Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1891 — Page 5

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF EVERI-DAY LIFE. (jneer Episodes and Thrilling Adrentares Which Show that Truth Is Stranger than Fiction. A man with three tongues, four chins, three cheeks and an elephant’s ear startled the Bellevue Hospital physicians in New York City the ether day. Such a man was taken to the hospital by a lady i® the interest of science, that the doctors might examine him and give their ©pinion as to the probable cause of such a freak of nature. The man can speak plainly and fluently in three languages. He has four well-formed chins, the longest of which is ten inches from the lower lip. The right side of his face is normal, while on the left side there are two separate cheeks. What is considered the most wonderful ■of all in this wonderful monstrosity is fbe ear on the left side of the head.. It hangs down like the ear of an elephant, and measures twenty-one iuches from the crown of the head to the bottom of the lobe. The mammoth ear is pen-feet iu formation and use, excepting that the ■opening is about ton inches below the side of the head. This unexhibited freak is Juan Jose Antonia. He is twenty-five years old, and was born a slave in Jerusalem of Arabian slave parents. When be was twenty-two years old he was stolen by a band of Arabs and taken to Egypt. They kept him at Alexandria for some months and then took him to Mexico. There they made him beg money for them, and found him to be a source of large income in this way. His benefactress, to whom he owes’his liberty, he says, his life is Mrs. Emma Gonzales, the widow of a wealthy Brazilian.

A French journal describes the case <©f a woman twenty-one years of age, but whose physiogomy is that of a woman fully seventy years old. The appearance of the young woman is so deceiving that her father, who is only fifty years old, has frequently been asked if she were not his mother. The surface of the skin is the only part affected. The doctors describe it as a decrepitude of thocutaneous system. Beyond this the young lady has nothing old-appearing about her. Her hair is blonde and of ordinary length, and her memory, judgment and intelligence very good. Drs. Charcot and Souques, under whose observation the case was studied, state that the wrinkling of the girl’s skin began when she was about eleveu years old. Up to that time she had been a vivacious and happy child, ranking well in her studies at school. The wrinkling was so rapid that friends were unable to lecognize her after a period of two weeks unless they had seen her in the interval. Dr. Charcot states that the skin, during the early stages of the change,resembled the scales of a fish. Every possible meats have been tried to improve the young lady’s condition, but they have all proved unavailing

The Delsartian doctrine of rest by voluntary muscular relaxation is somewhat confirmed, according to the New York Sun, by the experience of those who have acted upon this theory in overcoming insomnia. Nothing so quickly brings sleep as the voluntary disposal of the body aud limbs in such fashion as to promote muscular relaxation. The legs and arms should be so placed as to bring them in contact with the mattress at as many poiuts as possible. This affords support and relieves the muscles. The body should be disposed in like fashion, and if all has been done properly the wooer of sleep will presently have the consciousness o f resting with his whole weight directly upou the mattress. When once this feeling comes sleep usually follows. The plan is far better than the old one of repeating the numerals or going over some meaningless series of words, for it has the double advantage of putting the physical man into an attitude of repose and of distracting the mind from whatever thoughts are at emnity with sleep.

One hundred years ago a Mr. Marr of Cape Elizabeth, Me., set out a willow slip, which grew to be a good sized tree. Mr. Marr was an obliging sort of person, and he kept his grindstone—one ot the few in that vicinity—under the willow by the roadside for the convenience of his neighbors. Some of the neighbors were ungrateful, for often, when they had done grinding their axes, they would try the blades upon the sheltering tree, so that its beauty was spoiled and its life endangered. Then Farmer Marr drove a lot of spikes into the trunk, covering the heads artfully with bark and when the neighboring vandals had spoiled a few axes they quit trying edges on the willow. Marr and his neighbors are all dead and forgotten these fifty years, but the willow still flourishes, and the axe marks are obliterated, while the protecting spikes are grown deep in the heart of the great trun t.

Tiie owner of the biggest head in the world is not a politician and does not live in a very big city. He is Loftus Jones Parker, of Louisiana avenue, Washington, D. C., is forty-eight years of age, and is a highly respected man and citizen. Mr. Parker’s crananium is thirty-two inches or nearly a yard m circumlerence, while the ordinary man's is but twenty or twenty-one inches in girth. The story is told in the national capital that when Mr. Parker was but twentyeight years old, three prominent physicians, believing him to be destined to an eatly end, offered to maintain him handsomely as long as he lived for the privilege of making an autopsy thereafter. Mr. Parker has lived twenty years in excellent health to the great discomfiture of the medical men. They are said to believe that he has a twin brain, but his mental processes seem not different from those of his fellows.

