Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — Page 4

WHOM THE GODS LOVE. You e»y that bsing so old ’XVas time for him to die? Bings not your comment cold And even inhuman? Why Should tender tears be shed When death lavs jourg ImslOßj Spared years of sorrow and fret, Spared age’s overthrow? When young we sre called away, We shirk untold regret; For anstere time will slay Not merely ourselves, but yet Brand with authen ie sign His despoil ms elsewhere—l?rape wisps of silvery hair O’er eyes b» loved—plough line And fmrow on treasured cheeks. ‘•Whom ihe gods love die young." Ah me! there Wisdom’s tongue With sovereign accent speaksl Pity the old who die; The young behind them leave Such bounteous grief whereby Fate bids they should not giieve Heart-racked with many a sigh, Wounded wi‘h many a scar, Pity the old who oie; The young are happier far! —[Edgar Fawcett, in Lippincott’s.

THE FORTUNE OF WAR.

The room was comfortable enough. It was the guest-room of an old Virginian farm-house on the James river; but the farmer whs away, fighting in Lee’s army for the defense of Richmond, and a halfsquadron of "Sheridan’s Horse, on outpost duty, occupied the building. The furniture of the room was old-fashioned, solid and substantial. The bed had curtains; the floor was oarpeted and prints hung upon the walls The last place in the world that the room resembled or suggested was a prison. Yet the man who walked perturbedly up and down the floor was a prisoner—a Confederate prisoner of war; and the other man, who paced the court-yard outside, beneath his window, was a Federal soldier guarding him. The prisoner had made no attempt to sleep. From 10 at night, when they had locked him there, till three in the morning, he had been feverishly striding to and fro almost without a break. When he had thrown himself, from time to time, upon the bed, it was to think and not to rest. Partly he was weighing chances, and wondering whether it was possible that Stuart’s Cavalry would swoop down suddenly and rescue him; but his mind mainly dwelt upon the one paramount horror of the position in which he found himself. His lamp was still burning, and there were pens, ink and paper lying on the table. He had asked for this favor, and his captors had granted it without demur. As they were going to shoot him at daybreak, they oould scarcely grudge him so trivial an indulgence. There was something which he wanted to write before he died, a last message to his mother m South Carolina, who was praying for his safe return. Three times already he had begun the letter, and then stopped and torn up what he had written. It was difficult to write with out telling either too little or too much. At first he had intended to suppress all that was really essential in the story.

But withiu the last hour something had happened which had ohanged his mind, and resolved him to write down the plain truth about the things that had befallen him. Cruel as the truth was, it was not dishonorable. Better, ho thought, that his mother should hear it, than that apocryphal, and perhaps calumnious, tales should reach her ears. 80, with an effort, he calmed himself, and took up his pen and wrote: "My Dearest Moturr: Whether this letter will ever reach you I cannot say, as I shall have to trust to the kind offices of the enemy for its safe transmission. In any case, before you recieve it you will have heard the worst. You will have beard that lam dead. At the moment

when I write this I have only two or three more hours to live, as I am sentenced to be shot at sunrise. If these lines reach you you will also know that you have no reason to be ashamed of me, or of my brother Jefferson, who is sleeping in the next room to me, and whose prisoner I am. “Jefferson’s prisoner ? That puzzles you, no doubt. Well, I will soon make you understand. It has happened very simply. "I wae serving, as you know, with Stuart’s cavalry. General Stuart wanted some information which could only be obtained by passing inside the Federal lines. Happening to know the country better than most, I volunteered for the service, and, disguised as a farm hand, made my way in the direction of Richmond. I obtained my information, but on the road back I was taken by two of Sheridan's troopers. They searched me, and, unfortunately, I had concealed about me some plans I had mode of the Federal defenses at Bermuda Hundred. So they brought me along to this farm house on the James river, where they are stationed under the command of my brother Jefferson Captain Jefferson Langley of the Federal Army. ‘‘l didn’t know any more than you did, that Jefferson was fighting for the North. I hadn’t seen him, any more than you have, since that day he ran away from home five years ago. I didn’t even know he was alive. But when the Sergeant marohed me in front of him I recognized him at onee. ■‘He wasn’t so quick at recognizing me; but that’s no wonder, for, as I told you, I was disguised, and I had a ten days’ beard on my face. He began questioning me: “ ‘You have been arrested within the Federal lines. Compromising documents have been found upon your person. You are accused of being a Confederate spy. Have you anything to say in your defpllflf ?’ “ * Nothing,’ I said. “Jefferson looked up. My voice seemed to remind him of something—he didn’t quite know what. Then he went on: “ *By military law the punishment of the crime of which you are accused is death.’ I know it,’ I said.

