Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1890 — Page 2

ALLAN QUATHRMAIN.

A Record of Remarkable Adventures and Discoveries.

BY H, RIDER HAGGARD.

CHAPTER XVlll—Continued. The old Zulu paused, and I saw that he was deeply agitated by his own story. Presently he lifted his head, which he had bowed to his breast, and went on: — “I was that man, Bougwan. Ou! I was that man, and now hark thou! Even as lam so wilt thou be— a tool, a plaything, an ox of burden to carry the evil deed of another. Listen! when thou didst creep after the 'Lady of the Night,’ I was hard upon thy track. When she struck thee with the knife in the sleeping place of the White Queen, I was there also; when thou didst let her slip away like a snake in the stones I saw thee, and l knew that she had bewitched thee, and that « true man had abandoned the truth, and he who aforetime loved a straight path had taken a crooked way. Forgive me, my father, if my words are sharp, but out of a full heart are they spoken. See her no more, so shall thou go down with honor to the grave. Else because of the beauty of a woman that weareth as a garment of fur shalt thou be even as I am, and perchance with more cause. I have said.” =#=

Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectly silent, but when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to his own case, he colored up, and when he learned that what had passed between him and Sorais had been overseen, he was evidently much distressed. And now, when at last he spoke, it was in a tone of humility quite foreign to hitfi. "I must say,” he said, with a bitter little laugh, i ‘that I scarcely thought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu, but it just shows what we can come to. I wonder if you fellows can understand how humiliated I feel, and the bi tie rest par t o f it is th at I deserve it all. Of course I should have handed her to the guard, but I could not, and that is a fact. I let her go and I promised to say nothing, more is the shame to me. She told me that if I would side with her she would marry me and make me king of this country; but, thank goodness, I did find the heart to say that even to marry her I could not desert my friends. All I have to say is that I hope you may never love a woman with all your heart and then be so sorely tempted of her.” And he turned to go. ‘ ‘Look here, old fellow, ” said Sir Henry; “just stop a minute. I have a little tale to tell you, too. ” And he proceeded to narrate what had taken place on the previous day between Sorais and himself. This was a finishing stroke to poor Good. It is not pleasant to any man to learn that he has been made a tool of; but when the circumstances are as peculiarly atrocious as in the present case it is about a bitter a pill as anybody can be called on to swallow. “Do you know,” he said, “I think that between you, you fellows have about worked a cure,” and he turned and walked away, and I for one felt very sorry for him. Ah, if the moths would always carefully avoid the candle. how few burned wings there would be! That day was a court day, when tho queens sat in the great hall and received petitions, discussed laws, etc., and thither we adjeurned shortly afterward. On our way we were joined by . Good, who was looking exceedingly depressed, and no wonder.

When we got into the hall Nyleptha was already on her throne-*nd proceeding, with business as usual, surrounded by councilors, courtiers, lawyers, priests, and an unusually strong guard. It was, however, easy to see from tho air of excitement and expectation on the faces of everybody present that nobody was paying much attention to ordinary affairs, the fact being that the knowledge that civil war was imminent hadnow got abroad. We saluted Nyleptha and took our accustomed places, and for a little while things went on as ■•usual, when suddenly the trumpets began to call outside the palace, and from the great crowd that was gathered there in anticipation of some unusual event, there rose a roar ■of “Sorais! Sorais!”

Then came the roll of many chariot wheels, and presently the great curtains at the end of the hall were drawn wide, and through them entered the "Lady of the Night” herself. Nor did >she come alone. Preceding her was Agon, the high priest, arrayed in his mooi gorgeous vestments, and on either side were other priests. The reason for their p resence was obvious—coming with them it would have been a sacrilege to attempt to detain her. Behind her were a number of the great lords, and behind them a small body of pioked guards. A glance at Sorais herself was enough to show that her mission was of no peaceful kind, for in place of her gold embroidered "kaf”

she wore a shining tunic formed of golden scales, and on her head a little golden helmet. In her hand, too, she bore a toy spear, beautifully made and fashioned of solid Bilver. Up the hall Bhe came, looking like a lioness in her conscious pride and beauty; and as she came the spectators fell back bowing and made a path for her. By the sacred stone she halted, and laying her hhpd on it she cried but with a loud TOlda to"Nytepthaon thetfrronß,~"Hafl. oh* queen!”

