Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1891 — Page 6

GEMS ON IOWA’S BOSOM.

80ME OF THE BEAUTIFUL RESORTS FOR VISITORS. Delights ot Existence on the Shores of Clear Lake and Okobojl—Spirit Lake’s Attractions—The Water Toboggan-Ob-servations by a Somewhat Sarcastic Correspondent. t ; Hawkeye Watering-Places. There are a number of modest summer resorts in lowa despite its unpretentious character as a prairie State, 6avs a correspondent writing from Spirit Lake. They are “watering places” in the sense that most of them are in the vicinity of a body of water of more or less pretension. Two of these places—Clear Lake and Okoboji—have a meritorious claim to! attention. Neither one is conspicuous in the press—nor on the map, for that matter. The llrst is the Mecca of the Methodists, who delight in carrying out upon its shores and holding a vigorous midsummer 6eance with Satan; the last has been overshadowed by its less worthy neighbor, Spirit Lake, which has been the patient subject of a persistent “boom.” Up in Dickinson County, lowa, there is a chain of effective lakes. The bodies of water which mark either extremity of this chain are of respectable size, and have many claims to attractiveness. They are linked together by a series of ponds, weedy and muddy, which the fevered imagination of the aforesaid boomer has dubbed “lakes.” On Spirit Lake the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railroad has built a big hotel. In the summer time it is largely tenanted by the officers of the railroad, who, with their wives and friends, make a gay colony. Spirit Lake itself is like a big bowl. Its water is a beautiful blue. The fiat shores have a pastoral beauty, soothing to the nerves, 'perhaps, but with a tendency toward monotony. Even the fish caught in the lake 6eem inflicted by a sullen solidity and Btolidity. When served at the table d’hote they have a soggy insipidity which leads one to turn in despair to the unimpressionable steak. About the shore of the lake are clustered many effective cottages, those of President Ives, Charles A. Clark, the well-knbSvn lawyer, F. C. Harnel, and others being conspicuous. Few of these cottages are pretentious, but they are all in good taste, and are generally clever examples of summer architecture. Several wheezy and more or less rickety steamboats which sadly-suffer for want of paint ply between the Orleans and West Okoboji at the far end'of the lake chain. Navigation here is not perilous, but requires skill. There are a number of drawbridges of one kind and another to be passed, there are stony points to dodge and mud bank to scrape over. Occasionally the pilot yells from the wheelhouse, “Ladies and gents, please move forrard.” Then everybody goes up on the bow and the boat bobs along over the mud until it is time for everybody to go astern, when the procession is reversed and the stanch ehip slides over the hidden reef. This kind of' thing is exhilarating. One can imagine one’s self shipwrecked half a dozen times, cast away on a desert island like Warner Miller’s party to Nicaragua, discovering prints of patent-leather pumps in the sand like Robinson Crusoe, or swashed around among the weeds on the bottom like any other old salt who goes down to Davy Jones’ locker. But when one finally lands on the shore of West Okoboji it is a perpetual delight. The lake is the largest in the series. Its shores are bold and irregular, dented with charming bays, punctuated by rugged promontories and headlines, which stand out in miniature aggressiveness. The water is as tender as the sky in shade, the breezes blow upon it with a kindly playfulness. In places the lake is 250 feet deep and you can fish for pickerel with a hundred and fifty feet of line. Arnold’s Park is the hotel which affords shelter to the wayfarer here.

