Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — Page 5

IN NO MAN'S LAND. Two shapes were walking on the strand One starlight night in no man’s land; Two shapes that during mortal life Gave hate for hate, in deadly strife. They met. Swift forth their falchions flew; Each pinned the other through and through; But neither fell. Again they strove For mastery, and madly drove To right and left their falchions bright, Nor sound nor cry profaned the night. Through oorselet, casque, and visor, too, As through the air their swift blades flew; Until, amazed, they stood aghaßt, And on the sands their weapons cast. Then laughed they both at mortal strife, The passing dream of earthly life. And elapsing each the other’s hand, They walk the shades of no man’s land. —[James Clarence Harvey, in the Academy.

All's Well That Ends Well.

There is always a. beginning to an end. What it was in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Hicks-Brown I do not pretend to know. What I know most about is the end and the appendix. Of course all the differences leading up to the last act were thoroughly aired in court and in the newspapers; but it was the final act of brutality on Mr. Hicks-Brown’s part that was especially dilated upon, and for weeks this “fiend inhuman form” was execrated by dames and damsels all over this broad land, and Mrs. Ilicks-Ilrown was an object of heartfelt commiseration on all sides. I am inclined to think, that if Mr. Hicks-Brown had been more like the men who are held up as model husbands by the knowing members of certain ladies’ societies, he and Mrs. HicksBrown —she whom only two short years since he had promised to love aDd cherish—would be living in peace and amity, to say nothing of conjugal happiness, even unto this day; and if Mrs. HicksBrown had been anything but the only child of a very rich and foolishly indulgent papa, things might have been different. But Mr. Hicks-Brown was just as much used to having his own way as was his pretty spouse; and the natural result was family rows, more or less insignificant in character. At first Mr. HicksBrown was inclined to give in, just as all dutiful hubbies are ;buthe saw the shoals of trouble on to which this course was causing him. to drift, and concluded, after mature consideration, that it was his will that should dominate in the Hicks-Brown family, and he fixed his plan of procedure and governed his actions accordingly. Mrs. Hicks-Brown, with feminine insight, perceived, at an early stage of the game, what her lord’s intentions were; and, as she had always been accustomed to have her own way, she decided that it was too late to begin knocking under - and there you have what was presumably the beginning of the end. It was a dog—not only a dog, but a young lady dog—not only a female canine, but what Mr.. Hicks-Brown termed a “measly, doggasted pug”—that caused the climax. If there was any creature on earth that Mr. Hicks-Brown loathed and despised it was a pug, and especially one of the gentler sex, and his better half, aware of this antipathy, had, with characteristic feminine perversity, availed herself of the first opportunity to possess herself of one of those interesting animals, which speedily won, it seemed, first place in her affections and made Mr. HiAs-Brown’s life miserable. He stood it, however, as long as he could; but the end had to come. Mr. Hicks-Brown was an architect, and it came to pass that he had, on one occasion, been invited to prepare the plans for a public building. The plans were drawn and accepted by the committee, which, however, returned them to him for certain important alterations, and they were laid on the table in his den to be attended to when he returned home in the late afternoon of a certain

day. Now, it so happened that Vic, the pug aforementioned, was of an inquiring turn of mind, and she chose this very afternoon for an exploring tour in the upper part of the house. When Mr. Hicks-Brown entered his den about 5 o’clock he saw at once that portions of his plans were missing, and, supposing that his wife had taken them to show some visitor, he hurried downstairs. “Where are those plans?" he asked. “What plans, dear?” softly inquired Mrs. Hicks-Brown, sliding her caramel into one cheek and still keeping one eye on a particularly thrilling page of the yellow-back novel in her lap. “What—what plans? Do you mean to say you didn’t take those Calumet building plans from my table?” asked Mr. Hicks-Brown in some agitation. “Oh-h!” said his spouse, mildly surprised. “Why, it must have been those 'Oi&ti VJO •“That—Vic—had!” howled Mr. Hicks “And pray where are they now.” ‘ ‘Don’t get excited, dear. Were they they anything in particular? Vic had some old, soiled pieces of cloth, playing with them awhile ago; but I supposed they were some you had thrown into the wastebasket, so I burned—Henry! What axe you going to do?” . But Henry did not answer. He strode over to the cushion whereon the offending Vic was taking her afternoon siesta, gripped her firmly by the nape of the neck, and, despite his wife’s hysterical protests, opened the door and kicked the howling animal into the street, and, not satisfied with this, when Mrs. HicksBrown would have rushed to rescue her pet, he took her by the shoulders and forced her into a chair, noting with grim satisfaction as he did so that a couple of street arabs were making off with Vic. That day Mrs. Hicks-Brown went home to her mother, and two weeks later she was a member of the divorce colony in a western city, seeking freedom from matrimonial bonds on the ground of “cruel and inhuman treatment,” which she expected the court, when her case was presented, to understand as having been applied to her instead of to Vic. In the state where Mrs. Hicks-Brown sought her divorce, it takes only three months to establish a residence, and the legal formalities consume very little time; but, strange to say, Mrs. HicksBrown did not find it easy to pass the time. The first three or four weeks, in her flurried state of mind, she did not notice—but, after that, time passed very slowly, indeed. Strange as it may seem, life apart from Mr. Hicks-Brown was very, very dull—and lonely. Yes, she had been hasty—too hasty—but there was no turning back now. She had burned her bridges, and besides, had ever a Lovedale retraced a step once taken? No! And she held her pretty nose a little higher and tried to look haughtily don’t-care-ish, all the time feeling very miserable, indeed.