««An haiL my sister!" answered Nylaptha. ‘ Draw tMu...asar. Fearuot, I give thee safe conduct” Sorais answered with a haughty look, and swept on up t,he hall till she «|ood right before the thrones. ••A boon, oh, queen,” she cried again. "Speak on, oiy sister; what is there sii-jkAisaib.--’-'~~ —*—

that I can give thee who hath half our kingdom?” ' _____ • - ■ Thou can st tell me a true word me and the people of Zu-Vendis. Art thou, or art thou not, about to take this foreign wolf,” and she pointed* to Sir Henry with her toy spear, “to be a husband to thee, and share thy bed and throne?” Curtis winced at this, and turning toward Sorais, said to her in a low voice, “Methinks that yesterday thou hadst other names than wolf to call me by, oh, queen;” and I saw her bite her Ups as, like a danger flag, the blood flamed red upon her face. As for Nyleptha, who is nothing if not original, she seeing that the thing waout,and that there was nothing further to be gajned by concealment, answered the question in a novel and effectual manner, inspired thereto, as I firmly believe, by coquetry and a desire to triumph over her rival. Up she rose, and descending from the throne, swept in all ehe glory of her royal grace on to where her lover stood. There she stopped and -untwined the golden snake that was wound around her arm. Then she bade him kneel, and he dropped on one knee on the marble before her; and next, taking the golden snake with both her hands, she bent the pure soft metal around his neck, and when it was fast, deUberately kissed him on the brow and called him her “dear lord.” “Thou seest,” she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators had died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his feet, “I have put my collar round the ‘wolf s’ neck, and behold! he shall be my watch-dog; this is my answer to thee, Sorais, my sister, and to those with thee. Fear not,” she went on, smiling sweetly on her lover, pointing to the golden snake she had twined round his massive throat, * 'if my yoke be heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not gall thee.”

Then, turning to the audience. she continued, in a clear, proud tone, ‘ -Ay Lady of the Night, lords, priests and people gathered here together, by this kign doT take the foreigner to husband, even here in the face of ye all. What, am I a queen, and yet not free to choose the man whom I love? Then should I be lower than the meanest girl in all my provinces. Nay, he hath won my heart, and with it goes my hand, and throne, and *lll have—ay, had he been a begga’FT.nstead of a great lord, fairer than any here, and having more wisdom and knowledge of strange things, I had given him all how much more so than being what he is!” Ans she took his hand and gazed proudly on him, and holding it, stood there boldly facing the people. And such was her sweetness and the power and dignity of her person, and so beautiful shelooked standing hand in hand there at her lover’s side, so sure of him and of herself, and so ready to risk all things and endure all things for him, that most of those who saw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever forget, caught the fire from her eyes and the happy color from her blushing face, and cheered her like wild things. It was a bold stroke for her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but human nature in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold and not afraid to break a rule, and is morever peculiarly susceptible to appeals to its poetical side. —And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but “Sorais of the Night” stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear to see her sister’s triumph which robbed her of the man whom she had hoped to win, and in the awfulness of her jealous anger she trembled and turned white like an aspen in the wind. T "WISE” said some where that she reminded me of the sea on a calm day, having the same aspect of sleeping power about her. Well, it was all awake now, and like the face of the furious ocean it awed and yet fascinated me. A really handsome woman in a royal rage is always a beautiful sight; but such beauty and such a rage I never saw combined before, and I can always say that the effect produced was well worthy of the two.

She lifted her white face, the teeth were set, and there were purple rings beneath her glowing eyes. Thrice she tried to speak, and thrice she failed, but her voice came at last. Raising her silver spear, she shook it, and the light glanced from it and from the golden scales of her cuirass.