It is a somewhat tumble-down building set in a grand old grove of great, trees, one approaches the house he<js apt to hear a noise which lead's him to believe the famous Spirit Lake massacre is being re-enacted with some new features and modern improvements in the way of noise. The crash of dishes and the cracking of furniture mingle with the most blood-curdling yells. But this is nothing. It goes on all the time: It is merely the playfulnessof the brainy dining-room waiters who IftfcEe been imported from the at Mount Vernon. These model college youths seem to hold a mortg#« on the place and to be extinguishing it by running it to sfit 1 Aside from these conspicuous*'.members of the hotel staff there is only one other visible

nuisance. That is the survivor of the Spirit Lake massacre. To know that there had been a massacre might give the place some shadow of romance, but to be inflicted with a survivor of it is too much, particularly when the survivor has written a prosy book in gorgeous covers and bad English. Aside from this life flows smoothly at West Okoboji. Here and there upon its shores the most sightly spots have been preempted! by the cottagers, who in little communities have ensconced themselves among the trees and by the pebbly beaches. They stick together in groups which take the names of the localities whence the tenants come. Thus one is Fort Dodge Point, another Des Moines Beach, and off there, on the far arm of the lake is Omaha. The residents of this latter point have put up a water toboggan! slide—a long reverse curve of wood, supplied with rollers on the inside surface. It starts from the top of' a big oak and ends in the lake. The bather drags the toboggan up a flight of stairs behind, launches it, goes down like a rocket, and slides over the water until the momentum is lost and the slender affair sinks beneath the bather’s weight. It is an exciting sport. To drop over the curve in the slide is like a straightaway fall through midair. It takes the breath and is apt to take one’s nerve. But the subsequent slide over the water with the white spray flying before is delicious. The bathing is the popular daily amusement of course. The costumes worn in the water are not abbreviated on the lines so conspicuous at the sea shore. They are modest in cut and in material and finish, and it requires a high order of female beauty or manly dignity to survive one. It is a sight for the gods to weep over to see a passe Orleans belle arrayed in one. You have heard of the Colos-

WATER TOBOGGAN IN WEST OKOBOJL.

scum of of the Acropolis? Well, as a rule they are not in itl This year the lake season has been very short and unprofitable. It has been too cold. The people at A-rnold’s Park sat around the stoves until the middle of July and in vain attempted t<j let imagination play pranks about the delights of midsummer outings. But it wouldn't work. So the hotel: men are sad, the horny-handed boatmen smile not, the bathing-house man wearily tosses you a suit with a rip in the back, and the weatherbeaten steamboats have a wheezy note of complaint in their asthmatic whistles.

He W as Hungry.

An old timo darky walked into Kinsley’s the other day and sat down to a table. A colored waiter approached him and said, “Boss, you kain’t git no dinnah in dis place.” “Kain’t git nuffin to eat?” exclaimed the old fellow. “Wha’ sou is de reason dat a liongry man kain’t get no dinnah in dis place?” “Kasc,” was the reply, “we doan serve cullud folks. Marster Kinsley doan bleebe in soshul equality ob de races. ” “Dat’s right,” answered the old man, “dat’£ right, neither does I. Some niggahs am bettah than some white folks, an’ some udders agin, boef white an’ black, am too blamed triflin’ tb lib. Yes, sah, ise wid Marster Kinsley on dat p’int, so you kin jess bruni ' erlong dat dinnah, quick as you kin, lease I’se pow’ful hungry.” “You doan unnerstan’, uncle,” explained the waiter, “you doan unnerstan’; hit’s kase he boss doan bleebe in soshul equality dat he’s done gib orders dat no culled folks kain’t eat here.” “Yas, but hold on, honey,” broke in the odd darky, “I didn’t come in heah atter no soshul equality; I come in heah kase I’se hongry. I doan want a dish of soshul equality; no, say; jess plain po’k an’ beans ’ll do fo’ me.” “Kain’t help it, uncle,” answered the waiter who was now getting a little impatient. “Kain’t help it, and,” he continued, “you’d better be goin’ right now befo’ de head waitah sees yoh, frelse dere’ll be trouble.” The old fellow got up and, without a word, started for the door; but as he went down the’feteps he was heard talking to himself afther this fashion: “Dese white folks mighty cu’ious, ’pears ter me. Jess kase a poor niggah’s hongry, an’ wants a bite ter eat, dey think he’s after soshul equality. 1 1 didn’t go in dat place kase dey wuz white folks in dar, but kase I ■wanted my dinnah. I didn’t ax no white man ter jine me, an’ no white man didn’t ax me ter jine him. No, sah,” he concluded with emphasis. “When a cullud man is huntin’ his he hain’t keerin’ so much erhout, soshul equality as he am erbout -dinnah; but dese white folks doan *pear ter see it dat way. ” Load a man with dollars and oftentimes you will drive out his sense.

