Bloomington Courier, Bloomington, Monroe County, 9 April 1895 — Page 5

HAS CKOSSED AFBICA

A GERMAN LIEUTENANT MAKES NEW DISCOVERIES. The loung- Count Ton Gotzen Paid the Expenses of His Own Expedition and Has Been Rewarded by Wonderful Findings. HANDSOME AND gallant young officer in the German (army has just made a name for himself in African exploration. He is Count Von Gotzen, a young fellow who has ra very large fortune and a boundless ambition thing in the world. Recently he completed the thirteenth crossing of tropical Africa, from sea to sea, and it was a most eventful journey, for he choose his route nearly half the way through districts through which no white man had visited, and he made some important and very interesting discoveries. He has stood on the crater wall of the only active volcano in Africa; he has found large lakes that were never heard of before, and he has traced at least one important river from source to mouth. It is a fine thing for an explorer to have a large fortune of his own, for then he has only to put his hand in his pocket, supply his needs, and he asks no favors of anybody. Most of the great explorers begin in an humble way, and years elapse before they acquire a reputation that brings them before the world and makes it an easy matter to raise the money for large projects. Lieut. "Von Gotzen' s expedition has cost him not a cent less than 5100,000. When he left the Indian ocean in October, 1893, and started inland, he was at the head of one of the largest and best equipped expeditions that ever entered Africa. He spared no money to make his enterprise a success. His party was the largest ever formed for exploration of tropical Africa. The fact that he had very few men on the sick list speaks volumes for the excellence of his equipment, and shows that the experience gained by many explorers has, at last, deprived African explorations of most of its dangers. He started from the port of Pangani, a little north 'of Zanzibar, with 518 persons in his caravan, of whom 400 were black porters and thirty-three were soldiers. Among his white comrades were a geologist, and a physician, and he had made so little stir in all his work of organizing j his big enterprise that the world hardly 1 knew he had started. It was only after ! he began to send home news of fresh dis coveries that wide attention was called to him. He made a small experiment j with Indian elephants as baggage car- j Tiers, two of which he imported from India. We do not know why his experiments failed, but, at any rate, he abandoned his elephants after a few LIEUT. VON GOTZEN. lays' ma.', and at last accounts the animals were doing good service carrying timbers for the railroad which the Germans are pushing inland from the Indian ocean. He made his first important discovery after traveling about S00 miles toward! Victoria Nyanza, when he suddenly came upon the large salt lake, Umburre, which is one of tne most southern of that remarkable chain of dead seas, extending hundreds of miles north and south, a considerable distance east of Victoria Nyanza. Here is a very long, wide rift in the earth, whose drainage cannot escape to the sea, but settles - in these depressions, forming a series of big and small salt lakes. Explorers had never heard of Lake Umfurre before, although they had passed both north and south of it. Over a hundred miles directly west of Victoria, Nyanza is the large country of Ruanda, lying partly in the Congo State and partly in the German East Africa. No European has ever penetrated this region, and we know nothing of Ruanda except a few vague facts supplied by Stanley, Stuhlmann and Baumann, who skirted Its eastern edge. Von Gotzen crossed this populous region, whose inhabitants are a fine-looking race. Everybody has heard of the terrible cattle plague, that a few years ago, wiped out the greater part of the herds across tropical Africa from sea to sea. The pride of Ruanda used to be the innumerable herds of big horned cattle that cropped its nutritious grasses, but during the reign the pl:tgu they were almost wholly destroyed. The country was nearly ruined, but little by little the herds are growing again, and in a few years more they will reach their old proportions. The king has the title of Kigeri. He has a dozen residences in various places, at one of which he gave the explorer's party a hospitable reception. The Arab traders have tried in vain to penetrate this country. They have always been repulsed, and not a single Arab did Von Gotzen meet in this part of Africa. In Ruanda the explorer saw the only active volcano that has been discovered in Africa, and there is reason to believe that no other will ever be found. We have known since 1891 that there was in this region a smoking mountain, for the natives further north told Emin Pasha and Dr. Stuhlmann tl.at thre was a great mountain from which black smoke came, and that ashes were sometimes sifted over the country, and when there was the most smoke the heard a noise like the bellowing of many cattle. Jt was not at all probable that theue