“Jefferson looked up again. “‘lf,’he said, ‘you are able to put me in pocsession of any valuable information respecting the movements of the Confederate forces, that punishment would be remitted.’ “ ‘ I have no such information to give you,’ I told him. •‘That time I was quite sure that Jefferson recognized me. I could see it in hie eyee. But he only said: “ ‘ Precisely. That is the exact lie I expected you to telL’ “Aed then he added: “ ‘Sergeant, take your men outside and leave Hie prisoner alone with me. 1 “The men filed out, and the Sergeant followed them end closed the door. As

soon as it was shut, Jefferson got up from the table where he was sitting and gripped me by the hand. “ ‘Arthur,’ he said, ‘I haven’t seen you these last five years. But I’m not mistaken. You are my brother Arthur, aren’t you?’ "I hadn’t meant to tell him who I was. You see he’d got to order me to be shot anyway, and it seemed better he shouldn’t know he was sentencing his own brother. But it wasn’t any use trying to deceive him then. He wouldn’t have believed it. So I owned up. " ‘Yes, Jefferson,’ I said. ‘l’m Arthur Langley right enough. I was in hopes you wouldn’t recognize me. But you have.’ “Then we sat down and talked of many things while the soldiers waited outside. “He asked me for news of you, and wanted to know if you had forgiven him for running away from home. I told him that you had, and that he must go back to you after the war was over; and he promised that he would. And then we both cursed the war that had brought us together so strangely and so terribly, and poor Jefferson seemed even more distressed than I was by our awful meeting. lie broke down and sobbed, poor boy.

“ ‘God knows, Arthur,’ he said, ‘l'd let you go right away back to Stuart’s camp if I could. But I can’t.’ “And he couldn’t, mother. “ ‘I know you can’t do it, Jefferson,’ I told him. ‘You’re men wouldn’t let you. If you tried they’d mutiny.’ “He allowed that it was more than likely. “ ‘Likely?’ I said. ‘lt’s a dead certainty. I’d be shot just the same if you tried; and your second in command would put you under arrest, and your Colonel would see that you were shot, too. No, Jefferson, you’ve got it to do, and you’d best get it done right away.’ “The poor boy sat down and covered his face with his hands, sobbing, ‘Oh, my God! my God 1’ “I tried to calm him a bit, telling him that it was only the fortune of war, and that when I started I knew I was taking my life in my hands. But it didn’t seem to comfort him. He kept pacing up and down the room saying, ‘I can’t do itl I can’t do it 1 ’

“ But I told him that lie must do it—there was no way out of it. Then he made a great effort and calmed himself. He sat down at the table and struck the gong, and then the sergeant came into the room again. “ ‘ Sergeant, ’ he said, ‘the prisoner will be shot at daybreak. For the present you will lock him in the room opposite to mine.’

“ And «o they brought me up here and left me.” There was a break in the letter here. Arthur Langley began several sentences, only to strike his pen through them again. But presently he went on thus: “You will be angry with Jefferson, mother. You will think that lam making excuses for him, and that he might have saved me if he’d liked. Then read on, mother. I have something else to tell you. When you have read it you will never think badly of Jefferson again. “Two hours ago I heard some one tapping gently at my door, nnd a voice— it was Jefferson’s voice—spoke to me in a whisper.

“ ‘Arthur! Arthur!’ he said. 'Don’t nnswer me, Arthur, or some one may hear you, but listen carefully to what I say.’ “I listened, and this was what he said: “ ‘lf you put your hand into your wash-hand jug you will find a key that will unlock your door. In ih; passage you will see a Federal unifor.n and an overcoat. Put them on and walk right out through the front door, and make straight for the clump of trees to the west. Button your coat well over your face, nnd you will be mistaken for me. I usually visit the sentries about this time. If you are challenged, imitate my voice and give the password “Petersburg.” Good-by, Arthur, and God bless you. ’

“ There, mother! you see what Jefferson was willing to do for me. I wonder if you understand why I’m not going to let him do it? It is because I know just what the offer means. It means that Jefferson will be arrested for conniving at my escape and shot instead of me. I musn’t allow that to happen, must 17 “Jefferson and I weren’t as good friends as wc should have been in the old times; but I always allowed there was grit in him, and now I know it. I hope there’s grit enough in me to stand out against this temptation. It’s a temptation to think that there’s that uniform waiting for me all the while, and I’ve only to put it on and get clear away. I wonder

Once again he stopped writing. The temptation had been a real one; for life is very sweet at two-and-twenty, and it is hard to let it go by merely sitting still and refusing to accept a sacrifice. Moreover, the words which Arthur Langley had just put on paper struck back nto his brain, and once more set him thinking. In a sort of delirious fancy he saw himself yielding to the temptation, and putting on that uniform, and walking away safely into the open. It seemed so easy and so simple. Fatigue and sleeplessness had broken down his nerves, aud an irresistible power impelled him to the action.