Invention.

If one were asked, says Lock and Bell, to tell the reason why the present age, when compared with all past ages, is so conspicuously an inventive age, he might have difficulty in finding a reason that would be satisfactory, even to his own judgment. Down to the beginning of the last century men had invented but very little. They had necessarily contrived a great d'eal. They had learned to make boats so far back in the legendary ages that history could only find a place for beginning after men had been taught to navigate the sea. But then, the boat is only an evolution of the log floating on the water, and it came into form by such easy gradations through the raft that it is. hardly to be called an invention. So with most of the household implements, and even of the tools of mechanics that have long been in use. They grew by such slow processes from the crudest beginnings that iio man could be called their inventor. As we look back beyond-the beginning of the last century, we discover barely more than a half-dozen new devices that could justly be called inventions. The art of printing is the most conspicuous of these few; but even this invention was so simple that one cannot help feeling that the old monks who copied manuscriptsfor centuries must have been exceedingly stupid or they would have created the art at a much earlier date. But the inventive activity of the present age is a source of continual wonder, and it is difficult to explain the impulse that leads to its indulgence. Much is attributed, and much, doubtless, is due to the patent right system; but this will not explain everything. A few fortunes have been made by inventors; but it is notoriously true that the authors of new inventions rarely realize much for their happy thoughts, and few men would ever think of turning their attention to invention as a profession. Yastly the larger number of inventions are the work of men who have merely conceived a good idea, and then proceeded to put it in mechanical form because their idea has made them enthsiastic. In such cases they may have been stimulated somewhat by hope of pecuniary reward; but it was not this hope that gave the impulse to their labor. Neither can it be justly said that the intellectual activity of the current age is greater than that of any preceding period in the world’s history. In some departments of human endeavor we are less active than the men of the renaissance period and the years immediately following the renaissance. We are producing no Shakspeares, Dantes, Tassos, iftiltons, Michael Angelos, and Raphaels at the present 'time, and considering the models from which those men were forced to draw their instruction, they were so immeasurably superior to their successors in corresponding fields that no comparison is possible. Herschel, Galileo, and Newton, estimated according to their opportunities, were greater than the men of scientific research to-day. The present generation has reached its high ground more largely through the labors of past generations than through its own endeavor, and we cannot say that men have become more inventive because their brains are more active. Is it not more reasonable to say that invention, which is largely science applied, is a characteristic of the highest civilization? It is the last manifestation of human activity following after all the fine and industrial arts and literature have reached their highest degree of perfection. Great writers, great painters and great actors are all imitators. However great they may be, they are only doing what men have done before, and they think themselves most happy when they can trace some sort oi resemblance between their own works and the works of their exemplars. But the inventor comes nearer to the production of something absolutely original than the worker in any other field of intellectual activity, and we take it that the search after the new is a pursuit most congenial to the most advanced society. Men have got tired of learning. Some of them tire too early in life, but we are all growing tired of accomplished facts and want novelty.

A FIFTY-DAYS’ FASTER.

M. Jacques* the Bold Long Period Starver. M. Jacques is the name of th« amiable French gentleman who re-

cently began a fiftydays’ fast at the London Aquarium. He surprises the Londoners by assuming an aii .of extreme comfort, ‘as he sits in his easychair, with his cheery, intelligent face turned toward them, and he never complains eithei

M. JACQUES.

of hunger or thirst. A very little water daily suffices for all his needs. Sometimes he reads for an hour oi two, but he is not much disposed tc talk. He says that that uses up toe much vitality. M. Jacques has nr doubt of his ability to carry through his undertaking.

Boston Wins Again.