It is reported that a party of five English officers and five Americans, brothers, from Philadelphia, started recently to climb to the summit of Fuji Yami,the sacred mountain of Japan. They took some fireworks along, which they intended to explode on the summit. Having secured guides, they set on their journey. After two days the guides asked them to turn back. They refused, and the guides then announced their determination to commit suicide, and coolly proceeded to disembowel themselves before the horrified foreigners. Frenzied by the sight, one of the Americans drew a revolver and bhw out his own brains. The others buried the corpse in a glazier and abandoned their project. The mountain has never been climbed and the Japanese hold that no man can reach its summit and live.

Saji Pwjh was quite seriously hurt near Stillwater, Oklahoma, a few evenings ag». With a party of young men he was out coon hunting. They chased an animal several miles, thinking they were trailing a coon, and when the animal was treed Pugh climbed the tree to knock it down. In the darkness he could not see bat what it was a coon ami he climbed up close to it and struck it. To his surprise he found the animal was a large and ferocious wildcat, which flew at him, biting and scratching him in a horrible manner, and causing him to lose his 'hold and fall to the ground. In his fall he struck a limb fracturing three ribs ana inflicting other severe bruises. He will be confined to his room for some weeks with his injuries. Ou. L. Webster Fox is of opinion that savage races, possess the perception of color to a greater degree than do civilized races. la a lecture lately delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, he stated that he had just concluded an examination of 25(1 Indian chilaren, of whom 100 were boys. Had he selected 100 white boys from various parts of the United States, he would have found at least five of them colorblind; among the Indian boys he did not discover a single case of color-blindness. Some years ago he examined 250 Indian boys, and found two color-blind, a very low percentage when compared with the whites. Among the Indian girls he did not find any. Men have lost their lives in quicksands, but seldom, if ever, has any man come nearer sinking down to death in quick sawdust than did Merchant Tailor L- W. Batzle, of Williamsport, Penn. Walking along eight or ten yards from the river bank, upon what he did not know was made ground almost entirely composed of sawdust, he began to sink before he realized any danger. After he had gone down to his waist,and could not regain the shore, he removed his upper garments and threw himself as fast as possible out into the river, where he struck wading ground,and made his way in the water around the treacherous sawdust tract.

A hotel-keeper ia New York set a trap for a certain black and white rat in the door of his storeroom, and turned a famous rat-killing cat loose in the room. Shortly afterwards there were sundry yells, howls and bangs, and down the stairs came the yellow cat with the trap on the end of her tail. The big black and white rat was said to have looked through the balusters with great interest. Jacob Looco, a laborer, was attacked by a wildcat in the mountains of Cumberland County,Penn.,the other day. Being a man of great muscular strength, he managed to get his hands around the throat of the cat and choked it to death. Looco'« face and arms were terribly lacerated.

A German journalist has brought electricity into use lor taming wild beasts and preparing them for the circus. The invention consists of a wire whip and a metal foot plate which extends neatly over the floor of the cage, both being connected with a powerful battery. It is possible by this contrivance to give the animal with every stroke a sharp electric shock. A few shocks are said to be enough to tame any beast. The electricity can be thrown off at any time, so that the whip becomes nothing more than ordinary. Jacob Long, of Edenton, Madison County, Ga., is the possessor of a peculiar freak of nature iu the form of a two-year-oid colt. The colt is a bright bay in color, but his entire body on the right side from throat latch on back and around to the hip on his left side is coal black, except the intervention of a narrow strip of his natural color (bay), about the breadth of a saddle girth, and separating the black side in two just at the colt’s girth. Louise de Beaulieu, a famous French “vivaudiere,”- who in company with her regiment was under fire in eight battles, has been reduced to the expedient of selling matches in Paris for a living. She has a long record of heroic deeds, one of her feats of bravery being that of saving the life of a child from the sixth story of a house that was burning iu the Rue St. Honore. At Champigny she lost an arm while carrying a wounded soldier to an ambulance.

A Missouri man left his wife and went to Australia forty-one years ago, where it was reported he died. A few days ago he unexpectedly returned home with a large fortune. There was a joyous meeting between husband and wife so long separated, but once more happily reunited. Strange to say, his wife had lived single all these -years with the dim hope of once more seeing her husband. They are both more than seventy. A unique; street railroad baron is Mr. Euguene Winchet of Dayton, Ohio. The road be owns runs through the suburbs of Dayton, and by the rules of the company, drawn up by Mr. Winchet himself, all working girls using the cars ride at half price,and workwomen carrying their baskets travel free. Eleven women whose ages aggregate 861 years were present at a reuuiou ot ot the Selleck family in Norwalk, Conn., a few days ago. The youngest of the eleven was sixty-seven and the eldest ninety-two, while a serene seventy-eight was the avi ra ;e. Miss Ann Jennings was the only spinster of the eleven.

A Soap Eater.

