Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1894 — Page 5

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

INTERESTING NOTES* ND MAT. TEAS OF MOMENT. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures Which Show that Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. * . , . .... A school district in Grant county, Kansas, contains pnly one family. The father, mother and eldest son have elected themselves trustees and appointed the eldest daughter, at SBS a month, to teach the younger children. A Kentucky calf, one day old, performed the wonderful feat of jumping from a cliff to the river below, a distance of 500 feet, without rumpling a hair. The calf was taken down the river aad hauled home in a wagon safe and sound. The Indians of Guiana have a curious numeration. They count by the hand and its four fingers. Thus, when they reach five, instead of saying so, they call it a “ hand.” Six is, therefore, a ‘‘hand and first finger,” and so on to twenty, which is called a “man.” A four-legged chicken came intd the family of Dave Myler,of Johnson City, Mo. As two of the legs were for forward locomotion and the other two always insisted on walking backward, that unfortunate chicken found it difficult to advance in the world and gave up the effort in despair. A crow with one foot four inches longer than the other was captured and tamed by Abe Cartwright, a trapper ip Sullivan County, Penn. Cartwright made a crutch stilt for the bird, which was at first strapped to its foot. This became unnecessary as soon as the crow learned what an assistance the crutch was as a means of defense as well as locomotion.

One of the residents of Cherry street, Geneva, N. Y., is the owner of a dog that imitates the sound of the Cereal company’s steam whistle. The whistle gives the musical scale, and when sounded in the morning and at noon the dog catches the notes and repeats them with wonderful accuracy. He has mastered the rising scale, but is now practicing on the falling scale which his owner expects him to acquire. Surgery’s discovery of a way to obliterate facial blemishes has given the detective forces a great deal of difficulty in locating well-known criminals. By these operations the whole character of the facial expression is changed by a few deft jabs of a lancet. The woundS heal in a very short time, and in most cases can never be noticed. The criminal fraternity are not slow to take hold of this knowledge, and in consequence the descriptions in the possession of the detectives cannot always be depended upon.

A very curious temperance society exists in the Siberian village of AshIyka. Every year, in September, the members meet in the church, and make a solemn promise to abstain from wine and spirits for a whole year. They also sign an agreement that any person breaking the pledge shall pay a fine of twenty-five rubles to the church, and submit to be spat upon by his more continent fellows. The most peculiar feature of the whole business, however, is that the members on the day of the year when the pledge expires allow themselves wine and brandy during the few hours which intervene before the pledge for the ensuing year is made.

One of Uncle Sain’s most faithful servants, in Maine, but one that draws no salary, lives at the Portland Head Lighthouse. This is a large, gray parrot, brought from Africa some time ago and presented to the keeper of the light. The bird soon noticed that when the fog began to blow in from the ocean, somebody would cry out, “Fog coming in; blow the horn!” One day the fog suddenly began to come in thick, and no one noticed it, as they were all busy. Poll noticed this and croaked out, “Fog coming in; blow the horn!” and now, whenever fog is perceptible, Poll never fails to give warning. (

Edward Bell and John Merkert went gunning for a hornets’ nest located in the swamp near Abbett avenue, Morristown, N. J. Merkert was the marksman, and, after partly destroying the nest with a load of shot, dropped into a clump of bushes to escape the angry onslaught of the disturbed hornets. A nest of bees was concealed in the clump of bushes, and, between the attack made upon him by the combined forces of hornets and bees, Merkert found himself in very warm quarters. Bell succeeded in driving away the stinging insects, but not before his companion had been stung so thafr'his face puffed up to twice its normal size and both eyes were closed.

