Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1894 — Page 5

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

INTERESTING NOTESAND MATTERS OF MOMENT. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures Which Show that Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. Tailless cats with purple eyes are jommon in Siam. New York has 400 regular egg chandlers, who earn their bread by telling good eggs from bad. ’Ti£ said that drug stores in Massachusetts have increased in number from 1,400 to 2,500 in two years. A Bible distributor died recently in New Hampshire at the age of 66, who during his life distributed 120,000 Bibles. A car load of matches was ignited by friction in transportation and burned the other day at Burgin, Kentucky. . According to statistics, women today are two inches taller, on an average, than they were twenty or thirty years ago. In certain districts of Sicily the industry of gathering the thread-like substance secreted by mussels is carried on. The fiber thus obtained is used in the manufacture of silk. A mosquito injects poison into the wound he makes, in order that the blood may become fluid enough to flow readily. This is what causes the pain. Black Bull and Bushyhead, two full-blooded Indians, recently appeared in St. Paul with 162 head of cattle to sell for themselves and neighbors. Black Bull alone owns 150. As fasters the sect of Jains, in India, is far ahead of all rivals. Fasts ■of from thirty to forty days are very common, and once a year they are said to abstain from food for seventyfive days. The brig St. Andrea at Constantinople, from Salonica, is exciting great curiosity. The captain, officers and crew are all monks of Mount Athos, and while visitors are kindly received, women are not admitted. Zeke Clotts, of Mobile, Ala., is the owner of an ox with a natural knot in the middle of his tail. Several veterinary surgeons have tried to untie it, but their efforts caused the animal to emit a strange hoarse cry. The tail is so shortened by the knot that it is practically valueless to switch off flies. One of the most wonderful of the many mountain railways is that which ascends Mount Pilatus, Switzerland. Its length from the shores of Alpnacht Bay to the Hotel Bellevue, on the summit is but two and three-fourth miles, but in that distance it makes an ascent of 5,360 feet.

A committee of the French War Department has after prolonged in vestigation, reported in favor of a new kind of buckler made of aluminum and copper; it can be made light enough not to be burdensome, and yet strong enough to stop even the modern rifle ball except at short range. “If you chance to be in the fields when the clouds threaten rain, and notice a plant, whose solitary, fiveparted scarlet flowers, rising from the axils of opposite green leaves are rapidly closing, be wise enough to seek shelter, for this is the ‘Pimpernel’ or ‘Poor Man’s Weatherglass,’ and the closing flowers indicate that rain is coming speedily.” The Six Finger Club is the latest thing in the way of clubs. Each member of this particular club must have at least six fingers on one hand. An elaborate report drawn up by the secretary shows that there are 2,173 persons in the world with six fingers to each hand and 431 with seven fingers. One individual, indeed, is the proud possessor of eight fingers to one hand. There is on a mantel in one of the the residences of a Georgia family a piece of stone which bears a striking resemblance to an ancient castle, the turrets, massive doors and strong foundations being distinctly marked. The peculiar feature about the little oddity is that, to hold it under a gaslight, gives the stone the appearance of the building with many lights reflected from the windows. Goldsmiths ‘‘save” their floors and gilders their rags with surprising resultant economies. One important firm of jewelers in this city requires its factory empldyes to leave their working clothes at the factory. The work benches and floors are carefully swept nightly, but once in every few years floors, benches and clothes are burned. After one of these burnings the crucibles contain as a residuum thousands of dollars’ worth of precious metal.