"And thinkest thou, Nyleptha,” she said, in notes which pealed through the great hall like a clarion, "thinkest thou, that I, a Queen of the Zu-Ven-di, will brook that this base outslander shall Bit upon my father’s throne, and rear up half-breeds to fill the place of the great House of the Stairway? Never! Never! while there is life in my bosom and a man to follow me and a spear to strike with. Who is on my sideP Who? "Now hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came to prey here to the doom of fire, for have they not committed the deadly sin against the Sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee war—red war! Ay, I say to thee that the

path of thy passion shall be marked out by the blazing of thy towns and watered with the blood of those who cleave to thee. On thy head rest the burden of the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans of the dying and the cries of the widpws and those who are left fatherless forever and forever. "I tell thee I will tear the, Nylop*tha, the White Queen, fH>m thy | throne, and that thou shalt be hurled . —ay, hurled even from the topmost iatalrof JLhu_grmL--way-.to.- the-foot-I thereof, in that thou has covered the name of the bouse of him who built it with black shame. And I tell ye, strangers, all save thou, Bougwan, whom because thou didst do me a service I will save alive if thou wilt leave those men and follow me” (here poor

Good shook his head vigorously anc ejaculated "cant be done” in English), ‘ ‘that I wiU wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you yet aUve in chains fro m the four golden trumpets of the four angels that fly east and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnacles of the Temple, so that ye may be a token and a warning to the land. And as for thee, Incubu, thou shalt die in yet another fashion that I will not tell thee new.”

She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like a storm, and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration ran through the hall. Then Nyleptha answered calmly and with dignity:— “11l would it become my place of dignity, oh, sister, so to speak as thou hast threatened. Yet if thou wilt make war then I will strive to bear up against thee, for if my hand seem soft yet shalt thou find it of iron when It grips thine armies by the throat. Sorais, I fear thee not. Yet thou, who didst but yesterday strive to win my lover and my lord from me, whom to-day thou dost call a ‘foreign wolf, ’ to be thy lover and thy lord” (here there was an immense sensation in the hall); “Thou who but last night, as I have learned but since thou didst enter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-place—ay, even by a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me, thy sister, as I lay asleep—”

“It is false, it is false,” rang out a score of other “It is not false,” said I, producing the broken point of the dagger and holding it up. “Where is the haft from which this flew, Sorais?” “It is not false,” cried Good, determined at last to act like a royal man. “I took her by the queen’s bed. and on my breast the dagger broke.” “Who is on my side?” cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for she saw that public sympathy was turning against her. “What. Bougwan, thou comest not?” she said, addressing Good, who was standing close to her, in a low, concentrated voice. “Thou pale-souled fool, for reward thou shalt eat out thy heart with love of me and not be satisfied, and thou mightest have been my husband and a king! At least I hold thee in chains that can not be broken.”

“War! war! war!”she cried. “Here, with my hand upon the sacred stone that shall endure, so runs the prophecy till the Zu-Vendi set their necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war to the end. Who follows Sorais of the Night to victory and honor?” Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable confusion. Many present hastened to throw in their lot with the “Lady of the Night,” but some came from her following to us. Amongst the former was an under officer of Nyleptha’s own guard, who suddenly turned and made a run :'or the door-way through which Sorais’s people were already passing. Umslopogaas, who was present and had taken the whole scene in, seeing with admirable presence of mind that if this soldier got away others would follow his example, seized the man, who drew his sword and struck athim. Thereon the Zulu sprung back' with a shout, and, avoiding the sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his terrible ax, till in a few seconds the man’s fate overtook him, and he fell with a clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor.

This is the first blood spilled in the war. “Shut the gates,” I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch Sorais so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing sacrilege. But the order came too late, her guards were already passing through them, and in another minute the streets echoed with the furious galloping of horses and the rolling of chariots. So, drawing half the people after ler, Sorais was soon passing like a whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to her head-quarters at M’Arstuna, a fortress situated a hundred and thirty miles to the north of Mitosis. And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments and the preparations for war, and old Umslopogaas once more began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening Inkosi-kaas 1 razor edge.

CHAPTER XIX. A STRANGE WEDDING. - One person, however, did not suoceed in getting out in time before the gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon*, who, as we had every reason to believe, was Sorais’s great ally, and the* heart and soul of her party. This cunning and ferocious old man had) not forgiven U 9 for those hippopotami, or, rather, that was what he said. What he meant was that he would never brook the introduction of eur wider ways of thought and learning and influence while there was a possibility of stamp-

ing us out. Also, he knew that we possessed a different system oJff religion, and no doubt was in daily terror of our attempting to introduce! it into Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we had any religion in our country, and I told him that Sb far as I could remember we had ninety-five different ones. You might have knocked him down with a feather, and really it is difficult not to pity a high priest of a well-established cult, who is haunted by the possible approach of pneoc. .All oT niuoty-five new religions.