The French papers have been noting the curious way in which the career of President Carnot was connected with the figure “7.” He was born in 1837, was admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique in 1857, was elected by virtue of Article 7 of the Constitution to the office of President of the Republic, in 1887, was assassinated at the age of fifty-seven years, in the seventh year of his presidency, in a carriage containing seven persons (four inside and three outside, a coachman and two footmen), on the seventh day of the week, by an Italian (a word of seven letters). Finally, he was borne in triumph to the Pantheon on the first day of the seventh month of the year-, seven days after his death. An exciting incident occurred the other day while General Count Mus-sin-Puschkin, Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Province of Russia, was reviewing the troops at Nicolaieff. There Was a park of forty guns on the field, and their simultaneous discharge startled the General’s charger, which bolted at a terrific speed toward the railway just as a train was approaching. An aide-de-camp vainly endeavored to overtake the animal, when Lieutenant Daniloff, a mounted military officer, placed himself directly across the path of the runaway. The impact was terrific. Both men and horses were bowled over in a scrambling heap, and for a minute

or two were hidden ta a cloud or dust. Fortunately, both the Com- ' mander-in-Chief and the lieutenant escaped with some severe contusions, j the former having one of his ankles sprained. i The Savannah (Ga.) News tells this remarkable story: Near Idlewild Park, Thursday, while John J. Burrus, a farmer, was engaged in preparing ground for sweet potatoes, he discovered a chicken snake about five feet long, which he killed. Noticing that it was of unusual size in proportion to its length, he cut it in two to make a post-mortem examination, and found that the stomach con-, tained two large-sized opal glass eggs. Mr. Burrus says that when a boy he was visiting a cooper who lived near Tallahasse by the name of Wells Hamlin, and while there, a setting hen had been driven from her nest by a large chicken snake. The snake was soon after killed, opened in his presence, and eighteen eggs taken from its body. He furthermore said that the eggs were put back under the faithful old hen, and that every egg hatched out a lively young chicken. It is dangerous to gratify curiosity or violate precedent at the Chinese Imperial Court. The Empress Dowager is a great stickler for etiquette. Recently she required the services of Dr. Li Te-chang, Vice-President of the Imperial Academy of Physicians at Peking, for one of the members of her suite at Eho Park Palace. The learned doctor had never been inside these famous palace grounds, and his curiosity was fired to see the many curious objects of which he had heard wonderful tales. So he bribed a eunuch to show him around the grounds. While the two were leisurely walking about and enjoying themselves, the Empress spied them. She at once despatched servants to punish their effrontery. The eunuch was seized, thrown on his face, and accommodated with fifty blows of the bamboo on the calves of his fat legs. The doctor was docked three months’ pay and received a severe reprimand, while his assistant was ordered never to venture again into the Empress’s presence. The affair created a sensation, because of the high position of the physician and of the humiliating punishment dealt out to him. The most striking cases of lapsed memory are to be found in persons who have had a severe illness,- or are temporarily diseased mentally. The mbre common form of the malady, too, is the forgetting of every incident of the past save one, on which the morbid mind never ceases to harp. A very pathetic.case of the kind is recorded in Beck’s “Medical Jurisprudence.”, It is that of a young clergyman who was accidentally shot in the forehead just two days before his marriage was to have taken place. For a long time his life was despaired of. He recovered, but his mental faculties had become impaired. He remembered nothing but the idea of the approaching marriage. Everything was absorbed in that one recollection; his whole conversation related to the preparation for the event. He would never speak on any other subject; it was always within two days of his wedding. Years went on, youth passed away, and still in a couple of days more his marriage would take place. In this condition the unfortunate man reached his eightieth year, and no doubt sank into the grave with the one lifelong idea as the last thought of his mind.

A real infant phenomenon keeps all the medical men and pedagogues of the good old town of Brunswick, Germany, in a state of wonder and delight. The little son of a local butcher, a baby just two years old, can read with perfect ease anything written or printed in German or Latin characters. A few weeks ago three Brunswick doctors had the baby introduced to them at the house of one of the learned gentlemen. The first thing the little one did when brought into the consulting rpom was to stand on his toes at the table, reading out from the books that were lying about. All that could be ascertained as to the why and wherefore of this uncanny accomplishment is that, when the baby was eighteen months old, and his grandmother took him out, he always immediately caught sight of the inscriptions over shops, and asked about them as only a small child can ask, till he had fathomed the meaning of the letters. It was the same at home; books and newspapers had greater fascinations than lollipops and toys, and whatever the parents playfuPy told him he remembered, with the result that at the age of two years, he reads with perfect ease. Apart from his accomplishment in reading, the boy’s developtnent is quite normal.

