Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 August 1884 — Page 9

GOSSIP FROM SUNNY ITALY. Oar Italian Correspondent Happy Over Indianapolis Newspapers. A Pew Words on “Personally Conducted” Tours to Europe—Death of Mr. Turner, the Well-Known K&ples Banker. Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal. Naples, Italy, Aug. I.— l can make my “affydavy” that lam a very happy man, because I am the recipient of two Indianapolis Journals and three Saturday Heralds, and I have been reading up city, State and national news. I can tell yon that there is something refreshing in an American newspaper, when, after months, you have only had the perusal of Italian and French journals, and an occasional English one. There is one thing that I can also truly say, viz.: there are few papers in the United States which are edited with such ability, vivacity and variety, and real snap, as, in general, are the Indianapolis newspapers. This is neither flattery nor is it the partiality of an Indianapolitan. I have lived long enough away from my native place to have some degree of cosmopolitanism and impartiality, and what I have said above is from deliberate judgment Naples has just had a touch—a very slight one —of what yon are beginning to pass through—that is, political excitement But when I read in the columns of the Indianapolis Journal how yon are beginning to work up the agony, of the coming election, and knowing how high that same agony will be piled up before November, I come to the conclusion that the Italians don't know any more about a first-class election excitement thad poet Riley knows about keeping a hotel Nevertheless, there is something so odd, -eo quaint; so utterly un-American about an Italian political campaign, that I shall tell you about one in my next We are having several of the personally conducted “caravans,” as the Italians call them, traveling through Italy at this time. When I was a boy a “caravan” was the name given in the West for any show of wild beasts —in short, it was the synonym of "menagerie.” Nine times ant of ten the hoys of Holiday's school and the old Seminary (they were within a square of one another) used for fun to put the emphasis on the second “a” in the word, and when we spoke of the “big show” that was coming, we pronounced it as the “grand earayvan.” Now, what the Italians call a “caravan” is not one of wild beasts, but it is a conglomeration of all sorts of unsympathetic people from the United States and England, who. induced by the cheap rates advertised by certain firms called “Tourists,” “Tourist Guides,” etc., come to the continent and are moved about from place to place without any more respect for their pleasure and their independence than if they were lions of Africa, tigers of Bengal, polar bears, and pelicans of the desert in cages on wheels. Let me here make a distinction. Os these various parties, whether their name be Cook, Gaze or Kaygjll, who undertake to make traveling on the continent cheap to the American traveler, there are two different classes of customers. Messrs. Cook & Sons, and the other English purveyors of cheap journeys from America to Europe provide round trip tickets, at a reasonable rate, and let the purchaser of the ticket take his own course, go to what hotels he plaasegj linger as long as he wishes to in any city, or go to see what sights accord with his tastes. Such a traveler is very much like a man in our own country, who purchases a rail way excursion ticket, good for so many days, irrespective of an excursion party. The ticket is cheap and the man takes his own time over it, lingering at one point and hurrying over others without any one “to let or hinder.” This class of travelers, in taking a ticket for the oid world, invariable have {heir steamship accommodations and fare across the Atlantic and back included, as well as the railway fares in the “effete despotisms and monarchies of old Europe. ” This is all right, and a man has as great a degree of independence, and at a cheaper rat© than if he had gone on his journey and paid his fare, as it were, at retail rates from point to point The second-class, who take these excursions to Europe, consist of persons who are led by circulars, written in splendid sentences, laden with geographical, classical and historical allusions, *to buy tickets for one of the “personally conducted” tours. They ean “do up” Great Britian and Ireland, they can visit the gay capital of France, ride or steam along through picturesque Rhineland, look upon the sublime scenery of the Alps, and journey admist the classic cities of sunny Italy. The temptations are great, especially as everything, steamers, railways, hotels, guides (“personally conducting” guides), are all provided, and the expenses are less than an extended tour in the United States. The guides who go with the “personally conducted," are polyglots, and rattle off, with the utmost intrepidity, . miles of French, German and Italian, but ace oftentimes somewhat lame and deficient in English. Now, the American’s weak point is language. Take him to England, or “Ould Oirland,” or Scotland, and he is all right, but the moment he reaches the French side of the English channel he feels like a fish out of water, and he is frequently a mere ridiculous creature than the newly-arrived “Dutchman” in America, whom he more often laughs at than he endeavors to aid. So, just as soon as the “personally conducted” traveler is on French ground he feelß himself helpless, and the whole party for the next six weeks in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy are Hke so many sheep at the feck and call, and even orders, of their polyglot conductor. They must arise early in the morning, whether siek or well, and proceed oo what is allotted for the day, and the day after, and so on, or forfeit their money if they lag behind. I have known them forced to break the Sabbath. Many are led to places that they do not care a fig about, and places where they would like to linger, hurt they cannot because it is not in the plan of the “personally conducted tour.” They even find oat, if they have any perspicacity, that, if it Is in the winter time, they are placed in the meanest and coldest rooms in the hotel, and if they wish a fire, it costs them as much as their dinner. Twenty per cent of what the tourist pays for eaeh dinner,let me here say, goes into the pockets of the purveyors of the excursion—so that it amounts to n pretty thing in the year to the said purveyors. Oftentimes, at last, the poor American gets so tired out in this thousand-miles in-a-thousand-hours business that Ira wishes himself back in his quiet home. Indeed, there are many cases that I have known, where the traveler ean stand it financially, that Ira forfeits his ticket and goes on his own hook. But the worst thing about this wholesale herding of persons together is tbs mneongenialityof many. It frequently happens that theri is not one bond of sympathy to begin With,