Everything seemed to conspire to add to her load of sorrow. She was pointed out on the street as a “colonist;” and, although she met, through the pastor of tbe church she attended and at the home of her attorney, many of the nicest ale in the city, she was almost enj ignored in a social way and it galled her immeasurably. She, a Lovedale—yes, and a Hicks-Brown: for even if the man who had bestowed the last name on her did work for a liying, it was a name to be proud of—to be ostracized by thase insignificant country jfeople, half the men among whom attended balls in Prince Albert or cut-away coats! The idea! As if shncared! And yet she did care, a great deal. And Mr. Hicks-Brown? He was working away as though fighting time. He never gave himself a moment, if Be could help it, for thought. Not a word had passed between him and the Lovedale family since the day his wife had flung herself out of-the house and returned to her parents. He heard she had gone west for a divorce and it made him wince, but he shut his mouth more tightly and went at his work still harder. There were times when he had to think and they were not pleasant times. There was one in particular. A few months before he had begun to build, unknown to his wife, a handsome new house in her favorite suburb—and the time came for him to occupy it, and she was not there to enjoy it. His younger sister, an orphan, who had just finished school and had come to live with him, was delighted with every thing. She ran all over the house, fairly gushing with pleasure, and did not know that her brother, sitting smid the confusion of furniture in the front hall, was thinking of how much some one else would have been pleased. And there were two big tears on his cheeks when he remembered himself and arose to superintend the work of arranging furniture. Everybody who reads the papers remembers the Hicks-Brown divorce trial —how the defendant paid no attention to the suit; how the judge, in granting a decree without alimony, scored the fair plaintiff for seeking a divorce on jsuch trivial grounds, and assured her that he allowed a decree only because it was plain to be seen that it was a case of incompatibility ; and how two days after receiving her decree, the plaintiff left suddendly, and everybody said, “I told you so—l knew she’d go as soon as she got it.” But everybody doesn’t know that the reason she left so suddenly was that she received a telegram announcing her father’s death, or that when she reached home she found that he had died a bankrupt. Hicks-Brown knew it, and his heart ached with a longing to go to her aid—and then the Hicks-Brown pride came to the surface and his heart hardened with a cold snap and he bent himself to his work harder than ever. One morning, as he rode into town, Henry Hicks-Brown was thinking how lonely his sister must be, sometimes, out there in that slow little suburb, and an idea struck him. “By Jove!”he thought, “it’s the very thing. There are lots of fine girls who would jump at the chance to be companion to so jolly a girl as Lottie.” And he stopped at the Sol office and left a “Want” advertisement, which stated that a young lady desired a companion who was able to speak French and possessed sundry. other accomplishments; must furnish best references; would receive liberal salary, etc. “Apply in person at residence, Grove street.” Mabel Hicks-Brown, discussing ways and means with her mother at their slimly-furnished breakfast table next morning, saw this advertisement. “It’s the very thing, mamma, and I’m going to see about it to-day. Something must be done, and I am the one to do it, so ” “But, Mabel, it seems so—so —why. the idea of ” “There, there’s no use saying a word, mamma. We can’t be choosers any more.” And so it was settled. At 4 o’clock that afternoon Mabel Hicks-Brown rang the door of the house in Grove street indicated in the advertisement and was admitted by a trim maid, who seemed to know her errand, and ushered her into a pretty drawing room on the right. Somehow the room had a familiar look. At least there wene things in it that seemed familiar. That picture in the dark corner—she must have seen it before. She rose to look at it, and as she did so, some one came hurriedly into the room. Tnrning, she stood face to face with Henry Hicks-Brown. . For a full half-minute they stood staring at each other, stunned. Then Mabel, weak from the strain of the weeks and months just passed, gave a shuddering sob and sank to' the floor. Ten minutes later she found herself upon the divan in the corner, with a pair of strong arms about her and a very dear face close to her own, while a deep, tremulous ‘ voice whispered: ‘ ‘Mabel, can’t we—can’t we make it all up? Tell me, little girl.” She told him, right then and there; and half an hour after that they stood in the study of the parsonage close by— Hicks-Brown would have it so—for all the world like a pair of elopers, and what had taken hearly five months to untie wasretied in five minutes. And that was the real end of the celebrated Hicks-Brown divorce case—the part that only a small minority of the newspaperreading public Knows about.— [Argonaut.