An inhabitant of Voro, in Finland, named Sellquist, who for a long time past has been living on bad terms with his wife, had lately a narrow escape from' being poisoned by her. She called at a chemist’s, and asked for some rat poison. As these creatures are very rarely seen in that neighborhood, the chemist had his suspicions aroused, and gave the woman a perfectly harmless drug. On second thoughts he decided to mention the matter to the husband, and requested him to say nothing about it to his wife. In the evening; as she was preparing the porridge, the man kept a watchful eye on her movements, and noticed that she scattered something out of a paper into the saucepan. When the porridge was ready he sat down to the table and began to eat. After a while he got up in great excitement, paced up and down the room and at last fell fainting on the floor. This was what the woman expected. She now pulled down a rope through a hole in the ceiling with a noose, which she placed round her husband’s neck, whereupon she ran up stairs into the garret in order to pull up the rope and hang her husband in that fashion. Meadtime the husband got up and tied a few chairs to the rope, lhe wife did not return to the room, as she dreaded the sight, but went out into the village to raise an alarm, saying that her husband had hanged himself in her absence. When she came back with a host of neighbors and crocodile tears in her eyes, there was her husband sitting at the table laughing till his sides ached. The chain were still dangling onjthe rope.

THE WHITE MAHATMA.

WHAT PROF. BALDWIN DISCOVERED CONCERNING EASTERN MAGIC. By the Use of Natural Laws and Some Humbug He Mystified and Frightened Adepts in the Mystic Art. And what is a Mahatma! Prof. Baldwin explains it etymologically as meaning “a great soul.” In its technical sense in India and Thibet it designates a person who can do wonderful things that border upon the supernatural, and whois looked upon as an expert or adept in the occult sciences. It is not an official title, but is bestowed by general acclaim. In this a Mahatma differs from a Yogi, who is a priest by profession. A fakir is a lower order of religious mendicants, who impose on the public by mere sleight of hand. How did the Professor become a Mahatma? Starting in life as a public exposer of the frauds of spiritualism and the tricks of conjurers, he gradually became interested in mesmerism, hypnotism, telepathy and all kindred subjects. While he emphatically repudiates any belief in the supernatural, he yet holds that there are unseen forces in nature which can be utilized in a manner that seems supernatural to the vulgar, and are not within the mental powers of the race to explain on any known scientific basis. That that

basis exists he holds to be incontrovertible ; that with the growth of the human intelligence it Will be found to be within the limits of rational explanation, he holds as a matter of positive faith. He himself has found in his wife a clairvoyant of extraordinary’ powers, who, when she passes into the hypnotic state, can and does perform marvels of mind reading and of apparent vaticination. Naturally his mind yearned toward the dim and mysterious East, where the occult sciences are believed to have reached their highest development. He wished to pursue his studies into the region of the unknown. He held his mind open to accept it as the unknowable if it so appeared to him after examination.

At last the opportunity came. With his wife he went into the very home of mystery and magic. He met the Yogis and the Mahatmas face to face, and beat them on their own ground. He drew large audiences, and the rajahs and maharajahs who were familiar with the feats of the best native mystery men confessed themselves amazed and baffled by his performances. It was then that a native paper hailed him as the White Mahatma, and'the Maharajah Jotundra Motundra Tegoa of Calcutta said to him: “You must become one of ns,” and so.introduced him to the higher circles of the Brahmins, to circles where Mme. Blavatsky had never been able to penetrate, for Mme. Blavatsky was a woman, and woman in India is looked on as an inferior, and i.i denied admittance to the esoteric mysteries of the adepts. And after he had witnessed many of the performances of the Yogis he said to the Maharajah : “I see nothing wonderful in all these things. I can do them ail myself.” Then the Maharajah replied: “There are men who are greater than these. I will collect a number of the most famous Yogis in the city and invite you to a special seance. You will then be convinced.”

MONT ST. MICHEL.