I should like to place on record the history of the following case of a mania for soap eating, which i believe deserves the coinage of the word sapessomania, or mania for eating soap. Mrs. J , aged 29, of Danbury, Conn., consults me in reference to an irritable stomach of long standing. She gives the following details: When about three years of age she first enjoyed a mouthful of bar soap; so agreeable was the taste that she would eatit ‘‘whenever she could get it.” When aged five years her mother found her, spoon in hand, eating soft soap with a keen relish. As she grew in years so did her relish for soap—her playmates ate candy, but she preferred soap; her father brought home to the other childen sweetmeats, but to equally satisfy her a piece from common bar soap must be given. Until she was 11 her sapessomania continued. When awake sho loved to handle it and smell of it and eat of it. When asleep she dreamed of soap. Often, to pacify her, a piece of soap was given to her to hold in her hand to soothe her to sleep, when she continued in her imagination still to eat soap. At 11 her stomach burned her so that she stopped her habit, but still continued to love to handle and to think of eating the great delicacy. When 23, or twelve yean after her

last feast, an advertising agent left at her door a five-oeut bar of bathroom soap, which pleased her so much that she ate it all in twenty-four hours. Since then she Ims eaten none, though there is always the desire to do so. To-dav, did not her stomach forbid, the yearning to “eat some more - ’ would be irresistible. Though she can no longer eat it, she still loves to handle it, she loves to use plenty of it in her housework and in her bathroom. The smell of it is still sweet to her nostrils, and the thick suds she delights in remind her of the days gone by. never to return. Strange to say, slm cares only for the coarse bar soap; fancy soaps she never uses. Personally she is of nemo is temperament. y<sjf evidently a woman of much self-contrql. She asserts that her mania is as strong to-day as it was years ago, though she has tasted soap but once in eighteen years. Despite lior statements, however, I believe she is still eating the little amount of soap which her irritable stomach will allow her. —[Medical Record.

THE HUASO OF THE PAMPAS.

How the Cow boy of Chili Rides and Ilis Odd Outfit. The Huaso is a centaur. He rides as other men eat. The horse is as much a necessary of existence to him as the halfquartern loaf to the English agriculturist. Under Providence lie will dispel, on a mind not above the reception of impressions, the innate insular notion that no people knowhow to rightly handle that animal save ourselves. Yet he rides Chilian fashion, which is not that of Captain Robert Weir. He and his horse are both suited aud equipped for the work they have tq do. If absurd in European eyes, it is the outcome of experience. He has to pass day after day in the saddle, so his saddle is short,deep and high-peaked, giving support before and behind. The rider should tit into it like a foot into a boot. Hence he chooses it with care. A huaso will lend his horse, and even at pinch his pacing mule, but draws the line at his saddle, sauf force majeure. He has often to camp out at night. Hence under the saddle six, eight or ten layers of sheepskins, cut square, are packed so that he sits almost on a level with his horse's head. These serve as bed aud coverlet. He has to crush iu and out of herds of cattle and scattered timber, and to skirt walls of rock and palisades of tree-trunks at full gallop. Hence he protects bis feet with stirrups that are hollowed out blocks of wood. His massive bit will check his mount at the edge of a precipice or jerk it out of the line of charge of an angry bull. His reins of plaited leather or twisted horsehair, with silver ornaments, terminate in a kind of long bell-pull, serving to tether his horse or to urge it to speed when brought down with a smack across its quarter. They are slack, save when needed to check the animal or to turn it by a touch ou the neck. His spurs, with rowels four inches across, are less cruel than they look. The blunt points serve rather to guide than wound, for he rides as much with his legs as with his bridle. “He has no hands for that,” sneers the Englishman. But his hands are wanted for the lasso, coiled up aud slung behind his right thigh. He really guides his mount by his will. The horse is at one with its rider. It knows exactly what he wants it to do, like a welt broken dog in the field. “It will not jump,” is another English complaint. It is not wanted to, for there is nothing for it to jump over. But it will go on till it drops, without rest, food or water, and will scramble up and down precipices as if it had claws in its hoofs. The rider will find his way from point to point without a compass, and lift a trail like a bloodhound, and is full of odd lore and half Indian superstitious concerning every work of nature arouul him.—[Saturday R ;view.

A Horse’s Memory.

“ About nineteen years ago Dr. Walton bought a pair of chestnut sorrel horses for s,'>oo,'’ said Tom Felts, “ and after keeping them a short time he sold one of them for $l5O to Mr. Teaslov. I bought him from Mr. Teasley for $15(1, and for nine years that horse and I livod together nearly all tho time.

