Daily Democrat, Volume 2, Number 295, Decatur, Adams County, 23 December 1904 — Page 3

A LARGE SUPPLY OF Edison Phonographs & Records. Columbia Rec ords 19 cents each Edison Records 35 CcentsEach. ''■ / : J V’’ *7 7 • i ~~~ . _ V —-—J- A- £ Ki ‘t ■ — szc,", ■. 1 1; ■ 41 l®pr-' . -Hi ■ * z- - - aP - ■ , Bs-S? SCHAFER HARDWARE CO.

ODD CHINESE CUSTOM. It Is Etiquette to Belittle Onexelf and One'i* Services. In China, as in Japan, custom requires that one who has performed a meritorious service should belittle it and one who has been selected for honors should declare himself unworthy. Who can imagine an American officeholder writing such a letter of acceptance as this, which (he biographer of Li Hung Chang quotes from Tseng Kwo Fan, appointed viceroy of Nankin: •‘Being of no ability and having notwithstanding been intrusted with the most import:.nt duties, I have, as 1 tottered along, failed to do anything meritorious. "When some years ago I went to Shangtung I did not succeed in subduing the Nlenfei, but returned to Nankin and was ever after ashamed of myself. Last year I was graciously nominated viceroy of Chili, but 1 made unsuitable appointments, mismanaged the army and failed to do any good for the Yellow river. 1 tremble as I think of my blunders, and in consequence 1 am overwhelmed by the gracious order which directs me to resume my former important post and thus displays your majesty’s confidence in me instead, as would be just, of reprobating me for my worthlessness and dismissing me." As it happened, this was from one of the most honest and best beloved Chinese who ever governed Nankin and was almost worshiped by the people of the province THE WET TABLECLOTH. It Puzzled tin- Ship's I’assi- outer Until It Um Explained. The understeward in setting the table poured a half glass of water on the clean white cloth and placed a dish of fruit on the puddle lie had made. He made another puddle and placed on it thecarafe. Ona third puddle be placed the butter dish, and so on. "Why do you spoil the cloth with a!! that water?" asked a passenger. "Because the weather's rough, sir.” said the steward, and then, making an other puddle, he went on: "We stewards on ocean liners must • not be merely good waiters we must lie good wet weather waiters. And we have a number of tricks. "One of our tricks is to set the heavydishes upon wet spots. If we were to set them on dry spots in the ordinary way they would slide to and fro witii every lurch of the ship. But if the cloth is wetted they don't slide. They adhere to the wet place us though glued to it. "One of the first things a steward learns is to set a stormy weather table —to spill water on the doth at each place where a heavy dish Is to stand. This water serves its purpose thoroughly. and It diesn't look bud. either, for the dish covers it. No one knows of the wet spot underneath.”—New York Press. More Than Skin Tlaht. Senator Joe Blackburn, who was quite a dandy In his younger days, once ordered a pair of trousers from hla tailor. fls **’•• fnsiiion then was to wear tight nether Imbllnments he einphatb'iillv demanded that this particular pair be skin tight, in due time the trousers were sent and tried on, whereupon the senator sent for the tailor and proceedm! to open fire. ■What in the Idankety blank blank have you done with these trousers?" he demanded. "You told me to make them skin tight, sir,” faltered the tailor. "Yes; but. by the great horn spoon, you overdid It," roared the senator. "I can alt down In my skin, but I enn't in these tt'Jiwcrs.'’

