Daily Greencastle Banner and Times, Greencastle, Putnam County, 18 August 1897 — Page 3

THi: DAILY BAmrKR TIMES, GRjgENCASTIjJE, DTDLAJfA.

[EII)S of adventure. [rilling incidents and daring deeds on land and sea. r .lou* Ride of »n Aeronaut In Hl^ Ral]oo» " lilt n Madman—I nplfa^ant Exl^rlence of a Maine \Vno«l(*inan t Who \Vi«* Chained to'a Mad Bear, Etc. Monsieur Godard, a noted French Jonaut, now visiting New York, was K. n tly relating to a party of friends, Y them a writer for the WashingfcStur, some of his experiences while I in a balloon. X-The most exciting and in many rejects most perilous ascension I ever ■de,” said M. Godard, “occurred ki it five years ago from a point near ir j ? . On the occasion to which I rer I was accompanied by a single felw traveler, who had paid me 1000 incs for the privilege of a place by k- side. The weather was fine and ■Y balloon had risen to a considerable Eight when I turned to my comEnion, who I noticed was very quiet, K,i inquired: “What effect has the Hjrney had so far upon you, mouBiur?” ■ •••None whatever,’ was the curt reI' m' Then,’ said I, ‘I must eomplipnt you. You are the first amateur have ever known to reach this alti|de without experiencing some uumal condition. ’ “ ‘I wish you’d go higher,’ said the aateur coolly. “In response to this request I threw it some ballast and the balloon shot > some sixty yards higher. “ ‘Now, how do you feel?’ I asked. ‘“Just the same,’replied my commiou, in a rather petulant tone. [“By Jove!’ I exclaimed,after glancjg with surprise at the stolid,indifferht expression of my guest’s face, ‘you |e a wonder, a born aeronaut, mou- ■ “Well, the balloon kept on rising, |id when a few hundred yards higher again turned to my phlegmatic friend ad questioned him as to his emo^Jous. ■ “‘Emotions! Not a trace of emoti ni,’ replied, he, with the air of a m iu who feels that he has been greatly in nosed upon. ‘Well, so much the worse,’ said T. *] fear I shall not be able to alarm li n: we have risen high enough, and ^Jt shall now descend.’ “ ‘Descend!’ repeated the man, luring at me with a strange, w ild Bure in his eyes, which 1 had not no"d before • ‘Yes, certainly; it would be dangt ous to go any higher.’ I don't care about the danger, « 1 1 don’t choose to descend,’ de*1 d the man. ‘I’m going up higher I am. I’ve paid a thousand francs in order to experience some emotions, «ul emotions I’ll have before going Awn to the earth again.’ ■ ‘T burst out laughing; I thought ill'* man was joking. ■ “ Arc you going up higher, or not?’ •fclied my companion, at the same time gr isping me with an iron grip by the w "at and shaking me violently. ‘I ill’end to have my emotions.’ ^ “It was only now,” continued M. dard, “that 1 realized that I was in le society of a madman. The dilated cs, the furious grasp, the very tone the man s voice left no doubt in my and about that. Hut what was to be bne? We were some 3000 feet high among the clouds; a struggle was out of the question, as one violent motion of the madman would be enough to upset the car. All these thoughts flashed through my mind in less than a second. My adversary was a powerfully built man, and, without losing his grasp, he called out: ‘Ah, my fine ^ fellow, you have been playing the fool Hpth me. You have made me pay 1 francs and not given me a single emotion.’ ■ft But what would you have me lo t’ I asked, as calmly and soothingly •a 1 could under the circumstances. ‘I'm going to throw you over.’ ■ai 1 the madman, with a wild laugh. Mbit first an idea strikes me; I’ll go Hn 1 fbe top of the balloon,’ and suitthe action to the word, he jumped inn the rigging of the car. 1 “‘But, my dear friend,’ said I, ‘you Ifi surely fall and lose your life. At ■bast let me put a rope around your Wa st to prevent such an accident.’ Well, be it so,’ said the madman, B* 10 seemed to see the necessity of eoi.ie precaution; and the rope having ^Ben attached he commenced climbing th. rigging of the balloon with the •gi ity of a squirrel, and in a minute W so was seated on the apex clapping ^Js hands and shouting with joy. Sudde> ly he seemed to be seized with a nfschievous desire, for, taking out of Hs pocket a huge clasp knife, he brandished it above his head and ye! ed out; ‘Now, you rascal! You ^■nnted to descend, did you? Ho you ^^ball, in a hurry!’ and before I could ^f , '' l « word two out of the six ropes Itaehing the car to the balloon were lit, and the car began to swing about Ruinously. Th* madman’s knife was Duelling another rope when I called lut to him: ‘Stop, one word.’ “ ‘No, no; down you go.’ ‘But let me tell you something, py friend; we are now nearly 4000 feet tigh, and the loss of the car, or even j single pound of ballast it contains, rould result in certain death to you. 0 you have a secret grudge against me lon't sacrifice your own life by cutting [ 16 < ' llr loose, or easting me out. Let ' lather return to the earth alive and e can soon settle any differences we lay have with a brace of pistols.’ “ ‘Agreed!’ said the madman, throwing his knife away, and coming rapidly down the rigging from his dangerpns perch, he again took his seat huietly beside me in the car. Needless say I soon pulled the valve, allowing the gas to slowly escape, and the balloon gradually descended to the Mirth, where, after the madman had lone iu search of pistols, I said a