na?.Ives could have invented such a story, and it was quite certain that explorers were on the eve of finding, at last, a volcano in the heart of Africa. The prize was reserved for Von Gotzen. When Speke discovered Victoria Nyanza, the natives told him of a mountain far west of the lake, which they called Mount Mfumbiro. He placed it on his map, and when the mountain was first seen, three years ago, it was found to be the most northern of a chain of six volcanic mountains extending to the southeast. The most southern of these is the fire mountain. Kirunga. Vbt Gotzen saw it from afar as he approached the mountain from the east. Its name is really a phrase of which Kirunga is the most important word, and the whole means, "the place where sacrifices are burned." It rises above the plain to a height of about 11,120 feet. The white men saw its smoke ris-

l lng gently above the top for three days 1 before, pushing through the dense veg etation, they reached the base of the mountain. Then they eagerly pushed up the steep slope, and at last they stood upon the edge of the crater wall and looked down upon a spectacle that riveted every gaze. Our picture givus some idea of this crater. It is taken from Von Gotzen's sketch, just published in Le Mouvement Geographique in Brussels, and we are indebted to the same periodical for the picture of the young explorer. The crater is about a mile in diameter and the wall that hems it in is nearly circular. The crest of the encircling wall is several hundred feet above the bottom of the crater. The angle of slope down to the bottom is about seventy degrees; so steep that it would be difficult of descent, and the spectacle spread before the visitors on the crater bed did not tempt them to make any effort to reach it. As near as they could make out through the steam and yellow smoke, the bottom of the crater was a THE CRATER, lake' of molten, reddish lava. It looked like marble of a yellow-brown color, and the only way that they could determine that it was liquid or nearly so was an occasional disturbance of the surface. Rising above the surface of this bright-hued lake was a large orifice descending into the bowels of the mountain. It was over 400 feet in diameter, and out of this immense cavity was pouring a great column of yellow smoke that was almost stifling when the breeze, now and then, enveloped the explorers in dense volume. They were then compelled to retreat dovn the side of the mountain to get beyond the reach of the overpowering fumes. The smoke rolled in dense waves around the bot tom of the crater and In places poured over the edge. Now and then a puff of unusual energy would carry a column of smoke high into the air and clear the crater enough so that the spectators might get some idea of the appearance of the bottom. The incessant ebullition was accompanied by a loud noise like the roll of thunder, of sufficient volume to drown most other sounds, and the visitors had to talk at the top of their voices to make one another heard. Fortunately for them no solid substances were ejected during their visit. If a violent eruption had been in progress, of course, they would not have attempted to reach the top. WANTS MANY WIVES. An Ohio Man Who Imitates Far Eastern Customs. A rival of the sultan of Turkey has just been discovered in East Gallipolis, Ohio. He has been living there for two years with a wife and another woman, who acts in that capacity, the happiest relations existing between the three. Another woman came from West Virginia recently, and then he had three. A few days ago another woman came there for refuge, and then he had four. Everything went on swimmingly between taking in washing and getting help from the township trustees and the pound parties, until the other evening a little 14-year-old girl appeared at the "harem" and sought shelter. It was given her, she being of comely appearance and the man of the house having a big heart. Later the man told her that the rules of the institution were that every newcomer, who was a female, had to become his wife. She objected immediately and was told that she would have to live up to the rules or go. She went, and stayed all night at a neighbor's. The neighbors are said to be greatly incensed, and are talking of hickory withes, ducking, tar and l'eath. ers, etc. CoUls P. Huntington, Above is a portrait of the man who is under indictment in San Francisco, on the trifling charge of issuing a, railroad pass in violation of the inter-state commerce law. If convicted he can be fined all the way from $1,000 to $10,000, at the discretion of the court. In addition he may fce sent to prison for one year. Discovery About Hail. From the Swiss meteorological records since 1883 Dr. C. Heiss finds that hail is more frequent in valleys than on mountains, that it occurs oftener near marshes and in lake valleys than over wooded country, and that river valleys in the path of thunder storms favor its formation, while cultivated land and hilly forest reduce the intensity of hail storms.

