Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — Page 5

A COLDEN DREAM

CHAPTER II. —(Continued). “Present!” shouted Saintone, as his ♦yes glared triumphantly on his victim. Again there was a peculiar rattling noise made by the pieces, heard above the roar of the flames. Then — “Fire!” A dozen flashes darted from as many muskets; there was a deafening roar; the smoke hung heavy for a few moments, and then as Nousie strained forward it was to see the cloud rise borne by the current of air setting toward the burning cottage right over the heads of the firing party, and she uttered a low cry ns with starting eyes she saw her husband writhing on the ground among the flowers by the fence. “Mine now,” said a voice at her side; and she shrank a little, but gazed still at the spot where Dulau lay. Then with a piteous sigh, she said softly: “May I go to him with our child?" Saintone did not hear or did not heed her, for he had stepped forward at once towards where Dulau still writhed. In the terrible moment when a couple of bullets had struck him, he had made one great superhuman muscular effort, and burst the bonds which held his arms, and now his crisped fingers were tearing terribly at the grass and flowers around. “Out of his misery,” said Saintone briefly to a sergeant of his force, and the man —a huge mulatto—stepped forward with his loaded piece, presented the barrel at Dulau’s head, and was about to fire, when the barrel was seized. What followed seemed instantaneous. Taken by surprise, the piece was snatched from the man’s hand, and in the full blaze of the fire all saw Dulay upon his knees, supporting himself with one hand, as with the other he swung round the musket, held it pistol-wise, and there was a sharp, ringing report, followed by an awful yell of despair, as the roof of the cottage fell in. Then in the wild rush of flames, Saintone was seen staggering forward with his hands clasped to his forehead, as he bent himself back, head toward heels almost in a bow, fell with a crash, quivered for a moment, and then his muscles.slowly relaxed. It was amid a silence—the silence of sudden surprise, awe and death. CHAPTER 111. “Oh, murder! What a horrible daub!” said Paul Lowther, drawing back from his easel. “I’m afraid I shall never make a Titian.” He laid down palette and mahl stick, took up and filled a pipe, lit it, and began smoking as he walked up and down beneath the skylight of his little studio in the Rue de la Cite, Paris. He had been hard at work upon an antique head, one of his studies in the pursuit of art, dividing his time pretty equally between Charlotte street, Fitzroy square, and the studios of Paris. “It’s a curious thing,” he said, stopping and forming a cloud of smoke in front of his picture, a cloud which seemed very appropriate to the head he had been painting. “Yes,” he said again, “it’s curious. That isn’t bad —for me, but it isn’t a bit like the goddess in the Louvre. It’s Aube again, that it is, and do what I will they’ll come like her. Hah!! he cried, as he took up the canvas and gazed at it lovingly, “I feel fool enough to kiss you—almost, not quite—for I do know that the paint would come off wet.” He set back the canvas, smoked hard, and took down a photograph from a shelf near the stove —the likeness of a very beautiful girl with large dreamy dark eyes and heavy folds of hair. “Yes,” he said, “coarse and clumsy, but wonderfully like you, darling. Your lips will not come off wet. Only wish they would,” he added, and he kissed the photograph, and then hurriedly replaced it, and caught up his palette and brushes, for there was a step on the stairs, evidently upon the flight below. “What a fool a fellow in love does make of himself!” He began to whistle softly, and continued painting the background upon which he had been engaged as the steps drew nearer; then came a heavy thump on the door which was thrust open sharply, and a rather plain-looking young fellow of four or five and twenty, as carelessly dressed as the young artist at the easel, entered noisily and stopped short. “Hallo, Antonius!” he cried merrily. “What, my industrious one, painting and glazing away?” Paul Lowther turned his handsome, earnest face to the newcomer with a pleasant smile so lighting up his countenance that there was some cause for his friend’s appellation. “Morning, Bart,” he said; “been at the school?” “Don’t ask questions. If I tell you yes, you’ll want to know whether I’ve been dissecting, or seeing an operation; and then you’ll begin to sniff and curl up that handsome upper lip, and look disgusted and uncomfortable. Ignorance is bliss, my noble friend. Smoking again, eh?” he continued, as he threw down his hat and stick to take a short black pipe out of his pocket. “Are you aware that smoking is the ruin of young men? That it is deadly poison, and—where’s your ’bacon?” “Jar—shelf,” said Paul, painting away deliberately. “Humph! Hope it's better -than the last,” continued the newcomer, filling up and lighting his pipe—“ Not quite so bad. Now, then, let’s have a look at the work. L’ouvrage, as we say in Par-ree.” Paul Lowther drew back, and his friend took his place, smoking hard the while, as he stood with'his legs wide apart, and his hands deep down in his pockets. “Bravo, old chap! I shall make something of you yet. Exactly like her.” “Like? Like whom?” said Paul, coloring slightly. “Bah! what’s the good of playing ignorance. Wonderfully like the photograph, old chap. I say—l know it’s pretty cool to ask it, but between friends —I don’t want much, but you might knock me off a sketch of your sister.” “Nonsense, man,” said Paul, hastily. “That’s net a portrait; it’s the head of the Cyprian Venus in the Louvre.” “Oh, is it?” said the other dryly. “Beg pardon; my mistake,” and as he spoke he gave his friend a queer look. “Any news from the convent?” “Yes,” said Paul, sitting down and placing his hands behind his head. “Lucie sent ipe a letter last night. Quite well and happy.” “And Miss Dulau?” “Yes, quite well, too,” said Paul, dreamily. “I say, Bart, old man, seriously, you and I ought to be happy fellows.”