“By God!” he whispered hoarsely, “I will do it. I must do it.” He held the letter he had just written over the lamp, and let it burn away to cinders. Then he drew the key from its hiding-place and undid the door, and stepped out silently into the passage. The promised uniform was in readiness for him and he bent down to pick it up. The door of the room opposite, where his brother, the Federal officer, slept, was open. Driven by a sudden impulse, he stepped up to it on tiptoe, and looked in. Jefferson LaDglev was sleeping quietly, with the moon shining through the window on his handsome, boyish face, and making a glitter on his golden hair. His sleep was the calm and peaceful sleep of One who has done his duty, and has no more cares upon his mind. Arthur Langley stood as it were spellbound. and gazed at him. The infinite peacefulness of the face at first perplexed him. But presently he grew to understand it; and a great shame for his own contemplated cowardice stole over him. Gradually his muscles relaxed. Silently, and without a word, he gathered up the uniform and carried it to a spot where it might lie without exciting any one’s suspicions. Having done this he crept back to his room and looked himself in again, and hid the key where none were likely to discover it. Then, feeling « great weight lifted from his mind, he threw himself down upon the bed, and slept dreamlessly, like his brother, till the dawn.

“Aren’t you ready yet?" “I couldn’t find my hair." “We’ll miss the train. Switches always seem to delay traffic."

POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.

To Take the Place of Leather.—* A new material is proposed as a substitute for leather. It is called “flexus fibra,” and is derived from fl%x, suitably prepared and oiled. It has the same appearance as leather, is particularly supple, and takes a polish eqaliy well with the best kinds of calf. The material is said to possess great tenacity, while affording great ease and comfort to the foot when made into shoes, Flexus fibra. being of vegetable origin, is calculated also to facilitate free ventilation, and thereby to obviate the discomfort arising from what is called “drawing”the feet.

The Inter-Relation or Foaoss.— Water freezes and becomes ice at 32 degrees of Fahrenheit, whereas mercury freezes at 39 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit; olive oil, on the contrary,shows signs of oongelation at from 40 to 45 degrees of Fahrenheit. The three substances quoted being all liquids the difference in the lose of heat requisite to bring them to solidification is very great indeed. The action of heat on fluids or solids is equally various. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, lead melts at 612 degrees; the fusing point of gold is 2,016 degrees, and of iron 8,000 degrees. Wo five these particulars in order to show . hat enormous changes can be effected by cold in the transmutation of a substance from a liquid to a solid, or by beat from a solid to a liquid state. Ether boils at 96 degrees Fahreuheit, but has never been frozen by the severest cold. The forces exerted by the action and reaction of heat and cold are best exemplified under the head of steam, which has only been called forth and made use of by man since about the middle of the eighteenth contury, but it has been in action on a gigantic scale in nature for probably hundreds of thousands of years, it being the opinion of many geologists, including Lyell, that it ie the generation of steam, whether developed by the internal heat of the earth in a state of fusion, or whether by that of the chemical action of the elements in the bowels of the earth developing heat, which, acting on water and thus generating steam, is the great force that throws up such enormous rocks and masse* of lava as Etna has been doing. The rocks and lava thus thrown up areiu a state of fusion by heat; but they gradually cool by exposure to the air and form solid rocks and mountains. This action and reaction has been ?oing on for thousands of years with little cessation. Heat and cold, again, cause the oceanic currents on our earth between the equator and the poles, and vice versa, and thereby affect the earth’s magnetism or polarity, not only on our globe, but probably all throughout the universe. This is borne out by the fact that “the aurora borealis is decidedly an electrical phenomenon, which takes place in the highest regions of the atmosphere, since it is visible at the same time at places very distant from each other. Dr. Faraday conjectures that the electric equilibrium of the earth is restored by aurora oonveying the electricity from the poles to the equator.”—[Westminster Review.

Thr Ordinary Thermometer.—Ordinary thermometers are generally defective, says a scientific writer, because of slovenly work in making them; ihe testing, pointing and sealing being carelessly done. Tests should only be made by comparison with a standard thermometer, placed with the instrument to be tested under water. But in the cheap shop the water used is often allowed to grow cool, and is then suddenly warmed by an addition of hot water. The testing accordingly is inaccurate. In these shops also the zero point is determined simply by placing the bulb in snow, and when the mercury has become stationary the thumb is placed on the point where this is shown and a file makes the mark. The initial point is usually thus misplaced from a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch, and the whole scale is rendered wrong. Thermometers with metallic plates arc sometimes incorrect. The degrees on them are marked by means of dies, which cause a warping or curling of the plates. These have to be rolled to flatten them again, and this causes an increase in the size both of the plates and the degrees. Allowance is sometimes made for this in making the dies, but the result is usually unsatisfactory. A further source of error in this kind of thermometer comes from the fact that most of them are tested at one point. The manufacturer relies on a scale of degrees that is very nearly true, aud uses it for all instruments haring a bulb of like size. The result is that the thermometers are in error at certain points. It is for this reason also that glass thermometers, which have degrees marked upon the glass with type, are apt to be incorrect. The type used is the same for all glass of a similar kind, notwithstanding thi t the bulbjs may vary in size. Sc’entific thermometers are usually tested as to their accuracy before they are used at some authoritative observatory. In England this is done at the government station at Kew; in this country at the physical laboratory at Yale and Harvard Universities, and at the Smithsonian Institution. Certificates are granted showing the amount of error, if any.