and before the thing is over, positive antipathy is bred by propinquity. I own that I have given what may seem to some a very dark-colored picture of the personally conducted tours organized from London, where Americans and Englishmen are thrown together pell-mell, on no other principle than that their tickets are good for so much. But the picture is a true one, as more than one American consul can testify. A little better are those excursions organized in America, by Americans, and for Americans, because the tourists have one or two things in common, and these are: (1) Their country; and (2), thoir profession. For, in the summer time particularly, hard-worked teachers, and thin, worn-out clergymen, come across the ocean, gain reereation and strength, and "do” what they can of Europe. Then all American excursions, as a general thing, are more productive of good than the others I have mentioned, from the fact that the persons composing them have long looked forward to the trip, have read np the places, and are better prepared in every way. Perhaps the most profitable excursions of all will be those organized by Professor Jordan, where they have little money, but yield lots of experience and any amount •£ fun. That persons of slender means can travel in Europe without a “personally conducted” company, I have had ample evidence in the scores of Americans who struck out for themselves. The Arabic figures are the same in every European language, hence, the hours of departure, by railway trains and steamboats, the accounts at hotels, etc., can be managed without help. I have known hundreds of Americans who did not lose their shrewdness even in Europe. But, at almost every hotel on the continent now-a-days, there is someone who speaks English, and, in every city, there are English-speaking guides who can be of great servioe, and whose charges are from $1 to $1.50 per diem. Such guides, really, save you time, money, and independence. There are those, too, who have gone with the European tourists’ companies, who have found them very convenient, and have had “a good time” with them, and, I must add that these European purveyors are always exceedingly civil and serviceable to our diplomatic and consular representatives. This much, also, must be said m their favor, viz.: for the people who have an inordinate dread of acting for themselves where they do not know the language, these “personally conducted tours” are of great advantage; and if there can be enough people of a sympathetic turn of mind, and who will manage to offset their independence against being hurried in some places, and not left long enough at others, such a tour will turn to some degree of profit and pleasure. I have felt somewhat proud of my Indianapolis friends who have come over to Europe. Ido not apeak of Prof. Jordan’s excursion parties, but of single gentlemen and families, from our beloved State capital. I ean count up more than thirty such persons, and only about four of them “fell into the hands of the Philistines” of British tourist companies. Some of them bought their through tickets, whether Cook's, Gaze's or Kaygill’s, hut they were not “personally eonducted. ” And Ido not recall one of them who employed a courier to travel with them at the rate of S6O per month and expenses, and with 10 per cent, out of them for everything that they bought at any shop. It is not generally known that every courier has his hotel fare free, and yet. unless the traveler is aw ask of this, he has to pay his courier’s hotel bill. I suppose that almost every Indianapolitan who has come to Naples had his letter of credit on tiie banking bouse of Messrs. Wm. J. Turner A Cos., of this city. Mr. William Turner, the senior partner 'of that long-established house, has just died, at the ripe age of eighty-two. Ho was one of the pleasantest and most courteous gentlemen that I ever knew. He had resided in Naples sixty-six yearn, and his conversations with me in regard to these more than threescore years in Italy, were exceedingly interesting. It was a history of the most stirring times of Enrope, after the overthrow of the First Napoleon. During those sixty-six years in Naples, Mr. Wm. Turner had lived under six kings and one dictator, viz.: four Bourbon kings, the glorious dictator, Garibaldi, and bluff honest King Victor Emanuel, and his liberal son, King Humbert l Mr. Turner was the soul of integrity, and a true Christian gentleman. The business of the hank will be continued under the same of the old firm, by Mr. Charles Turner, whom many Indianians know. J. C. Fletcher.