“What? Come, I like that.” “What do you mean ?” “Oh, I don’t get on. lad. Here I work as hard as a man can, but I get no further. Sometimes I feel as if I ought to have stuck to the English school instead of frittering my time away in the French.” “And when you are in London you think just the same!” said Paul, smiling slightly. “There. I will not be a humbug, old fellow. Yes, I do. But I’m uneasy. It’s all very well what you say about your sister liking me. but it’s because she has led that shut-up life all those years. She has seen me. and I am almost the only fellow she has seen. As soon as she leaves the convent, and you take her over to London, and she sees no end of goodlooking fellows, it will be all over with poor me.” “Don’t be a fool, Bart. You’re the bestlooking fellow I know—inside. I can see it clairvoyantly. Lucie isn’t such a little idiot as to take to a fellow because he is handsome as a barber’s dummy.” “But then you are,” said Bart, dryly; “and the sweetest and the most charming girl I ever saw in an augenblick has taken a fancy to you.” “I can’t help my looks, Bart,” said Paul quietly. “And I’m like you, old man; I feel my doubts about the time when she leaves the convent.” He sat looking dreamily at his canvas, and the two young men smoked on in silence. “Oh, no, old chap,” said Bart, at last, and he leaned forward and laid his hand affectionately on the artist’s knee, “she is not the girl to do that. I say, how long has she been there?” “Fifteen years.” “Father dead; mother in Hayti.” Paul nodded. “Wealthy woman, isn’t she?” “I don’t know, I suppose so.” There was another pause. “Seems rum, doesn’t it, Paul, old chap, that she has never been over to see the child. Of course, it’s not like your sister’s case.” “I haven’t thought as you do,” said Paul, “but we cannot judge a woman in her position. It seems that it was the father’s wish that his child should be educated in his native place, and from what Lucie tells me the mother has made a great sacrifice in parting from her child." “But does the mother—Madame Dulau —mean to come here and settle?” “I don’t knsw.” “She won’t want to—hang it, old man, don’t start like that.” “Don’t, Bart,” cried his friend excitedly. “That’s always hanging over me like a cloud. Oh, no. Hayti is quite a savage kind of place, all revolution and horror. The father was killed in one of the risings. No woman who loves her child to the extent of parting from her for her good would fetch her over there. Oh, no; of course she will come and settle here. Retire, I suppose. She has plantations, or something, from which she draws her revenues. But there; I know nothing at all but some scraps of information Lucie has written to me from time to time.” Another quiet interval of smoking, and then Bartholomew’ Durham spoke. “I suppose I’m no judge,” he said quietly. “I seem to have thought of nothing else but bones and muscles and nerves, and the other ins and outs of my trade, but somehow I don’t like convents.” “Don’t be prejudiced, old fellow,” said Paul. “Where could au orphan girl like my sister have been happier or brought up in a sweeter, purer seclusion? There was question of religion in the matter, and if ever woman deserves her name of Mother Superior, Sister Elise is that woman.” “Yes, I suppose so,” said the young doctor. “Never seems to have tried to persuade them to quit the world, eh?” “Oh, never. Luce would have told me directly. No, old fellow, the tw’o girls love her and the Sisters dearly, and if ever any man felt grateful I do to the old lady." “Nice old body,” said Bart. “The time I saw her, I thought it was a shame.” “A shame! What?” “That such a nice woman should have shut herself up as she did years ago, and robbed the world of a good wife and mother. 1 suppose she never saw Mr. Right. I say, though, do you think your sister cares for me?” “I wish I was as sure that some one else would be as true to me.” “What?” cried Bart, joyously, as he ran his hands through his rough hair. “Then it’s all right, old fellow, for I’d swear you are safe. I say, though, I shall be glad when they leave the convent.” “I,shall not,” said Paul sadly. “Why?” “Because, man, I am afraid—l am afraid.” “Nonsense. I say, I’ve had a fresh letter from the agents this morning. That business is settled. I’m to have the practice in six months. The old man says he shall keep on for that time and gradually bid good-by to his patients. Then he hands over his lancet, and bottles of salts and senna to yours truly. It’s a capital old practice, Paul. Deposit paid, and I step into the house, take the furniture and everything, a full-blown doctor.” “And you will go on With your studies in the hospitals here till then?” “I go on practicing here or wherever a certain young lady may be, as I have done before, old fellow. I can’t begin practicing as a settled down medical man without a wife.” “I think you are secure,” said Paul laughing and holding out his hand. “We have been inseparable for 'twelve years now, and I know your heart; so does Lut?e. Bart, old chap, I would not wish her a happier fate.” The doctor’s lip quivered a little, and he had held his friend's hand for some moments before he said, rather huskily; “Thank you, old fellow.” They neither of them seemed to wish to talk then for a time, but sat smoking till all at once Bart exclaimed: “I don’t know, though.” “Don’t know what|?” said Paul, smiling. “But what all this has been for the best.” “I don’t understand you.” “Yes, you do,” said Bart testily. “I mean about those two being at school all these years in the convent. It brought you oyer here constantly to be near your sister, and that brought you face to face with an angel. Then you have had the run of the Paris studios, and got into a brighter, lighter style than if you had been always working in the-fog in Newman or Charlotte street.”

