Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1887 — About Camels. [ARTICLE]

About Camels.

A ■writer says: “The camel is the most perfect machine on four legs that we have any knowledge of.” A saered treasure, indeed, to the Arab is this “pudding-footed pride of the desert.” The expression on the face of a camel is rather pathetic. His eyes are large and liquid, and above them are deep cavities large enough to hold a hen’s egg. The aquiline nose, with long, slanting nostrils that he can close tightly against the sand storms and hot, burning winds of the desert, give a very sorrowful expression to the face. The under lip is pouting and puckering, and you are not at all surprised when the poor beast bursts into tears and cries long and loud like a vexed child. The feet of the camel are of very singular construction, with a tough, elastic sole, soft and spongy as they fall noiselessly on the earth and spread out under his tottering weight. This form of the foot prevents the animal from sinking in the sand, and he is very sure-footed on all sorts of ground. The average rate of travel for a caravan is between two and three miles an hour; and the camel jogs on, hour after hour, at the same pace, and seems to be almost as fresh at night as in the morning when he started on his travels. The Arabians say of the camel: “Job’s beast is a monument of God’s mercy.” The camel sheds his hair regularly •nee a year, and carpets and tent-cloths are made from it; it is also woven into cloth. Some of it is exceedingly fine and soft, though it is usually coarse and rough, and is used for making coats for the shepherds and camel-drivers; and huge water bottles, leather sacks, Also sandals, ropes, and thongs are made of its skin. The wife of a boarder at one of our hotels belted her husband over the head with a.wasn-bowl the other day. When his friends ask him what ails his head, he mutters, “Inflammatory rooio-mate-ism,” and adroitly guides the con- , versation into another channel. Ths ftantaraneft Hue of English kings bqg&n with Henry H. and ended with Richard IL, occupying the throne l of England for nearly two and a half centuries—that is, from 11S4 to 1399. Shakspeake and Cervantes died on same Jay-April 23,1616.