SELFISHNESS IN THE ARCTIC. How Long and Fredericks Provided for Themselves at the Expense of Others. New York Specisl. The dissensions among the Greely party, which were more or lees marked daring all their long stay in the arctic regions, ended at last in a complete division of the survivors. As time passed at the camp on Cape Sabine, and the outlook became more and more gloomy, and human flesh was finally resorted to as food, the stronger ones obtained the lion’s share. Lieutenant Greely, Hospital Steward Biederbeek and Private Cornell were the weakest ones of the party when the relief ships arrived. Sergeant Brainerd had a little strength left. He stood by Greely as none of the others did, and supplied him with a share of the food. Sergeants Long and Fredericks were quite strong. The former was able to go about on short hunting expeditions, in which he was accompanied by Bergt Fredericks. The game secured was shared by these two, so selfish had they become by the desperate extremity to which they were reduced. The sufferings of the others did not appeal to them. The two sergeants determined to live together and the others might die. All discipline was gone, and It was a struggle as to who should live the longest. A statement was published yesterday from Leigh Smith, of London, the famous Artie explorer, in which he said the survivors should not have been so weak and prostrated if they had been living on human flesh. The truth Is that the first reports of their condition seem to have been much exaggerated, especially with regard to Long, Fredericks and Brainerd. The first two named walked unassisted to the steam launch in a gale that tried the sailors of the relief-ships to keep their feet. The others were quite weak —some of them too weak to wzdfc. It is also true that the pangs of hunger were not such as to lead Long, Fredericks,_ or Brainerd to overeat, even had they been given the chauce. Besides the duck which Long was eating when rescue came, two other ducks which had teen shot by him were found behind rocks near the winter camp. Here was food for a day or two carefully put away. When Brainerd reached the Thetis a sailor thoughtlessly gave him a piece es hardtack. He did not devour it, as a starving man would be expected to, but instead handed it to the quartermaster, with the remark that he knew he should not eat it, though he would like to. The Aran were poof ftnd thin, but not reduced as much as many teflieve. and the three strongest would undoubtedly have Itted many weeks mere without relief. Brainerd, being by himself, would have teen the last of the three to succumb. But Long and Fredricks, banded together and against the others, as they were, Could hate dragged on their wretched-existence, when one of the party became too weak to get about, the instinct of self-preservation lednis companions to loek out only tor themselves. Avan’s Pills cure headache by removing obstructions from the system, relieving the stomach, and giving healthy action to the digestive apparatus.

TELE INTDIAIfAPOIJS JOURNAL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1884,

A KENTUCKY PROPHET. A List of Direful Things Which Are to Occur During the Coming Six Months. Blanton Duncan, in Now York Star. Five years ago, when I wrote articles calling attention to coming events, which I considered certain, even the Star joined in the unbelief while publishing the letters, on the ground, perhaps, of coping with the sensational papers. Ton were pleased to call ray writings "remarkable,” though you considered I was very sensible in getting closer to the equator to save myself in the general devastation.” I think you will perhaps acknowledge now that there has been something more than extraordinary occurring since I wrote: “Reasoning from a purely scientific basis, the writer essays to prove that the globe will, in all probability, within the next five years, be subjected to such a visitation as that which penetrates beyond the reach of human history. In scientific discussions that take such an extensive scope as the one he has raised, the conclusions raised are largely conjectural.” There have been no prophets since the days of Malachi, therefore the statements of men as to the future are all “conjectural.” Some may be based on science, but the best founded are those which stand upon the revelations of the Bible. We have not reached the maximum of the disturbances which bring phenomena upon world. The intensity is to come, I think,?in the next six months. Providence -works out Ordained events by meana of the results flowihg from the laws of nature rather than accomplish them by a series of miracles. Even Mr. Robert Ingersoll may find difficulty in explaining how those singular occurrences are mere chance. As I. said of the great planets: “Their remarkable perihelia from 1880 to 1885, crowded in a shorter space than ever before 18530 B. C., give rise to conjecture, and something more than extraordinary may be expected to occur.” I fully believe in what Christ said for tho benefit of Christians in the latter days, and that they, by observing, might know what was about to happen. Some of us see more than mere chance now in the “signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars.” Your earthquake, slight as it was, and happily without material damage, was simply one of the warnings given to call at tention to what may come. Some weeks ago—probably in March—l wrote to yon a letter on the successor of Mahomet, expressing my opinion that he would drive the English ont of Egypt, and after his arrival in Mecca (his objective point) the Moslem 300,000,000 would be gathered under his banners for a conflict, such as the world had never before seen. I presume that letter was never received, as you did not publish it. The Bible conveys very conclusive evidence as to the disasters which are to befall England. Unfilled prophecy also points to terrible calamity upon the Russians, in Ezekial 38th and 30th. The eleventh chapter of Daniel describes the events of the latter days prior to the period of great troubles, and while the conqueror is in power against whom Michael shall come:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall boa time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. Christ, in speaking of the second advent, made use of almost similar words regarding the events which are to be his precursor. Daniel's description of the prince who was to conquer all nations can easily bo applied to El Mahdi. Numbers are ou his side. If to that should be added belief in him as the foretold prophet who was to come 1,200 years after Mahomet, the same fanaticism and ferocity which enabled tho Moslems to sweep over Asia, and Africa, and Spain, could be easy of repetition in Europe as well as Asia. Tho war between France and China would be the stepping stone to make tho vast hordes of China act cordially as the allies of the prophet against the Christian dogs; and the unwilling subjects of Great Britain in India would certainly not lose such an opportunity of throwing off their yoke. Men look on quietly as if the progress of El Mahdi had no significance for them--which may result in the greatest of all known revolutions and the subversion of all the present political systems. But all this is . foretold, that it should be now just as it was in the days of Noah, that no warnings would be heeded—“until the flood came and took them all away.” In our money-making generation—while crime is rife and daily the papers chronicle the murder of men, women and children by hundreds every week, in a land which professes to be civilized —not much thought will be given to-mor-row of the affrighted moment in New York and elsewhere last Sunday, when it seemed as if the day of judgment was eoming, by those who do not know their Bible teachings sufficiently to see that the days of “tributation” must first come. Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. It ie a remarkable thing that the Bible plainly gives the nature of the physical phenomena which are to come; Famiues and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. Anil fearful signs and sights shall there be from heaven. St. Jehu gave specific details: And eery mountain and island were moved out of their place. And there is to come A great earthquake, such as was not since men were upeu the earth—so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the cities of the nations fell ami every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent. The prevalence of eartliquakes everywhere in the past two years is such as no historian has recorded. England has been startled with one severe enough to demonstrate that a few moments of continuation would have leveled all her cities to the ground. Three minutes of your New York movement would probably have made a mass of ruins, with three-fourths of tho people destroyed. Caunot the hand which shook your eity tor ten seconds—as a warning—send another shock sufficient in intensity to produce results Hke tiiose in the East Indies six months ago, when 190,000 persons were destroyed in the twinkling, of an eye, and mountains 7,000 feet high were engulfed, and islands arose at sea where previously no bottom could be found, and the deep sea swept over a spot where a territory half as large as New York State had flourished in luxurious cultivation only the day before? The record of that terrible event on the other side of the globe has been long lost sight of in New York, and the ten-second fright produced more excitement and alarm —I will not say consideration—than several terrible calamities oisewhere could conjure up. Another sign of remarkable significance has been occurring. Repeated hailstorms, daring which many persons have been destroyed and houses have been riddled as though cannon had been fired against them. This is foretold as one of the visitations, from which men cannot escape- Blocks of ice, “every stone about the weight of a talent.” Seven pounds is a talent Scoffers have said-this was impossible. Yet, within the past month, in Europe and in the Unite States, these masses of ice, described as weighing six or seven pounds, have fallen, carrying destruction to man and beast and crops and houses.