“By the same rule through coming over to see me then it has induced you to stay and study, too.” “Exactly. Wonderful how well things work for the best,” said Bart, merrily. “I say, when are you going to see your sister again.” “Don’t know. When Idol am not going to take you. so rest assured of that.” “And I thought we were brothers,” said the young man with a grimace. “You’ll see plenty of Lucie by-and-by.” “Never, sir! never; not half enough. But I say. when will she leave the convent and come aud settle down to keep house for you?” “Not till her friend leaves, and may that be long first,” said Paul thoughtfully. Then turning merrily from his friend. “Why, you miserable, shallow, old impostor.” he cried, “to ask me such a question—When is she coming to keep house for me? How long—now answer nie honestly—if you can! —bow long if you have your own way will you let her keep house for me?” “Eh?” said Bart, ruffling up his hair again, and with a mirthful look in his eyes—“honestly—how long?” “Yes. How long?” “Not an hour more than I can help, old fellow—there.” “Well,” said Bart, looking at his watch, “I must be off. I’ve got engagements with two broken legs and a fractured skull.” "Good heavens!” “But I say, that’s capital about the practice, isn’t it?” “I congratulate you, Bart.” “Yes, I knew you’d be pleased. Stiff price. Keep me rather tight for a bit, but it isn’t often a man can drop in for so genuine au affair. And so much in my way, too.” “How do you mean?” “So near the branch line of the Nibley and Greaterham Railway. They always have a bad accident once a month.” “Then I shall not come to visit you by rail. See you at the club to-night?” “Yes, of course, ta ta. Bart Durham went noisily out of the studio and cluttered down the stairs, while Paul Lowther drew his easel into a better light. “Poor old Bart,” he said, smiling; “yes, he and Luce will be as happy as the day is long.” He stopped, gazing dreamily at the head he had been painting. “Yes,” he said, softly, “it is like her. She fills my very being, and I involuntarily produce her features when I paint. Go —leave Paris?” he said, excitedly. “No, impossible. They could not take her to that wretched island. I wonder what Madame Dulau is, and when she will come.” He paused to think. “Yes; she must be rich,” he said, softly; “and lam comparatively poor. Wha: will she say to me when I tell her all? I suppose she is a Frenchwoman, too. Went with her husband when he emigrated to Hayti. What a change from gay Paris! Well, some men have those tastes. But what will she say to me when she comes? What is she like! Some hard, stern Frenchwoman, I suppose, accustomed to her plantation and her slaves. lamin no hurry to meet her. Better go on in this dreamy life for—yes, my darling, I love you with all my heart.” » So mused and dreamed on Paul Lowther in his studio, and there was very little more painting done that day. (To he continued.)

New Way to Make Change.