Mr. Gotham—We are to have a magazine in New York which is tc print only rejected articles. Miss Penelope Adams (of Boston)— I suppose it is tP be published in New York so as to be right at the fountain head of that sort of article. —Puck. • • Sixtt years ago the aggregate wealth of the United States was $1,000,000,000, now it is $52,200,000,000. This is a pretty good argument in favor of tfie growing industry and intelligent business ability of th« American people.

A MAN-O’-WAR’S MASTS.

Flask Lights and Great Guns as High as the Lighthouse’s Light. In early naval warfare, says the Scientific American, the mast of a vessel was an important aggressive point, and from the masthead were thrown javelins, arrows, hot-shot, Greek fire, and other destructive missiles. The masthead was' then, as now, the chief lookout, and, as all naval battles were at short range, equivalent almost to actual contact of the vessels, the mast was perhaps even more important. than the main armament of the vessel. The accompanying engraving represents the mast of a modern warship, with its lookout and its turret. The mast is made hollow and of sufficient diameter to allow tMe men to asceild. The lower tower is provided with a search light, wnich receives its current through wires extending tip the hollow mast. The turret is armed upon one side with a single piece of ordnance and upon the other with a Gatling gun. Above all is located the lookout or watch tower. With such an auxiliary as this a warship can seriously harass an enemy, besides doing a great deal of actual damage. By the aid of a strong electric light aggressive movements may be carried on at night. Not only can these aggressive movements be carried forward, but by means of the light the entire vicinity of the vessel may be searched for torpedoes and

topedo-boats, thus rendering practical at night the means of defense against the attacks of these wary enemies.

Population of Germany.

The statistics of the German census taken recently stave been published, and Germany regards the outcome with general satisfaction, for, with the exception of Russia, it has grown faster than any other European country. The total population last December was 49,420,800, as against 46,885,704 in 1885, showing a gain of 2,565,093 in the five years, and the largest gain in any five years since the establishment of tfie empire. In 1871 the population was 41,085,792. In the next five years it increased 1,668,568. From 1875 to 1880 the gain was 2,506,7t)1, but from 1880 to 1885 it decreased 1,621,643 —a period during which emigration to this country was very heavy. As to the character of the increase, the same rule holds good as in this country. The bulk of it was in the cities. Ten per cent, of it was in Berlin and more than one-half of it in the ten largest cities of the empire. As. compared with other European countries, Germany in the last ten years has grown about 4,200,000, Austria less than 3,000,000, the British Islands, it is estimated, about 3,600,000, Italy about 2,7 50,000, and France less than 1,000,000 —probably much less. The huge Empire of Russia shows a gain during the same period of 15,000,000, which can be accounted for in part by the comparatively small outflow of emigrants. Thus, with the exception of the latter country, Germany heads the list.

Two Miles a Minute on a Wheel.

Victor Belanger, of* Worcester, Mass., is the inventor of a one-wheel

cycle for which is Claimed a speed capacity of two miles a minute. The inventor claims that to propel his machine requires from seven to ten times less power than is required on the ordinary bicycle. Indeed,

VICTOR BELANGER.

the difficulty he seems to fear most is a vast excess of power, which will make the machine unmanageable to the ordinary person through its terrible speed. According to Mr. Belanger, thirty pushes a minute on the pedals equal about forty miles an hour.

Like Picture, Like Subject.

“Whose picture is that?” inquired an Eastern artist in a Western cabin, discovering a well executed portrait hanging on the wall in a dark corner. “That’s my husband’s,” said the woman of the house, carelessly. “But it is hung with fatal effect,' urged the artist, who remembered the fate of his first pictures in the Academy. “So was my husband, ” snapped the woman, and the artist discontinued his observations. Wsra a man repents, he does not resolve that ho will sin no more, bat that he will be more cautious.

A NEW SKY SEARCHER.