“ Fart of the time 1 livod in tho country, and one rainy night tho loft of the stable, with sixty-five barrols of corn in it, foil in and pinned that horse down to tho ground so that he could hardly move. I did not hoar tho crash, but I afterwards found out it occurred about midnight. Next morning I went out to tho stable, and it nearly broke my heart to see the horse that 1 loved better than anybody or anything in this world in such a fix. lie lay perfectly' still and I thought ho was dead, and I couldn't help crying. After a while wo got him out, and 1 just know from tho way lie rubbed his nose against me that lie knew how much 1 loved him and how 1 hud suffered to see him pinned down to tho ground that way with sixty-five barrels of corn on top of him. “ About ten years ago I sold the horse to Stirling Walker and ho promised not to sell him any' more. But after he h.-.d kept him a long time he traded him to a man up in .Springfield, who afterward sold him at public auction down here on tho square. A man named Griggs, in North Nashville, bought him, and now I’m going to tell y'ou something funny. “Day r before yesterday I was passing along Buem Vista street, when 1 saw a horse standing on tho other side of the street. I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular, and just walked on. First thing I knew that horse had crossed the street and was rubbing his nose against mo. ’Twas my old horse, and he hadn't seen me in ten years. But he had remembered me.”—[Nashville American.

The Influence of Sunlight and Moonlight on Edge Tools.

It is not generally known that the light of the sun and the moon exercises a deleterious effect on edge tools. Knives, drills, scythes, andsiekles assume a blue color if they are exposed for some time to the light and heat of tho sun; the sharp edge disappears, and the tool is rendered absolutely useless until it is retempered. Purchasers should therefore be on their guard against buying tools from retail dealers and peddlers which, for show purposes, have probably been exposed for days together to tho glare of the sun. The unservicoableness of tools acquired under these conditions is generally wrongly attributed to bad mutcriul or to inferior workmanship. A similarly prejudicial effect has been exercised bymoonlight. An ordinary cross-cut saw is asserted to have been put out of shape in a single night by exposure to tho moon.—[lron.

THE STARCH TRUST.

CONCERNING ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. Hqw It Manipulated Its Job In the McKinley BUI and Thus Gained Complete Control Reciprocity and Our Export Trade—Two Pictures Contrasted—Tariff Shot. Another Octopus. On February 5, 18(0, the leading starch manufacturers of the Uuiteii States met in Buffalo to consider the advisabilit. and the ways and means of uniting their Interests. The out omo of this meeting was the formation of the National Starch Company, popularly known as the “Starch Trust ” The Trust was organized at the end of March with a capital of *10,000,0u0, at Covington, Kentucky. Hiram Duryea, of the Glen Cove Starch i oinpanv, was elected President and Frank Schuler, of the A. Erkenbroehor Starch Company, of Cincinnati, Secretary. Eighteen of the largest concerns in the country camo under the absolute control of the trust Some of these were bought outright for cash, but the greater part were sold for 25 per cent, cash an! 75 por cent in debenture bonds.

The only large factory not in the trust Is that of the Kingston! Starch Company, whose product is a special class of goods not competing with that of the trust Two defunct concerns, the American Starch Company, of Columbus, Indiana, and the Ottawa Starch Company, of Ottawa, Illinois, threatened competition with tho trust, but wero ap-pea-ed, tho former by being taken into the trust on ft long lease and tho latter by being guaranteed a sufficient Income to keep out of business. The trust thus organized proceeded to business. When tho trust was formed lump starch wa3 sol ing at SSO per ton. Tho price was raised to $55 by tho trust and afterward to Stiff, to S7O, and, on Aug. 2, to SBO per ton, or an Increase of 60 por cent, above the price prevailing earlier in the year. In order to make its hold ori tho market absolutely securo, President Duryea had a consultation with .Mr. Thurber and other members of the Wholesale Grocers’National As.-o nation, tho outcome of which was an agreement on the part of the trust to sell at who esalo only, and on tho part of tho wholesa o grocers and jobbers to buy only of tho "trust’’ und to maintain tho trust prices The trust also agreed to grant the jobbers a rebate of 12 per cent, and freight (less onetwentieth of 1 per cent, for expenses). This rebate is paid to tho grocers’ association and distributed by it to all buyers who maintain prices. Having thus secured absoluto control over the production and sale of starch In the United States, tho trust began to formulate its “tariff job.” The duties on starch itself under tho tariff of 1883 wero practically prohibitive. Dextrine and sago Hour, the former manufactured by roasting starch, and the latter an East India product mado ffom tho pith of several varieties of palms, wore still Imported in considerable quantities. Both are used largely In textile and wall paper manufacture as sizing. It was the aim of tho trust to have the tariff so raised as to shut out both of these products, and in this way give it a complete monopoly of tho homo market. To carry out this purposo the trust did not aopear at the public hearings of the Ways and Means Committee, but secured the prlvato car of tho hlghtarift leadera Tho tariff of 1883 covering starch and kindred products was as follows: “Sago, sago crude, and sago flour, free.

“Potato or corn starch, 2 cents per pound: rice starch, 2)< cents per pound; other starch 2 (5 cents por pound. “Dextrine, burnt starch, gum substitute, or British guin. 1 cent por pound.” The schedules as recommended by the Starch Trust, and carried through by Major McKin'oy, were as follows: “Sago, crude, and sago flour, free. “Starch, Including all preparations from whatever substance produced, fit for use as starch, 2 cents per pound. “Dextrine, burnt starch, gum substitute, or British gum, 1 cents per pound. ” The only apparent change in these schedules was that Increasing tho duty on dextrine to IJ7 cents per pound The textile and wall paper manufacturers opposed this Increase, but at the same time they thought that as long as “sago flour" was on tho free list the Starch Trust could not force them to pay exorbitant prices for itsdextrino.