When we knew 'that Agon wns caught,vNyleptha. Sir Henry, and I diseussed w hat was to be dOhewilh him. I was for closely incarcerating him, but Nyleptha, shook her head, saying that it would produce a disastrous effect throughout the country. "Ah!” she added, gith a stamp of her foot, "if (win, and am once really queen, I will break the power of those

priests, with their rites and revels and dark secret ways.” I only wished that old Agnon could have heard her, it would have frightened him. “Well.” said Sir Henry, “if we are not to imprison him I suppose that we may as well let him go. He’s no use here.” Nylepthalooked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in a dry little voice, “Thinkest thou so, my lord?" “Eh?” said Curtis. “No, I don’t see what is the use of keeping him. She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that was as shy as it was sweet?.

Then-at last he understood. “Forgive me, Nyleptha,” he said, rather tremulously; “dost thou mean that thou wilt marry me. even now?” . “Nay, I know not; let my lord say,” was her rapid answer; “but if my lord wills, the priest is there, and the altar is there”—pointing to the entrance to a private chapel—“and am I not ready to do the will of my lord? Listen, oh, my lord; in eight "days or less thou must leave me and go down to war, for thou shalt lead my armies, and in war men sometimes fall, and if so, I would for a little space have had thee all my own, for memory’s sake;” and the tears overflowed her lovely eyes and rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the red heart of a rose.

“Mayhap, too,” she went on, “I may lose-my crown, and withzmy” crown my life and thine also. Sorais la very strong and very bitter, and If she prevails she will not spare. Who can read the future? Happiness is the world’s white bird, that alights seldom and flies fast and far, till one day he is lost in the clouds. Therefore should we hold him fast, if by chance he rest a little space upon our hand. It is not wise to neglect the present for the future, for who knows what the future will be, Inbubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them, for when the sun is up they Wither, and on the morrow will others bloom that we shail never see.” And she lifted her sweet face to him and smiled into his eyes, and once more I felt a horrible pang of jealousy and turned and went away. They never took much notice of whether I was there or not, thinking I suppose, that I was an old fool, and that it did not matter one way or the other, and really I believed they were right. So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general, and watched old Umslopogaas whetting his ax outside the window as a vulture whets his beak beside a dying ox. And in about an hour’s time Sir Henry came tearing over, looking very radiant and wildly excited, and asked us if we should like to assist at a real wedding. Of course we said yes, and off we went to the chapel, where we found Agon looking as sulky as any high priest possibly could, and no wonder. It appeared that he and Nyleptha l)ad had a slight difference of opinion about the coming ceremony. He had flatly refused to celebrate it, or to allow any of his priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became very angry, and told him that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and meant to be obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-vendi Henry VIII. to perfection, and insisted that if she wanted to be married she would be married, and he should) marry her.*- — He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinched her argument thus—- “ Welt, I can not execute at High Triest. because there is an absurd prejudice against it, and I can not imprison him, because all his subordinates would rise a crying that would bring the stars down on Zu-vendis and crush it, but I can leave him to- contemplate the altar of the Sun without anything to eat. because that is- bis natural vocation, and if thou wilt net marry me, oh, Agon! thou shalt be placed before the altar yonder, with naught but a little water, till such time as thou boa reconsidered the Now as it-happened Agon had been hurried away that morning without his breakfast, and wus already exceedingly hungry, so he presently modified his views and l consented to marry them, saying at the- same time that he washed ; his hands- ©4 all responsibility in, the matter.

So it happened that presently,, attended only by two of her favorite maidenSv came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy, blushing face and downcast eyas, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of any sort, as seems to be the fashion on these occasions in most countries of the world. She did not wear a single ornament; even,- her gold virdete were removed, and I thought that, if possible, she hooked more lovely than ever without them, as really superbly beautiful women'do. She came, courtesied low to Sir Henry, and then took his hand and led him up before the altar, and after a pause, in a slow, dear voice uttered the following words! which are customary in Zu-Vendis if the bride desires and the man consents: ll Then dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take ro other woman to be i thy wife unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?” • "I swear it,” answered Sir Henry adding in English, "one i&quite enough for me.” *ln Zu Vendls members of the Royal House can only be married by the H igh Priest or a formally appointed deputy.— A. Q. To be Continued.