Carle ton College Own* One of the Finest Telescopes In the Land. Carleton College, at North field, Minn., is to be congratulated upon possessing in its new telescope the most accurate of its size in the United States. It is so styled by experts,

NEW EQUATORIAL AT CARLETON COLLEGE.

and it places Goodsell Observatory amohg the best-equipped observatories in the country. In size the telescope ranks sixth and . in power fifth in the country. The clear aperture of its object glass is 16.2 inches, its focal length is 22 feet, and its working powers range between 136 and 1,600 diameters. Under a power of 1,600 it gives beautiful images and easily reaches and separates surprisingly close double stars.

The computations for the objective were made on a new plan by Dr. S. C. Hastings, of Yale, and crown glass from Paris, and flint glass from Germany, were used. The telescope is modelled after the great Lick telescope, but has several improvements. The driving clock is provided with an electrical attachment to control the movement at the will of the observer. The right ascension clock, electric lamps, glasses and other conveniences for setting the telescope are all that could be desired, and the arrangements for slow motion are the best yet devised. The total weight of the instrument, including the pedestal, is 12,700 pounds. The new universal spectroscope, devised by Mr. Brashear, is arranged to be attached to the telescope for the study of the physical characteristics of the celestial bodies, or equally well for use in the physical laboratory. It is provided with an electric lamp attachment for comparison, spectral and measurements, photographic apparatus, prism and grating.

A Female Prisoner In India.

There was a separate ward in the Jail for the female prisoners, and though female prisoners are usually few in number it generally happens that some of them are very bad and unmanageable. It was not-easy to devise a system of reward or punishments for these women. They were required to spin thread, or to clean cotton, which were probably their ordinary avocations in their own homes. If they behaved well some indulgence could be contrived for them, such as let them dress their hair according to their own fancy, instead of wearing it plain or short cut. It was amusing to see the wonderful plaits and structures they made with their long and thick hair. Another indulgence was to let a woman cook her own food, instead of having to take her portion cooked by the mess cook. When these indulgences had been granted the withdrawal of them served as a punishment for misbehavior. Fortunately the majority were quiet though guilty creatures, who had taken the life of a child or grown-up person in some moment oi passion or jealousy, but had seldom been out of the precincts of the zenana.

There were however, some who had been bad, and had led a vicious life before they came to jail, and they gave every possible trouble to the jailer and his guards. Their command of abusive and vile language was incredible. There was one who was pre-eminently mischievous and fractious. One day when she and her companions were taken out to bathe as usual in the jail tank (a large reservoir, about one hundred feet square), just outside the jail walls, this young lady swam out into the middle of the tank and defied the jailer for hours. Of course her bathing in the tank was stopped for a time, but at last she proposed to the jailer to have fetters put on her legs, so that she could not swim if taken out to bathe. The jailer kindly consented to gratify her whim; but no sooner had she reached the water than she struck out boldly swimming, and then pretended to be drowning from the weight of her fetters. The jailer was terrified, and came rushing to me for orders. I went to the side of the tank and saw the lady plunging around like a young porpoise and setting us all at defiance. A fisherman’s canoe was brought, and the woman was eventually hunted to the shore, not without making several attempts to upset the boat. A great crowd had assembled while her performance was going on, and although she had at last to submit to capture I think she certainly had the best’of the day’s amusement. —National Review.

Balmaceda is as fair of countenance as any man of Anglo-Saxon descent, and his hair is auburn. He is a finelooking specimen of manhood, being fully six feet in height and well-pro-portioned. The cruelty in his nature comes from the strain of Indian blood in his veins.

“Why do leaves fall to the ground?* asked a poet. *lt is because they can’t fail anywhere eLo. They have got tc fall somewhere.

OUR BUDGET OF FUN.