For Ages It Has Been the Site of Some Religious Building. Edward H. Elwell, Jr., writing of the experiences of a party of American bicyclers at Mont St. Michel, off the coast of France, for St. Nicholas, says: The Mont St. Michel is nearly two miles from the mouth of the river. It is but fifteen minutes’ walk around the rocky beach at its base. Its height is over 350 feet. Its sides are nearly as steep as the sides of a house. , For ages it has been the site of some religious building. The Romans found a heathen temple there, and replaced it by an altar to their own Jupiter. The coming of Christianity saw the beginning of the present wonderful structures, the grbwth of'centuries. The top of the rock is just large enough for the beautiful Gothic cathedral that covers it. In size, detail and carving it equals . many of the most famous cathedrals of Europe. Above part of the building there is a promenade that is 450 feet above the sand. Around the base of the cathedral, and of course milt upon the steep, rocky slope, is a mass of huge stone buildings that have served through the centuries as monastery, prison, and feudal stronghold. They copceal all but the upper half of the cathedral, which they entirely surround. The lowest foundation is 150 feeLabove the sand. The whole constitutes one mighty

The private seance was given. The Yogis did their best to eclipse all the former bjethren whom the White Mahatma had seen. Some of their exploits were undoubtedly marvelous. Still the Professor refused to see anything in them save the operation of natural laws. He leaned over to the Maharajah and said: “I can scatter all these men with a mere wave of my hand.” “Do it,” replied the Maharajah, with an incredulous smile.

The Professor bade his interpreter address the Yogis as follows: “How dare you* come before me, who am the king of all supernatural workers, with such transparent tricks as these? With a wave of my hand, I can summon fire from heaven to burn you.” And then he brought his hands together and Instantly flames burst

MAHATMAS IN PRIESTLY COSTUME.

forth from the linen garments that they wore around their loins and their back. Shrieking, they snatched off their garments, thrust them away and fled from the scene. This exploit earned him a great reputation. Ever after when any Yogis or fakirs met him on the street they would flee from the presence of the man who had hell fire at his command. The Professor explains that this is one of his own inventions in the way of conjuring tricks. Indeed, he acknowledges that in all his connection with the Hindoos he mixed up trick-

PROF. BALDWIN.

ery and chicanery with honest work and that he always found they were more interested in the chicanery. “Nd,” continued the Professor, “there is a coal of fire in all this occult business, but it is clouded over with an immense amount of smoke and rubbish. I have learned something in India, mostly in the way of thought reading and trance revelation. lam convinced that the Mahatmas possess secrets as to certain forces of nature which the unitiated

structure, a vast maze of great stone halls, with rows of carved pillars, of endless passages, broad flights of steps and spiral stairways, of horrible dungeons and gloomy vaults. The stone of which it is built was brought from the mainland, nearly two miles, and, •of course, hauled over the sand. Block by block, the stone was brought across the sands, hoisted up the steep cliffs by means of windlasses, and then shaped and carved with infinite patience and rare skill. The building went on at different times between the ninth and fourteenth centuries) and since then separate parts have been many times! destroyed and restored. The architectural beauty and wonderful carving of these buildings would alone make them famous. But because of their unique location, and also because they were built by the monks, who possessed here a little kingdom of their own—so rich and powerful were they when they accomplished the stupendous task, —this crowning glory of Mont St. Michel will long remain one of the marvels of the world, and be to France almost what the pyramids are to Egypt. There is a tiny village on the only accessible side of the Mount. There is room for just one short, narrow street, behind the high walls that rise from the edge of sand. On all other sides the steepness of the cliff itself is its defense. In the village there are about two hundred people, descendants of the original inhabitants of the! mainland, who

know nothing of. They can establish telepathic communication better than any people on earth. I have studied their methods. I am satisfied that under certain conditions of health and environment I can communicate with my wife half a mile off. Nay, when I am to be a hundred miles away from her, I simply agree that at a given hour every day we shall both shut up ourselves alone in a dark room, and I know that if any accident or harm befall her I shall feel the impact of a distinct mental impression. But in other respects, even the best work of the Yogis has been greatly exaggerated. It is the old story of the three crows. Stories pass from mouth to mouth, and are exaggerated at each successive repetition. Nay, even eye witnesses of unimpeachable character cannot be trusted. I met a fellow-countryman in India who was a firm believer. Among other wonderful things which he related was the following: A certain Mahatma, in his presence and that of numerous others, had thrown a ball of thin rope up into the air, after attaching one end of the rope to the ground. The ball soared upward until finally it disappeared into space. The rope was held taut. Then a child ran up the rope and also disappeared into space, where the Mahatma shortly followed him. Then ball, child and Mahatma all returnee} to solid ground. I said I could not believe this unless I had the evidence of my own eyes.