solemn prayer and vowed never to make another ascension with a man possessed of a craving to experience the sensations of ballooning iu high altitudes. Woodsman Chained to a Mad Hear. A few days ago a woodsman neai Kineo, Me., had an experience with a bear that would give color to a tale of backwoods adventure. Milton Pike had a bear trap set up near Locatean on the biggest hill to the south of the stream. It was near the bear’s den, which was a hole or small cave in the ledge. The old lady had two paths leading from the mouth of her den, and when Pike set his trap in one she traveled by the other route. Pike had another trap, but it was not provided with a chain long enough to attach it properly to a clog. After thinking the matter over a while, he set his trap at a point w here two^paths come near together. Then he set the trap with the short chain in the other path, and stretching the few links across the intervening space attached it to the longer chain, which had a clog attached. But two days later Jerry Perkins came along the trait not far from the hillside. He had an ax, and said he was whistling and enjoying an hour of fair weather, which by some chance visited the section that day. Jerry ivus destined to meet that bear, and he did. He sawthat the animal w as in a trap and that the clog had stuck fast iu some bushes. Thinking it would be n very easy matter to advance and knock the bear in the head, he proceeded to do so. His ax hit the bear quite a thump, but as she dodged the blow took effect a little lower on her skull than the woodsman had intended it should. And just ns the blow fell Jerry heard a strange sound in the neighborhood of his feet and be found a bear trap on his ankle. The bear had gone such a short distance before being brought up by the clog that the other trap had not been sprung. Perkins found himself hitched to an ugly old she bear with cubs only a few rods away in a crevice in the rock. The hear was fresh, having dragged the clog no distance, and she went at Jerry in n very business-like manner. Again the ax was brought down on her head, this time with better effect than before. Before the third and final blow could be struck she bad lacerated the flesh of Mr. Perkins’ left leg. The nian got out of the trap after some difficulty. He could move about enough to cut a sapling and w ith this as a lever lit* put the spring down so that the jaws fell back and released him. He and Pike diyided the proceeds of the catch, one taking the skin and bounty and the other the meat. An attempt to get the cubs was unsuccessful, the little fellow s having got big enough to run away.—Lewiston (Me.) Journal. llaby Saved by I.iKbtiilii';. Lightning and blackberries coint together iu the coast region of Texas. The people there, as a rule, are more partial to the latter than the former. An exception to the rule exists there to-day, however, in Mrs. Pennington, of Plum Creek, who says that one timely stroke of the lightning has done her more good than all the blackberries in creation could possibly accomplish. Just behind the Pennington home is a small clearing, in which the blackberries grow, large and sweet and in abundance. One day Mrs. Pennington xvent there to pick some berries, for supper, and took her little baby girl with her. The baby grew tired in a little while and the mother arranged a bed of dry leaves for it under a sheltering sumach bush. In a few minutes the child was asleep and the mother resumed her berry picking, ft was an oppressively hot day, when the air was full of electricity and not a breath of air stirring anywhere. A squall was coming up rapidly from the east, the lightning showing dimly on its upper edge, hut Airs. Pennington was apparently oblivious to the approach of the storm, glad only that the baby slept so w ell and gave her so little trouble. But it was not the storm alone that threatened danger. At the very edge of the thicket, and only a few feet Irom the sleeping baby, its eyes gleaming, its head laid flat on the ground and its tail lashing its tawny sides, a huge Mexican lion was crouching, ready to spring. For a moment it dug its hind paws nervously into the ground, and then it leaped i to the air. It fell dead only a few inches from the sleeping baby, just as a loud peal of thunder caused Airs. Pennington to look around for tne safety of her child. The baby awoke, looked up and smiled.—St. Louis GlobeDemocrat. A Many-Colored |.i«*\v**l. There is a popular impression tha the sapphire is always a blue stone, whence, indeed, it has become a recognized name in the shojis of the jewellers. This is by no means an accurate statement, for in Ceylou the color ranges from what is described as a soft, velvety blue to a peacock blue, in which, of course, there is a good deal of green. There is also a red sapphire, which is known as the Ceylon ruby, and which is very highly prized indeed, being as valuable as fine Burmah rubies. There are also green sapphires, yellow sapphires and white sapphires.