Malay Running “ Amok.”

It is a religious fanaticism, a madness, under which a man makes up his mind to kill any one he ean until he himself is killed. Brought on by drink or religion or from whatever cause, the process is the same. The madman seizes his kriss and rushes headlong down the street, cutting at every one he meets. To any one who has seen a kriss ora parang further detail is unnecessary. A man running amok is as a dog with hydrophobia, but the panic caused by the former is by far the worse. Like the mad dog, the mad man is followed by a noisy rabble, who, sooner or later, run into their man and exterminate him. When this vengeful rabble s made up of bloodthirsty Malays and Chinamen, its wild rage and fury is beyond control, beyond description. The clamor and blood-curdling yells of the pursuing crowd, and the ever-near-ing shout of “ oran amok, oran amok,” is an incident which can never be forgotten by any one who has seen or heard it. The bravest quails -when suddenly turning the corner of a street his ears are greeted with the cry of “oran amok,” and a few yards off he sees a Mtlay running straight at him, brandishing in his hand the bloody kriss with which he has already slaughtered all in his way. His hair flowing behind him, his sarong thrown away or tom off in a struggle, his naked chest reeking with blood, Ins eyes protruding from his head and twice their natural size, coming toward you with the rapidity of a deer, every muscle in his

herculean little body swollen to its great* est tension, his kriss dripping with blood, his eyes upon you, with dire hate and determination gleaming from them, down he comes upon you, the whole place ringing with toe cry of the ever-increasing and avenging crowd behind him, down upon you comes the “ oran amok! oran amok!”—[All the Year Round.

OLLA PODRIDA.

Official Slang. —Official slang and political slang have a tendency to use the fewest number of words to express an idea and the fewest number of syllabtes to make the word. There is the use of the word “made” instead of promoted, “broke” instead of dismissed from the service, “got at” to mean that some one has been successfully induced to do something, “pull” to signify influence, favoritism and official friendship; “pulled” to sum up what happens when a squad of policemen make a number of prisoners at once from the same place; “fell down” to show that there has been a final failure in what was undertaken, “done up” in the sense of the demolition and crushing of some one. These are a few samples,. A little thought will enable any one to add a number of others. They snow the tendency of one class of public slang to brevity and sententiousnfess. Wood That Sinks in Water. — There are 418 species of trees found within the limit of the United States. Of these, sixteen, when perfectly seasoned, are so heavy that they sink in water. The heaviest is the black iron wood (Condalia ferrea), found only in Southern Florida, which is more than A per cent, heavier than water. Of jfie other fifteen, the best known is the Lignum vitae (Guaiacum sanctum), and the Mangrove (Rhizpora mangle). Texas and New Mexico, lands full of queer, creeping, crawling, walking and inanimate things, are the homes of a species of oak (Quercus grisea), which is about one and onequarter times heavier than water and which, when green, will sink as quickly as a bar of iron. It grows only in mountain regions, and has been found as fat westward as the Colorado Desert, where it grows at an elevation of 10,000. All the species heavier than water belong in Florida or the arid South and Southwest. Capacity of the Eye. —The capacity of the human eye for special training would appear to be even greater than that of the hand. A young woman employed in Bundle's Bureau of Press aings tells us of a wonderful faculty as acquired, which enables her to see certain names and subjects at a glance at the page of a newspaper. They are the names and subjects she is paid to look up through hundreds of newspapers every day. What the ordinary reader would have read column after column to find—and then might miss—she sees at what seems the merest casual glance at the sheet as soon as it is spread out before her. “They stand right out,” she said laughingly, “just as if they were printed in bold black type and all the rest was small print. I couldn’t help seeing them if I wanted to. When I begin to look up a r ew matter and drop an old one it bothers nre a little—the latter by being in my mental way all the time and the former to be hunted —but in a few days one disappears and the other apEears in some mysterious way. I can’t tell ow. I uqed to think bauk cashiers and clerks were a remarkable set of people, but I now find that the eye is much quicker than the hand, and is susceptible of a higher training.” A Lake of Boiling Water. —There is a lake of boiling water in the Island of Dominica, lying in the mountains behind Roseau, and in the valleys surrounding it are many solfataras, or volcanic sulphur vents. In fact, the boiling lake is little better than a crater filled With scalding water, constantly fed by mountain streams and through which pent-up gases find vent and are ejected. The temperature of the water on the margins of the lake ranges from 180 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit; in the middle, exactly over the gas vents, it is more than 800 degrees. Where this action takes place the water rises two, three, and sometimes as high as four feet above the general level of the lake, the cone often dividing so that the orifices through which the gas escapes are legions in number. The commotion over the gas jets causes a violent disturbance of the lake, great waves of the boiling water continually lashing the shores, and though the cones appear to be the special vents, sulphurous vapors rise with 'equal density over its entire surface. Contrary to what one would naturally suppose, there seems to be no violent action of escaping gases, such as explosions and detonations. The water is of a dark gray color, and, having been boiled over and over for thousands of years, has become thick and slimy with sulphur. “The Boiling Lake of Dominica” is justly reckoned as one of the greatest natural wonders of the world and is yearly visited by thousands of sightseers.