“Accordingly, we travelled a long distance to where the Mahatma lived. I had provided myself with a snapshot camera. A score df people pressed around the Mahatma while he performed the trick. For myself I had a theory that he merely mesmerised the entire crowd and made them believe what he chose. I therefore kept some thirty feet away, outside the influence of hypnotic influence. While the others were straining their necks to look upward, and were shouting with wonder and admiration, I saw nothing. Neither did my assistants. The camera reproduced the scene exactly as we saw it.

“When all was over my friend came back to me triumphant. “‘Now,’he said, ‘do you believe ? ’ “‘No,’ I replied, ‘I saw nothing.’ “In vain I appealed to my assistants. In vain I pointed to the negatives that I had taken. My friend turned upon me furiously and said ‘I think you are not telling the truth. I think you are a knave.’ “He turned on his heel and never spoke to me again.” Professor Baldwin emphatically disbelieves in the current stories of fakirs who bury themselves alive for months at a time, and are then resuscitated by their followers. He holds there is a trick here. The faker is buried, undoubtedly. Unprejudiced watchers are placed over his grave until the allotted time has expired. But in the interim the fakir has made his way through a subterranean passage to the outer air and does not return till the time when he is to be resurrected. As mementoes of his visit to India Professor Baldwin has a marvellous collection of jewelry—rubies from Burmah, green rubies, rose diamonds, sparkling • amethysts, opals and moonstones—as well as photographs of places and scenes, and of the Rajahs, Maharajahs and Sultans who entertained him and presented hint with royal gifts.—[New York Recorder.

fled into places of safety before the attacks of. the Norsemen, over one thousand years ago. They are ail fishermen, except the proprietors of the three hotels. It is but recently that this quaint little village, so queerly located, has been made accessible to visitors unless under the guidance of those who had learned by experience how to cross the sand and its dangers. For in numerous ana everchanging places the surface is as yielding as that of the ocean itself, and strong indeed would be the swimmer who could support himself in a quicksand! But nine years ago the French government built a magnificent dike or stone causeway from the shore to the Mount, and over its smooth surface we hastened, that Saturday afternoon, on our swift wheels, eager to reach the wonderful rock and its still more wonderful buildings, that had loomed before our vision during a whole hour of rapid riding.

Cure for Poison Ivy.

The juice of the stems and leaves of the common wild balsam, with spotted orange colored flowers, known as jewel weed and touch-me-not—lm-patiens fulva—has been found a sure cure for the poison of poison ivy. The juice can be applied "to the affected skin surface, painting it with a small brush, or the leavds and stems can be gently rubbed upon the surface. —[Detroit Free Press.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The number of millionaires in England is not as great as one might believe. According to the report of the income tax officials there are in England seventy-one persons with an annual income of $250,000, over 1,100 draw sso,oooannually, and only about 10,000 have an income of SIO,OOO.

Seaweed has not even in our wildest moments ever been dreamt of as an instrument of electoral corruption. Yet the Tokio newspapers just to hand contain an account of the trial of a member of the Japanese Parliament who was accused of bribery by corrupting his constituents with presents of edible seaweed. Bullet-proof vestments turn up everywhere. To be shot at by soldiers is really the latest fad. While the nations of the earth have been spending millions of money to create impregnable armor out of steel, subjected to every possible process, tailors, candle-stick makers and fakirs have known all the while of a common substance that would withstand any bullet.