THE PECULIAR SNAIL. Ihls Creature Can Live Without Air, Water unit Nourishment. The common snail lias lungs, heart and a general circulation and is in every respect an air breathing creature. This notwithstanding, he can live on indefinitely without inhaling the least atom of air, that which is usually considered the essential to existence in ail creatures supplied with lungs. Leppert says. "To all organized creatures the removal of oxygen, water, nourishment and beat causes death to ensue.” When that statement was made he did not appear to consider the snail as one among the great host of “organized beings,” for the experiments made by Professor Spallanzani prove that any or all the usual life conditions can be removed in its ease without terminating its existence or in any way impairing its functions. It is a fact well known that the com mon land snail retreats into his shell on the approach of frosty weather in the fall and that the opening or mouth of the shell is hermetically sealed by a secretion which is of a silky texture . and absolutely impervious to air and water. In this condition it is plain that he is deprived of three out of the four elements of life mentioned by Leppert—viz. air, water and nourishment. Gulf Weed. In China and other parts of the east gulf weed is often pickled and used in salads. It is found floating in vast quantities in some parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Although a tropical plant, it is occasionally carried by winds and currents to the British coasts. The fronds are long, with distinct stalked leaves and air vessels which resemble berries. The presence of this weed on the Atlantic is regarded as a sure indication of the gulf stream, from which it takes its name. Pearson's. Met Ills Match. "By the way,” said the lawyer, “your friend Mrs. Sharp was a witness in a case I had today. It was my painful duty to cross examine her." "I should think." said his wife, "that I she would undergo the ordeal as well as any one I know." "She did. Before she got through with me I had to ask the protection of the court." New York I less. HATS CAUSE BALDNESS. Tliei Make the Menl|» it Breedinu I’lhcv For Microhm. There Is every reason to believe that primitive nmu had a thick and abttn dunt head of hair and that this natural clothing of the scalp is diminishing among civilized people and will end by disappearing altogether, which would certainly not be advantageous from an aesthetic point of view. The cause of tills disappearance of the hair, according to the doctors, must be sought in Hie very conditions of civilization and in the customs it has introduced. One of the customs especially hurtful to the hair is the hat. and, above all. the imisyullnc lint, so we see man's hair sutler more than woman's. The hut produces baldness by two different methods. First, It creates about the head an atmosphere which Is futuliy warm and moist and which prevents the penetration of the rays of light that arc so fatal to bacteria; the list makes lor the microbes a sort of improvised hotbed vlflcli Is extremely favorable to tl.elr uevelopment. and It Is known th i nilc" 1 an important role in •• of baldness. If It had b< 1 H foster the exIftetice of . .ones e "al ot It' lng upon the scalp or fa vorable means lor uxuu ixis-ee’ 1 "" |

ana multiplication than the hat could not have been found. Again, the hat, holding its place upon the head solely by pressure, exerts a second pernicious influence upon the scalp; it compresses the arteries and the veins; it impedes the circulation of the blood and consequently the nutrition of the organs which produce the hair. It is therefore doubly desirable that the reign of the hat should cease in the case of men, for with women the hat is so light a thing that it can bxert only a trifling proportion of the ravages it is responsible for In men, and that this garment should be renounced or replaced by some less injurious article. As a matter of fact men would be very healthy with bare heads. The hair would be strengthened and would serve as a.bat; it would only be necessary to protect the head against the rays of the sun la summer in order to avoid sunstroke. It is true the public imagines that Jt would catch cold more easily, but this is a mistake. A ..draft uiluwe. is not enough 4q_give cold; a microbe is absolutely necessary. From the hygienic point of view there Mgg, fewer 'Jiiepip dmenees in going wltli ,the head bare •than in carry j, ijifit 'Atpon it a hothouse for crobes.—New York World. TESTS..BY TQRTURE. p - *' The Wprld ,1m Xyt Yet Free Front ‘TTiin IlHrbnrfc Practice. as all the world , wasi tblyktstjot,e>yljized countries ty abplmli the test by torture as a regti jaiHegal-dnstiiWrtion. A-historian who lI4S -made.,;a- Special investigation of modern methods of torture has discovered that the baibaj'ic..ptactice is still common tn many out-of the way corners of the globe. The early English system, too. has been widely imitated. Even in the time of Henry 111. the torture trial was in vogue. First came three days of preparation by fasting and prayer. On the solemn day a caldron was made to boil in church, and a stone was placed apparently in the boiling water. Two juries of twelve men apiece were present in the interest of accuser and accused. Both sides tested the water, anil if they agreed that it was boiling the accused thrust in his bare arm and took out the stone. His arm was then wrapped in cloth and sealed. Ou the t'flrd day the priest inspected the arm, and if it was perfectly healed the accused got off. It seems as if the testing representatives may have been tampered with or the examining priest may have been corrupted. The same preparation was carried out when the other method was tried, which was the carrying of a redhot bar of iron for three steps. The hand was then sealed and examined as before. It has been suggested, as many people escaped scatheless, that the priests had a secret cure for burns or for preventing burns. But such a secret must have been known to the chemists, and the chemists of today are ignorant of any such remedy \s late as 1174 a man was condemned to the boiling water. In all eases the accused had been declared guilty by a jury, and even if he succeeded in the ordeal he was often banished. In southern India there is a curious case of domestic ordeal. The natives would plunge the arm in boiling oil and come out scatheless. It is well known that the hand, protected by its natural moisture, can be placed in mol ten metal and not be burned. A mis sionary tells of a native who was very jealous of his wife. At last the poor woman, wearied by bis reproaches, offered to undergo the ordeal. The husband boiled the oil himself, that there might be no error, and bade her insert her hand, keeping it there till he gave her the word to extract it. He let her hand remain in the oil for some time, and when she took it out there was no sign of burning. Knowing the furious Jealousy of the man, the missionary had no doubt as to the temperature of the oil. In Arabia there is a more stringent though less danger ous test. A woman carried hot embers in her veil for twenty yards. If her veil did not burn, her innocence was established. It is well in considering these things to remember that the "lire tests” were the great conjurers' tricks from the time of the Greeks to that of the red Indians. In the rituals of all old re ligions trending on hot coals, embers, burning stones, etc., was a common rite. It exists in Bulgaria today. In Borneo a Chinese meat firm intended to establish a business not long ago. The European Inhabitants of the place wen* astonished to see the street covered for some distance with redhot embers and a res] leviable Chinese merchant walking thereon with naked feet. His object was to ascertain by this means whether or not this would be a favorable place to establish his busi ness. A traveler hi Fiji recently photo graphed natives walking barefooted over redhot stones. The bunds of dry ferns about their tinkles were not How Chicago Is Spelled. In sorting over the letters for Chicago a man in the general Chicago office has kept an account of the number of different ways the word Chicago Is spelled. Ilevent ly the record showed III" different ways. Some ripe scholar In Finland sent a letter to his brother and spelled the mime of the Garden City. Zluaao. Still another foreigner, possibly with a sinister motive, spelled the word Jagjngo. Illpalio, Jajijo. Seheeehai ho. Illznge mid Chaclilcho are also prime favorites. The Foolish Fish. Deacon Good Don't you think It cruel for you to draw n tlsh out of his native element by a sharp Iron hook? Fisher Boy It's no fault of mine. When I'm giving n worm a suit water bn ' d > ■ i Hsh want to hook him; ,ie for? It's nobtm'nc- b.ls-b. a Transcript.