FOR WOMEN TO BEAD.

CURRENT CON DENS ATIONS FOR FIRESIDE PERUSAL. The Ascending Magdalen A Jolly Good Fellow A Scientific Kitchen Woman as a Censor of Morals Woman and Corsets. FOR TEARS AND years, 'mid storms of rain and dust, Half planted at this angle of the streets. I've stood through wintry colds and summer heats. Loaded with earth and covered o'er with rust. But with thy soul's soul pure, although the shade Of anguish past Is in thine eyes, the moan Of sorrow stilled upon thy lips, Its tone Piercing the breast as 'twere grief unallayed. Yet is thy ragged garment royal dress, And in the Lamb's blood is thy mantle dyed From the deep heart of slain and risen Love. Thy hair a halo is each holy tress That wiped thy Master's feet a sign above All pardoning words thou Shalt in peace abide! 1 Harper's Magazine. A Jolly Good Fellow. At a recent Bohemian gathering the toast of the evening was to the hostess, who was voted "a jolly good fellow." This sentiment was received with great applause, and every man present felt that no higher compliment could be paid the little woman who each desired to honor. A little thought, however, given to this sentiment makes it less a matter for congratulation and more a topic for serious consideration. The world is full of women who are able to be good fellows, says the Philadelphia Times. It doesn't require much. Merely a gift of repartee, a ready wit and a kindly heart, but the womanly woman, the gentle loving creatures, who think the greatest honor in life lies in being devoted wives and mothers, they are not so rapidly found, but once a man does discover such a treasure the "good fellow" is forgotten, and the more essentially feminine, though less brilliant, woman is placed in the sacred recesses of his heart, where she dwells forever and aye. Girls, it does not pay to cultivate a reputation for good fellowship, rather eschew all conduct that does not lie parallel with lines of refinement, duty and womanliness. The transient attached to a sovereignty of this sort is not to be compared with the lasting homage that is always given a true woman. The shores of Bohemia are composed of jagged rocks, on .which many a bark bearing the name, "woman's reputation," has been shattered. The wisest woman that ever lived cannot be too careful in her manner. The world at large does not appreciate the doubtful compliment that the woman anxious for a certain kind of public recognition thinks so desirable. It is the easiest thing to step over the border; therefore watch out for thorough womanliness if you desire thorough happiness and the best returns the world can give. Want a Scientific Kitchen. Philadelphia women have planned a scientific kitchen to supply well-cooked food at low prices. A series of parlor gatherings have been held to the end that a helpful interest may be aroused in the project. The other evening there was a meeting, at which Miss Susan P. Wharton outlined the plan of the work. A new feature, which Miss Wharton brought out, is the desire to have an educational department to the kitchen that is, not only to have the restaurant and store where scientifically cooked food could be obtained at small prices by the poor, but to have a department where the women of the neighborhood could be taught how to prepare simple foods and do proper baking, and to have informal talks, where the women could tell their experiences and failures, and so be efficiently helped. The location of the nev kitchen is already procured and the building in process of erection. On the first floor it is intended to have the scientific kitchen and restaurant, and it is hoped to have on the second floor a free library. The desire is to make those kitchens outrival in attractiveness the saloon, and by having good, nourishing, cheap meals in the restaurant, with all the newspapers on file and an inviting library upstairs, much can be done in that direction. Miss Johnston of the Drexel institute will have charge of the kitchen and will direct the conduct of the restaurant. As a Censor of Morals. "Resolved, That it would be unwise to trust the censorship of morals to the British matron." That is the subject to be debated by a woman's club of London. The question looms up as rather an interesting one, in contemplation of the fact that the world's matrons are stepping in and assuming the right of command, censorship and everything else that appeals to their growing bump of acquisitiveness. I'm not sure that woman would make as good an official censor of morals as men have made. The good women of the world have always been rather well shielded and have had the morality of society pinned to their petticoats and been; responsible for the charge. Men have held them to the trust; men, who have been tolerably unacquainted with individual morality, have proved themselves experts in pinning family 1 morals to the family petticoats. The j family petticoats must be dainty and immaculate, long enough to conceal the family ankles, and, in fact, l--.:r the insignia of the family respectability. The censor of morals need not necessarily be a laundryman; his office is that of an inspector and censor, and the family ingei-ie stands for his respectability. This bus been rather a good scheme on the whole. We never heard mych about social purity until the matron assumed i the, custodianship of morals, public and

private, and began to split hairs on points of proper improprieties, such as decollette gowns and other items of a similar nature. Whatever man has done, to whatever depths of ignominy he may have sunk, he has rarely been so low as to have his moral vision dimmed regarding the sanctity of a good woman, says Haryot Holt Cahoon in the New York Recorder. He has placed her on a pedestal and kept her there, even though she has suffered from loneliness and neglect. He has allowed no half-way mount In her pedestal position. I question if the matron could outline morality more definitely than this male censor has done.