PIKE’S PEAK CLAIMED

Strange Itenult of a Lightning Stroke. A strange result of a stroke of light ning is reported from near Wabash, Ind. Alary Oswalt, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a farmer there, was standing in the doorway of her home during a thunderstorm, when there came a blinding flash of lightning. Hhe was stunned by the shock, but soon recovered. When she removed her shoes preparatory to going to bed an hour later, she found that the lightning had caused numberless blisters on tbe soles of her feet. Otherwise she was uuiirjured by the stroke.

astounding and DARING act OF DR. LEWIS. Mnyor of Manltou, Colo.. Say. That lip Own. the lanioti. Mountain unit Will Koou Petition the Supreme Court—A Keinarhahle Suit* (Colorado Springs Letter.) R. ALBERT G. LEWIS, mayor of Manltou, wtU go to Washington within thirty days to lay claim to the top of Pike's Peak. With him will be a corps of the best known land and title lawyers of the country, who will attempt to prevail upon the Supreme Court to acknowledge Lewis as the rightful owner of the south half of the southwest fourth and the south half of southeast fourth of section 7, township 14. rauge *58 west, in El Paso county, Colorado, which land is and comprises the whole summit of the famous mountain. The claim is based upon a filing made by Lewis under date of Feb. 2. 1889, when at the Pueblo land office, he filed an old soldier’s declaratory statement upon the land in question. This filing was made Immediately after President Cleveland's proclamation transferring the entire mountain from the war department to the department of the interior. Lewis will go to Washington loaded down with affidavits of prominent citizens of El Paso county, who will testify to his having legally taken possession of a quarter section on the very top of the mountain and to his having lived upon it the required length of time and made the necessary improvements stipulated by the law for the proving up of an old soldier's homestead. The doctor will attempt to prove that he settled upon the land in good faith while it was yet a part of the public domain and that he had established his ownership to 160 acres

prominent land and title lawyers. Henry N. Copp. author of "Copp s Public ! Land Laws.” upon which the government bases all decision in land matters, after a thorough investigation of Dr! j Lewis’ claims at the general land office at Washington wrote in part as follows concerning the information he had gained there: “It was also stated that settlers in good faith on these lands would he protected and be permitted to make filings or entries when the land is surveyed and opened to the public. I would therefore advise you to continue your residence and improvements, and there can he little doubt of your obtaining a title to the land you occupy.” Mr. Copp is still one of the lawyers in the case. The story of the doctor’s occupation of the peak is an interesting one and contains much history of value concerning the entire mountain. During the latter part of Cleveland's first term and for some time previous to the abandonment of Pike's Peak as a signal station it was known by the signal officers on the peak that the station was soon to be done away with. Several months before its abandonment by the government one of the officials in the service on the peak organized a society In Colorado Springs known as the Meteorological society for the purpose of obtaining a twenty years' lease from the government for the entire reservation or mountain, which at that time consisted of 130,000 acres. This societyproposed to build on the peak a large hotel, and to erect an observatory there for the purpose of making scientific observations of meteors, nebulae and comets. The society, prior to the abandonment of the reservation, filed a bill in congress setting forth its requests. In the latter part of January, 1SS9, President Cleveland, among the last of- ! ficial acts of his first term, by proclamation transferred to the department of | the interior, thereby presumably restor- | ing It to the public domain. On the day following this proclamation Dr. Lewis read of it In the newspapers, and at once took the view that the transfer | made the land the same as any other part of the public domain, and lie im-

TOP OF PIKE'S PEAK.