There may be seen near Kelso, Scotland, the extraordinary spectacle of a hen bestowing maternal care on a litter of three Dandle Dinmont pups, the property of John Wait, forester there. It seems that the pups, which are about three weeks old, had been deserted by their mother, and in their aimless wanderings had come into contact with a broody Orpington hen, the result being that the hen began to go about with them. When she sits down the pups climb over her back and crawl under the wings just like as many chickens, and are, ■ apparently,as much attached to their feathered foster-mother as the latter is to her canine family. A train was recently stopped in i France, on the line between Bellegarde and Geneva, under the following curious circumstances : A freight train had in one of its cars some cod liver oil, which began to leak away from the containing vessel. By chance, the escaping stream struck exactly in the middle of the rail. The train that bore the oil was not affected, but the track was thus well greased for the passenger train that followed, which came to a standstill when it reached the oil rails. Nearly three-quarters of an hour were consumed in running the two and onehalf miles to the next station, and this rate was only attained by diligent sanding of the track. The Covington (Ky.) Record tells an interesting story about a woman

who formerly lived in that. efty. Her husband was critically ill, and while he was in that condition she happened to hear of a lot in the local cemetery which was for sale very cheap and, thinking she would have use for it in a short while, decided that it would be the wise thing for her to do to make arrangements in advance. She accordingly purchased the lot, but no sooner had she done so than her husband began to improve and was soon entirely well. Shortly afterward, the woman became ill and died, and her body was interred in the lot her thoughtful economy had induced her to purchase.

A curious story, illustrating the preservative properties of chokedamp, comes from China. In the province of Anhui a party of miners recently struck an ancient shaft, where history records that a great catastrophe occurred 400 vears ago. The miners, on reopening the old shaft, came upon upwards of 170 bodies of the former workers, lying where they had been overcome with foul gas four centuries back. The corpes were as those of yesterday, quite fresh-looking, and not decayed in any way. The faces were like those of men who had only just died. On an attempt being made to move them outside for burial, they all crumbled away, leaving nothing but a pile of dust and the remnants of the stronger parts of their clothing, The miners, terrified, fled from the spot, and though there werejvaluable deposits of coal in the shaft nothing would induce the superstitious men to return to their work. Some of the farmers of the Eifel, the district that lies between the frontier of Belgium and the Rhine, adopt a novel plan for scaring the birds from the wheat. A number of poles are set up in the cornfields, and a wire is conducted from one to the other, just'like the telegraph posts that are placed alosg our railways. From the top of each pole there hangs a bell, which is connected with the wire. Now, in the valley a brook runs along, with a current strong enough to turn a small water-wheel, to which the wire is fastened. As the wheel goes around it jer,ks the wire, and so the bells in the different fields are set tinkling. The bells thus mysteriously rung frighten the birds from the grain, and even excite the wonder of men and women until they discover the secret. This simple contrivance is found to serve its purpose very well.

A TERRIBLE TEMPTATION.

How a Doctor Was Tempted To Be come a Cannibal. A real fine old English gentlemat was Dr. Thomas Gunton, who while confabbing with a number of friends in a prominent resort recently, related a number of interesting experiences in his career. His later years have been passed looking out for sick people in the Canadian wilds, but his younger days were marked with activity and no little adventure. “ What do you regard as about the most perilous position you were ever in, doctor?” asked one of his friends. ‘‘Well,” musingly replied the doctor, “ I am sure that a circumstance that happened when, as a young man, I had the double office of supercargo and surgeon of an English trading vessel on the African coast, left a deeper and more painful impression on my mind than any other event in mj’ life.” His listeners gathered somewhat closer, and the doctor went on : “Our captain and the ship's company generally were pretty well acquainted with the natives, and various kings and priests and other men in authority would frequently come aboard to get a bite of salt pork, and once in a while a glass of rum, etc., so it was not considered dangerous to go ashore and make little excursions into the interior. The natives were cannibals, but they knew who to eat, and interest for their personal welfare prevented their mouths watering for the blood of an Englishman. I went ashore one day with the mate, who got the notion into his head that he wanted to kill two or three gorgeously plumaged birds, cure and dress their wing feathers, and take them home to his sweetheart. We got separated in the jungle, and I became lost. I had left my pocket compass aboard the ship, and to save my life I couldn’t locate myself. Well, I was in that forest two days without a thing to eat before I was lucky enough to 1 strike the coast, from which I had at no time been three miles distant. I was starving. I think for the first time in my life I realized what hunger was.” Here the doctor made a grimace. “Boys,” he said, “-as I got near the coast my nostrils met a most savory odor. It increased my torment of hunger ten-fold, while my heart rejoiced at the prospect of food; but to my horror and fright, I walked right into a group boiling a man. The remembrance of the temptation offered me clings to me yet. Weak as I was, however, I ran from the place lest I, too, should become a cannibal. If I remained, in my starved condition I should have partaken of their broth. But I was safe, for a party of the ship soon found me, and when I saw them I fainted dead away.