Do suuli things mean nothing) Is it ehance alone which sends to England the phenomena of 150 degrees of heat—nearly as high as the highest ever recorded in Africa by Humboldt—--159? To those who know tho English climate and the English, this will be seen to bo even a greater phenomenon than their earthquake. At eighty degrees in the shade the English are almost melting. Tte personal diseemfort of such heat as yesterday’s appealed to every inhabitant as the most startling incident within the memory erf man. We have the cholera started in Europe, and we must not expect to escape pestilences. These very earthquake shocks—though not destructive of life and property—will produce disease. The passage of the great planets through the nodes of electricity, which now out in space from the sun’s equator, must produce great disturbances. Noxious gases from tte erust of the earth must be liberated in immense quantities, infecting the air and having deleterious effect not only upon animat and human health, but also vegetable life. We have had extraordinary cold in every month this year in many localities. A frost in September of general area and severity would do more destruction iu a night for the United States than a year of war. We know from the past that coincidences of great pestilences did occur with tho passage of Jupiter or Saturn through the electrical or solar nodes, as for example, in Jans, 1889, Jupiter's passage was fotldwsd bv the outbreak of the cholera in Asia, and 1,000,000 people died in a year. Iu 1805 the cholera raged everywhere—United States in chided—Jupiter and Saturn both pausing through these trades, Those are merely coincidences. We bur* an

