the population supported by the ditches would not fall short of 500,000 —an estimate the best authorities consider conservative. The canals themselves with their principal laterals must have exceeded 1,000 miles in length, and the ruins of many of them give evidences of the vast labor of their construction. It is to be regretted that the government in interests of science has made no provision by which the few remaining ruins of this description still intact can be given a thorough and scientific investigation before the last traces of this ancient skill* in irrigation engineering have disappeared. The Great Find in Egypt. On Feb. 6 a discovery was made in the necropolis of Thebes, second only in importance to the discovery of the royal mummies at Dehr-el-Bahari by M. Maspero in About half a mile from Dehr-el-Bahari a pit has been found containing several hundred magnificent mummies. These, like the royal mummies, had evidently been removed from the tombs and concealed in this receptacle, as a precaution, by the servants of the priests, probably |at the same time and for the same reasons which caused the royal mummies to be placed in the receptacle where they were found by M. Maspero. This removal is believed by M. Maspero to have taken place in the reign of Aauputh, son of Shasang, of the seventysecond dynasty (circa 966 B. C.) The coffins hitherto found all belong to the twenty-first dynasty, aad are those of the. priests of Ba-Amun and their families. The pit is about 45 feet in depth, at the bottom of which are two corridors filled with coffins and treasures of every descriptions. In tbe lower corridor—which as yet has only been explored—it is computed that there are some 200 coffins, and the second corridor is believed to be not less extensive. The shaft is 45 feet deep, its mouth is about 12 feet in diameter, and its aides are at rough limestone.

One of M. Grebaut’s native assistanta, who was superintending the work of hauling up the mammy cases, told me that he had been the first actually to enter the corridor where the mummies and treasuries lie. The shaft had then been excavated only as deep as the mouth of the corridors; and he crept in on his bauds and knees, and stood in what he describes as being like a palace of enchantment. The corridor, he said, is some 10 or 12 feet high and 250 feet long. It runs in a northerly direction from tbe shaft toward the Theban hilL At the end there is a short corridor branching from it at right angles, and at some hight above the floor at the end is the entrance to a second very long corridor, full of treasures, which has been sealed up for the present by M. Grebaut. Groups of mummies are placed at intervals in families. The number in each group varies from two to six or seven, father, mother and f children and around them, exquisitely arranged, are vases, models of houses, models of danabiehs, cases and boxes full of ushabtis, statuettes, and every conceivable treasure of ancient Egypt. "Without even a speck of dust upon them, this profusion of treasures had remained unlocked at by any eye for nearly 3,000 years. He said that photographs had been taken of the plape in its undisturbed state, which he declared to be that of a perfectly-kept and wellarranged museum.— The Academy. Idle Tears. Self-control among women has fortunately come into fashion, and a heroine cannot expect to add to her charms, either in novels or real life, by giving way to a “sweet sensibility.” Mrs. Thrale, Doctor Samuel Johnson’s friend, often had, as a visitor at her house, a young woman named Sophy Streatfield, who wasuniversally acknwoledged to be a most fascinating young woman. She was, moreover, one oi those who, even in that tearful age, proved decidedly amusing from her habit of unnecessary weeping. One day Mrs. Thrale promised Fanny Burney, who - had never witnessed the phenomenon, that she should “see Miss Streatfield cry.” As Sophy was taking her leave, Mrs. Thrale urged her to stay, adding: “If you go, I shall know you don’t love me as well as Lady Gresham.” Then, indeed, the tears came into Miss Streatiield’s eyes, and rolled down her pretty cheeks. “ComeJ here, Miss Burney!” called Mrs. Thrale, in triumph. “Come and see Miss Streatfield cry!” The young lady did not seem to be in tbe least offended by this, but gently wiped her eyes, and became composed again. At another time, as Madam D’Arblay’s “Diary” relates, Doctor Johnson and another gentleman had a dispute, upon which Miss Streatfield, who was pesent, began to cry. “Well,” said a bystander,“l hate heard so much of those tears that I would have given the universe to have a sight of them.” “Oh,” put in Mrs. Thrale, “she shall cry again if you like.” “Oh, pray do,” said the gentleman, “let me see a little more of it !” “Yes, do cry a little, Sophy!” said Mrs. Thrale, in a wheedling voice. “Pray, do! Consider now, you are going to-day, and it’s very hard if you won’t cry a little. Indeed, Sophy, you ought to cry.” Now for the wonder of wonders! "When Mrs. Thrale, in the coaxing voice of a nurse soothing a baby, had run on for some time, two cystal tears came into Sophy’s eyes, and rolled gently down her cheeks. She did not offer to conceal them, and, indeed, she was smiling all the time.— 'Youth’s Companion. JAii Awful Predicament for a Man. Somewhere I read that it was the “fad” to make Easter presents of garters to your lady friends, and I thought the idea was a good one. To be in style on the occasion I went into one of our big stores, supposing, of course, I could buy a pair from a male clerk, but to my borrow, the floor-walker steered me up to the counter behind which was a pretty and captivating girl. “Have you any Easter garters?” I asked. “Easter garters!” she exclaimed. “"Why, I never heard of them before. We have Fourth of July, Washington’s Birthday and St Patrick’s Day garters for ladies, but no Easter Day ones. Haven’t you got it wrong?” she asked with a smile that made my watch stop. Then I told her what I had read. “Oh,” she said. Then out came several pairs of garters that were marvels of beauty. She first wanted to know if I desired side elastics or garters to go around the limb. I had to confess to her that I didn’t know anything about side elastics, but I supposed all women wore garters, yet I really did not know much about it anyway. Then she smiled aguin. which started my watch and made my heart go pit-a-pat “What size?” she answered. Here I was floored. “Give me the regulation size,” I said. “But you don’t want them too small or too large,” she answered sweetly at seeing my painful embarrassment “How large a lady is she?” “Your size exactly,” I cried. “Well, here is the size I wear,” she said, handing me out a silk pair with an ornamental clasp. “Give them to me, and give them to me quick,” 1 said, and throwing down the price, made my escape, while ail the girls and women in the store tittered and laughed as I heard some one of them say: “That jay has got it bad!”— Albany Press. Good Suggestions for Dyspeptics. A writer, evidently of a practical turn of mind, tells a contemporary how easily the wakeful dyspeptic can be made to slip off into the land of dreams. He says: “The dyspeptic, of course, eats a light meal, may resort to tbe use of a towel, wet with tepid water, and covered with a dry doth, the whole then applied to the pit of the stomach. Before the sufferer knows it she will float into shadow land, such is the sympathy between the organs of digestion and the brain. Owing |to the position of the stomach, a light sleeper ought to sleep on the right side instead of the left, never on the back. If there is a tendency to cold feet, a thin woollen blanket may line the lower third of the bed. The limbs ought not to be greatly flexed, a position which prevents free circulation, and they should rest one upon another lightly. The night light, where used, ought to be a tiny taper, and not gas or kerosene, both of which devitalize the air. A darkened room is the best. Nature puts out her light, and draws her curtain of dsrkno— for a purpose. With good habits, physical and mental, and a determination not to deal with anodynes, sleep may be won from its shyest lair to watch over the restless pillow."