Rams in Naval Warfare.

Naval authorities assert that rams will be the most effective weapons in the naval conflicts of the future. In the building of every battleship nowadays much attention is givep to making,the stem as powerful as possible, in order that she may ram an adversary eff ctively. Methods of conflict on the sea are reverting, curiously enough, to those practiced 2,000 years ago, when Rome was mistress of the waves. Then vessels of war were propelled by two or three banks of oars; now they arc driven by two or three screws. Then, as now, the most deadly blow was struck with the ram. Then, as now, the commanding officer stood in a “conning tower,” directing the movements of the ship, issuing orders for the launching of missiles against the enemy, and at the critical moment “giving the stem” to an opposing craft. In order to conceive the power of the modern ram, imagine a ship weighing 5,000 tons driven at a speed of fifteen miles an hour against a floating antagonist.

Cats and Catnip.

Anyone who is disposed to have a cat party in his or her back garden has only to procure some catnip and- leave it there, and all the cats in the vicinity will soon arrive and then the fun will begin. They will sniff it, toss it up, roll over it, fight for it and scratch it around until there is not a vestige of it left. Valerian has the same attraction for them; and in a lesser degree they enjoy the scents of other aromatic plants. I have often been amused watching my big maltese going gravely about smelling the pinks and the plants, but I had to correct him when h? began tasting the latter.—[Detroit Frei Press. “Is this a healthful portion of the State ?” asked a traveler in Arkansas. “Well, I should say it is. There has been nobody hung about here in three months.”

CARNEGIE CARNAGE.

IT WAS THE FIRST GUN OF THE CAMPAIGN. The “Protection to American Workmen” Faroe Demonstrates Itself—Republicans In a Reckless State of DemoralisationThree Great issues- - By It* Fruit*. % At the time when the Carnegie-Pinker-ton assassfns were shooting down American workingmen at Homestead Benjamin Harrison and various members of the fat-frying National Republican Committee were in session at the White House. They were discussing a new campaign in the interest of the protective tariff and its thieving beneficiaries. They were considering the question of leadership, the question of ways and means and the question of public deception. Who was to be chairman? What man among them was most likely to fry the fat out of the Carnegies? What Bums could bo wrung from this industry and that? What new lies could be circulated to mislead the ignorant and frighten the timid? At the crisis of this interesting council a telegram from Homestead announced that the slaughter had begun and, as one telegram put it, “a deep frown settled on the President's faeo and his associates eyed each other in silence.’’ There was no more discussion that day. The conference ended abruptly without result, and the questions which it had been called to settle were left unacted upon. And no wonder. The dead and mangled bodies of American workingmen —the victims of protective tariff delusion and of protective

HIGH TARIFF ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD.