proof that disease can or cannot be affected by planetary action. It is like all science, mere conjecture. But we do know one fact: The great planets have passed through the special electrical node s at or about the time of the outbreak of every one of the great epidemics, which history records since 767 yam's before the birth of Christ, when Saturn was in perihelion and had passed through solar node to 89 degrees, and Jupiter was at the corresponding node of 260. The plague ravaged every known inhabitable spot in ihe world that year. The scoffers will say this meau3 nothing; hut science only discovered many of the well-known laws of nature by observing coincidences nnd deducing therefrom absolute results. Daniel gives to the believers the assurance: None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. EN. BUTLER EMBARRASSED. Instances in Which He Was Forsaken by His Habitual Self-Possession. x Wmshineton better. The New York Sun published on Saturday an instance of the few occasions, if not the only one, in which Gen. Butler was ever embarrassed. It was when, having gained a suit involving the tittle property of a widow, sha handed him the tk® property in payment for his services, and the Massachusetts widow liaving done good by stealty, blushed to find it known. But there is another instance an record where General Butler displayed considerable embarrassment, but under entirely different circumstances. When he assumed command in New Orleans, m the early part of bhe war, he began to look around, without any embarrassment whatever, for the most commodious house he could find to appropriate to his own use. He pitched upon the house of one Burnside, ope of the richest men of New Orleans. an Irishman, but who bad never been naturalized. The great anti-monopolist one day appeared at Mr. Burnside's door, demanded to see the owner of the establishment, and curtly informed him that be, Gen. Butier, would inspect the house, and if it suited his high mightiness, he would trouble tlio owner to got ® at ' -Mr. Burnside made no unpleasant remarks as to General Butler's idea of incum and tuum, and accompanied the poor mail's friend, who was clearly not tho rich man's friend, through his gorgeous mansion. Having satisfied himself that it was entirely too good for Mr. Burnside to occupy, and just right for General Benjamin F. Butler, the friend, of the workingman Joftily remarked that if he liked the ontsideas well as the inside he would have to ask Mr. Burnside to surrender the property. Burnside replied that he .would like General Butler to take an ex tended view of the outside of the liou.se, and leading him. to a good point of observation he pointed to the British flag floating over the premises. He mentioned that perhaps General Butler knew the meaning of that, and while robbing an American citizeu of liis liome might not count for much with General Butler, playing highwayman with a British subject was a risky business. Mr. Burnside, in telling the story, always represented General Butler as being considerably embarrassed at the turn of affairs — perhaps quite as much so as when the widow offered him a fee for services rendered. Yet another instance of General Butler being greatly embarrassed is mentioned by a wellknown woman now living iu Washington. During the war General Butte 1 imprisoned her. Bhe suffered great hardships, not the least of which was the prison fare she was compelled to eat. As she had been delicately raised, and was at the time in particularly feeble health, she suffered much from living on coarse food. One day General Butler sent for her. As she entered his room he went on writing without raising his head or taking any notice of her whatever. She seated herself, and, unabashed by the great man’s presence, glanced around and saw a delicious luncheon prepared for General Butler on a table near by. The sight was too tempting for the half-starved prisoner. She crept up behind him, took possession of the luncheon, and with great enjoyment and perfect self-possession devoured every crumb —she hardly left a bone on the tray. Presently General Butler turned around, and, without perceiv ing the havoe made in his luncheon, said gruffly: “You see, madam, I have been very much engaged. ” .. To which she replied graciously, pointing to file empty plates and dishes: “And you see, General, that I liave been very much engaged, too!” She swears to .this day that General Butler | looked embarrassed. He was like Sir Lucius O’Trigger, who could do a number of things without minding them, but it always hurt his conscience to he found out. THE TRIALS OF AN ACTRESS. She Was Once Too Stout and Is Now Entirely Toe Lean. Brooklyn Ragle. Miss Fannie Davenport bids fair to rival Sarah Bernhardt. She grows lighter and thinner every day of her life, and, in spite of every effort, she finds it impossible to come to u standstill. She eats with voracity candy, sngar, potatoes, and, in fact, all the things which she ceased eating when she wished to grow thin, but she goes on falling away, day after day, like a veritable disciple of Dr. Tanner. It will bo remembered that Mies Davenport, before her departure for Europe, about two years ago, grew extremely stout. She became' so big and cumbersome on the stage, that when she died as Camille, it was proposed to change the text so as to have her die of dropsy, rather than consumption. The spectacle of Mias Davenport's 280 odd pounds of avoirdupois melting away with consumption in. the last act of “Camille,” was rather funny. When she staggered from the window ta the post of the bedstead in her last hours as she wasted away, one instinctively felt sorry for the bed post Armand looked overawed, top weighted and subdued when he took the massive Camille in his arms All of these things annoyed Miss Davenport as they naturally would an artist of her extremely sensitive and highstrung temperment. She lias the utmost regard for her art, and she comes pf one of the oldest stage families in America. She thought it was necessary for her to reduce her weight, and she went to Paris to consult eminent physicians about it. When she got there she learned, after paying enormous fees, exactly what one of the five or ten thousand amateur athletes in New York could have told her. The Parisian physician said that she must take exercise in order to reduce her flesh. This is what everyone does in the athletic world, from John L. Sullivan to Seddon’s Mouse. Miss Davenport walked twelve miles a day, swung dumb-bells, ate nonfattening food and gradually reduced her weight until, when she came back to America, she was in perfect trim. She gave up sweetmeats, candies. sugar and all es the delicacies of the table iu which women usually delight, and devoted herself assiduously to training down. When she appeared here as Fedora she had regained the graceful figure which made her the talk of the town at her debut at Daly's Theater years ago. She was very much wrapped up in the production of Fedora, but she continued her training until about six months ago, when she suddenly discovered that she was beginning to shrink too much. Her costumes were gathered in more and more until she began to show angles at shoulders and her arms grew so small that she become alarmed about them. Then she ccastd all exercise, plunged with recklessness into potatoes, sweetmeats and sugar, sat still from morning to night and devoted all her energies to growing fat Despite her most enthusiastic efforts she grew thinner and thinner. She went to her home in Canton, Pa, and laid placidly in n> hammock from morning eo night It had no effect. She tipped the beam at s lighter weigh* every succeeding dsy. Then she went down on Long Island and tried surf bathing. Fruitless. Miss Davenport Btill continues to decrease in weight, and the chances are that she will begin this season in a state closely bordering On emaciation.