SPECIAL XMAS BARGAINS! Every Item as advertised. All Winter Cloaks and Suits at LESS THAN COST. SPECIAL CUT PRICES IN FURS. Buy your mother, wife, sister or daughter a nice FUR or winter cloak for Xmas. " All Cloaks less than cost. Make your selection early. $ om ® . Cloaks and Furs Xmas Offerings- ■ HANDKERCHIEFS, M 311 Ilf 3Ct U F6(l GOSt TOPS, << 7 < A S2O 00 Coats at $lO 00 ill II ! ?18. 00 Coats at SIO.OO DBESSERSCARFS, \‘| ’/I ' ' $15.00 Coats at. $9,00 of? 2 KS ’ ■ I \ I $13.50 Coats at $ 8.50 WLS, -Wli I % $12.50 Coats at $7.50 U MBRELLAS. x\ SIO.OO Coats at $ 6.50 ~LANKETS, f I $ 650 Coats at $4.50 HOSIERY, / // I $ 5.50 Coats at $4.00 SHIRTWAISTS, UL ' All < hildren'e Cloaks at away less MAKE OUR STORE y i \ than cost, Sob our line* Ijefore you YOUR ‘HEADQUARTERS j, ' X at For, Your Xmas 'Shopping We Can Show You The Largest Open Stock In The City. NIBLICK & CO.

MONEY TO LOAN THE DECATUR ABSTRACT & LOAN COMPANY. (incorporated) A large num of PRIVATE MONEI as been placed with us to loan oi ny property and farms. No delaj j . red tape in making loans. Lowest rates of interest. We are able to cloar all loans on the same day of receiving Application. Will loan i urns oi 150 up, on one to five years time, wit! privilege of partial payments. Tbit , company can also furnish abstracts ol title on short notice to any piece ol real estate in Adams county. TH! DECATUR ABSTRACT * LOAN CO. Rooms 3 and 4, Studabake: j block. 257dtf

Feed and Seeds I Peninsular Portland Cement Gypsum Rock Wall Plaster We make a specialty of furnishing H 1(1 H (IRA DE CLEAN COAL that will burn. J. D. HALE rHoneo Cor. Jefferson and 2nd Sts. Blackburn & Christen Holthouse Drug Co. W. H. Nachtrieb Smith, Yager & Falk

I Sian niyni Here I ■ Your Holiday shopping ought to commence on a ■ common seence basis, Useful presents are best ap B jg predated, and when the useful nml beautiful are ■ ■ combined, you have found your ideal present. ■ W There are scores of appropriate presents in our g HOLIDAY ASSORTMh NT. We can't begin to 3 i enumerate all of them; but here are a fe.v hints: Smoking Jackets, ( New and Fancy ■ rancy Suspenders, f Good as they are Pretty ■ 1A Wilderness of Oeautful Neckties I 10 to 50 cents ■ a Plain and Fane v Mufflers i I 25c to $5.00 I I Warm Gloves .for Riding or Walking I I 25c to $5.00 I I Handkerchiefs/ Umbrellas, Suitcases, ■ Sweaters,’Hosiery andiCops B ■ and dozens of other artiiles that will please or boy. ■ 1 Let your shopping begin Tflh AV I g right here IUUHT | I Elzev & Vance, I ■ Corner East of Court House Decatur. In liana ■