The luxury of “small change” is so common in the United States that, like most other common things, It is uot fully appreciated. In many parts of the East coins of small denominations are very scarce, and the traveler has to l>ay a premium for “coppers.” In Constantinople, for example, a merchant in tin*bazaar will often refuse a sale if his customer offers him toQ big a piece of money. It may readily be Imagined that where “change” Is so jealously held hack, some queer complications must arise. In this connection an American traveler describes au amusing experience of his own in the ancient Greek city of Corinth. After a tramp to the top of the famous acropolis or rock citadel of Corinth, he returned to the town with an extraordinary appetite. He went into an estiatoria, or restaurant, one of those peculiar Greek cookshops where the various viands are all kept stewing side by side on a long clay range, and customers are allowed to inspect each in turn, take a sniff of each, and a taste if they will, and finally to order the one they like best, or dislike the least. Being so hungry, the traveler ordered a generous dinner, aud ate heartily. The bill amounted to three drachmae and a dekara, about sixty cents. He gave the proprietor a five-drachmae bill; that is to say, he tore a ten-drach-mae bill in two aud gave him half, that being the quaint Greek way of making five-drachmae bills, when desired. “But, sir, I have no change,” ejaculated the proprietor. “And I have no smaller piece of money,” answered the traveler. The crafty Greek scratched his head, and tried to think of some way of satisfying his customer without having to give up any of his own precious small change. At length he triumphantly called out: “Eureka! I have it! You sit down again and eat some more, to make up.” Unfortunately, the American no longer desired to “eat some more,” and had to go away without his change.

Some Figures.

Iu the complete Indian census report just published an Interesting attempt is made for the first time to cast up in figures an aggregate of the government expenditures on account of the red men residing within the United States since the Union was established in 1789. The result of this attempt indicates in the statistics presented that the gigantic sum of $1,105,219,372 was spent by the government up to the year 1890, either upon the Indians directly, or because of Indians. Counting in, however, the civil and military expenses for Indians since then, together with incidental expenses not recognized in the official figures given, it is safe to say that up to June 30, 1895, a further sum of $144,780,043 may be added to the aggregate figures, making a grand aggregate of $1,250, 000,000 chargeable to Indians to date. The Indian wars under the government of the Uuited States are stated to have numbered more than forty, and to have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women and childreu, Including about 5,000 killed in individual encounters, of which history takes no note, and of 30,000 Indians, including 8,500 killed in personal encounters.— Boston Globe. In Italy but little credit business is done, and none without good security being given.

CANNIBAL ORGIES.

hideous scenes witnessed IN THE DARK CONTINENT. An Amazing Story of Mingle* Civilization and Barbarism. Prisoners of War Slain and Divided Among the Victors. A Savage Frenzy. Father J. Dubendorf, Superior of a mission at Onitska, Africa, on on the Niger, 150 miles above its mouth, tells an amazing story of mingled civilization and barbarism among the natives near the mouth of the river. Father Dubendorf journeyed down the river by canoe some months ago along with Nathaniel, an African boy of Brass, educated and Christianized at the mission. The Father and his companion were entertained at a Zenobian trading post, six or eight hours from the native city of Brass, and there the king of Brass had a pirogue waiting, with the request that the lad be visit his people. Brass is one of the Niger, not far from the .qeiSF On another of the mouths is th»*nval city of Akassa, the seat of the British Royal Niger Company, a trading concern which, according to the Father, has driven out of the region by severe action three other companies, two French and one English, and hks earned, by alleged brutality, the hatred of the natives. Father Dubendorf reached the region when this feeling was at its most intense point, and the natives were ripe for revenge.

When the request of the King that Nathaniel be sent to Brass reached the Father he determined to accompany the boy, lest the latter be detained in captivity by the King, and in time relapse into barbarism. The journey was successfully accomplished, and the Father found Brass 'a considerable town of palm-leaf-thatched huts. Some had great platforms to catch rain water because the water of the river at that point is peculiarly unwholesome. The King clad in a silk robe, a cravat of .like material, and a felt hat, received the Father most graciously, offered him lodging,and invited him to share the royal table. The King, who, was once a pupil of a mission, was now an old man of venerable mien, but abundant strength and activity. Near the King’s great house was a house built on a European pattern and covered with zinc. It was comfortably furnished with European chairs and tables, and had a coal oil lamp. There were glasses and mural decorations. The King’s supper was an elegantly served meal in the European style, and the Father, knowing that earlier Kings of Brass had been notable barbarians, could hardly believe his senses. Early the next morning the Father called on the King, but learned that he was too busy to be seen. Waiting an hour, he was astonished to see the King come forth from a council with the chiefs, painted, with white rings under his eyes, a musket in his hand and a knife in his belt. The benevolent old King of the rright before was transformed into a savage of ferocious aspect. Sixty canoes laden with arms were drawn up along the river bank, and the King was walking back and forth delivering incoherent orders. At the sound of a cannon he hastily gave the Father his hand, bade him live as if the house in which he lodged was his own, assured him that orders had been given for his comfortable entertainment, and went off, leaving the priest to understand that the exhibition about to start was to make war upon a neighboring tribe. The Father saw the King pause before an assemblage of idols near the river bank, sprinkle his warriors with a liquid, and join in the war dance. Nearly all the men of Brass went on the expedition. An old chief was left behind in charge of the village, and the women were forbidden in the absence of their lords to enter the houses. No sooner were the warriors gone than the women fell to quarrelling among themselves over the possession of various household utensils. They wailed over the departure of their sons to the battle and prophesied their return with wounds or their death in the fight. The quarrelling kept up until after nightfall, and then the women crept to bed wherever they could find shelter outside the houses.