Naturai. gas is gradually declining in pressure throughout the country. From a pressure of 210 pounds in 1887, it is now reduced to less than half that amount. The banner year was 1888, when the product reached a value of $22 000,000. Last year the product was worth less than $15,000,000. Indiana was the leading State, her product alone being valued at $5,718,000, and it was the only State showing an increase for 18911. The Rev. Dr. Griffith John, an American missionary at Shanghai, says that the opium habits of the Chinese will tell against them in time of war. A native writer, speaking of the enormous deportation of opium from India to China, says: “It is not only thus the foreigners abstract so many millions of our money, but the direful appearances seem to indicate A wish on their part to utterly root out and exterminate us as a people.” The Philadelphia Police Department has just made a contract for the purchase of an electric launch, to be used as a harbor patrol boat. The great speed which these little craft can be made to develop,together with their nolseleasness, makes them admirably adapted for such a purpose. It is held that they will prove successful in approaching vessels without alarming any thieves who might be at work on their decks. Should this experiment with the boat prove a success the electric launch service will be made an important adjunct to the Philadelphia Police Department. The gross , capital stock of all American railways exceeds $5,000,000,000,000. The average dividend since 1890 has been less than 2 per cent. In 1898 seventy-five American railroads, operating over 25,000 miles, went into the hands of receivers, with a bonded Indebtedness alone of $lB,000,000,000,000. It fs estimated that over five million of our population are dependent* for livelihood on the railroads of the United States. The comparison of the miles of railroad to each ten thousand of population, as stated by Senator Call recently in Florida is 68 miles; Georgia, 25; Alabama, 22; North Carolina and South Carolina each 20; Virginian, 21; Tennessee, 16, and Kentucky, 15.

According to the Lewiston Journal a Maine man says that the wild lands of Maine would make thirteen States as large as Rhode Island, two as large as New Hampshire and Vermont, and one twice as large as Massachusetts. These lahds are located in the following counties: Aroostook, 2,888,018 acres; Franklin, 589,962 acres; Hancock, 862,898 acres; Oxford, 558,654 acres; Penobscot, 827,604 acres; Piscataquis, 2,000,544 acres; Somerset, 1,785,888 acres; Washington, 624,128 acres. The spruce timber lands of Maine are worth more to-day than the pine fifty years ago. This statement is based on the opinion of lumbermen who have been engaged in the business for forty years, The value of these spruce lands has been greatly enhanced by the enormous demand for pulp wood.

Says a gosslper hi the St. Louis Globe Democrat: •“The town of Kilgenberg, in Bavaria, has some very valuable mines and pits which it works itself. The surplus revenue is more than sufficient to run the town, carry on all •frorks of Improvement and pay a small sum annually to every man who has occupied a residence for at least twelve months. There is a town in France which has an enormous amount of money invested at the bank, the result of a princely bequest, and the interest on this nearly repays all local expenses. While mentioning this fact in London on my way home, I was told that in a great part of Yorkshire no taxes of any kind were levied during 1898. This was not the result of any great windfall, but of a clerical error in preparing the estimates for 1892, which resulted in a surplus being left more than sufficient for the requirements of the following year.” It is said that while the fashion of writing one’s name with a middle initial, thus, John A. Smith, is rapidly djgtvppqaring from America, it is as rapidly becoming the fashion in England. This way of the writing the name was not long ago so widely recognized as distinctively American that foreigners, writing to an American who had no middle name, or one which the correspondent did not know, would always invariably supply one, thus, John X. Smith or William Z. Jones. Americans are dropping the fashion now, and writers sign their full names, as William Dean Howells, Ruth McEnery Stuart, while society men have come to use the initial first, “part their names in the middle,” thus, J. Alonzo Smith, W. Henry Jones. The old American habit is rapidly taking possession of England, and it is said that the fashion was set by Mr. Gladstone, who has invariably signed his name William B. Gladstone.

Senator iManperson, of Nebraska, in discussing, the, Indian appropriation bill bei'ore the Senate, caused to be printed in the Congressional Record the latest special study of the Indian question, “North American Id-

dians In the United State*,” fey Thomas Donaldson, expert special agent of the Census Bureau. It is a most exhaustive and comprehenshra review of the whole subject, * moot valuable work of reference to whida every student should have nrrer~ Mr. Donaldson’s conclusions as to tho best Indian policy for the future io stated in these words: “Finally, the changes necessary in the Indian policy to improve the Indian’s condition are: Enforced education under authority of the natfom or the States and Territories; enforced labor, by making the reservattaas Indians work for themselves, either as laborers, herders or farmers; enforced allotment on proper land, with allowance for houses, cattle and horses prior thereto from the proceeds (perhaps)of their surplus lands; in fact, a start in life, especially for the squaws and children, thus securing for them settled homes. Thia in the culmination of the success and failure of the entire Indian administration for the past one hundred years, and the earthly salvation of the remaining reservation Indians depends upon it.”