Varieties of Woodpeckers.

The imperial woodpecker is an exaggeration of the ordinary red-headed woodpecker. It is nearly two feet long, its plumage black and white, with a gorgeous tcarlet crest, its bill white. It lives in Mexico and in the Sierra Madre mountains. These birds are always found in pairs and are destroyers of trees, as they devote their entire energies to one tree for as long as a fortnight, injuring it so greatly that the tree dies. In Europe and Asia there is a grayheaded woodpecker. The largest European woodpecker is seventeen inches long, black, with scarlet crest. It is called the great black woodpecker. The little brown woodpecker of Ceylon is not five inches long. The white-headed woodpecker is a wise looking little creature tnat lives in the pine woods of the Pacific coast. There are some 250 species of woodpeckers, and they inhabit almost every part of the globe.—[Chicago Herald.

The Bee’s Hard Day’s Work.

Every head of clover consists of about sixty flower tubes, each of which contains an infinitesimal quantity of sugar. Bees will often visit a hundred different heads of clover before retiring to the hive, and in order to obtain the sugar necessary for a load must, therefore, thrust their tongues into about 6,000 different flowers. A bee will make twenty trips a day when the clover patch is convenient to the hive, and thus will draw the sugar from 120,000 different flowers in the course of a single day’s work. Men think they have hard work to make a living, but their employment, however arduous, is an easy and pleasant task compared to that of a working bee.— [St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

HISTORIC VESSELS.

COLUMBUS CARAVELS AND VIKING SHIP AT THE FAIR. Exact Reproductions of the Three Vessels in Which Columbus Found a New Hardy Norsemen’s Frail Craft. Writing from Chicago, a World’s Fair correspondent of the New York Tablet says:

The first of objeots of interest to which I was attracted were the Caravels of Columbus. It is needless to say that these three Fifteenth century ships were builtand fitted out at the expense of the Spanish Government. They are stationed in the little stretch of water that lies between the Convent of La Rabida and the Casino Hall. They were built in accordance with all the data regarding the original craft it was possible to obtain. The largest, the Santa Maria, is the one open to inspection. Upon her mast is tacked a card from which I obtained her dimensions. At the water line she is a little more than 71 English feet, her beam not quite 26 feet, and the hold is 224 feet deep. The rear nnd forward endj of this hull are, as it were, boarded over. At the forward end the bow and sides rise well up, over this flooring on which her Bailors had a little free space. At the rear is the cabin of the admiral, over which a smaller deck hangs, out and back of the rudder, a regular poop. If this tiny vessel be contrasted with some of our modern Atlantic steamers' the grandeur of Columbus’ deed assumes proportions that are simply beyond the power of words to say. When I looked at the narrow space where I suppose those hardy men came to their chief a few days before the voyage ended and forced from him the promise to return if land came not to view within three days, in very truth my heart went out to them. Surely, that those fifty odd men should have been cooped up in that little ship for two long months was a species of confinement whose weariness is almost beyond the compass of imagination. You may somewhat fancy the weariness of such imprisonment when you recall the historical fact that they did not encounter even a storm to break the monotony of their cheerless voyage. It was sky above and sea below, and ever an east wind filling their sails. Yet they were cooped up in a narrow little space, hemmed in by the bulwarks of tneir tiny ship. No wonder the varying of the needle awakened such fears in minds already filled with feare! The oaravel Santa Maria has come to the World’s Fair after having taken part in the ceremonies and festivities which were held at Palos on the 3d of August and the 12th of October, 1892. Built in Cadiz her keel was laid on the 21st of April. She was launched on Jun) 26th, and on the 29th of July went to sea bound for the port of Palos to tuke part in the festivities referred to above. Some ancient relics are displayed on her deck. Some of those old time lombards with small stout iron hoops around the barrel are to be seen, and hanging in nets near them the round stone shot with which they were loaded. The sides of the vessel are hung with the arms of the soldiers and sailors—pikes, battle-axes, arquebuses, shields, bows and arrows. Before the pilot’s wheel is a compass, which a card informed me was an exact reproduction of those drawn on the charts of Juan de la Costa, pilot of he Santa Maria. On the lhalf deck is the cabin of ?the Admiral. A little room—in truth the only part of the caravel that has any semblance to a room—about 15 feet deep and 12 feet wide, its front boarded up and ornamented with gothic arches, one door and three windows—this is the place where, undoubtedly, the World-finder spent many an hour in anxiousness and many an hour in prayer. I approached with a feeling of reverence. No one is allowed to enter. I stood at the door and carefully studied the interior. A heavy table is in the center, on it are an hour glass, an ancient chart, a clumsy and rude looking ink-stand, a white candlestick,an astrolabe and a forestaff, instruments the old-time mariners used for measuring the height of the stars. Around the walls are hung the arms of the officers. On the side of the room and immediately against its boarded front stands an old cupboard. Next to the cupboard is a wooden bedstead. Four chairs are set about the room and these are peculiarly shaped. They have no backs and resemble the letter “U’s” joined at the curve. On the right wall of the cabin hangs an exact copy of the pennant taken by Columbus on tho voyage of discovery. It is precisely similar to the one borne by John, of Austria, at the Battle of Lepanto and in fact by all great Spanish Leaden as tho symbol of command. On the rear wall hangs a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor. One flight of stairs more and I had mounted the highest deck. Doubtless this was the watchers’ stand os it is the highest part of the ship. An octagonal lantern with ornamental iron work graces the railing that forms the rear guard of the deck. So carefully exact have those been who supervised the building of this oaravel that in this lantern is placed a partially burnt candle. On either side of this deck on the top of the railing is a falconet. This is a small cannon, in shape very much like to a lombard; but only two feet long, and .while securely fastened is yet capable of being turend around on a pivotal attachment. Beyond these objects there is little of interest on shipboard. A crew of Spanish sailors man the caravel and all is as it were 400 years ago— all, except Columbus and Juan de la Costa, and the Salve Regina at nightfall! Oh, that the wheel of time might turn back and dip the wide world and all of the earth in that atmosphere of piety in which the rude eailors of four centuries ago were born and bred. The Pinta and the Nina are lying quite close to the Santa Maria. They are much smaller and neither is open to the inspection of visitors. I cannot begin to tell you with what a sparkle of antique realism these three Caravels make the Convent of La Rabida glitter. From this point I stepped down along the lake shore to view the Viking ship that arrived from Norway a few days after the Spanish Caravels anchored at the Convent. It is nothing more than a very large skiff with a mast and lateen sail. Along the sides are circular shields a little larger than a barrel head. These are alternately red and yellow. Between them rested the oars. Its bow, rising up about six feet, develops into a dragon’s head and neck. Beside such rude ornaments the long and grizzly-bearded Olafs stood, chief figure in a fleet of a thousand craft as crude as this. In such frail ships as these came old Sweyn to Britain’s coast and a Dane sat on the English throne. And farther back than he those hardy men who found shelter from their enemies in the tempest, who used the tempest to shield them when they meditated an attack, the people of whom Hengist and Horsa were the leaders,came over to Britain’s coast in such galley

Tesselu. Tbis alight frail thing ia in terrible contrast with the battle ship “Illinois” near which it rests. Oh! the utter helplessness of ten thousand frail weak skills such as this, in contest with a floating tort shielded, in iron and bristling from stem to stern with the gleaming barrels of huge cannons 1

THE FUEL QUESTION.