THE INFAMOUS TARIFF DECLARES WAR ON AMERICAN LABOR. *—Chioago Herald.

tariff rifles would strike speechless even men of greater hardihood than Benjamin Harrison. He knew, and his white-faced associates knew, that in the deliberate judgment of mankind every gaping wound at Homestead would speak to the moral sense of the world in tones of thunder against tho folly and the crime of protectionism. The dead and wounded at Homestead are the fruits of the protective tariff delusion and crime as truly as the mankilling and child-stealing of ante-bellum days were the fruits of the slavery delusion and crime. Every rifle and every bludgeon used in Pennsylvania was urged by passion aroused by that prolific source of all uncharitableness—the monopoly tariff. It sets man against man. It deceives the laborer and then robs and murders him. It promises a division of its plunder and then reviles the poor dupe who asks that Its pledges be kept. It vauntingly proclaims its paternal regard for labor and then answers labor’s demands at the muzzle of a Winchester. It employs one class of bread-winners to make war upon another class, and when the ories of the widow and orphan till tho laud, Its beneficiaries, financial and political, sneak away to castles in 'Scotland or to the fastnesses of tho Aclirondaeks that their eyes may not see and their ears may not hear! Blood is offensive to nice people. When it Is spilled in their interest they prefer to be out of range. The lies of the Ben Harrisons, the Bill McKinleys, the Tom Reeds, the Joe Forakers, and all the lesser supporters of the tariff Iniquity have done this thing. They knew they were lying when they said the tariff was not a tax. They knew they were lying when they told workingmen that a high tariff made high wages. They knew they were lying wher they threatened the poor and the ignorant with “pauper wages” if they voted for free trade. They knew they were lying when they proclaimed the monstrous falsehool that the foreigner paid a tax. They knew they were lying when they promised labor any benefit from the tariff that was designedly laid to produce millionaires, out of whose greasy hides they could fry fat. They now slink away to their summer retreats because they know that their lies are all exposed. . The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864 was not more necessary to die cause of American freedom than is the election in 1892 of Cleveland and Stevenson. In the presence of wrongs like these, in the face of villainy such as that of the Carnegies. In the shadow of murder and oppression such as that at Homestead, there can be but two parties in this country—one for and one against the devilish greed that afflicts the republic like a pestilence, and is hurrying It at break-neck speed to physical, moral and political death.— Chicago Herald.

"Never Knew Defeat."

In their reckless state of demoralization the Republicans arc making all kinds of unwarranted claims with a faint hope of regaining lost ground, or at least making a stand against the over-' whelming .and exultant rush of the Democracy. The pliant minions who forced the nomination of Harrison at Minneapolis are now proclaiming that their leader is a soldier and a statesmen who never knew defeat. It is possible that the memories of these henchmen who use public time and money for Republican campaign purposes are somewhat abbreviated, or their knowledge of the country’s, history may be somewhat defective, but judged by the other questionable methods they are employing; it is but fair to infer that they are trying to hoodwink the people. These salaried shouters are respectfully referred to the annals of 1876, a Somewhat memorable year In the coun-

try’s record. It is not only recalled as a centennial, but It was the year in which the lamented Samuel J. Tilden carried the country by a quarter of a million majority of the popular vote, and had the Presidency stolen by shrewd political manipulators of the g. o. p. ?yho delivered it to one Rutherford B. Hayes. At that time Indiana was an October as well as a pivotal State. The Republicans were determined to carry the earlier election for the effect it would have upon the national contest to be determined the month following. The Democrats had selected for their leader a sturdy, honest, level-headed Congressmen whose sound ideas of economy and straightforward manner of dealing with public interests had not been impaired by evil associations in Washington. He was one of tho plain people, a loyal champion of their cause, who camo to be known to the country as Blue Jeans Williams. The Republicans pitted against him Congressman Orth, but he had led too fast a life to meet the sober approval of Hoosierdom, and Benjapiin Harrison was substituted by the Republicans to make the gubernatorial race. The fight was fast and furious from start to finish. When it was over with, Harrison was laid out colder than the world’s charity. That was the fate of “a soldier and a statesman who nover knew defeat.” His aoquaintanoo with it will bo grealty enlarged in November, —Free Press.

Three Great IssueS.