“That terrible temptation,” the doctor continued, ‘ ‘ was the one event of all my career that makes me gloomy whenever I think of it —and I almost always think of it.” — [Washington Post.

How to Silence Critics.

A poet desirious of the laureateship was bitterly complaining to a friend in a London club of the conspiracy of silence that was waged by critics against his effusions. “How ought I to meet this conspiracy?” he asked. “Join it,” replied the friend.—[London Truth. |

The regulations of the British Post Office require that every unsound tooth shall be taken out of a man's head before he cdm be employed. An unfortunate girl who recently was examined for promotion had fourteen teeth taken out at one sitting by order of the official dentist, who explained that “we can’t have girls laid up with toothache.”

NEW FALL FABRICS.

THEY MAKE A HANDSOME AND VARIED SHOW. Novelty Goods of Very Coarse Weave Are In Great Favor—Prominent Colors in Unusual Combination Are BUI Seen—A Promenade Costume. Fashion’s Fickle Fancies. New York correspondence:

aside many of summer’s X garnitures and stuffs are our fasheq ionable women, but fall and winter fabrics make a KP' handsome and fcj greatly varied X showing. Novelty goods are on every aw hand, and there is great favor at S present for those sB of very coarse Sa weave. They aie woven like burggS laps, feel like burlaps and look like 1 burlaps, but, of course, are quite “S'" different. Still,

many of them are of a thick and rough texture, and the colors are startling, including much purple in several shades. The liking for prominent colors in unusual combination is by no means past, only September is seeing a different series from that which prevailed for the past three months. Plaids are found in this style of get-up, and are intended for street wear. Some of ihem are enough to awaken the echoes. Thus, It is permissible to wear on the promenade a tweed skirt of very loud barred plaid, a high cut waistcoat to match one of the brilliant shades of the skirt, a close coat that opens a mere slit all down the front, and which is of some distinct shade that bears no relationship at all to the rest of the rig. A high linen collar, a black tie and a wee bit of linen shirt show at the neck. The hair will be peeled back close, arranged in little braids and turned about in bun fashion. The hat will be a sailor with scalloped brim and stiff quills. Gloves are red leather, so stiff that she can hardly hold on to her umbrella, and very long pointed patent leather shoes, are the completing feature of distinctness. To be sure 'this is the advanced type, but the same features in less startling arrangement, or fewer of them included in one costume, are to be prevalent till snow flies, at least. Their lasting longer depends on whether

ALL IN ZIGZAGS.