Posed as Men for a Time. The romantic story of Jennie Holdredge, who loved Ira Johnson and, disguised as a boy, followed him to sea on the American Eagle (which was lost recently off Point Judith), is not without parallel. Phoebe Hassel, born In March, 1715, was passionately fond of Samuel Goldlng, a private in the regiment called Kirk's Lambs, which was ordered to the I West Indies. Fifteen years old, she en- ! listed and embarked. Not till Goldlng was wounded five or six years later at Gibralter and sent to Plymouth did she disclose her sex to anyone. She, too, was sent to Plymouth, where Goldlng was In the hospital. They married. She survived him; married again, and again was a widow. She lived to be 106. Georgo IV, of illustrious memory, once honored her by describing her she sold apples and gingerbreads in her later years--as "a jolly old fellow;" he allowed her 18 a year and he gave her a tombstone. Heticence Is Golden. There is no greater art than that of reticence; to appear absolutely frank, yet never letting transpire anything which one does not care to have known. To be pleasantly chatty and conversational, yet never committing one's self to a statement or opinion which might be used against one afterward; proving sympathetic listeners to other people's woes, yet giving no confidences in return, though guarding religiously those that have been received. Such are the traits of the people who master the art of reticence. They are the salvation as they are the charm of society never making mischief, and by their habitual reticence raising up barriers before which gossip, hate and humor die. Fine Manners. Fine manners in these fin-de-slecle days are rapidly becoming a lost art; a fact which Is very much to be deplored. For courteousness and politeness go far toward rounding off life's sharp angles and lightening the heavy burdens that we, each and all of us, are predestined to carry on our journey to the distant shores. I don't quite know what to hold responsible for the present absence of the attention given to what in the past was deemed the most important factor of one's education. At the court of Marie Antoinette all emotions and passions were veiled by a mask of politeness. Even the children were taught to speak with wit and tact and courtesy, and to bear pain in silence. For instance, the little Due d'Angouleme, only eight years old, when old Sanburn entered his presence unexpectedly, said, touching his book, "Ah, monsieur, I am in the company of Plutarch's men. You could not have come at a moment more apropos!" And the Comte de Pallance, beheaded in his tenth year, stood erect and calm in the cart until he reached the guillotine. The headsman lifted his long curls. "Mercl, monsieur!" said the boy, with a bow and a smile. The next moment his head roiled in the dust. In those days the man or woman who showed any signs of pretension or selfconceit was not received at court. Profound deference was shown to women and the aged. Well-bred men heard of their own ruin with a bon mot and went out to fight each other to the death with such grace and courtesy that the duel seemed a sacrament of friendship. Could the shades of those who lived In that age assume the human form again and walk among us nineteenth century ones, with what horror and disgust would our modern manners fill them! We up-to-date ones are constantly boasting of the strides we have taken in every direction toward the enlightenment of the ignorance of the ages which preceded us. In our egotism and self-complacency we are overlooking the gravity of the faults we are creating for ourselves, and the plaudits we so eagerly bestow on this age and its accomplishments make us unfortunately impervious to the many lessons we might, with great profit to manners and morals, acquire from the ages which are past. Woman and Corsets. Curiously enough, women are not responsible for the existence of the corset at all! It is man, who rails against what is commonly dubbed an "instrument of torture," to whom it owes its origin; for the first corset of which any mention can be found was worn by the Greek poet, Clnesias; and Aristophanes ridicules him for it In his comedies, Clnesias was vain to a degree, and as he thought himself too tail and thin, he conceived the idea of adding symmetry to his figure by surrounding it with a cuirass made of little planks of wood. Later, this corset was adopted by yet another man the Emperor