HUMOROUS SAYINGS AND DOINGS HERE AND THERE. Jokes and Joke'ets that Are Supposed to Bare Been Recently Born- Sayings and Doings that Are Odd, Curious and Laughable. Tlie Ingenuousness of Tonth. “Maud,” he asked, as the carriage entered the shadowy lane, “Maud, are you sure you—you never had any man’s arm about your waist, as mine is?” “No, George, I never did,” she murmured; “I never, never did! Why?” “Oh, nothing,” he replied, “only I wondered whether it was instinct or experience that made you take the reins from my hand just as soon as we reached this secluded spot!”— Boston News. Hie Even Tenor of Her Way. Organist—Miss Jones, allow me to introduce our new tenor, Mr. Highsee. Miss Jones —Delighted to meet you. Miss I.’s father (later) —What kept you so long at church to-night? Miss J.—l was so interested in a *' new him, which our organist was trying, that I never noticed the time passing.—Brooklyn Eagle. A Test of .Love. Madge—l'd give a good deal to know whether Will Wishlets is In love with me or not. Millicent—l’ll tell you how you can find out. “How?” “The next evening you expect him to call wear your' newsbirt and -ask him to tie your spur-in-hand for you; if he makes a perfect knot at the first attempt you can make up your mihd he has nothing more than a brotherly Interest in you.”—Brooklyn E^gle.

f They ;Cpuljl See Enraged Customer (rushing wildly into the drug store) —Say, this scalp lotion has taken all the hair out of my head. I’ve a great mind to sue you for damages. Druggist (coolly)—You couldn’t collect damages, my dear sir, for I have witnesses to prove that I simply told you the lotion would preserve your scalp, and any jury could see plainly that youV scalp is all there.— Pharm'abefitical Era. 1 *-9 * ft ? y. When Lot# Grew Cold. Singleton—l’m sorry to hear that you have trouble with your wife. What’s thq matter?^ Beneiictr—lt’s her cutting- way of talking. She says the most cutting, ironical things to me on every occasion." Never misses a chance to 6pring«Bomething sarcastic. It’s dr^aflfu!/1 tell- yob'. 1 ' “Wsk you beforeCyou wore married to leafn of the tra*s” -• . .jib :.- F “O, T Jo did, biit_ I"'took it for wit then.”-£Boston News. Excitement Out West. Editor Dugout City (Kan.) Boom-er—-Hello! What’s the matter? Assistant (wildly)—Our railroad reporter at Chicago telegraphs that an Eastern man boarded the westbound train there with a ticket for Dugout City, and he heard the man say something about buying a lot. Editor (excitedly)—Stop the press and get out an extra! We’ll have the town wild. Another big beat on the sickly sheet over the way.—Street & Smith’s Good News. Off the Banks of Newfoundland.

Captain—Aren’t you on deck rather early this morning, Sir William? Sir William—l fabncied, don’t you know, that as we skirted along the coast I might get a glahnce at Niag’ra.—Puck.

Enlightenment. Tommy (to new arrival) —Are you Mr. Boose? The Guest—No, my boy. That’s not my name. Why? Tommy—’Cause, when sister looked out the window and saw you coming, she said, “O! the Boose!”—Pittsburg Bulletin. Got Discouraged. Rural Host—That’s a real purty pictur’. Painted it yerself, didn’t ye? Artist—Yes. Host—Been paintin’ pictur’s all y’r life? * • Artist—Well, n-o. Tie fact is, that when a young man I first handled a brush as a sign painter. Host—Wall, it’s too bad you got discouraged so soon. Judgin’ by that pictur’ you’d made a fust-class sign painter if y’d only kep* at it.—Street & Smith’s Good News.

Hadn’t Heard Him.

Miss Emersonian .Russell (from Boston) —I have reyi'tifeat Venus de Milo will,b£ at Columbian Exposition. WofSt'tfiat be charming? Miss Calnmetia Boveine (from Chicagd)—Ye ry .1 oye 4-]. But I have jie%r heard the young sing. —The Jewtelers* Oirciilar. <■' ~ X A* thoroughly f-elfisi\ man is seldom very wicked, and a tha oughly generous man is seldom very goM. ■ * i —i , - As a rule, when a man gets his dessert, in the language of Emerson, “he has no puddin,