they will lose the ugliness, when the eye has become accustomed to them, which a first sight condemns. Some fashions, which at first seemed unhandsome, outlive the first impression they create, and end by being considered slightly and distinctively stylish. The plaids for indoor wear are quieter of tone, though the squares are of considerable size. They are usually cut simply, too, a favored style being that shown bv the first picture. Here the checked stuff is woolen suiting, and the plain gored skirt is four and a half yards wide and furnished inside with a silk ruffle. The prevailing shade of the goods is a tan. the plastron being of plain stuff of lighter tan shade than the other. The full waist has fitted lining and opens down the front, where the fulness is gathered with a heading Bretelle epaulettes of the check goods cap the sleeves, which are rather large, their fulness drooping. The belt is tan-colored ribbon, with bow and long ends at the back. As has been hinted, the prominent checked stuffs have yet to win their way to general acceptance, though they have made a good start towards it. With striped stuffs the situation Is different; they have won their spurs, are seen in the richest fabrics, and the prevailing stripes are wide and brilliant. What a time the amateur dressmaker will have matching these stripes! Already they tell of one woman who was trying in the same week to .make a bodice of bias two-inch striped stuff and to have her rooms papered and kalsomined. In despair over the first task she noted the paperhanger’s exact matching and turned to him. But the “bias business” was away beyond him, and that bodice looked when done like a trellis so rickety that a morningglory vine would have repudiated it and crept along the ground. A difficult task for any dressmaker is the second dress pictured, which is from pale-blue and black striped silk, taken bias for the bodice, which is worn over the skirt and has a point in back and front. Its garniture consists

SERGE FOR SKIRT AND SILK FOR. BODICE.

of a deep lace collar whose ends extend down the front as far as the waist as a jabot, and a number of tiny velvet rosettes. The sleeves are entirely of pale blue silk and finish with lace trills. The gores of the skirt are cut

to match in zig-zag stripes, and a series of rosettes marks the left side front seam. Otherwise the skirt is without trimming. The ordinary blondes should wear decided colors. Why will they get themselves into art shades—dull greens that take all the color out of their hair and ruin their eyes, old rose colors that make their cheeks take on the same tone, dingy yellows that make a disconcerting match for hair which with half a chance ought to be gold? The brunette with strong coloring can do this sort of thing. The blonde should choose pure colors and clear tints. For her there are several shades of gray which are suitable, and they are now decidedly stylish. Of steel gray is the next costume shown. Its p’ain skirt is of serge and is laid in two double box pleats in back. The bodice has a puffed and shirred yoke with bands of guipure between, is made of gray silk, has fitted muslin lining ana hooks in the center. Its folded collar and belt are of gray silk, and the gigot sleeves remain plain. This is a suitable model for all serge gowns, and offers a change from the blazer and Eton style-, ft would be

A BRAND NEW TALL COSTUME.

charming in dark blue, green, brown, or any other dark shade, with corresponding silk bodice. The fourth dress sketched is from brown novelty suiting, and its full be ft skirt has an overskirt drapery fastening with large buttons and imitated button-holes of cord, and edged with wide dark-brown and pale-gold passementerie. Basques show the back of the bodice, but the fronts are loose and are finished with large revers and sailor collar banded with galoon. Paia maize-colored silk is used for the vest, the collar matches, and the elbow sleeves have deep turned-back, cuffs with ornamental buttons like those on the fronts and back of the bodice. Reversing the rule of certain sorts of yokes, those for dresses vary with the necks they encircle. They may have no collars when the throat is round and fair, the finish at the neck being just a drawing ribbon. A pretty outlining to a yoke is a wide fichu affair, shaped like a sailor collar, which outlines the yoke’s lower edge. The fichu finish is square across the shoulders in the back, and its points spread wide in front. It fastens in the middle of the front, the line of its lower edge spreading straight across the figure well out on to the big sleeves. The yoke rises softly in the cut out space of the low neck sailor collar, which is itself of white moire, covered thickly with burre lace and frilled with an edge of the same. It ties with long moire ribbons. The yoke is of the most filmy white chiffon and makes any gown dressy. Turn-back, adjustible cuffs of the lace-covored moire may be added. Highly ornamental is the yoke on the last dress pictured, if less elaborate of construction than that just described. It is made of white watered silk covered with fine yellovz old lace, with one big vandyke point for each shoulder. Beneath these points the sleeves are very full and are draped with white rosettes in the center of the upper arm. A pleated back and crossed over fronts are supplied to the bodice, and it hooks beneath the lat-

A BELT WHICH ENDS ODDLY.