there before the peak was converted by Ihe government into a timber reservation. This is the most astounding claim ever made at the government land office. If Dr. Lewis is successful it will put him at once In possession of property worth almost fabulous sums of money. It will give him control of ihe most famous mountain peak In the world. It would place at his mercy the tens of thousands of tourists and sightseers who make the top of Pike's Peak the objective point of their wanderings, and who annually give up their little quota of $5 each just to ride the nine miles to its summit. He would have at his mercy the capital invested in the cog road, and could, if he so chose, levy exhorbitant taxes for franchises and rights of every kind. The

A. G. LEWIS, property to which he lays clai mbears the distinction of being the highest piece of ground ever settled upon for homestead purposes in the United States. At its highest point it is 14,170 feet above the level of the sea, and is perpetually white with snow. No desert was ever more barren of vegetation. The place is wholly unfit for human habitation, and yet Dr. Lewis made his home there winter and summer for over three years, and now claims as his reward a government title to a strip of land, or rock (for Pike’s Peak is a solid mass of granite), a quarter of a mile wide and a mile long extending directly over the summit of the peak. The disputed point In the controversy Is as to whether President Cleveland's proclamation actually and legally transferred the land from the war depiriment to the Interior department. Attorney Miller, who served In the government land office under Harrison, held that It did, as have several other

mediately set out for the top of the peak for the purpose of taking it ns a claim. The mountain at that time of the year was covered deep with snow, and Lewis was two days in making the summit, he reaching there .Ian. 30. He at once occupied the abandoned government building, as it afforded the only means of safety from the cold. On the night of the 30th he slept in it. letting the snow beat in upon him through its broken windows and doors. The place at this time had been abani doned several months, and all the gov- | ernment instruments used at the sig- [ nal station had been removed. Lewis ( at once posted notices tha' he had taken the claim, and upon the floor of the | building he tacked the following: ‘‘I ! hereby take possession and claim 160 acres of land on top of Pike’s Peak.” j After spending the night upon the peak | he in the early morning began to re- | trace his steps down the mountain, and on Feb. 2 was at the government land office in Pueblo, where he made application to file a soldier's homestead. The land office, on account of having had no official notification of the transfer by the President, refused to accept the doctor's application for filing. Lewis at once filed a declaratory statement and appealed to the general land office at Washington, where the same answer was given him. and the decision of the Pueblo land office was affirmed. Lewis then took the case to Secretary John H. Noble of the department of the interior. In the meantime, however, the Pike’s Peak cog road began to build on tbe top of the peak, and at the request of its president Lewis called upon the management of the road and entered into an agreement concerning the right of way on the peak. In this interview Lewis agreed to give the company free of cost ail space necessary for strictly railroad purposes. The doctor, satisfied with arrangements, went back upon the peak. From this time on for over two years he occupied the government house on the peak, and there entertained visitors and looked after the government property. In the fall of 1891 certain Influential persons, it is said, represented to Secretary Noble that Lewis was holding the claim under and by virtue of the commission which he held from the government as custodian, whereupon Secretary Noble notified the doctor that his services would be no longer required by the government. At this time Lewis had been upon the mountain over three years, or long

enough to meet the government requirements for proving up the claim, as the time he had served in the army was deducted. Shortly after this time the government signal station was again re-estab-lished on the peak and remained in active operation for more than a year. In the meantime another change was made at Washington, and the whole reservation, together with a large tract of contiguous territory, was put into the timber reservation for the purpose of preserving the timber upon it that It might hold the snow and thereby cause It to melt more slowly and furnish water to Irrigate sections below. This reservation Included not only the old Pike's Peak reservation, but the whole of Cheyenne county, and extended almost to Palmer’s Lake.