Antonius Plus. It was some little time before the Roman women affected It, and then It only encircled the waist the bust was left free. Gradually, however, it extended above and beljw the waist line until it reached modern proportions. Catherine de Medici was the first woman to wear the bust corset in France; but it was worn commonly many years before her reign, in Italy. Women with Mustaches. One of the old fogies who spend their days in compiling disagreeable statistics says that mustaches are more common among women now than formerly, and that fully 8 per cent of the women are thus adorned. In the countries of the Latin race Italy, Spain and Franca women wi:h mustaches are plentiful enough. There is the Queen cf ;pain, for one. She floes not mind it, for women with downy lips are admired in those parts of the world. Among rations of the Teutonic race, on the entrary, there is a squeemish distaste ,!or. them probably because they are jju rare. Women in England are not usvrfpins mustaches along with other institutions which man has surrendered to or divided with them.

INDIAN SCHOOL.

COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES AT CARLISLE INSTITUTE. Wot Like the Closing Days in Other Schools Teaching: the Remnant of the Aborigines to Trim Ideas Instead of Arrows. A Carlisle, Pa., special to the Washington Star, says: Commencement at Carlisle Isn't like a commencement anywhere else on earth, except It be In one of the other schools like unto that of Carlisle, a dozen or so of which are scattered over the United States; offshoots of the Carlisle plan, and devoted In Instructing the remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants .how to trim Ideas instead of arrows, and to eat with forks instead of fingers. Carlisle was the pioneer proving ground of this method of solving the 'Indian problem," and Capt. Pratt of the Tenth cavalry, the father of the method, during a long and varied experience among the Indians on the plains, and afterward, when in charge of the unruly prisoners taken in the war of 1874-75, and transferred to Fort Augustine, found that the Indians have hearts and souls, and he found, too, that ihey are amenable to kindly influences and eager to learn. Then it was that the educational seed sprouted, out of which Carlisle has grown. Capt. Pratt didn't do all of the work alone, however, nor all of the thinking. Mrs. Pratt, his gentle, cultured wife, has been his able lieutenant, and his fair young daughter has been a good staff officer. Every industry and many arts and sciences are taught at Carlisle. The boys are trained to be tinners, tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths, harness-makers, I carpenters, cabinet-makers, wagonmakers and farmers. . as their tastes run, each youth being permitted to take up for his trade the one that he likes best. The girls learns beside books, all the womanly accomplishments, such as sewing, washing, ironing, darning, mending, baking, etc. - Boys and girls alike are instructed in music, drawing, painting and the other arts, and alike they serve half of each day In the schoolroom and the other half In one af the industrial classes. For their services in these classes a few cents a day Is paid to each student, and these and the "outing" earnings amount in the aggregate to nearly $25,000 a year, all of which is placed to the credit of each individual earning it, and it can be drawn upon at will, under slight restrictions. There Is a regular cashier, whose duty Is to care for this fund, and It is quite amusing to watch the students draw upon their bank account. j They have bank books, which are models of neatness. An Indian seems to I taku naturally to penmanship arid flgI Ores. There are some things that .the stu- ! dents of Carlisle could teach the' people I who talk of "civilizing" them. The young ladies seldom or never wear any other head covering than a bright scarf, and in the evening their glossy7- and well-kept black hair is fully in evidence, with a bit of bright ribbon or flower coquettishly adjusted in it. The Indians love everything that is bright and beautiful, and the flower man that j comes out every morning reaps a rich harvest from them. Indian children are naturally devout. The belie in a higher power seems to be born in them and finds expression In the Sabbath school, Y. M. C. A. and the King's Daughters. A young Washington girl, who is a teacher at Carlisle, Miss Cummings, is