Possible Exhaustion of the Present Sources of Supply. With the rapid extension of the application of power to manufacturing, transportation, and all other industrial purposes, the extent of our fuel resources and the modes of securing and using them become of the greatest importance. The ease with which the different forms of fuel have heretofore been'secured in this country has led, in many quarters, ts reckless waste and extravagant modes of use, in the apparent belief that the stores from which these sources of power have been drawn were inexhaustible. No greater error can be conceived than that of supposing the world’s supply of fuel, under the present systems of transformation of energy, to be exhaustless in amount. As is well known, the total available supply of English coal is reliably measurable, at the present rate of consumption, in terms of a period of years which does not by any means extend indefinitely into the future. A very few years, indeed, have sufficed to practically exhaust our own natural gas supply, although the most ruthless waste has contributed largely to this result. It is not impossible that the discovery of new fields may replenish the waning store of gaseous fuel, although that does not now seem probable. A considerable number of oil fields have ceased to yield a paying output, and many others have reached the period of decreasing production. Although the prospect for the discovery and utilization of new oil centres iu different parts of the world is certainly encouraging, experience conclusively shows that only a limited supply in reference to the worlcL’s demands can be expected. The case is not so very different when the matter of coal supply is considered. It is true that our soft coal is found in so many locations and in such quantities that it seems to be practically limitless; nnd at the present rate of use it is so. There is every reason, however, to anticipate an increasingly.rapid extension of the application of mechanical power, with a correspondingly enormous consumption of fuel under the present modes of use. If it were possible to estimate this increased consumption for the next century, on the one hand, and our available soft-coal supply on the other, there is no leason to believe that the latter would not be quite finitely expressed in terms of the former. Some really startling, though very conservative, results were recently set forth by the Pennsylvania commission appointed to investigate the matter of waste in anthracite coal mining. In the first place, it was shown that in the past not more than about 30 per cent, of the actual coal in the ground has been obtained for the market by mining operations. The committee believes that this percentage may in the future be raised to 40 by reworking the coal lands and by utilizing the coal now in the culm banks. Even that gain, however, leaves a loss of 60 per cent. The full significance of these flgares does not appear until they are made to exhibit the total available remaining supply in the three great anthracite districts. There remain in the Wyoming district four and one-half times the amount already mined, and in the Lehigh district but two and one-half times the amount now mined, while the Schuylkill district has been depleted of one-fifteenth only of its total store. The quantity termed “mined” includes the 40 per cent, available for market and the 60 per cent, loss. It is thus seen that the supply of anthracite coal is quite limited. Indeed, view the whole question in any way that we will, it is apparent that the present system of utilizing power from its great natural sources is such as to make the exhaustion of our natural fuel supply a mere matter of definite time. It is very probable, however, in fact almost a certainty at the present time, that developments in the science of energy will lead to direct aud vastly more economical utilization of the power stored in nature. The best of our present processes are in reality excessively wasteful, and would within a definite period of time exhaust the supply. But probably no one can be found bold enough to predict that exhaustion and deny that further advances in science will not radically improve our present methods and virtually open new sources of supply of power. It is only through such possible avenues that escape from ultimate fuel exhaustion can be made, and they indicate the way to the most interesting and remarkable scientific developments that have yet been made.

Vast Power of the Atmosphere.

Somebody has made the calculation that, taking the quantities roughly and in round numbers, the atmosphere weighs about a ton to every square foot of the earth's surface, 25,000,000 tons per square mile, or 5,000,000,000,000.000 tons on the total of 200,000,000 square miles; and its energy is that due to the motion of this inconceivable mass, at velocities varying all the way from the slightest zephyr to the hurricane and the cyclone, rushing over the prairie or along the surface of the sea at more than one hundred miles an hour. Again, according to this authority, a cubic mile of air, weighing about ten billion pounds, develops, at the rate of motion of the cyclone, some 4,000,000,000,000 “foot tons” of energy, and if all were employed at such rate for the performance of work, useful or destructive, this number of “foot pounds” would be equivalent to more than 2,000,000,000,000,000 horse power.—[New York Sun.

Wonderful Piece of Engineering.

Modern skill and facilities permit wonderful things to be done by great corporations without interrupting daily business. The Frankfort (Ky.) Call says: “The mc*e one thinks of the undertaking the more wonderful it looks. The L. and N. Railroad spanned the river with an entire newbridge eight feet higher than the old structure that has been entirely removed, without even so much as retarding any trains over the old or the new structure so long as five minutes at a time, and without a casualty of a, serious nature happening during the progress of the entire work. This, in our judgment, is as great a piece of work as can be singled out in this country. This work has been done so quietly and with so little parade that many of our people do not even now know that we have a new railroad bridge that is eight feet higher than the old structure.”

She—l will keep those roses you sent me forever. He—Thanks; if you do it will save me a pile of money.—[Detroit Free Press.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The annual report of the Boston Fira Department attributes the cause of a number of fireoin that city to “smoking in bed,” and it has a subdivision in which the origin of the fire is set down to “ oareless smoking in bed.” Where the line can be drawn is not obvious to the ordinary mind. An Ottawa correspondent estimates from the Canadian census of 1891, compared with that of 1881, that the Province of Quebec has lost over 100,000 French Canadians and more than 40,000 English speaking people in ten years. Most of them are credited with having come to the United States. Tub most remarkable work in Australia is the overland telegraph from Port Darwin to the south of the continent, which was completed in 1872. Almost the whole 2,000 miles of its length was through an uninhabited country—much of it a waterless desert. The wooden poles were prepared at the nearest available places, but some had to be carried 360 miles, while the iron poles were taken au average distance of 400 miles by land. Over 2,000 tons of material had to be carried into the interior, and the total cost was £370,000.

A novel idea has been put into operation at Whissendine, a village in Lincolnshire, England. A piece of land adjoining the parish schools has been cut up into small allotments for the elder boys of the school, and a.professional gardener has been employed to inspect these allotments. In his report he speaks highly of the manner in which the boys are cultivating the land. Jambs Moos by, of the Ethnological Bureau in the Smithsonian Institution, is one of the leading authorities on the North American Indians. For twenty years he has been traveling among them and living with them, studying their characteristics. His work, indeed, antedates the ethnological work of the United States Government. Mr. Mooney and Miss Alice Fletchsr arc said to be the only whites in whom all the Indians throughout the West place implicit confidence.