The first returning canoe reached Brass at 6 o’clock next morning, and a quantity of booty was carried into the King’s house. Then it was that the Father first learned that the attack had been the headquarters of the Royal Niger Company. Father Dubendorf represents that the English would have been destroyed but for a French naval officer. Lieutenant Guigues, accidentally at the headquarters, whose courage and address delayed the attack and gave some of the whites time to escape. A young African of the returned party leaped upon a cannon just after it had been fired and displayed the company’s flag in token of triumph. Other canoes rapidly arrived, bringing more booty, and many of the warriors wore white breech clouts in token of enemies slain. By noon nearly all the canoes but the King’s had returned. He and some of the warriors had stopped at an island some miles from Brass and taken ashore six captive Kroumen Africans of the slave coast, who had been employed at the company’s agency and had come to hate the people of Brass. These six men were beheaded on the island, and some iiours later the King, with a dozen white-clouted warriors arrived in his canoe, and the six corpses in another. Other captives, still alive, were also brought home. Then began a scene of savage rejoicing and cannibalism. The bodies were cut up in pieces, the children being stationed around that they might be inured to the sight, and whole limbs wero carried off to be cooked and eaten. One young African who, the Father declares, had been educated at a mission, taking in one hand the sabre of Mr. Flint, General Agent of the Royal Niger Company, and in the other a limb of one of the victims, danced in savage joy about the company’s flag, with a crowd of. onlookers applaud'ng I The division 6f the plunder fol-

lowed, accompanied with qnarreia and a sort of savage frenzy. The madness of gin and palm brandy was added to that of slaughter, and the scene was so hideous that the Father refuses to describe it. He notes that several parts of a human body were brought to him and he was courteously asked to take his choice. His refusal was evidently not understood. Later, in looking from his window, the Father saw a roast thigh taken to the King’s house, and mentally resolved to be careful at his next meal The supper at which the King was not present, was served in the European style and with European dishes, save for a large roast which the priest recognized and sent away. His mind was now made up to get away from Brass as soon as possible with the boy Nathaniel. The King was not to be seen, so the priest sent word of his wishes. The King answered that the boy must remain at Brass. “Then I remain, too.” was the Father’s answer, for he knew that the King desired to make a sorcerer of Nathaniel. The latter was eager to be gone, and declared that if the King made him a sorcerer, in return he would, in that character, transform the King into a gorilla. The Father and Nathaniel, neither being guardod, concerted an escape. The village was sound asleep early in the evening, and the two visitors also pretended to go to bed. Between 11:80 and 10 they stole to the river, took a light pirogue, already fixed upon at a reconnoissanco early in the evening, and made off. They paddied until exhausted, and then tho boy fell asleep. At 4 in the morning they heard a large pirogue pass their hiding place. They had lost their way during the night, but, conjecturing that this pirogue was laden with merchandise bound for one of the white settlements, they followed it cautiously, and after some hours reached the European factory where they had already been entertained.

A SUBMERGED FOREST.