one of the leaders in the King's Daughters. The little silver cross that sets them apart from all others Is a common ornament. The love of the beautiful is shown in many ways. In the neat dormitories everything is as clean as soapsuds can make it, and pretty ruga, pictures and pieces of artistic handiwork, made by the owners themselves or purchased with their own spending money, adorn the rooms. The great dining-rooms are furnished with white table linen and silver, neat china and glass ware. Everything that appeals to the sense of the beautiful is furnished. The "outing" system is one of the great institutions of Carlisle. When the; school was first established it was objected that it would be a nuisance to the surrounding farmers, who seemed to have an idea that the students would go on foraging expeditions when they ! got tired of the restrictions of the I school. Now these farmers are turn.- I bllng over each other to get Indian boys I to work for them In the summer. That the boys are thoroughly imbued with a progressive spirit is shown in the fact that when congress positively refused to make appropriations for needed additions to the buildings for the boys, and for an amusement hall, the students went to Capt. Pratt a"'l told him that they would give $t,S00 of their earnings for the proposed improvements If he could raise the rest. He accepted the proposition, and the j improvements were iade. It was in this hall that one of th Vrettiest sights i of the commencement "week took place. The Carlisle boys are handsomely uni formed and splendidly drilled in all evo- j lutions and in marching, though they carry no guns. Their perfectly fitting uniforms are made by their own tailor, assisted by Indian boys who are learning that trade. Everything the Indian students wear Is made by themselves. The girls have a light, airy sewing-room and make all their own clothes also. The five companies, looking as trim as a lot of bandbox dudes in their bright new uniforms, gave a drill In the afternoon in the gymnasium hall. They all wore white gloves, and handsome caps above their dark faces, and the pre cision with which they maneuvered was something remarkable. The drill was followed by a game of basket ball, olayed by young Indian gl. 's, in uni forms of blue flannel, made m Turkish ' divided skirt fashion, fastened at the ' knee, displaying extremely small feet, j in low, soft shoes and black stockings. One team wore bright red sashes under their loose blouse waists, and the others dark blue, to match the suits. MLLE. AUGUSTA HOLMES. Tlio Vlrat Woman to Produce Her Uwa Work on Lyric Staga. There is an nrtistie association well worth recording, with the name of Mlie. Augusta Holmes a name whieh, without the accent, comes to her from Ireland. She had a ooM, cold success with her opera in Paris. She won universal

esteem no enthusiasm. It was even remembered against her that she was not, literally and truly, the first woman to produce her own composition upon the lyric stage. An opera was composed, likewise in Paris, by a Mile. Bertln, daughter of the once celebrated editor of the Debats, upon a libretto from Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame." It was called "Esmeralda" (as was, by the way, another opera on the same romance composed by Fabio Campana, once so familial1 a figure in musical London), and was produced in 1836. But what is not generally remembered is that Henri Regnault came to her for a model for his prix de Rome picture, the picture of all his young ambition, the picture that made him, which Is his memorial now in the Ecole des BeauxArts in Paris. There it hangs, with all the prlx de Rome pictures of the young French art of nearly two centuries, and there it records the blonde beauty of the woman musician. It was with her and her father and to the sound of her music thai: Henri Regnault spent his last evening on earth a night of "wit and wine, of laughter and guitars." The next day hi fell at Buzenval. Mile. Holmes herself became a prize-winner very soon after ; she studied under Caesar Franck, under Wagner, and kept her connection with painting, for she composed a symphonic ode to one of her pictures of Puvis de Chavennes. But her opera is an opera full of songs, and In construction, therefore, out of date. Wagner was Ignored in it; and no one, in Paris or elsewhere, can be permitted to ignore Wagner now and henceforth. In one too ambitious evenine Mile.