Does anyone know that we have no such thing as a “national holiday” in America? Not even the Fourth of July can claim that title, although it is a legal holiday in all the States. The President issues a proclamation oalling upon the people to keep Thanksgiving Day, but he cannot make it a legal holiday outside of the territories. A special proclamation must be issued by the Governor of each State, else the banks could not close, although business might be suspended by general consent. Quinnemorb. formerly chief of the Occur d’Alene Indians, has a fine farm of 167 acres on the south Bide of the Spokane river, about a dozen miles above Spokane, Washington, and the other day the tax gatherer thought it would be a very proper and desirable thing to tax It a good round sum. So he came smilingly with his bill. But Quinnemore was prepared for him even on such an unexpected mission. He brought forth a paper which in part read thus: “This Satent is issued upon the express conition that the title hereby conveyed shall not be subject to taxation of any character, but shall remain inalienable, and not subject to taxation for the . period of twenty years from the date hereof, as approved Jan. 18, 1881.” The assessor apologized and withdrew, not smiling.

Reports from Illinois indicate at least the partial success of recent attempts to replace prairie chickens and quail with other game birds. Two years ago Mr. George Simpson of Alexis, Warren county. 111., liberated in a small park a few pair of Chukor partridges and pheasants. The former were imported from India and the latter from China. The first two nests, of twenty pheasant eggs each, hatched thirty-eight birds. The pheasants like the open country, ar.d their flight is short and quick to the nearest oover. Fleetness of foot and ability to hide are more depended upon for safety than the wing. The adult male is two feet tall and twenty inches long. The female is a quarter less in size. The experiment, says the owner of the pheasants, “now depends for success solely on the protection and forbearance of hunters for the next few years.” The Chukor partridge has not done as well as its Chinese comrade.

In the lifetime of a man, philosophize! the American Dairyman, many things that were in their youth sincerely believed to be facts, have been proven, always by the scientist, to be myths. William Tell shooting the apple off his son’s head, and Sir Walter Raleigh introducing tobacco to Europe are instances. Another scientist has written a book, in which he takes the chemist to task for not deciding the question whether milk is an acid or an alkaline. Incidentally he tells that milk as such does not exist. That is, the various variable liquids composing this fluid ia only milk. That owing to circumstances that affect its nature the thing that was milk in the morning may not be such at noon, and this change in turn may be the result of the age or breed of the animal. And thus the thing we know as milk is not milk at all, but is sometimes an acid, and then again it may be an alkaline. This is the dictum of a French savant, but all the same we shall cling to the good old Dame of milk for the fluid that the cow gives for the benefit of the world and its people. A p arty of Americans will start next spring to explore a portion of the Arctic regions that has never been visited before. The expedition will be led by Robert Stein of the United States Geological Survey, and its purpose will be to trace the west coast line of EllesmereGrinnell land as far north as possible. A great mass of land faces the northwest coast of Greenland, and is separated from it by the narrow waterways of -Smith Sound and Kennedy and Robeson Channels, says the New York Sun. The eastern coast of this land has been fairly well mapped by the explorers, who have pushed along its edge toward the North Pole. The southern Coast has been followed through Jones Sound, and the northern coast was traced by Aldrich, of the Narez expedition. But no one has ever seen the western coast except Lockwood and Brainard of the Greelv expedition, who looked out over the sea from the west shore of Grinnell land and discovered the great fiord penetrating far inland, which they nam»a after their leader. It is surprising that in aU the many efforts that nave been mad£ in this part of the Arctic world to reach a high northing and, if possible, tp attain the pole, nobody seems seriously to have considered the idea of passing through Jones Sound and traveling north along the west coast of this unknown land. Distinguished Arctic experts have long maintained that the best route to the far north is along a western shore line extending toward the pole. There is little doubt that this unknown coast offers the desired conditions, but no explorer hot ever tried the route.

PULLING A SNAKE’S TOOTH.

The Amateur Dentists and the Elevea Foot Boa Constrictor. Edward Schmidt, the proprietor of the bird store on Twelfth street, the other morning enjoyed the usual privilege of playing dentist to an eleven foot boa constrictor. His royal pythonic highness weighs just sixty pounds, and is valued at $1 per pound. One of the most remarkable features of his make-up is bis mouth. It is a common phrase to hear of the “dropping of one’s lower jaw” in moments of consternation, but Mr. Boa can get up the largest amount of consternation in this line when he gets ready by dropping about six inches of lower jaw, linear measurement. He can raise an equal amount of upper jaw at the same time, and his mouth is provided with a convenient lateral hinge arrangement by which it can be spread sidewise and pretent a total receptive surface of abont. the size of a bandbox.