The Democracy derives not a little comfort and encouragement from the knowledge that its candidates for President and Vice President will experience no difficulty in standing squarely upon tho platform adopted by tho Chicago

convention. Each of the nominees may be said to embody in his own person the oardinal principles of the party, thus establishing perfect harmony between the ticket and the platform. The three great issues which the Democratic party makes in tho pending campaign and on which it intends that the contest shall be fought to a finish are as follows: 1. The robber tariff must go. 2. There must be no force bill in this country to overthrow peaceable elections and destroy free government at the South. 3. There must be no degradation of tho money standard of the nation. The three gigantic evils which the Democracy proposes to combat zealously and aggressively are all of Republican origin and each is supported, either wholly or in large part, by rabid Republicans or men whoso political antecedents were Republican. The iniquitous doctrine of protection was nurtured in the rock-ribbed Republican commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Is to-day upheld and encouraged by the monopolists' and tariff barons of that highly protected State. The idea of the force bill originated in the minds of Johnny Davenport, a New York boss; John M. Langston, a Virginia negro; Albion W. Tourgoe, a wandering agitator; Thomas B. Reed, a political despot; and Henry Cabot Lodge, a puritanic theorist, who are one and all bright and shining lights In tho Republican party. ( In the case of the ebony-hued Langston there may be some question as to his "bright and shining” qualities, but the genuineness of his Republicanism is beyond dispute. The Minneapolis platform likewise commits the Republican party to the support of the force bill. The agitation which disturbs the financial system of the country had its source in the silver-producing States of the West which have never given Democratic majorities and can never be reasonably expected to do so. It is palpable, therefore, that the Democracy in its fight on the great' questions which divide the voters in this campaign discovers the Republican party as tho common enemy at every point. Under these circumstances, every friend of a revenue tariff, of home rule and free institutions and of honest finance is expected to rally under the banner inscribed with the names of Cleveland and Stevenson.

Carnegie to Harrison.

There was bloodshed, tumult, disorder, oppression, anarchy at Hoifiestoad. But there came no word from Andrew Carnegie. The Minneapolis convention named its candidate, and quick as lightning was the message from Andrew J. Carnegie at Sunningdale, Scotland, to Benjamin Harrison at Washington: • “The American people know a good thing when they get it. Heartiest congratulations. You deserve this triumph. * Why was Carnegie thus swift? When in 1890 more than 1,000,000 majority of the popular vote declared against the monstrous system of mad under which the Carnegies become forty-millionaires and American labor is denied its promised share in tariff spoliation Benjamin Harrison, defying the voice of the people, officially declared to the Reed Congress that the McKinley law must stand. Andrew Carnegie knew a good thing when he got it. Hence these swift congratulations to Harrison. Hence this profound silence touching the awful situation at his own iron mills. Seventeen and 15 years were the respective ages of a young couple who eloped and got married at Edgefield, 8. C., one day recently. Every sin is a big one, no matter how small it looks.

NOVELTIES IN WAR.

STARTLING DEVICES TO OVERCOME HOSTILE ARMIES. Uncle Sam’s Experiments With New Methods of Destroying His Enemies—»Thc Highest Explosives. The United States Government is taking active part, particularly of late, in the experiments which all civilized and Christian nations are engaged with for the purpose of discovering more effective means for wiping out hostile armies and fleets, writes a well-informed Washington correspondent. While lmsy .with smokeless powders, the chief object, of which is to make the foe visible, the "War Department has been keepipg an eye upon tho “smoke grenades” that are now exciting attention in England. They are filled with chemical substances which, on explosion, pr oduce clouds of dense black smoke, and ure designed to.be carried in advance by skirmishers and thrown, so as to conceal the troops following. Not less novel and remarkable arc the illuminating bombs which are being tested by the Italians. One of them, east among the enemy at night, will burst and immediately light up the darkness with a power of 100,000 candles.

PROPERTIES OF MELINITE.

One of the most extraordinary of new inventions in warfare is the French explosive called “melinite,” which is not only effective for rending and destroying when turown in a bomb, but also serves a purpose similar to that of the “stinkpots” of long ago. These latter, supposed to have been originated by the Saracens during the middle ages, were utilized as Into ns the Inst century by the British, French, and Spanish. Smashed among the enemy they set free volumes of poisonous and asphyxiating gases. Melinite is only three times as powerful ns guupowder, but it has the groat advantage of beiug entirely safe to handle. Its base is a cord tar product termed picric acid, and it has about the consistency of molasses, being poured into shells and hardening. The fumes liberated by the bursting of one. of these bombs are most deadly. Not long ago, for the purposo of experiment, a single one was fired at a vessel on tho deck of which had been placed a number of sheep and goats. All of the animals not killed by the fragments of the exploded shell were suffocated to death. One day a French workman, diggiug out of the ground a melinite bomb that had been fired three days before, was so far overcome by the gases which it still exhaled as to be with difficulty restored. The object of civilized warfare being hot to kill, but to disable or capture the adversary, it has been suggested that shells, instead of being loaded with destructive and deadly explosives, should Ikj filled with powerful though harmless drugs, which, on bursting, would spread a Bleepproducing vapor. Thus an entire ship’s company migiit Ik? plunged into involuntary slumber by a single bomb, and in like manner whole regiments and brigades could be forced to resign themselves to sudden and hclplesH repose, to he revived later by their humane captors. The somniferous gas ought to have nearly as possible the same specific gravity us the atmosphere, so as to he dispersed in the latter and hang in a cloud about the enemy, neither rising in the air nor falling to the ground.