Trees ■ Hundred Feet Tall Standing Upright in the Water. Many years ago, even so far back that the traditions of the oldest Siwash extend not thereto, there was some vast upheaval on the shores of Lake Samamish that sent a portion of tho big Newcastle hills sliding down into the lake, with its tall evergreen forest intact, and there it is to this day. About this time of the year the waters of the lake are at their lowest, and tho tops of tho tallest of these big submerged trees are out of the water, but never more than ten or twelve Inches. Unfortunately for the traveling public, the submerged forest is on the opposite side of the lake from the railroad rtnd the station of Monohon, and very few people ever see the phenomenon unless they take the time and pains necessary to reach it. The waters of tho lake are very deep, and tho bluffs back of tho beach very precipitous, so that the only explanation of the freak is that by an earthquake or some other means a great slide had been started in early times, and it went down as a mass until it found lodgment at the bottom of the lake. At this time one can see down into the glassy, mirror-like depths of the lake for thirty feet or more. Near the banks the forest trees are interlaced at various angles and in confusion, but further out in the deep water they stand straight, erect and limbless and barkless, fully a hundred feet tall. They are not petrified in the sense of being turned to stone, but they are preserved and appear to have stood there for ages. They are three feet through, some of them, and so firm in texture as to be scarcely affected by a knife blade. The great slide extended for some distance, and it would now be a dangerous piece of work for a steamer to attempt passuge over the tops of those trees. Even now the water alongshore is very deep, and a tenfoot pole would sink perpendicularly out of sight ten feet from the shore line. All over this country are found strata of blue clay, which n the winter season are very tre« her uis, and given the least bit of op; or unity will slide away, carrying everything above with them. This is the theory of the submerged forest of Lake Samamish. It probably was growing above one of these blue earth strata, and heavy rain 3, or an earthquake, set it moving. The quantity of earth carried down was so great that the positions of the trees on the portion carried away were little affected. It is hardly to be believed that the earth suddenly sank down at this point and became a portion of the lake. Few such places exist. There is a place in the famous Tumwater canon, on the line of the Great Northern, near Leavenworth, which is in some respects similar. At some early time a portion of the great mountain side came rushing down and buried itself at the bottom of the canon. Now there is a considerable lake,and in the center stand tall, limbless trees, different in species from those growing along the canon. At Green lake, near Georgetown, Col., a lake which is 10,000 feet above sea level, is a submerged forest of pine trees, some a hundred feet tall, but not so numerous as in Lake Samamish.

House Numbering Centennial.

At present there is some talk in Berlin of celebrating a somewhat singular centenary—that of the origin of the numbering of houses. According to a German paper this convenient method of indication was quite unknown, even in London or Paris, until a century ago. In 1793 the practice of numbering private houses was begun in Berlin. The method employed, however, was then exceedingly imperfect. The Brandenburg Gate was taken as the point of departure, and the numbers went on successively throughout the whole town, without any distinction as streets. Even to-day the system of numbering generally employed in the German capital leaves much to be desired, as the numbers run consecutively up one side of the street and back again on the other. Vienna claims the honor of having Inaugurated in 1803 the method of placing the odd numbers on one side of the street and the evens on tih*> other.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The State censuses of 1885 nearly all indicate a movement from the cities back to the farms.' The new woman is booming in Oklahoma. More than twenty are in the jails there charged with beiar bandits. Permission to establish a steamboat service on the Dead sea has been asked of the Sultan of Turkey by the provincial authorities of Syria. Andrew Carnegie has aroused British wrath by saying that it would pay England to burn up her railroad equipment and replace it with American models. • It is said that if England were to become a republic to-morrow, ami there were a popular election for President, the Prince of Wales would be sure to receive a majority of all the votes in the United Kingdom. Another learned man has been studying the • ‘language" of insects. He says he has discovered satisfactory evidence of telepathy among them Telepathy is described as a sixth sense, by which tiie insects are able to communicate ideas to one another at a great distance. The aggregate number of employes of all tiie roads in the United States is as large as the standing army in Germany. The 1,890 railroads in this country employ IXIO,OOO persons; that makes one person in every ninety in our population depend for his living on a railroad. Corn is not the only product which is breaking all record*. The iron output these days is the largest which the country Ims ever had at this lime of the year. Moreover, it is steadily growing. This is one of the most striking evidences which could be found that a period of business activity exceeding auv which tin- country has yet known is close at hand. The latest census of Berlin shows that tho population is nearly stationary. It appears to bo hopeless for Berlin to overtake Paris, which is now 800,000 ahead. Vienna is pressing Berlin closely, while St. Petersburg progresses rapidly than the German capital. In Berlin there are now more than forty-live thousand apartments without tenants. Its latest census gives Boston only 494.000 people, and leaves it still behind St. Louis in population, hut the suburban population of St. Louis i* small. Within a few miles of most Western cities it is possible to Hail the primitive wilderness, while Eastern cities have suburbs often nearly as heavily populated an the city Itself. Thus with its suburbs Boston now claims a population of I)*1,000. Herr Haoknhkcit, as Hamburg, the animal collector and trainer, urges that some practical steps he taken to protect the elephants of Africa, which, he asserts, are threatened with total extermination, lie proposes that the exportation of tusks weighing less than twenty-two pounds should t>e prohibited by (aw, and that hunters be forbidden to kill females and young bulls, hut rather encouraged to capture them alive and bring them into the trading stations. According to the Vienna Neue Freie Presse, .the shoe manitfaelurera of Austria and Germany have been compelled to raise the price of shoes thirty per cent, on account of tiie dearth of leather, caused by the exportation of tin incase quantities of it to the United HlUet. The demand in the United Btat.es is by some supposed to be due to vast exportation of skins and leather to Japan and China; others consider it fictitious. The bank of England rightly has the reputution of being one of the mightiest powers In the world of finance. But there are other Institutions in Europe whose capital and transactions are not to be sneezed at even by the Rothschild aggregation. In its last monthly report the Austrc-Uungariiiii Bank, at Vienna, states that Hie value it its notes In circulation is 1529,408,000 gulden ($260,000,000), and that it has gold and silver to the amount of 040,405,000 gulden. The English elections in 1894 cost $5,220,000, u comparatively small amount of money, but in 1880, 1886 and 1802 the figures were much larger, being respectively, $9,000,000, $10,000,000 and $15,000,000. The cost of the last election will reach $16,000,000 at least, which means that each vole is worth SB. Truly the legislative functions are gratuitous in England, and corruption iH unknown, according to the English press.