They were mistaken, however, for In January last the Treasury Department decided that sago flour was subject to a duty of 2 cents per pound, being a “preparat on, fit for use as starch.” Tho Job concocted by the March Trust and carried through by McKinley, was thus complete. Tho Trust had gained Its object The already prohibitive duty on starch was retained, that on dextrino was raised 50 per cent, and a prohibitive duty was imposed on sago flour. The effect of this job on the dextrine and sago flour used by the wall paper and print cloth manufacturers can bo easily shown by a comparison of tho prices before tho McKinley tariff was enacted with those ru.ing now. These are as follows: August, November, 18111. cts. $ tb. cts. It. Dextrine 4 6-6> 4. Sago flour a itfSji 4(3.494 This increase In the pr'ces of dextrino and sago flour bears heavily upon the cotton-cloth manufacturers, since It affects the cost of the goods which we are exporting to China and other Aslastlc countries in competition with France and England Such Is the history of tho Starch Trust and Its operations No wonder that McKinley wants tho tariff let alone. And why? Because Its jobs are manifold, and when brought to light will cause the repeal of his bill.

The Furniture Trade and the Tax on Lumber.

At a time when a largo proportion of the people of-the United States were demanding free lumber, the McKinley tariff-mongers took occasion to levy duties upon every species of lumber that had previously been on the free list. Mahogany, rosewood, lignum vibe, and every variety of lumber used In manufacturing furniture and cabinet-ware, were removed from the free list and subjected to a duty of 15 per cent on the value. It was probably feared that if mahogany, rosewood and other tropical lumber should become too cheap and abundant, the use of pine, oak and cherry In making furniture for tho American people would be interfered with seriously. Why. it was asked, should the peeple of the Unfied States send to Central and South America and to other tropical regions for rare and costly woods, when they have at home an abundance of cheap materials for making fuiniture? In response to this question the McKinley statesmen clapped a duty of 15 per cent, upon the materials of numerous and important American industries. As a consequence of this malignantly stupid legislation the American raanufa' turers of cabinetware, who are unexcelled in taste and workmanship, have been put in a more unfavorable position than ever for competing with their European rivals in the world's markets. They cannot uso a stick of lumber, whether of foreign or of home production. that has not been enhanced In cost by tho tariff. While the beat woods of

the forests of Brazil and of Honduras are sent to Europe, American manufacturers must content themselves with cheaper domostic substitutes that are protected by a duty of 15 per cent No protectionist government in Europo imposes a tax upon the imported lumber used in the manufacture of household furniture. That stroke was reserved for the latter-day protectionist statesmen of the Unitod States, who, in their jea'ousy of everything foreign except imported pauper labor, would exclude foreign woods from use iu tho manufacture of cabinctware for tho American peoplo. The tatiff-enhanced cost of lumber discourages the consu option of its finished products and lessons th > opportunities of remunerative employment to the mechanics who work In wood. While the duties cheek tho importation of valuable foreign woods, they at the same time obstruct tho exportation of furniture. Of the exports of wood and its products in the last nlno months, amounting to nearly $19,0C0,000, household furnituro figured for a little more than $2,000,000. Nearly all the rest consisted of lumber to bo* wrought elsewhere into finished products. But this exportation of American furnituro in spite of tariff obstruction, small as It Is, shows what could be accomplished In this branch of trade if lumber should be placed on the free list.—Philadelphia Record.

Reciprocity and Our Export Trade.

The following table shows the value of our exports to tho different quartors of the globe in 181*0 and 1891, and the percentdgo*which exports to each section bears to total exports: Per ot. 1820. 1831. of total. Europe 8077,284,305 SCO *,614,100 7U.97 British N. America 38,544.454 43,813,513 5.03 South America.. 87,745,U02 87,315,515 4.29 Asia Oceanioa 80,121,452 33,4111,178 8.83 Mexico, O. America <fe B. Honduras 18118.947 21,236.545 3.43 Afrioa 4,590,127 4,708,847 .64 AUother 900,810 879,172 .11 Total 8846,299,828 8872,270,283 100.00 This shows that Europo takes nearly 80 per cent of our total exports. Tho American countries, about which tho believers in tho reciprocity plans advanced by Secretary Blaine are so solicitous, take but 4.29 per cent of our exports. Even tho provinces north of us, whoso trado our statesmen liavo discouraged as much as possible, going evon so far as to snub witli cool deliberation the commissioner sent here to discuss a re iproclty treaty, take ovor 5 percent of our exports, if reciprocity with South America h to boom our oxport trade. why not try it with tho countries north of us ns well'.’ A more pertinent question suggested by tho abovo figures is wherein lies the wisdom and consistency of discouraging, by every form of ro»t:i tion, trade with Europe, which takes nearly 80 per cent of our total exports, and making such extravagant predictions of tho good to come from treaties of ro iproclty with a section of the world which Is able to tako less than 5 per cent of what wo can sell them.