THE HIGHEST EXPLOSIVES.

High explosives, hitherto untried in either military or naval contests, will play a large and important part in the warfare of the future. The most powerful at present known is “explosive gelatine,” being fifteen times as strong as gunpowder. It is made by dissolving gun-cotton in nitro glycerine, the preparations having tho consistency of honey. Unfortunately, it is very unsafe stuff to use in battle, because a bullet striking it will set It off by concussion. No explosive is good for fighting purposes that can be touched oft by shock or otherwise than by actual contact of fire. A novel kind of bomb is filled with what the inventor calls “helloflte.” The two chemical ingredients, binitro-ben-zole and nitric acid, arc in separate glass vessels, which are broken when the shell is fired, their contents being mixed together by the rapid revolution of tho shell and exploded by a time fuse. Wonderful accounts are given of the havoc created by the bursting of projectiles of this description. Up to the present time no method of throwing high power explosives from guns by means of gunpowder has been proved successful, although one scientific fentleman has wasted SBOO,OOO of Uncle am’s money in experiments which only resulted in bursting many valuable cannon. However, triuls that urc being conducted under Government auspices with a new mixture .termed “emmensite” seem likely to solve this problem. Until now only pneumatic guns have been found available for such purposes. Flying machines for use in war have engaged no little attention of late on the part of the inventors. Maxin, the designer of the famous gun, claims to have produced one which can be controlled. He declares that he can fill his aerial car with explosives and hover in it over the city of London, holding that great metropolis at ransom to the extent of as many millions of pounds as he chooses to mention. Thus situated, be can announce his terms by dropping a small package containing a statement of them and his ultimatum of “cash or crash 1” His contrivance is a cylinder of aluini-' num containing a three-fourths vacuum, its collapse being prevented by strong ribs inside. It is propelled and steered by electric gear, and is further sustained and balanced by the wings of a great aeroplane, with an automatic arrangement of a compensatory nature that tarings the machine immediately back to the horizontal when it tends to vary therefrom. BALLOONS IN WABFAIIE, The War Department has been recently conducting experiments with balloons for military purposes. It will exhibit at the Columbian Exposition one of its new “balloon trains,” consisting of three wagons. One of the wagons carries a balloon packed in a basket, while the other two convey steel cylinders etyirged with hydrogen gas. When it is desired to send up the balloon it is taken out of the basket, connected with one or more of the cylinders and is ready to u ake the ascent in fifteen minutes. It attains an elevation of 2,000 feet v remaining attached to the earth by a wire rope through which a copper wire runs. The copper wire connects a telephone in the balloon car with another telephone on the ground, so that direct communication is maintained. If desired, the telephone wire may be continued to the headquarters of the commanding general, miles away. Meanwhile the observers in the balloon car can overlook the positions and intrenrhmenta of the enemv, being at a safe distance from the hostile lines. Sketch maps can be sent down by means

of the wire rope. A plan recently suggested is to send up small captive balloons carrying nothing but photographic cameras, which could be worked automatically from the ground. They would be allowed to drift over the fortifications of the foe, each one taking a series of pictures of whatever was beneath.

POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.