ter. The skirt is very wide and is laid ‘ in a wide box-pleat on the right side, | in three box-pleats on the left ana again in three p’eats in the back. A ribbon belt fastens with a rosette, one end extends over the right, two over the left, and all terminate in rosettes which apparently hold the pleats in place. Beige woolen crepon, striped with green, the latter dotted with white, is the dress stuff. These tricks of utilizing sash ends as part of the skirt’s ornamentation are eagerly seized upon just now, and they are found upon the costliest dresses, despite the fact that the devices are simple and inexpensive. This one is novel and can be used to give a touch of freshness to an old dress. Tobacco color in combination with dull red makes a stylish fall costume, suggestive of the rich coloring of the fading oak leaf. An elegant creation along this line has the skirt edged with a wide Greek design wrought in applique of narrow red velvet ribbon on the tobacco cloth. The vest has an all-over design of the red on the stuff, and collar and cuffs are finished to match the border of the skirt. This | notion of making applique designs with narrow velvet on cloth of a contrasting color is to be much in vogue, and will always lend elegance of effect that no ordinary sewed-on-after effort can produce. One of fashion's quick turns about brings to the fore belts of elastic ribbon, heavily ornamented with sequins and so arranged that there seems to bo ’ no fastening. Thus the buckleless belt appears, after women have spent all their spare cash on buckles. The new belt looks as if it had grown on its wearer, and the elastic adjustment to the figure makes even a small waist seem all the tinier. This being th* case, away with belt buckles. After all, the waist, not tho buckle, is the thing. Copyright, 1894,

SIGNAL SERVICE.

OUR WEATHER BUREAU THE BEST IN THE WORLD. It Is Right Just Seven Times In Ten.-Method of Conducting the Various Observations. It has been shown that the percentage of verifications of rain, temperature, wind and cold wave forecasts of the United States Weather Bureau are misleading only about two or three times out of ten, and, considering the uncertainty of the elements with which weather prophets have to deal, this result must be admitted to be remarkable. In 1892 the service predicted rain within 24 hours in different places 4,844 times, and 71.2 per cent of these forecasts were verified. Rain within 48 hours was predicted 444 times, and 58 per cent of these rains were forthcoming. In 1898 5,850 rain storms within 24 hours were announced, and 78.5 per cent of them occurred. Only 75 storms were forecast two days ahead, and 62.6 per cent of them camo on in time. Much bettor results were obtained in predicting the changes of the temperature. In 1891 80 per cent of the 24 hour forecasts were verified, and 84.8 per cent of the 48 hour forecasts. In 1891 81.9 per cent of the one-day prophecies came true, and 78.4 per cent of the two-day prophecies. In 1898 81.6 per cent of the one-day predictions were verified, and 78.1 per cent of the two-day predictions. With wind signals the result has been7l.l per cent, 77.6 percent and 77.6 per cent of successes in 1891, 1892 and 1898 respectively. Cold waves seem to be the most difficult to prophecy, for in 1891 only 65.2 per cent of these were foretold, in 1892 68.6 per cent and in 1898 64.7 per cent.

These forecasts and warnings are based upon observations taken at 8 a. m. and 8 p. m. daily, seventy-fifth meridian time, at 124 stations in the United States and nineteen in Canada, the reports being promptly wired to the central office at Washington and several of the more Important Weather Bureau stations and to the Canadian central office at Toronto. Special arrangements are made during the West India cyclone season to get early warning by telegraph of storms in that region. The manner of taking these observations is laid down in exact rules and is done at the same time and in the same way at all the different stations. The work of observation is begun at the proper time, and the observers perform their duties simultaneously. Within a specified time the reports are filed o,t the telegraph offices and placed upon circuits which are set apart entirely for this business. The deciphering of the reports and the making of charts showing the results of the observations are begun at 8.45 a. in. and 8.45 p. m. daily by trained experts at Washington. The forecast official stands ready when the charts are completed to dictate a statement of their general and special features, to prepare forecasts for the various districts and to issue such signal orders as the conditions may require. His dictated report is set in type within forty-five minutes and within a very brief space of time every telegraph station in the United States is supplied with the result of the work of this vast system, and the press associations furnish the newspapers with a regular forecast and warning and also any special features that are of sufficient interest to print. Weather and temperature, cold-wave and frost signals, are communicated at the expense of the Government to special display men at selected points exclusive of the Weather Bureau.