Again, Secretary Blaine cla'ras that his reciprocity treaties with South America aro chiefly in the interest of our farmers, utterly ignoring tho fact that It is just thoso ( ountrles which in tho future will ho our strongest competitors in furnishing tho world with tho food supply It needs. How can our export-trade in farm products he increased by reciprocity treaties with countries which are thom-elves exporters of these very products? Cloarly then, if Secretary Blaine Is sincere in his beliefs, ho is using tho farmers’ interest as a dodge to conceal his real purposes. The best that can bo said of reciprocity as at present outlined Is that it Is a brilliant coup d ctat, to detract attention from the outrageous high tariff and to give to its originator such political glory as can come from it, bofore its sham character is fully understood.

Tariff Shot.

From 1847 to 1801, whon wo had a tariff for revenue, a period which the followers of McKinley’s high tariff policy describe as “our disastrous free trade period, ” wheat avoraged $1.24 per bmdiel In New York, represented by this lino, During the ten years ending In 1888 wheat averaged only 92 cents per bushel in New York, or this line, Under our revenue tariff the price of standard cotton drillings averagod 8 cents per yard, or For the ton years ending in 1888, after many improvements in the processes of production, cotton drillings averaged cents per yard, or Under revenue tariffs a bushel of wheat was exchanged for 10 yards of cotton drilling, or But under a high tariff on cotton manufacturcs a bushel of wheat would exchange for omy 12.0 yards of cotton drilling, or Under which period was the farmer better off?

Two Pictures Contrasted.

In its issue of Nov. 21, the Manufacturer, the organ of the High Tariff Manufacturers Club, of Philadelphia, was printed the following editorial: “Messrs. Marshall Brothers, manufacturers of iron, at Front street and Girard avenue, Philadelphia, and members of -the Manufacturers' Club, are now making between six and seven tons every day of bright tin plate of good quality. They actually make the article lrom the raw material in the shape of steel ingots, which they roll Into plates suitable for tinning. The tin plate thus produced is sold as fast as It is made, and the firm is now preparing to double the output, so t! at. within a short time, it will be making between twelve aud fifteen tons a day. “We have two free trade journals in Philadelphia, and the methods of access to the Marshall mill are easy, and the cost of movement thither upon ahorse car small, and yet neither of them has undertaken to supply its readers with the facts respecting this Introduction of. an important new industry to PhlladeU phia. * This paragraph came to the notice of the editors of the National Provisloner who are in quest of bright tin plate in caftoad lota They a-cordingiy telegraphed to Marshall Brothers asking their prices for their tin p'ate. In due time they received the following telegram: “Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 27, '9l. "Tbe National Provisloner, New York: “Gentlemen —Your dispatch just received, and we are not at present making bright tin plates, only roofing ternes. Therefore have no quotation to make. We are making preparations for bright plates and later on shall be pleased to quote. Yours truly, _ “Marshall Bros. & Co. ■ Ought not the editor of the Manufacturer to have invested ten cents for a round trip, by horse car, to the Marshall Brothers’ works before pointing the way to others? The following item appeared la a Mississippi paper: “Rev. A. Cathy, a Methodist minister, aged 70 years, living at Burnsville, recently eloped with Misa Millie Marlor, aeed si years. The lady’s parents obj*»ted."

DELIVERY OF MAIL.