The American Novelist, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Mr. James,, who Uas been poeiug as the American novelist, for whom we have all been watching and praying so long, is writing another American novel, in which the scene is laid at Trouville and Paris, and the actors include three Frenchmen, tour French women, two Knglieh persons of quality and a Newfoundland dog. the latter being the representative of the new world. Thr pure, and truly excellent qualities of Dr. Price's Special Flavoring Extracts have secured fer them the patronage of the most intelligent ladies in this Minify. A few eenls additional ooet does not deter ladies from procuring that known to be pure and wholesome, especially articles that are used ia preparing the “necessaries of me.”

FACTS ABOUT PLATINUM. It Melts Easily in the Presence of Lend— Drawing Wires that Are Almost Invisible. New York Sun. • After an excellent day of weakfisking on Borne gat bay and an unexceptionable supper of the good j>ld-fashioned, country-tavern kind, a social party of anglers sat about on Uncle Joe Parker's broad porch at Forked river, smoking and enjoying the cool, fragrant breath of the cedar swamp, when somehow the chat drifted to the subject of assaying and refining the precious metals. Thai was just where one of the party, Mr. D. W. Baker, of Newark, was at home, and in the course of an impromptu lecture h<sx>ld the party more about the topic under discussion, and especially the platinum branch of it, than they ever knew before. “Our firm,” tie said, “practically does all the platinum business of this country, and the demand for this material is so great that we never ean get more than vre want of it. The principal portion, or, in fact, nearly all of it, conies from the famous mines of the Demidoff family, who have the monopoly of the production in Russia. It h all refined and made into sheets of various thicknesses, and into wires of eextain commercial sizes before it conics to wk but we have frequently to cut, roll, and redraw it to new forms and sizes to meet the demands upon ns. At one time it was coined in Russia, but it is no longer applied to that use. We have obtained some very good crude platinum ore from South America, and have refined it successfully, but the supply from that source is, as yet, very small. I am not aware that it has been found anywhere else than in Colombia on that continent; but the explorations thus far made into the mineral resources of South America have been very meagre, and it is by no means improbable that platinum may yet bo discovered there in quantities rivaling the supply of Russia “A popular error respecting platinum is that its intrinsic value is the same as that of gold. At one time it did approximate to gold in value, but never quite reached it, and is now worth only $8 to sl2 an ounce, according ta the work expended upon it in getting it into required forms and the amount of alloy it contains. The alloy used for it is iridium, which hardens it, and the more iridium it contains the more difficult it is to work, and, consequently, the more expensive. When pure, platinum is as soft as silver, but by the addition of iridum it becomes the hardest of metals. The great difficulty m manipulating platinum is its excessive resistance to heat. A temperature that will make steel run Hke water and melt down fire-clay has absolutely no effect upon it. You may put a piece of platinium wire no thicker than human hair into a blast furnace where ingots of steel are melting down all around it, and the bit of wire will come out as absolutely unchanged as if it had been in an icebox all the time. No means have been discovered for accurately determining the melting temperature of platinium, but it must Ik? enormous. And yet, if you put a bit of lead into the crucible with the platinium, both metals will melt down together at the low temperature that fuses the lead, and if you try to melt lead in a platinium crucible you will find that as soon as the lead melts the platinium with which it eomes in contact also melts, and your crucible is de stroyed. “A distinguished characteristic of platinum is its extreme ductility. A wire can be made from it finer than from any other metal. I have a sample in my poeket, the guage of which is only one two-thousandth of an inch, and it is practicable to make it thiner. It has even been affirmed that platinum wire has been made so fine as to be invisible to the naked eye; but that I de not state as of my knowledge. This wire my son made.” .

Mr. Baker exhibited the sample spoken of. It- looked Kke a tress of silky hair, ate had it not been shown upon a piece of black paper could hardly liave been seen. He went on: ‘■The draw plates, by nfeans of which these fine wires are made, are sapphires and ruffles, You may fancy for yourself how extremely delicate must be the work of making holes of such exceeding smallness to accurate guage, too, in those very hard stones. I get all my draw plates from an old Swiss lady in New York, who makes them herself, to order. But, delicate as is the work of boring the holes, there is something still mere delicate in the processes that produce such fine wire as this. That something is the filing of a long point on the wire to enable the poking of the end of it through the draw plate so that it can be eanght by the nippers Imagine yourself filing a long tapering point on the end of a wire only ono eighteenth hundredth of an inch in diameter m order to get it through a I draw plate that will bring it down to one twothousandth. My son does that, without using a magnifying glass. T cannot say pari lively what uses this very thin wire is put to, but something in surgery, I believe, either for fastening together portions of bone or for operations. A newly-invented instrument has been described to me. which, if it does what has been affirmed, is one of the greatest and most wonderful discoveries of modern science. Avery thin platinum wire loop, brought to incandescence by the current from a battery—which, though of great power, is so small that H hangs front the lapel of the operator's coat—is used, instead of the knife, for excisions and certain amputations. It sears as it cute, prevents the loss of blood, and is absolutely painless, which is the most astonishing thing about it. lam assured that a large tumor has been cut from a child in this way, and that the child laughed while the operation wns bring Eerformed, and that without any anaesthetic aving been administered. “Our greatest consumers of platinum are the electricians, particularly the incandescent light companies. I supply the platinum wire for both the Edison and the Maxim companies, and the quantity they require so constantly increases that the demand threatens to exceed the supply of tho metal. Sheets of plantinum aTe bought by chemests, who have them converted into crucibles and other forms.”