Messages are also telegraphed to 2,129 railroad stations and 620 other places, and are sent by mail to 6,065 points and delivered by railroad to 1,264 stations. The total number of places to which the forecasts or warnings are sent is 9,328. This number does not include thousands of persons and places who get their information direct from the local weather offices throughout the country, nor doos it take in 121 points on the sea coast and the shores of the Great Lakes, where danger signals are posted. There is another branch of the weather service of which the people in large cities know very little, but which is of great importance to the farmer. This is the State Weather Service, organized for the collection and publication of information relating not only to the w’eather, but also to the crops. State bureaus are dependent almost entirely upon the voluntary efforts of intelligent citizens, whose labor is furnished Without compensation, and w’hose individual reports are received at the central stations, compared and summarized in such a way as to form the basis of general reports. Monthly reviews of the prevailing weather condition are published, and bulletins are issued weekly during the planting, cultivating and harvesting of crops, telling the most important facts about the weather, with their probable effect upon the growing crops from week to week. This service in many States also has the cooperation of an agricultural station, and the weekly bulletins contain information with regard to pests that imperil the crops and the best way of treating them. Many of these volunteer observers are farmers, some of them are doctors, and others are men who have only a private interest in keeping a record of the weather. It may be said that their work is generally thorough, their reports concise and their observations valuable. Some of them are furnished with a set of instruments, and many others are not.

As there are less than 175 meteorological stations in the United States that are conducted by paid observers, each one of these stations has to cover about 22,000 square miles of land, and the data supplied by this means would be very inadequate were it not for the information that is furnished through the State Weather Service. The latter work began in lowa as early as 1875, and in Missouri in 1878, but |;he system has not been sufficiently general to be of great value for more than twelve or thirteen years. It is now a rule that the weather crop reports are mailed by the correspondents so as to reach the

central stations on Tuesday morning, and so far as possible they cover the weather record up to Monday night. They are quickly summarized, and comments upon them are made in short order, and thp State crop bulletins are promptly and widely disseminated. Of course, the report for each State is also sent to Washington to help out the National Weather Bureau. To the farmer these reports are of more benefit than they are to any one else, because they supply him with a means of knowing accurately the condition of crops in other neighborhoods than their own, and they also enable him to estimate somewhat the conditions of the market for his goods.

PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY.

Tha Growth in the South Is a Com. mercisl Marvel. The growth of the phosphate industry in the past four or five years has been immense. It is located in the States of North Corolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. But little is done, however, in the first and last named States. The commissioner’s report covers 187 phosphate mining establishments, 106 being in Florida, thirty in South Carolina and one in North Carolina. Phosphates were discovered in South Carolina in 186768, and the importance of the discovery was promptly recognized and apEreciated both by scientific and by usiness men. In 1868 the South Carolina mines produced 12,262 tons, while in 1891 they produced 572,949 tons. The Florida phosphate deposits were discovered in 1888, and their last annual output was 582,027 tons. The last annual output of the South Carolina mines was 698,976 tons, and the North Carolina mine reported 700 tons, or a total for the whole industry of 1,281,708 tons. This quantity was valued at the mines at $7,158,201.