THE MEXICAN RIVER GUARD lie n a Dualling ami (iaudjr < avaller auil KIiIoh Well. If in this territory any intelligent, active, courageous man wants a nice easy thing of it, let him go down to Eagle Pass, Texas, where he can hire out as a “river guard.” It will be his duty to prevent smuggling along a shallow and traitorous stream for something like 1.000 miles. The pay will be 830 a month, and he must furnish his horse. He will get one hour’s sleep eoch week and the chance is that he will be shot before his term expires. While he is alive he will be allowed to board himself and pay his own doctor's bills. In addition to this he will have the satisfaction of serving his country and the knowledge that he can no more stop smuggling than he can fly. The life has its compensations, of course. A man is in the open air. The climate is balmy. He is tnurh looked up to by dwellers along the banks. There is always some Mexican girl to love him because he wears a six-shooter. If his scruples be not rigid there is constant opportunity to make money. This is done by being somewhere else when goods are crossed. Many river guards have grown wealthy. This is particularly so with those on the Mexican side. There is, for instance, a heavy Mexican tariff on American cuttle. It is a kind of retaliatory duty. The Mexican populace loves beef, of which it does not gel any too much, if a Texas stockman desires to make an honest dollar exporting 1,000 head and he can find '.lit* right kind of a guard on the other side, why, he will make the honest dollar. The guard will make several honest dollars. The river guard is generally a pictiirorquo animal. Almost always he is young, and sometimes he is good-look-ing. His horse is fat and speedy. His saddle, weighing 30 pounds, is bedizened. The small gold plates attached to his bridle reins near the bit flash in the son. He wears a crimson scarf about his waist. He calls this a "banda” and uses it to keep up his tight trousers. His short Jacket has metal buttons and his hat. of the high, wide-brimmed Mexican brand, is trimmed with silver braid. Around his middle is a broad belt holding cartridges. and from it swings a Colt’s revolver. Under his right knee nestles a Winchester 'arbine. One would suppose that a less conspicuous dress would conduce to efficiency and safety, but with the river guard efficiency and safety do not count for anything against looking pretty. He does not reflect that few corpses are attractive. His calculation is that it is the other fellow who is going to get hurt. With all his vanity, he is vigilant and constantly moving. He makes long and lonely rides along the yellow river night and day. If he encounters a band in the act of crossing, he has a fight on his hands. Single guards have been known to fight and put to flight bands of a dozen smugglers. They have been known also to have been killed. When this happens a sullen splash in the stream closes the chapter. One of the hardest riders, gamest fighters and most keen-scented officers ever upon this frontier was Trinidad Cruz, but nobody knows where Trinidad's bones are now. He disappeared about a year ago, and two

THE MEXICAN RIVER Gl'ARD. days afterward his horse was found grazing upon the prairie with a bloodstained saddle turned under him. Our of the Xeurett Star*. There are very few stars whose distance is even approximately known to astronomers. Moreover, the different estimates of the distances of these few vary by large amounts. The nearest known star is "Alpha" in the constellation Centaur, not visible from the northern lands of the earth, and one of the next nearest is a little star in the northern constellation Cygnus, called "61 Cygni.” The latest determination of the parallax of this star by Mr. H. S. Davis, of New* A’ork, makes its distance flftv-three millions of millions of miles. This is about eighteen millions of millions of miles less than the distance derived from Professor Hall's measurement some ten years rgo. A horse always gets up forepart* first, and a cow directly the opposite

WRI Nb EAGLE’S NECK HER ONLY WEAPONS WERE HER HANDS. Rescued « Little tllrl Iiungurcil for Life, hut She Killed the Hird and Dragged It Home KUIe ToUon's Narrow l-Hrape.

LUCK Y Bertha Moore Is disfigured for life, but she killed the eagle which had attaeked her little charge, and then dragged the bird behind her for a mile to her home. A few days ago Miss Moore took 8-year-old Elsie Tolson up on the mountain near Jersey Shore. Lycoming county.Pa., for a walk. When they reached a cool, shady place Miss Moore sat down to read a book she had brought, and the little girl wandered around the neighborhood to play. Suddenly Elsie gave a piercing scream, anil Bertha, looking up, saw that an enormous bald eagle was trying to get a firm grip on Elsie with his talons, preparatory to carrying her < IT Bertha had nothing with which to make a fight, but she went to the rescue Releasing his hold on the little girl, the bird fastened his grip on Bertha, who wrenched herself away. Again and again the eagle sailed up a short distance, and then descended with terrific force. Bertha's head and face and the upper part of her body were frightfully torn by the claws of the bird. She was rapidly becoming exhausted, when she got a desperate clutch on the neck of th«* bird, and, in spite of his struggles, held on with almost a death clutch. The joint twisting of ihe bird and the young woman broke the nick of the eagle. Bertha bound up her wounds as well as she could and began the long walk of a mile to her home. But she dragged behind the body of Ihe bird for proof if further proof than her condition was needed of her prowess. The eagle measured eight feet front tip to

tip.