It was this mouth, with a good, serviceable set of teeth, but no poison, fangs, that got Mr. Bnake into trouble toon after his arrival in the national capital. He was lodged in a good strong wire cage and fed a few pigeons. Then, instead of going to sleep gorged with, food, as is supposed to be the habit of his family, Mr. Constrictor amused himself by striking at his master, who was putting a re-enforoement of wire netting around the bars of the cage. He miscalculated in one of his springs,, and when, hissing like a steam exhaust pipe, he launched about four feet of-his-neck across the cage, he hung himself up ia the wire netting by his teeth. As a result he had a very sore mouth for a couple of days, and Mr. Schmidt decided that he would have one of the injured teeth pulled. It was a delicate operation to handle his snakeship, who, if given his choice of holds, is a good deal more than a match for a man in a catch-as-catch-can wrestling bout. But the wily bird man took an unfair advantage of his prisoner, and, diverting his attention in front, executed a flank movement and grabbed him by the back of the neck. Then it was a case of pull Richard pull Satan in getting the lengthy southerner out of his cage. He finally came with a slip and a slide, and Mr. French, the assistant dentist, promptly froze on to the last foot and a hair of the tail as it slid out of the cage.

Mr. Snake, stretched at full length, with no chance to work his powerful Constrictor muscles, was rather at a disadvantage, but watching an opportunity while the doetdr was working on bis head with a pair of wire nail pullers, he threw a half Nelson lock around Mr. French’s legs and proceeded to mix up with that gentleman in a way that was no less surprising than inconvenient. The tooth, which was loose, came out easily, looking not uplike a large fishbone, and the two amateur dentists then exerted themselves to let go of the snake and get him back in his cage. Mr. French was finally got out of the embrace of the python’s coils, and the two operators wrestled him back into captivity, where he drew himself up on a shelf in the corner of his cage, and, coiling himself into a larms figure 8, lay with his almond-shaped head on the top of his coils and swore fluently in an unintelligible South American dialect at every one who came in his neighborhood. —[Washington Post.

DOGS VS. HORSES.

Efforts to Utilize the Surplus Dog Power Now Useless In the Country. Experiments of breeding, like those which have been so successful in the improvement of horses, are dow being made with dogs to produce a style of animal especially fitted for harness. It is thought a desideratum to graft the splendid chest and breathing capacity of the bull dog upon the stalwart stock of the mastiff, which has been found too long in the back and legs. There are markets in Belgium where dogs are bought and sold for draught purposes as horses are at Tattersall’s, and it is not unusual for a compactly-bujlt and well-broken dog to bring S2O or $25. Consul Bmith points out that a force equal to that of Niagara is running to waste in the United States at the very heels of the people. He esti mates that in our wasted dog power we have an idle force in America of at least 8,500,000,000 pounds; reckoning the strength of a dog at 500 pounds, which is probably below the average. The consul says there is not an article of merchandise, from a ton of coal to a loaf of bread, sold in any of oar cities, which might not be more advantageously delivered by dogs than by horses, and he points out that in their employment a certain municipal advantage would be gained, for the litter made by horses is the most fruitful source of dirt in our city, to say nothing of the great saving in the wear and tear of the pavements. — [Boston Herald.

Beauty and Expression.

It is in the vital part of every organism that its expression, and therefore that its beauty, lies. A face devoid of expression—and expression ever changing might be eveD faultless in form; but it would be totally devoid of charm— Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly nuil. This may explain why many types of beauty whioh have fascinated not only artists, but men and women in general, have been far from perfect in form. Some wtchery in expression, a grace behind the form, has been the source of the charm. A unity might bo lifeless; and it is only when life animates the harmonious forms of the phenomenal world that they become expressive, and that their beauty is disc osed. It was the principle of life that, in the first instance, shaped the forms; life, that is U> say, in the large sense of the cosmic force—the natura naturans —which evolved individual vital things; but then, those phenomenal forms, in wbieh beauty was for a time disclosed, was not the life itself. The universal life of the world always moves on and leaves each phenomenal form behind it that it may animate others aud disclose itself successfully by means of them. It is in this life that the ultimate beauty of the universe resides aud reveals itself.— [William Knight.

The Ivy on the Wall.

The growth of ivy on the walls of houses renders the walls entirely free from damp, the ivy extracting every particle of moisture from wood, brick or stones for its own sustenance by menns of its tiny roots, which work their way into the hardest stone. The overlapping leaves of the ivy conduct water falling upon them from point to point until it reaches the ground, without allowing the walls to receive any moisture whatever from the beating rain.