As in other valuable things counterfeits will accompany real values. There have been bogus phosphate lands and bogus phosphate companies and much money has been sunk by investment in such. But the figures hero given represent actual products and not mere estimates: The operators in all the four States mentioned control 265,688 acres of land and 170. J miles of river. Of the land 188,848 acres are In Florida. The total value of capital invested in plants in the industry is $4,705,582 and in land $14,866,067. The total number of hands employed in the industry is 9,165; of tills number 5,242 are employed in South Caro-' llna mines. The total expenditure for labor for the last, year was $2,478,265. The average earnings in the Florida land mines was $214 for each person employed, and In the river mines, $855, a higher grade of skill being required in the river mines than in the land mines. In South Carolina the earnings in land mines wore $287 nor annum, and in the river mines $378. In addition to the wages paid in the mines, a large body of longshoremen have been brought into employment through the phosphate industry, the amount of wages paid to this class of men being for 1892, $121,685, while the wages paid for manipulating and converting phophate Into superphosphate are estimated at $1,587,600, or a total wage roll added to the industry of the State named, through the discovery of phosphate of $4,182,910, the payment of this large sum being duo to the new industry of phosphate mining, and it is of course a constant yearly addition to the economic force of the States in which the industry is carried on. It should be noted also that labor is benefited through the cost of transportation, drayage, warehousing and other handling which, in the aggregate, amounts to a very considerable turn. With so enormous a development in so few years it might bo Imagined that this industry must soon play out. But in the first place the need of fertilizers Is constantly on the increase. The soil nqf; only needs more as the years go by, but the benefits and uses of the various fertilizers and their adaptation to produce the results desired in agriculture are becoming every year better known. In the second place, the supply of the raw material seems to be comparatively Inexhaustible. A careful expert estimate gives for the State of Florida the amount of phosphate in sight as 188,055,835 tons, for other States 1,000,000 tons. These various estimates give a total of 149,056,885 tons of phosphate in sight, and this statement shows better than any other the future opportunities for the employment of labor in this industry. —[Farm, Field and Fireside.

A Railway Cushion Car Cleaner.

The French have brought carpet cleaning machinery to a high state of efficiency. One of their latest machines not only beats the carpets of railway cars, but also brushes the cushions while drawing off the dust. With this machine, operated by one man, 350 carpets or cushions can be cleansed in an ordinary working day. The machine consists essentially of a strong frame containing an endless band, beaters, revolving brushes, exhaust fans and suction pipes. The carpets are attached to the endless band, the revolution of which brings them under the influence of the beaters. These consist of ten stout leather straps fixed on the iron arm of a horizontal revolving drum. Meanwhile the cushion is being cleaned by the backward motion of the table on which it is placed while in contact with cylindrical brushes. The dust raised by the beaters and brushes is drawn by the fans into the galvanized iron pipes and discharged by the current of air outside the building.— [New York Telegram.

In connection with the Chinese oath a story is told of a representative of the Middle Kingdom, who once appeared to give evidence at Bow Street. He w'as politely consulted as to the method in which he would prefer tb be sworn. “Oh,” said he, with a breadth of outlook not common in Sir John Bridge’s court, “Kill ’im cock, break ’im plate, smell 'im book, all sameyl”— [Westminster Gazette.

CAPTIVE APACHES.

THE INDIAN SETTLEMENT AT MT. VERNON, ALABAMA. How Chief Geronimo and His People Are Cared For.-A Company of Indian Infantry. Post Office Inspector John P. Clum, who recently spent some time at the camp of the renegade Apaches at Mt. Vernon barracks, Alabama, was in the lobby of the National Hotel last night. To a reporter for the Star he said: “ I can’t talk postal matters, but I will tell you an Indian sto'ry. You know I am part Apache, that is, a part of my life was spent with those Indians, and when I left them in 1877 I was on friendly terms with nearly all the Apaches on the San Carlos reservation—then numbering 5,000. There were several Indians, however, with whom I sustained what might be termed strained relations. Among these were Geronimo and Francisco, two noted southern Chiricahua Apache renegades, who, with several others, I had by the aid of my Indian police captured at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, in April, 1877. After these Indians had been securely ironed I treated them to a delightful ride in a prairie schooner over the mountains to San Carlos, Arizona—a distance of about 500 miles—where they were safely deposited in the agency guard house. Well, I left those Indians in the guard house in irons in 1877 and I did not see them again till last week. “ I was down in Alabama and took a day off and visited the Apaches who are now held as prisoners of war at Mt. Vernon barracks. Yes, I saw Geronimo, but he was not in irons. He did not insist on retaining the manacles with which I had presented him. They wore taken off soon after 1 left the agency in ’77. You know his subsequent history. He left the reservation two or three times on raids. In 1881 and 1885 I was with part ies of citizens who followed his trail to the Mexican line. In 1886 he made his final stand end surrendered to General Miles, when he and his entire band of renegades, mon, women and children, were sent to Florida. Later they were transferred to their present location in Alabama. The Indians have boon located in a permanent camp or settlement on a ridge about half a mile west of the military post.