BATTLE WITH AN OCTOPUS.

Five Fisherman Have a Terribis Experience. A huge octopus was hoisted on Fisherman’s Wharf on Thursday afternoon from Capt. Charles Collins' boat, and the four members of the crew shuddered as they handled it and told of their terrible fight far out from the land. The monster covered a large section of the wharf, and its long tentacles were avoided by the curious crowd with dread. Several of the fish are caught each week and brought to the dock by the curious boats of the fishermen, but never had so large a one been carried in through the Heads as the one caught by Captain Collins and his crew. The long tentacles when spread apart measured about twenty-five feet from tip to tip, and they were armed all the way along with dreadful saucer-like mouths that sucked the life from their victims.

“It was a fearful fight that we had with the monster,” said Captain Collins, in his broken Greek, “and ifc is only by a miracle that I am hero to tell of it. Wednesday morning we commenced to take up our linen as usual. There came a violent tug ut the line, and a huge arm of the monster flashed out of the water and landed acrotia the gunwale of the boat. In an instant it. fastened its tenacious suckers, while the water about tho boat was lashed into a foam. An octopus can be killed almost instantly if it can be stabbed just below the eye, oven if the weapon be only the small blade of a pocket knife, and when the fellow rose so close to me and presented such a good opportunity for the death blow, I reached for the boat-hook and made a lunge for the vital spot. As I did so the boat careened violently, and instead of dispatching the brute only inflicted' a wound that maddened the monster the more. The battle then became■ one of life or death between us. A couple more of the arms of the octopus had by this time been wound, around the boat and they reached from stem to stern. The boat waa completely enveloped by them, and all hands were kept busy- to escape being caught in the clutches of the relentless suckers. The small craft rolled and rocked in the arms of the monster, and every moment it threatened to throw all five of us into tho - water. Blows had no effect on tho huge tentacles. The men belabored what parts of the fish they could 1 reach with clubs, but the effect waa. like pounding a piece of rubber. “One of the stout fishhooks had caught securely in the body of tho brute and a couple of the men began, to haul in on the stout line. Steadily the men hauled away until the body was dragged upwatd and as it reached the surface the sharp spike of tho boat hook was driven with a hand of desperatjon deep into the brute's body just below the eye and the victory was won.”—[San Francisco. Ex-r aminer.

What Soda Will Do.

In washing dish towels, brushes the sink and other utensils, dissolved soda will be found most useful, cleaning and sweetening all that it touches. It should be kept in large olive bottle and should be la—belled “washing soda.” To prepare it put one pint of the dry soda in a saucepan kept for this purpose, and add to it three quarts of boiling water. Let this mixture stand upon the stove, stirring it frequently, until the soda is dissolved. When cold put into bottles. This preparation when hot is an excellent agent for cleaning and sweetening the plumbing in the house. Pours pint of the hot liquid into each bowl, basin and sink about once a fort night. As the liquid unites withgrease it keeps the kitchen sink pipesfree of greasy deposits. It is well tobuy this soda by the quarter barrel. It is extremely cheap when bought by the quantity.—[New York World-

Turned the Crank Too Fast.

Frank Scinella, an Italian organ-, grinder, called at the Emergency. Hospital last night. He appeared to be in great misery, and Dr. Pyle asked him what the matter was. “I got-ta a sprain-a wrist.” “How did it happen?” inquired the doctor. “I play-a ‘High School-aCadet-ta.* Him very fast, to mak-a demon. He sprain-a de wrist.” Further inquiry brought out tirefact that the Italian had been playing in front of the American House, and that some men had offered him half a dollar if he would play as fast as he could. In trying to comply with the request he had twisted his wrist out. of joint.—[Boston Herald.

Fast Freight Run.

What is claimed to have been the fastest long-distance freight-run evae made in this country was made from Memphis to Kansas City by a special train loaded with bananas on June 18, the speed averaging 40.4 miles’aw hour for the 484 miles, and reachinga maximum of 64 miles an hour, which was kept up for six nVles.— [Chicago Herald-