A statistical work about the world’s millionaires lias just been published While there are richer individuals in America, it says, most millionaires are to be foqnd in Great Britain. But the figures must be taken as guesswork, mom or less. This is how the people possessing $5,000,000, or more, are divided among the notions: Great Uritaiu, 200; United States, 100; Germany and Austria, 100; France, 75; Russia, 50; India, 00; ail other countries, 125. A wooden leg, if stood upon, is not dutiable, according to a recent :iecision of the Treasury Department. To be admitted without the customs tax it must be attached to the body of the owner. False teeth ill the mouth, wigs on the lieud, false eyes in their sockets, arc, under the same ruling, also exempt from duty. The false leg that docs not support the owner must bear its part of the support of the Government. Thus the imported leg must do its duty or pay it. When the change from horse cars to the trolley curs was made in Massachusetts hundreds of stablemen lost tbcir work and wages, and the conclusion was that the chance to work bad gone. The facts show, on the contrary, that 4,103 workmen were employed on Massachusetts street cars under the old system, and that under the new system 7,451 are employed, a considerable part of the increase being employed in constructing 2,000 extra cars, needed to carry the 220,464,099 passengers, instead of the 100,746,786 passengers who used the street cars of the old system. The discoveries incident to the uncovering of the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii have been recently paralleled in Turkestan in Central Asia, where an underground city has jost been discovered. The archaeological importance of such relics of the past is more widely understood now than it was when the Pompeiian discovery startled the world. There will, undoubtedly, be a duly authorized commission organised by the Russian Government to establish the authenticity of this subterranean city and record the statistics of its whilom civilization. Archaeology has in time past and in certain other “discoveries" that have been claimed taken many doubtful chances; but no peril of this kind need be feared from s® conservative and experienced a government as that of Russia. Thebe are twenty lavyns on one street in New York, each of which is worth $1.000 ,000. I)r. Webb has paid $3,000,000 for his residence in New York. J. J. Astor has giveu $1,000,000 in jewelry to hts wife. iJiss G. Vanderbilt received

$85,000 worth of bouquets from nabobs at her recent * ‘coming-out” party. Ex-Sec-retary Whitney, who would like to be I president, has a ballroom in his honse the panus of which cost $5,000 each. ! Pianos costing as high as $15,000 are common among the nabobs. At a recent j opera the women’s jewels aggregated j $1,385,000. Cornelius Vanderbilt has gates from France, stone from the west, a gardener from Berlin aod plants from Italy. At the Burden-81oane wedding there were 150 millionaires, with the aggregate pile of $1,000,000,000. German educational methods and manners are becoming more and more the models for the world. To the German universities, in constantly increasing numbers, flock the representatives of education from every clime and country. In the twenty two German universities (including the Academy at Munster and the Lyceum at Braunsberg) in the year 1886-’ 87 tiie total attendance was 28,045; in the year 1891-92 it was 21.480. In the firstnamed year the total iuclnded 15,712 Prussians. 10,551 other Germans, and 1.683 foreigners; in the second year tiie j figures were, 14,282 Prussians, 11,440 oilier Germans, and 1,814 foreigners. Of these 1.814 strangers, 291 were from Anstro-1 lungary. 102 from Turkey and tiie Balkan countries, 351 from Russia, 24 from Sweden, Norway and Deumark, 43 from the Netherlands, 39 from Belgium and Luxemburg, 138 from Great Britain and Trelaud, 27 from France, 6 from Spain and Portugal, 238 from Switzerland, 20 from Italy, 361 from the United Slates, 32 from other American countries, 06 from Asia. 0 from Africa, and 6 from Australia. Arranged according to faculties, these 1,814 foreigners were distributed as follows: 147 students of Protestant theology, 14 of Roman Catholic theology, 233 of law, 440 of medicine, 984 in the philosophical department.