“Seventy-five frame houses have been constructed and each Indian family is now provided with a comfortable homo. Each hotyte is divided into two rooms, in one of which is a largo cooking range, and in the other a comfortable fireplace. “ I was invited to inspect a number of the houses, and was surprised at the absolute cleanliness required of and observed by those Indians. Every Saturday is house-cleaning day, and when the official inspection is made each Sunday morning there must not bo found enough dust |o soil a white glove. The women do creditable laundry work, and the bod linen and all the articles of wearing apparel are kept scrupulously clean. Tno Indians have adopted the civilized style of dross, and tho men have had their hair cut short. I was told that tho hair cutting was perfectly voluntary. In tho matter of personal cleanliness all tho Indians are required to bathe at least once a week, and 1 was Informed thntNahehee and one or two others of the Indian soldiers take their daily bath with as much care, regularity and evident satisfaction as tho most exquisite of the 400. “A company of Infantry has been enlisted from these Indians, which is commanded by Captain Wetherspoon. The company quarters, mess hall, amusement rooms and gymnasium are located on the same ridge with tho houses, and form u part of the Indian village. Strict military discipline is observed with this company and perfect order and cleanliness was manifest. The company drills once and sometimes twice daily, and is said to be proficient in the manual of arms and company evolutions. All commands are given in English. About once a week this Indian company drills with the white troops in battalion drill. There is a guard house at the settlement, and all refractory Indiana are arrested by the Indian soldiers and alljprisoners are guarded by them. Geronimo now occupies tho position of alcalde, or justice of the peace, and all cases of minor offenses are tried before him. His decisions have given general satisfaction, Ho has sentenced some to six months in tho guard house, which is, I think, about as long a time as the old man was ever in confinement himself at one time. There is a good school adjacent to the settlement, under the direction of two efficient teachers, where all children are afforded the advantages of an English education. About fifty of the children from this colony are now at the Carlisle school. These Indian prisoners of war are virtually on parole. They are not confined or guarded, and are allowed to.come and go when and where they please, provided only that their conduct is proper. As I said before, discipline is enforced by tho Indians themselves. The men are allowed to work out by the day whenever they can find employment, and some of the women, do washing for the soldiers. “The Indian soldiers, of course, got the pay and allowances of regulars. Many of them do bead and basket work and old Geronimo picks up many a dollar by selling bows and arrows; which he embellishes with his name. He also disposes of photographs of himself at 25 cents apiece. Several other Indian chiefs, well known in New Mexico and Arizona, are at Mt. Vernon.—[Washington Star.

HORACE WAS MATTER O’ FACT.

The stately steamer plowed its way through the blue waves of Lake Michigan: “Oh, Horace!” moaned the young bride, who a moment before had paced the deck with a smiling face and a love-lit eye, the happiest of the happy, “I feel so queer! Let me lean on your shoulder.” “No, dearest, don’t do that I”, exclaimed Horace, hastily; “lean over the side of the steamer.”—[Chicago Tribune. <• The Spanish were among the first to knit fine stockings.