Holmes has compromised the progress of twenty steady years. The audience' would have been more bored than they were had not her first opera night been also the first opera night of the presi dent. : DOGS IN CLOTHES. In Paris the Best bogs Actually Carry UJmbrfUas. ' .', No matter what the dress may be, the indispensable companion of .the woman who walks is her little ftojgV-Short-haired terrier or long-haired toy, it is of no moment, provided that it be very tiny. At the moment it is, perhaps, the terrier which is the most popular, as he furnishes a further excuse for the exhibition of fur, in that hW smooth coat does not appear to his kindhearted mistress as sufficient protection from the cold of this season of the year. So the little dog has his tailor as well as his owner, and Ledouble, of the Palais Royal, may be called the Worth of the kennel. With garments of velvet, trimmed with fur, or of cloth strap-stitched and embroidered, the clothing of the little creature harmonizes with that of his possessor. Some ladies provide mackintoshes for their pets for rainy days, and have, them made with a full hood, which covers the ears. Others there are who choose tartan, having points turned back at the shoulders and fastened with a strap around the body. For those believed" to be particularly chilly, the coats are provided with collars of quite Medici style, and are lined throughout with astrakhan, nutria, or even beaver, as these short furs are too cumbrous for the petted animals. There are some which actually have umbrellas of dark blae silk, which they have been taught, to carry quite straight and steadily between their teeth in the event of a sudden shower. They are also- provided with handkerchiefs in cases of accidents, a tiny pocket in which to carry these being placed on one side ofthe coat. These handkerchiefs, adds th Paris correspondent of the London Daily Graphic, are found useful when madarae stops a few minutes at the confectioner's, and can wipe her pet's nose and paws after his share In the delicacies she buys. ALFONSO'S FATAL GEM. A Royal Opal Which Brings Death to the Wearer. One of the strangest of the many jewels which hang around the neck of the statue of Our Lady of Almudena, at Madrid, is a ring which is believed to have brought misfortune to the royal house of Spain during the last two decades. It is a magnificent opal, surrounded by large diamonds. The late King Alfonso XII. gave It to his cousin Mercedes when he was betrothed to her, and she wore It during the whole of her married life, which lasted only a few months. On her death the younk king presented it to his grandmother, Queen Christina, who died shortly afterward. Then it passed to the king's sister, the Infanta del Pilar. No sooner had she begun to wear this fatal gen than she sickened, and In a few days her body was borne to the grave. Alfonso next sent the ring to his sister-in-law, Christina, the youngest daughter of the Due de Montpensier, but in three months it reverted to the king by her death. His majesty, for the first time realizing the horrible succession of events attaching to the ownership of the opal, determined to keep it himself, fearful that if he again bestowed it upon one of hia fair relatives she would not long stir vlve the gift. He himself therefore fell a Victim to its mysterious malignancy, dying shortly afterward. The present queen was anxious to be rid forever of the ring, so she gave instructions that !t should be suspended around the neck of the statue of the Holy Virgin of Almudena, where it has since remained. Choosing the Nation! Capital. "It is not generally known," says the Philadelphia Record, "but it is a matter of history, nevertheless, that Bristol township, lying on the east side of Germantown, had a very narrow escape from being selected as the site of the capital of the United States. It was a very small matter that turned the choice toward Maryland and Virginia, So positive were some members of con-gi-ess that the capital was going to be located near Germantown that they purchased, real estate there, not, of course, as a matter of speculation, but simply to be near at hand when the removal from "Philadelphia to Bristol took place. When the vote of the comi. issioners was taken there was a tie, four being for Pristol and four for the District of Columbia. Washington cast the deciding vote, and Bristol township was left out in the cold." Misleading. Scribbler (in stationery and book ! store) Have you the book "One Thouj sand Jokes of the Ancients? j Clerk No. Scribbler Then why do you keep that, sign "IValer in Writers' Supplies" ini the window? L.fe