□Richard’ o Malcolm Johnston has written another Ogeechee story. This time he addressee himself to juvenile readers, and tells them of "The Quick Recovery of Mr. Nathan Swlnt” Tht story appeared in the number of Harper’s Young People published February 25. - -

THE ARIZONA KICKER.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE PATH OF WILD WESTERN JOURNALISM. The Editor Is Held Personally Regpon* —~— ’ “ * • f' Bible for a Few Utterances of His Newspaper. We extract the follow from the last issue of the Arizona Kicker, which was only a half sheet, and which seemed to have been printed on a cheese-press: Explanatory.—We owe our readers an apology for the shape and appearance of the Kicker this week, and shell proceed to give it. Last Sunday we went over to Silver Bend to see the boys and rake in a few subscriptions. Our office was left in charge of a chap just from the East,who claimed to be George Alfred Townsend. As we had never met George we did not feel like calling the stranger a liar.

WE STARTED A SPEECH. We intended to return Tuesday morning, but in this country man proposes and mules and other thiugs buck against him. The infernal, lop-eared, stifflegged, pig-headed, limb-spavined beast wh ch we rode —a fit counterpart of our contemporary down the street—threw us nine times in going thirteen miles, and we arrived at the Bend badly used up. We hadn’t yet s&ked in a dollar when Lew Smith, a plug-ugly whom we assisted to run out of our town torn weeks ago, sounded bis war-cry and began to encourage the Benders to hang us. Most of ’em were on a drunk that day, and the proposition at once found favor. Under the pretense that we, as editor, publisher proprietor and city editor of the greatest weekly in the West and which runs as an annex, but under the same roof, a grocery, bucket shop, feed store, shoe store, hardware and cutlery, bad been seeking to break down the social barriers of the mighty West, they hunted up a rope and Selected a tree. We appealed, but it only added to their desire. We tried to argue, but they, wouldn’t have it Our editorial person was laid hold of and hustled along to a rope dangling from a limb, and as we looked over the crowd and failed to catch a sympathetic eye, we felt that our time had come.

The boys were white nbout one thing. Drunk aS they were; they had aense enough to realize that a great editor could not wind up his earthly affairs In a satisfactory mannerunder fifteen minutes, and on motion of a half-breed who once succeeded in borrowing half a dollar of us, the time was increased to twenty. We wanted to argue the case but it was o go. We started in on a speech, but they whooped us down. By the time we got down to business five of our twenty minutes had fled. During our editorial career we have assisted at several amatemr executions. We had always supposed that if the crowd were satisfied the victim was bound to be. It never seemed much of an effort for him to let go of earthly matters and we have sometimes wondered why more of them didn’t come forward and ask to be pulled up to a limb. Our Idsas underwent a great change as we sat on a meat-box under a dangling rope, while the minutes hurried away like a jackass rabbit taking the lead of a prairie fire on a windy day. Any man who believes he can do business under such circumstances is mistaken. He feels restless and unsettled, and his mind seems to be distributed over acres of space.

WE CAN JUST CRAWL ABOUT. It wns only nfler wc had lost twelve in mules of bur time fooling around that w •• started in> on our last will mid testament. and we hadn’t written three lines of that before we suddenly recollected that we were without a blood relative on earth. As to leaving the K cker and its annex to nqy galoot in town was not to be thought of, uud we dually made out * bilk of snle to that individual known as William of the Hill, who has several times np ,eared in our town and nttemnted to run the city government with a broncho and two revolvers. When time was up the noose was. placed over our head and tightened under our chin, and it admonished us to observe the apparent enjoyment of the Crowir. Tney SCeiiKd foTeel ln as good spirits as an army horse turned out to buffalo grass, andLlhcir impatience 4o make ft peiidiilnm —nf-our body w«sanother queer feature of the convention. Wo had just been drawn off our feet, and our editorial ideas were becoming rather mixed.when a lot of naasiug cowdrivers happened along and broke up . the candy puli on the ground that they were waiting to hang us the Ural time we came up there. We were saved to be bung at Phoenix—if we ever show up there. Waawiu*! abb to crawl aroouuL

We have chill*, sore throat, pain* in the back, headache and a general feeling -that we don’t care a copper which party elects the next President We apologize for the appearance of things this week, and promise pot to be lynched again if in our power to avoid it— Detroit Free Preet.

