The Syracuse Journal, Volume 1, Number 16, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 13 August 1908 — Page 3

'T'he AA Zhited Oepulchre I The V V Tale of O Pelee , By Will Levington Comfort . I ' ' ■ ■ ■ ■V. Copyright, 1936, by Will Levinsrton Comfort Copyright. 1907. by J. b. Lipfixcott CoMM.vr. All rishis reserved

CHAPTER VI. Constable remembered turning into the driveway after his terrific exertion; remembered that the girl and her mother were standing upon the veranda; that the former stretched out her hand to help him and the elder wdnian released a cutting remark. Then a servant brought a chair, and billows of nausea surged over him. Just as his consciousness waned, and he was launching, chair and all, into space, Lara’s voice reached him again. . * * * Then he was in the hallway, through some miracle, and insisting most uncommonly that he was not to be taken into the library, but into the music room, because the windows there commanded the mountain. He awoke to the interesting discovery that Miss Stansbury was fanning him. Presently she re-chilled a towel in the iced basin and folded it upon his forehead, now deliciously cool. “It’s mighty sweet of you to take care of me this way,” he muttered gratefully. “How is Pelee? How long have I been here? The last I remember, I was lost in the hall, and you found me.” “You've been'here : about three hours, Mr. Constable. Pelee is quiet again, but the whole world is white outside —a perfect blizzard of ash has fallen ’ They say a terrible thing has happened at the extreme northern end of the city. The River Branch overflowed her banks, and ran with boiling mud from the volcano. Thirty people are reported killed and the Usine Guerin destroyed.” . She thought he was considering the disaster in the silence which followed, but in reality he was battling with the old problem. 1 . J “Miss. Stansbury,”' he said finally, “is there anything a man possessed of full faculties could do, say or bring about that would induce your mother to spend the night off-shore?"-She shook her head. “You know that the Madame could be brought in for the mails tb-morrow morning.” “I have taken the liberty to suggest that to mother,” Lara replied. '“She says that to-morrow . will be time-enough.” “Miss'Stansbury, won’t you put yourself in the care of Captain Negley tonight? I hope I’m wrong, but the Guerin disaster may be only a preliminary demonstration—like the operator experimenting to find if it is dark enough to start the maifi fireworks. You know, -I would stay ashore, and Negley is a good old man of the sea.” t‘Doh’t you understand, Mr. Constable?” she said, in real distress for denying him so repeatedly. “Don’t you see that such a thing would bring down a miserable scene uponj our heads? Besides, I am not thinking of my own safety as such a paramount thing. I don’t want to be one of Job’s louie survi-or<= Mother and Uncle Joey and you must go—when I do.” The pale, searching face regarded her. Again he was silent. His lips were shut, his eyelids half-closed. • * ♦ A swift, intuition was borne to the woman. He was about to renew the siege. She was not ready, and shrank from being moved to a decision which she had not formed in the privacy of her own mind. The last two days of suffering had rendered her strangely responsive to his mental actions. His quest had filled her brain with wonders, but*they were not yet coalesced —impulses and ■ inspirations without unity, unbound as yet by judgment. She wanted to yield with grace, if it came to that, but not to be overthrown. His hand reached for hers, but she drew away, “Miss Stansbury ” “Please don’t say it now !” she whispered swiftly, her words startling herself quite as much as the man. “These are such dreadful hours ! We must think of the crisis—only of that—putting behind all that passed night!” “Until?” said Constable, sitting up. “Oh, who can 'tell? One knows—Mr. Constable, isn’t it wicked of you to muddle' me this way?” s . . A smile from him had ■: given her the saving turn. The tension was eased. Now, as he held out his hand to her, she was not slow to accept it, or to miss the meaning of the compact. “Pelee will be beyond the sky line for us all pretty soon,” he said cheerfully. “We’ll be very good pals in the meantime. Please go to the window and see how our ogre is faring—the giant who thinks he’s going to ear. us when we’re prime—’member the fairy story? By the way, Miss Stansbury, did you ever have a set of billiard balls tracking off caroms on your brain-pan?” ■. ’ “Yes, and ten-pins. Men don’t know headache matters. • ♦ * The north is clearer, sin A little while ago it was all a seething mass of blacks and grays.” An exclamation broke from her lips, a*d Constable joined her at the window. A dozen birds had fallen to the lawn from the eaves. Most of them were dead from the tainted air. The sight brought the situation more forcibly than ever to her mind. • . “I should think the birds would fly away!” she said pityingly. “Perhaps the mother birds are waiting for mails to come in,” suggested a voice behind theni. Mrs. Stansbury was standing in the hall doorway. A gracious rain-cleared the air of early evening, and Constable settled himself for a further nap at the north window upstairs. He had not realized his exhaustion, and was astonished to find that it was midnight when he awoke. He was stronger, but a cyclonic headache still oppressed him. Glad though he was for the hours passed, still he was by no means unappresciative of the chances he had taken. A forlorn hope of saving the lady, even though a destroying eruption overtook them at the plantation house, had grown inj his mind since the night before. To be clught asleep would render this Chance ay ar vne. The Gu\rin disaster might be considered amonAthe promises of a favorable issiie, as weTL, as,a forerunner of chaos The mountain’s overflow into the River