The new science of experimental psychology aims at measuring the mental capacities of men ns the anthropometrist measures their physical capacities. The “Drunken Sea.”—One of the most extraordinary of the natural phenomena of the Mcditerannean is called the “Marobia"—from two words signifying the “drunken sen,”—-and is produced by the meeting, between Trapini and Cupe San Mario, of a southeast with a westerly wind. It is best observed off the southern coast of Sicily. It is heralded by a lurid overcast sky and an ominous stillness; the waters of the sea then heave, rush up on the adjacent shores, and almost immediately retire to their usual level. This action is continued rapidly and constantly for periods ranging from thirty minutes to more than two hours, and while it lasts tho fish are said to float helplessly on the surfacA Eoos in the Industries.—The industries in which eggs are now employed comprise an important and widely divergent range—calico printing, photography, gilding, clarifying various liquors, bookbinding, etc. A large business, aceording'to Bradstreet, lias sprung up in the preparation of photograph!* paper with suited albumen, and one establishment alone is said to nave used more than two million eggs in six months for this purpose. Many attempts have been made to find a vegetable cr animal substitute for albumen, but in vain; thus, a prize of large amount, offered thirty yours ago by an English society, for the discovery of a material or process of replacing albumen In calico printing, still remains untaken. Nor arc tho yolks used in manufacturing, wholly wasted; they also are employed in the arts, and a manufacturer in Vienna somo time since commenced the business, on a commercial scale, of solidifying them, thus adapting them to easy conveyance uud convenient use. , Might Explain Memory.—A maker of theso “test plates” named Webb many years ago made for the Army Medical Museum at Washington a specimen of microscopic writing on glass, says tho Lens. This writing consists of tho words of the Lord’s Prayer, and occupies a rectangular spaco measuring 1-244 by 1-441 of an inch, or an urea of 1-120,054 of a square inch. Tin? lino of this writing are about us broad as those on tho test plates, which are 1-50,000 of an inch apart. They are, therefore, about us wide ns average light waves. Now, then, to get some idea of the magnitude or minuteness of this writing. There are in tho Lord’s Prayer 227 lettors, nncl if, as here, this number occiL pies the 1-120,, 054 of an inch, there would be room in an entire square inch for 20,4111,458 such letters similarly spaced. Now, the entire Biblo, Old and New Testaments, contains but 8,500,480 letters, and there, would, therefore, bo room enough to write the entire Bible eight times over on one square inch of glass, in the same manner ns tho words of the Lord’s Prayer have been written on this specimen. Such a statement, without doubt, staggers the imagination, but tho figures arc easily verified and are certainly correct, and the whole statement at least serves to bring home to us the limited nature of our mental capacities as compared with the facts of the universe. It also furnishes an interesting suggestion in a very different subject. It has been often stated that a physical basis of memory may exist in permanent structural moaifleation of the brain matter constituting the surface of the furrows. In a highly developed brain this surface amounts to 840 square inches, audit would, therefore, appear that the entire memories of a lifetime might be written out in the English lauguage on such a surface in characters capable of mechanical execution, such as those of the Webb plate at Washington.

Self-Collected Brides.

It is a surprising fact that the bride is almost always the one to bear the trials and embarrassments of the wedding ceremony with the most fortitude and sangfroid, despite the fact that she invariably is the focus for every eye. A shy, modest-looking little creature, robed in white, will stand perfectly erect, looking the minister calmly and squarely in the eye, without for any instant losing her selfpoise, while the big, blunt, sixfooter of a bridegroom by her side is pale and nervous and trembling. The bride very seldom makes any mistake, either at the ceremony or at the still more trying reception afterwards, while the man is almost always sure to put both feet in it and then flounder about in despair until his better half comes to his rescue and gives him the first chance to appreciate the advantages of having some one to take care of him. During Ihe ceremony the chances for the groom to make mistakes are not many. The most common one iB for hfm to get names mixed up. At a recent wedding at the most fashionable church below Twenty-third street the groojn calmly announced: “I, Annie, take thee, Harold, to be my lawful wedded wife.” The bridal party, who were the only ones who heard it, were convulsed, and even the stalwart young minister could not repress a twinkle in his eyes. Another much-rattled young man, when asked if he took the young wpman to be his wedded wife, stared nonplussed at the minister for fully ten seconds, then asked, blankly; “Beg pardon, were you speaking to jne?” Still another, when handed the ring, instead of passing it along, began nervously trying to put it on his own finger, and was only aroused by a sharp little pinch. But most of the small contretemps incident to a wedding can be successfully hidden from the knowledge of the guests, and it is not until the bridegroom is let loose at the wedding reception that the bride really begins to get fidgety for fear he “will do something dreadful,” a fear which is often realized.—[San Francisco Examiner.

The Dreaded Gila Monster.

The Gila monster, heloderma horridum, is the only species of known poisonous lizard in the world'. It is a native of the Gila River in Arizona, and has seldom or never been seen at any great distance from that stream. This strange creature is sluggish, inert, well armored with-a tough, defensive skin, and feeds on birds’ eggs and insects. The IndiadS of Arizona believe the spittle, or saliva, and even the breath of the animal, to be deadly poison. The odor of the exhalations is said to be exactly like that of magnolia buds.