small changes, while now, with these marvelous machines, no warming is needed, even w r hen the atmosphere is '■ cl. .mil with only little .labor torrents of electricity may he obtained. It ts with the old and new in electricity just as it used to be with photography. Years ago It was considered impossible to photograph anything unless the sky was unobacured. Nowadays pictures can be taken If it Is raining ever so hard. So it Is with electricity. The atmosphere had to be brought up to Just such a temperature before it was possible to bring about the generation of a current. Now the same sort of atmosphere is useful, but nothing has to be done to It to change its temperature. The present machine is the most powerful ever invented, when its size is taken into consideration. Think of what tt means when a machine throws a spark thirty-four inches almost three feet. COLOR OF THE SKY. It l« N4»t Itliie h* r»et* tftiwl Other Simple Teople Suppose. Did it ever strike you to inquire why the cloudless depths of the sky above us are so delicately blue? It isn’t that the gas we call air is in Itself blue. As far as we know. It Is quite transparent and absolutely colorless. No, the blue comes from the reflected light. Air is never pure. You couldn’t live in it if tt was. Countless millions of tiny particles, chiefly of water, are always suspended in it. and these arrest the free passage of light. Each particle has a ; double reflection—one internal, the other external—and so the reflected rays suffer the usual result of what is called "interference” and show color. You will notice that the sky appears much bluer if you look straight up than if you look across toward the horizon. The reason is that, in the first instance, : you are naturally looking through a much thinner layer of air than in the second. If there was no air, and consequently no watery vapor, and nothing to interfere with the free passage of light, even at midday the* sky above j would look perfectly black and all the stars plainer than at present they do

at midnight.

Kt«*p OPT thr Moving Train. Passengers are to have an opportun-

BROKE THE EAGLES NECK.

ELECTRICAL INFUENCE.

A New UHchine Thai May Itcvoluttoiiize

the 1’uwer to Project l.lght.

A machine has Just been made that has exactly what people are fond of securing—Influence. It is the science of mind reduced to practical mechanics. So great is the influence of this machine that it can throw an electric spark a distance of thirty-four inches —that is, the spark starts at one terminal and lengthens out until it reaches the other terminal, a distnee of thirty-four inches. This strange machine—for nothing like It has ever been invented—Is one of Ihe principal objects of interest at the Victorian Era Exposition, at Earle’s Court, London. Oddly enough, It does not seem to have attracted the attention which it really merits, for In Its way it indicates as great a stride in electrical progress ! as the Roentgen ray. At first sight it seems rather complicated, but really J it is nothing of the sort ,as machinery j goes. The machine contains twenty- i four discs, each three feet in diameter, ' and of course it has the usual paraphernalia. consisting of what are tech- | nically known as sectors, collecting | combs, brushes, etc. To the non-me- i chanical mind this is all Greek, but It j is simple enough in reality when one ^ considers that all these things mean simply the apparatus for guiding the force of the electrical fluid. The influence of this machine is. therefore, ! confined to electricity, and its effect j upon men and matter. It is designed j so that it gives two separate streams of electricity. There are not two streams at the same time, but electricity may be driven from either terminal at the will of the person who Is operating the machine and directing Its influence. The tremendous improvement this machine is in the matter of procuring an electric current can best be understood by contrasting conditions. In the earlier years a dry atmosphere. much warming and heavy labor were required to show only

Ity to board and leave trains which arc In motion at the Baris exposition of 1900 by means of a new system devised by a French civil engineer. The idea was suggested by the moving sidewalk of the wtrld’s fair. The outer circuraference of a circular platform is to travel at the same rate of speed as the passing train. There will be no dana staircase In the center, where the speed is comparatively low. I n advancing toward the edge the Increase is gradual and anticipated. The station attendant overlooks the entire platform from a tower In the center and should there be a heavy crowd he causes the train, by means of switches, to run around the station, allowing ample time to discharge and take on passengers. It is proposed to work trains and platform nt a speed of seven and one-half miles an hour. A Quritlon of Interpretation. The relations between Italy an j Abyssinia are somewhat unsettled by reason of different interpretations of the clause of the ireaty signed last October, by which Italv agreed not to cede Erythrea to any other power than Abyssinia. In the Italian translation of the treaty, this agreement Is limiieil to the period during which the proper boundaries were being settled; but the Emperor Menelek insists that the translation is at fault, and that the words in the original Amharic text—the language of Abyssinia- mean that tho obligation is a lasting one. Menelek has obtained so large a sense of his importance from the way in which Russian. French and English embassies have been paying court to him that he is capable of being very obstinate. A Point to ( oiiMhlor. “Tho railroads are to carry bicycles

as baggage.'’

"Yes; do you suppose they will sign a contract to bung them back as scrap Iron?”-—Detroit Free Press.