1 POSTAL MUSEUM 1\ THE POST. OFFICE DEPARTMENT. flow Letters Are Delivered In Other Countries Primitive Methods— Messengers in Scriptural Times— The Famous Pony Express. Mr. Wanamaker's uew postal museum will bj organized as quickly as space ran bo cleared lor it in the building of the Postolfice Department. Iu response to his requests, tout out some months ago, many foreign Governments have already forwarded to Washington exhibits illustrating the methods they adopt for carrying the mails. Included in these consignments aro costumes of letter carriers, which in Europe are very gorgeous and military; specimen letter boxes, miniature mail vehicles, superb photographs of foreign postofficcs, statuettes representing peoplo engaged in transporting mail after various fashions and ever so many other interesting things. There is a set of exquisitely executed figures in papier macho from India which now adorns the mantelpiece of the Postmaster-General. One of them shows a postal runner in British India carrying a bag of letters, with a long spear in his hand, from which little bolls dangle. The weapon is for his defense against the wild animals that infest the jungles through which ho is obliged to pasß, though one would tliiuk it n poor tool for coping with a striped tiger of Bengal, while tho bells aro intended to frighten cobras, kraits and other venomous serpents. Another statuette presents the snmo runner iu the act of paddling a stream in his customary manner, on a raft made simply of four big corked jars of earthenware fastened together. Other mail earners are seen riding on camels, which easily travel eighty milos a day, or in light carts drawn by Indian buffaloes over rough roads where horses could not go. Austria has sent a particularly gorgeous exhibit, it comprises everything imaginable that lias to do with the business of carrying mails, even to postmark stamps, ink pads and the written music of the bugle calls by wl ich tho postmen iu thut country uunounco their arrival. England lias promised costumes, but a full set of uniforms has already arrived from Cauuda. Letter carriers iu the British possessions are all howling official swells, with winter caps and collars of real astrakhan fur, leather leggings, scarlet chamois skin underwaiscoats for cold wcathc: anil gold buttons. With each suit comes a bristle brush for keeping the buttons bright. Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Switzerland have sent contributions for the museum. So have Russia, Turkey and Persia, and others ure expected I rum elsewhere. The South American republics arc disposed to secure representation in this permanent show of Mr. Wauanmker's. The Post-master-General wishes to respond In kind liy supplying these nations with samples illustrating Uncle Sara's way of currying the mails, but no upproprintiou for the purpose is at present available. It ought to he very useful for civilized countries to compare their postal methods. There is a very fine postoffice museum of tins sort now in Berlin, on which u great deal of money has been spent.

In Mr. Wanamuker’s museum will also be illustrated various primitive methods of carrying the mails as practiced in different parts oi the world now and in ancient times. For example, there will be shown a model of the negro postal runner of South Africa, who bears the letter intrusted to his care in a split stick, whieh he plants upright in the ground when ho pause* to rest. He cousumus little food, but much tobacco,and his endurance is wonderful. He wears no clothes, but covers his linked body with oil, rolling in the dust thereupon,so thut the flics will find him too unpleasant to bite. Ho carries the letter in the manner described so that it will not get greasy, and, while swimming with one hand across a stream, lie holds the missive out of the water with the other.

Another type of postman shown will be the messenger of scriptural times, frequently referred to in the Bible, who conveyed royal messages by word ot mouth. It is incredible how swiftly information or orders could be transmitted in this way across the country, every man being obliged by law to immediately forsake his occupation and run to tell the next person along the 'line of communication. The Bedouins practice this method of conveying intelligence at the present day. Jf there is news for an individual, each one who hears it communicates it to all his neighbors, and they spread it in every direction, until dually the man is found for whom it is meant. Japan has new as good a postal system as that of the United Stales, but fifty years ago a letter addressed to anybody iu that country usually bore only the name, with no address whatever. The missive reached the intended recipient from hand to hand, either directly or by a method similar to that just described. The new museum will represent the wonderful postal couriers who carry royal messages to China. They nre the most rapid riders in the world and have been known to make the entire distance of 3000 miles from L’hasa, the capital of Thibet, to Pekin in twenty-five days. They have a right to seize by imperial requisition any horses on their routes, no matter to whom the animals belong. One hundred miles a day is about their average rate of travel. They eat and sleep but little, dismounting once in a while to smoke a little opium. Before leaving his point of departure each such courier has bis dispatches placed iu the lining of his robe, which is sealed upon his pers3a so that he cannot open the garment during his journey. The work of the Chinese couriers reminds one somewhat of the famous pony express that used to make the distance of 2000 miles in ten days from St. Joseph to San Francisco over the roughest sort of country. Daring riders, each traversing his allotted distance between two stations, simply transferred the mail bags from saddle to saddle, so that the entire journey was one continuous gallop. There was always great danger from bandits and wild Indians. To illustrate this a story is told of the famous Wild Bill, who was employed for a time as one of these pony mail carriers. As he was dashing up to a lonely station on the plains he saw several men standing about the entrance of -the “storq,” which was ilmost the only building there. His practical eye perceived in the fraction of i second that he was going to be at:ocked. Leaping from hi* horse he in into the side entrance of the store

which led to the dwelling quarters overhead. The men followed him with drawn weapons, and while he retreated up the s*airs he killed all seven of them one after another. Other interesting methods for carrying the mails will be illustrated in th« museum by miniature reindeer sledges such as the Russians use on routes in Siberia; by dog teams, sleds, snow shoes and skates, all of which are employed for the same purpose in the frozen Arctic: also by canoes, in which the people ol the South Sea Islands, who have nc kind of writing, carry the news. The Eskimo have no postal system at all, ami for lack of mutual communication whole villages sometimes perish. On one occasion, about ten years ago, s trader left two barrels of New England rum on St. Lawience Island just south ol Bering Strait, in payment for some furs. The native residents proceeded to get drunk and stay so. Consequently, they did not do tiny hunting, and when winter cume they died of starvation. The explorer Wilson landed upon the island about a year later and found 700 or 800 dead, the entire population having been wiped out. Looking iu through the the chimney holes iu tlie roofs of their dwellings he saw in every house only corpses lying about —all perished of hunger. [ Washington Star.