SOME POSTAL DON’TS.

Hints for Letter Writers From ths Post Office Department. Every day about 9,000 letters are received at the New York Post Office •!- dressed incorrectly. As a result Postmaster Dayton will distribute cards telling people how to send mail matter. Here are some of the suggestions on the card: Don’t mail any letter until you are sure that it is completely and properly addressed. Don’t place the address so that there will lie no room for the postmark. Don’t, in the hurry of business in addressing a letter write the name of your own Btnte upon It instead of that of tiie person addressed—a very common error. Don’t fail to make certain that your manner of writing the name of an office or Htatc may not cause it to be mistakes for one similar in appearance, it is often better to write ttie inline iu full. Don’t fail if you are in doubt as to the right name of the office for which your loiter is intended to consult tiie Postal Guide, which any postmaster will be pleased to show you. Don’t full to give the street and house number of the person for whom mail mutter is intended in addressing it to a dtv or lurge town. Don’t mall any letter until yon are sure that it is properly stamped. Don't fall to place the stump on the upper right hand corner. Don't write on the envelope “In haste," “Cure of postmaster," etc. It does no good and temlsfto confusion In the rapid handling of mull matter. Don’t fail to bear in mind that it Is unlawful to inclose matter of a high class In one that is lower —c. g., merchandise in newspapers. Don't mail any letter unless your address, with a request to return, is upon the face of the envelope, so that in case of non-delivery it will be returned directly to you. Don’t fall to give your correspondents your full address, so that a new postman cannot fail to find you. Don’t fail to inform your postmaster of any change in your address. Don’t trust to the.fuct that you are an “old resident,” “well-known citizen,” etc., but have your letters addressed in full. Don't fail if you intend to lie away from home for any length of time to inform your postmaster what disposition shall b< made of your mail. Don’t delay the delivery of any mail matter that you may take out for another. Don’t fail to sign your letters in full, so that if they reach the dead letter office they may be promptly returned. Don’t, when you fail to receive an expected letter, charge the postal servics witli tiie loss until you have learned from your correspondent all the facts in regard to its mailing, contents, etc. Much Information also is given by these cards regarding the mailing of parcels to this and foreign countries.

Improvement in Canned Fruits.

The present season will witness a very great change in the manufacture of canned goods, especially fruits, in California. The tin cau appears to be doomed for all the best qualities of fruit, and possibly for every line. The new vacuum process, a recent inveution which lias just com* into use in Europe, lias been adopted by some of the largest packers on tbe Pacific coast. By this every atom of deleterious gas generated in cooking, and even the air, is extracted, reducing fermentation to the minimum. The cost of manufacture is materially reduced, for the use of all solder is done away with, and each jar oi cau cau be opened without any can-opener, or key-opening device, as a small hole punctured by a penknife enables one to lift off the entire cover. The special poinl of value to the consumer by the adoption of this new process is that there is a greal saving In freight charges, because the goods in glass ure “solid packed.” A tin can of the ordinary type contains twothirds fruit and one-third syrup. A solid pack contains ninety per cent fruit and ten per cent syrup. The superior attractiveness and healthfulness of fruits packed in ( glass need no comment. It may be said, however, that in the lower grades of canned fruits, as at present packed, the aperture in the top of the can is so small that the fruit is crushed and cut while placing it in the cans, and hence tbe syrup is cloudy.' This cannot happen by the new process. Bfcsides this, the use of rosiu, acid and solder and the hot iron to fasten the cap, often scorches the syrup in the can. By the new process the cheaper grades of fruit will be almost as good as the higher grade, the only real difference being in the size of the fruit. California, and other States as well, can put up jellies, jams, preserves and similar fruH products of as high quality as anything imported, aud probably for less money. The only difficulty is iu the commercial knowledge required to create distinct brands and give them standing in the world’s markets. This will come in time, and from present indications vary shortly. The flax yield of the State of Illinois comprises 4672 acres.