The reporter's curiosity was awakened by Mr. Baker’s mention of the old lady who made those very flue draw plates, and on his return to tha city he hunted her up. Mrs. Francis- A. Jeannot, the lady in question, was found in neat apartments in a handsome flat in West Fifty-first street. Age has silvered her hair, but her eyes are still bright, and her movements indicate elasticity and strength. She is a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland, and speaks English with a little difficulty, but whenever tte reporter’s English was a little hard for her a very pretty girl with brilliant eyes and crinkly jet-black hair, who subsequently proved to be a daughter of Mrs. Jeannot, came to the rescue. With the girl's occasional aid, the old lady’s story was as follows: “I have been in this business for thirty years. I learned it when I was a girl in Switzerland. Very few in this country know anything correctly about it Numbers of people endeavor to find it out, and they experiment to learn it especially to do it by machinery, but without success. But, all me! It is no longer a business that is anything worth. Thirty years ago many stone draw plates were wanted, for then there was a great deal done in filagree gold jewelry. Then the plates were worth from $2.50 up to as high as sls, according to the magnitude of the stones and the size of the holes I bored in them. Now, however, all that good time is passed. Nobody wants filagree gold jewelry any more, and there is so little demand for fine wire of the precious metals that few draw plates are desired. The prices now are no more than from $1.25 up to say SB, but it is very rare that one is required the cost of which is more than $4. And of that a very large part mnst go to tte lapidary to pay for the stone and for his work in cutting it to an even round disk. Then, what I get for the long and hard work of boring the stone by hand is very little. ‘By hand?’ Oh, yea That must always be the only good way. The work of the machine is not perfect. It never produces sneh good plates as are made by the hand and eye of the trained artisan. ‘How are they bored?’ Ah, sir, you must excuse mo that Ido not tell yim that. It Is simple, bnt there if just a little of it that is a secret, and that little makes the vast difference between producing work which is good and that which is not It has cost me no little to learn it, and while It is worth very Mttlo jnst now, perhaps fashion may change, and plates may be wanted to make gold wire again to an extent that may be profitable. Ido not wish to tell everybody that which will deprive me of the little advantage my knowledge gives me. “The stones?’ Oh, we of course do not use finely-colored ones. They are too valuable. But those that we employ must be genuine sapphires and rubies, sound and without flaws. Here are some. You see they look like only irregular lumps of mnd--1 dy-tiated, broken glass. Here is a finished one.” The old lady exhibited a piooe of solid brass about an inch long, three-quarters of an inch in width and one-sixteenth in thickness. In its center was a small disk of stone with a hole

through it—a hole that was very smooth, wide on one side and hardly perceptible on the other. The stone was sunk deep into the brass and bedded firmly in it. She went on: “Yon will find, if you try, that you can with difficulty push through that hole a hair from your beard. But. small os it is, it must be perfectly smooth and of an accurate guage. Ido not any longer myself set the stones in the brass, as I am not so strong as I once was. My son does that for me. But neither he nor my daughter, nor anybody else in the country, I believe, ean bore tho holes so well as I can even yet. ‘How long does a draw plate last!’ Ah! Practically forever. Except by clumsy handling or accident, it does not need to be replaced at least in ono lifetime. And there is another reason why I sell so few now. Those who re quire them are supplied. ‘Watch jewels?’ Yes. I used to make them, bnt do so no longer. They can be imported from Europe at the price of $1 a dozen, and at such a figure one could not earn bread in making them here.” CABIN JOHN’S BRIDGE. A Famous Structure frOm Which the Name of a Traitor Was Erased. Washington tetter. "It was a very unmanly thing to do.” Tliis. remark was made yesterday by a tall, sour faced man who looked like a mental dyspeptic whose life had not agreed with him. He wa* standing at the base of “Cabin John T s bridge.” with liis eyes fixed upon the inscription on the face of the masonry, from which the name of Jeff Davis had been out out, leaving a blank channel in the stone. It was to the erasure of this once honored name, by order of the Hon. Edwin M Stanton. Secretary of War. that the remark was applied. Tiie speaker was one of the mixed company of thirty or forty excursionists who were admiring the triumph of the engineering skill that has made this bridge famous. It is quite possible that all of those witltin hearing did not fully share in the sentiment expressed by the sourfaced man. The facts connected with this matter are all old, bnt in this bustting life of ours things which were familiar yesterday are crowded from memory to-day, and a very brief state ment will not be devoid of interest. Cabin John’s bridge is one of the many points es interest about Washington. It* is situated about lime miles from the city. It stretches over nn immense gorge, through which flows a small stream known as Cabin John's run, a branch of Rook creek. The stream derives its romantic name from an eccentric character who, many years ago, lived alone in a little cabin upon its banks. He was known by the sobriquet of Cabin John. The bridge is of solid masonry, 100 feet in height. Its celebrity lies in the fact that its single arch has the longest span m the world —220 feet. Many iron and cable structures exceed this, but it is equaled by no other arch. A large stone upon the face of the work once bore the inscription:

t Begun 1853, : FRANKLIN PIERCE. PRESIDENT. ; Jefferson Davis, Secret art of War. I Mr. Stanton did not like to see the name of the President of the Southern Confederacy occupying so prominent a place upon a government structure. Os his own motion he ordered it cut out and it was done. It does not appear to be a matter of official record. If it is, your correspondent failed to discover it after a long tour of inquiry through the War Department and the District government Mr. Stanton thought Mr. Davis had forfeited all right to have his name there, and said it must be chiseled out When he out his foot down it generally stayed there, and ho was not in the habit of stopping to inquire what the other people would say or think about what he did. His action in this case has been much criticised as an exhibition of petty malignance, but the inteuse loyal feeling that pervaded the North at the time fully justified the act It is not likely that the sour-faced man would then have felt os free to make the remark quoted. Had the name remained there until now probably it would have remained undisturbed. Its erasure was merely a minor inincident iu the history of the great war. “It might as well have been left there,” sold a. lady, “because everybody inquires about it, and why it was done. If it. had not been cut out it would not have attracted half so much attention. ’’ There was one young lady of twenty in the party who drew more than her share of notice by asking very innoeeiUJy, and with an evident desire to learn, “who Jefferson Davis was, and what he did that theygut his name out of that stone” The sour-faced man. who seemed to be somewhat in need of reconstruction, replied to her queries by saying: “Jefferson Davis was guilty of the same crime that Washington and Hancock and all the founders of our Nation were when they declared this a free republic and made war upon the mother country to achieve independence. Mr. Davis and liis compatriots failed, and so they are Called traitors.” With this deliverance he turned away, his face looking more sour than ever. * Dr. Tyndall, secretary of the board of district commissioners, said to day, when asked about th matter: “I don’t believe anybody bnt Edwin M. Stanton would have cut that name out. Ido not consider it the greatest act of his life. General M. C. Meigs was the engineer who superintended tho erection of this magnificent bridge. It is part, of the aqueduct built to convey the water supply from the Great Falks of the Potomac to Washington. The roadway is paved with asphalt, and below this is the conduit through which the wator flows. The bridge was nine years in building.

The Israelites at Long Branch. Correspondence National Republican. Long Branch is in immense favor with the Israelites. They flock there by the thousands every season. They pay the highest prices for the best accommodations that money can buy. They pay the biggest rent for cottages, take the best rooms in the finest hotels, wear the biggest diamonds, dress their women in the costliest of silks, laces and jewelry, and monopolize the .choicest of everything, as they have a perfect right to do as long as they foot the bills. Many superssnsitive people elevate their noses in . scorn of the Jews. I notice that the Jews continue to come to the front, however. They may be loud, cltceky and given to obtruding commerce into their dinner table talk, but what of itl This is a free country. The Jew does not ask you to move into hie household. He does not ask you to sleep with hie* or to marry him or his daughter. Let the Jew alone, and the clutnces are ben to one that the Jew will let you alone. He may take the front scat, you were trying to reach, but he takas it because he got there first. The man who gets there first always takes the best. That is a trait of selfishness that is not confined to the Judean race. To the man who gets there belong the spoils. lam the winner's friend. The Jew is a winner. When I see male women and female men holding their noses when a Jew goes bv I am Reminded of the old maid who looked through a powerful field-glass at some small boys in swimming two miles away, and was violently outraged as to her modesty at what she saw. People who do not hko- Jews will generally be found to belong to the class who like to make minute inspection of their neighbor's dirty linen through a crack in the back fence, forgetful of their own filthiness. It is dollars to cents that the political perfectionists who object to Blaine because he is a bad man do not like the Jews Where She Wanted To Be Buried. Albany (Ga.) Mews. She was a remarkably sensible young lady who made the request of her friends that, after her decease, she should not be buried by the side of a brook, where babbling lovers would wake her from her dreams, nor in any grand cemetery, where sight-seers, conning over epitaphs, might distract her, but be laid away to take her last sleep under the counter of some merchant who did not advertise in the newspapers. There, she said, was to be found peace passing all understanding— ft depth of quiet slumber on which neitherthe sound of the buoyant foot of youth nor the weary shuffle of old ago would ever intrude. To cure an ordinary cough or cold take one dos of Dr. Wistar’s Balsam of Wild Cherry before going to bed at night It will cause a suspension of nervous excitability, < allow you sweet repose, and by morning the cough will be genet It is the best and, therefore cheapest cure for coughs, colds and consumption; is sold by druggists generally, and can he found ia every iufcel agent household.

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