MA LIKED APPLE PIE.

He Stood It ns Long ns Ho Could, and Then Rebelled. They were on tlioir "wedding tower," ns she called it, and they had their firs! spat before they lmd been in town three hours. ‘'Lotus have some noodle soup first, George,” she whispered, softly, iib tlioy took seats in u Sixth avenue chop house. "Yes, my own darling,” said George, tenderly. "Mamma always likes noodle soup, George, and has it whenever company culls.” "Yes, my sivoot violet,” said tho groom, in a dreamy way. "And then, George, dearest, I think wo better order after thut —-some” “Some baked bass, eh,” suggested Gcorgo. "Make it perch, George. Mu always hated bass.” l T li! ugh! sweet girl,” responded George. “Then,” ho nddod, “wo better pngs on to a cut of roast beef, cauliflower, mushed potatoes, celery, onion tops, boots, squash and stowed corn, oh, darling!"” "Oh, George! Why, you are an old toaser. You know, George, mamma told me never to oat roast beef unless it was well done; cauliflower is all right, of course; mu likes mashed potatoes, so 1 guess they'll go; pa likes celery, Dan likes onion tops, and us for boots, why, say, old Aunt Emily cun cun the finest hoots in the whole State; inn's receipt for steamed squash is just lovely; I suppose there is nothing like it in New York, out we'll try it, any lioivj and us for stowed corn, say, if you could only taste mil's stewed corn once —oh, it makes me cry to think of ma un i her stewed corn, now when we nro so far away!” and shu her eyes with the napkin. There was no reason why Georgo should have acted that way, but men are men. lie swallowed his dinner gleefully, then called for pumpkin pio. "George!" “Yes, angel?” "You aren't going to eat pumpkin pie?” she said, aghast. “Why not?” "Don’t you remember what ma said?” “Well, I swan, that's so.”

“Let mo order the dessert, George,” she chirruped; ‘‘you know 1 love pie and tarts. Lot mo see; ah, yes—we will have some apple pie—ina likes thut; we will have some dumpling fritters—pa like* those; we will have some chocolate ice cream—Sue likes that; we will have some olives, for inn’s sake; some dates and some grapes, 'cause mu cooks them all.” “ Lot mo order,” said Georgo with a tour-stricken face, “Wo will have a slap of cream cake, ’cause old one-legged Billy, our old-time iceman, is dead in lino for the pantry; wo will have some custard dumplings, ’cause Grandma Wiggins took the prize for ’em at the Cayuga fair; wo will"— “ George ! ” “ VVo will have somo Jellied fruit cake, for my old dad likos that; aud somo - “ Oh, George ! ” “ And maybe we bettor wind up with a piece of apple pio, for ma s sake, and some doughnuts, in mute tribute to the absent but unforgotten Sarah, who cooked for mu for thirteen years. What do you say '! ” “ I think, like all men, you are a pig!” she said, with a dainty pout, mid she kept very mum for the next three minutes, and nothing was hoard hut the grato of spoon and kiiifo, mingled with the dry, dyspeptic cough of the easli girl out by the door. “George,” she said sadly, as she shoveled away the last crumbs, “ will you have another piece of upplo pio ? ” “ Why, dear ? ” “ For—for my sake, George !” It took him half an hour to help her on with her wrap and her new gloves—[New York Recorder.

The Russian National Hymn.

The great part which tho Russian national hymn has played in Western Europe since the French fraternization with Russia lias startod much inquiry about its origin. According to the Frankfurter Zoitmig, the hymn is not yet sixty yeurs old, mid was first used for its present purpose under Cznr Nicholas. When he made his tour in Prussia and Austria in the year 1833, he was accomimuiod by Adjutant-General Alexei Feodorowitsch Luotf, a passionate violinist and a composer of some skill. The Czar was impressed by the fact that every regimontal baud in Berlin and in Vienna greeted him by playiug the national hymn of their own country, and this was upologized for by the known absence of any recognized national hymn in tho great Empire in which he ruled. Nicholas was much impressed by the deficiency, and during his return journey towurd Bt. Petersburg had muoh talk with Luotf upon the subject, and at last ordered him to compose a hymn for the Russian military bands. Luoff hereupon set music to Schulowsky’s “Ghodße the Czar 8 Protector." The SchulowskyLuoff hymn was first played publicly before the Czar on November 23.1833, and so pleased the sovereign that by a ukase of December 4. of the same year, hfe ordered it to be adoptod as the national hymn of Russia. Luoff was not'only awarded by the gift of a gold snuff-box set with diamonds, but permission^was fiven to him and his heirs to adopt 'the rst line of the hymn as the family motto. -[Pall Mali Gazette. Ireland is fast coining into favor as m holiday resort.