AERIAL TRAVELING. The Idea of a Texas Physician Which Threatens to Revolutionise Travel. The accompanying illustration is from a suggestion by Dr. G. P. Bachenberg of Austin, Tex. The doctor describes bis plan at some length in a communication. The idea is an original one, and, given a passenger who is not afflicted with dizziness, is not to be classed as impracticable. The details of construction are fairly well shown in our artist's sketch, made from a rough drawing sent in by the author, and a good idea is given of what might be expected should the scheme ever be put in use* The illustration differs slightly from the description in some minor details. The doctor writes: “When the bicycle was introduced much was gained in the way of rapid and speedy travel without the use of 1 steam and the horse; ■. . “The objection to the use of that ve-' hide is the skill and practice required' to mandge it, and it is only available on a comparatively level surface. To meet’ these objections, at the same lime to increase speed in the use of the bicycle to an extraordinary degree, I would make' the following suggestions “In the first place have constructed a line of two heavy wires, one above the other, about ten feel apart, as represented in the sketch. These wires are adjusted to poles and both are held in an exact high tension, ascertained by an accurate measured force. The bicycles are to run on these wires—are constructed with grooved wheels, the couplet of wheels for the upper wire being grooved the deeper to securely hold the vehicle in a direct line and to favor reversing it, “For travel on wires two kinds of motors are used. The one the rider himself and the other electricity—the electric power taken from the upper wire. If deemed necessary f botk vehieles carry electric lights. “The construction of these bicycles varies from those used on the ground. On the wire the guiding rod is fixed and not used for guiding purposes, but simply for the rider to hold onto. In the cross piece receiving the piece supporting the drive-wheel is a joint to reverse the machine to run it the opposite way.

"The electro bicycle has a peculiar construction of its own. The straddle seat is entirely omitted and in its place a single or narrow donble scat placed in front of the drive-wheeL The seat is arranged to secure ease and security to the rider. The electric-motor is placed under the seat; The place to mount these bicycles or to reverse their action is usually at one of the poles, by stepping on the lower arm, which may be but a few feet from the ground. It may bo readily seen the electro-bicycle is well adapted for the accommodation of a lady, and without the electric power can he pushed ahead by the rider. “It may be a good' arrangement to have the third wire—the electric wire—strung a foot or two above the upper one. Give it the same tension, but let it carry but little weight. It will then not alone be an electric wire but will serve besides as a means of positive safety in case of a break of either of the other two. “These wires could be so adjusted as to utilize them for telegraphic and telephonic purposes, or thepreseut overland telegraphic poles at many places could be used for air-traveling. Such a?) ad* junct to railroads might serve advantageously in many ways. “These air line wires are strung close to the ground, except in crossings, etc., where the lower one may be at places twenty feet or more from the ground. The idea is not to maintain the uniform grade of a railroad, yet still as much as possible to bridge over small irregular depressions of the surface.” —Electrical Review.

Where Cigars Are Carried. I have a good deal of quiet fun to myself watching where people put their cigar*. Of course your businessman iias his cigar-case or he puts his cigars in his vest pocket. But there are some characters. Take the Irishman tvho is a laborer, for instance. He sticks his surplus eigar in his hat band. 1 have seen a policeman buy throe or four cigars and put them on the inside of his hat. It isu’t often that a Chinaman smokes a cigar. I believe it is a rale that no Chinaman shall smoke a cigar until after he has ent his qneue. Before that he smokes the eigarette. I never knejv where John kept hia cigars or his cigarettes. You see him walking along the street and all at once he makes a motion, as if he were going to dive, and he comes up with his cigar or cigarette, ns the case may be, aud is smoking before you know it. It i 3 still a question among the best smokers os to where is the/best place to carry a cigar if you are not smoking it. —Chicago Tribune,, ——— —

A Hand Expedition. ’ The Lewiston constable had a hard experience the other day. He went out after a gang of poachers, and was hot only cordially received by them but was invited to accompany them en a hunting expedition. The reason for so much cordiality was not apparent until the officer found that his late companion* had managed to leave him alone on aa uninhabited island, where they kepi