Blanch might have; eased the pressure upon the craters. There was no authority nor precedent for such a hope. If Pelee’s fuse were burning shorter and shorter toward a Krakatpan cataclysm, it was not for man to say what spark would shake the world. Still, Constable held the hope. He turned on the: lights in the room. A cablegram had beejn slipped under the door. It proved to be an answer to a message he had sent to Basse Terre in the morning, regarding the movements of the Pantfier. • “Str. Panther arrived and departed here on time,” he read. - There was strength in the word. The mail liner reasonably might be expected to call at Martinique with the dawn, according to schedule. The mails should be ready for distribution at nine. “We’ll have luncheon aboard the Madame to-morrow,” Constable mused, “and while the blessed maiden is passing cake -and pouring tea. the Madame will be running like a seared deer, to hitch hersself to the solid old Horn, built of rock an I sealed with icebergs!” He shaded his eyes at the window, staring beyond the city into the ashen shroud -—Pelee’s flag of truce. “Grand old martyr,” he murmured devoutly. “Hang on, hang on!” There was a-tap at the dooß, and Breen was admitted. “I haven't seen much of you in the past three aeons, miscalled days,” said Constable. “It is true. I have felt my own inconsequence in the presence of the big drama here. It is your drama. Peter. Then, I have found a place of many marvels.”. “Pere Rabeaut’s?” “None other. There is something like coolness in this thrice-burned isle. Also a maiden creature! half child, half woman, wholly wonderful.” . “I have' been glad to see .you make the best of things. Oif course one can never tell on a cruise where one is to encounter a series of business obligations—such as here.”,- . ' ; “True again.” Breen said gravely. “I have been busy as that, but have accomplished nothing. Seriously, Breen, times are running close, a Guerin’s the first volley. To think I haven’t been to the mountain; haven't taken a photograph or a note! My fellow researchers in things seismic will never forgive me for this. Breen, I thought I had a scientific mind—thought that even though I bulled in all else, I was a loyal geolog st; but I have betrayed even that decent instinct;. Another man would have had the women away to sea and be attending the mountain now; but here I am. a child with man’s tools, gassing the night through, and she—across ch- han —marked, for all 1 -know, for I’elee s own . Its good to ''talk, though.” “There’s only one way when words fail. I'et.er. If the mot’.vtain won't recede -from the maiden, you must snatch up the maiden and make a get-away from the mountain.” \ «. “I’m nbt pirate enough, Breen,” Cotad stable replied wearily. \“By the wy; I'm sending some of the {natives orthis city-—the women with babcX—o-£ to the Madhme for cool. air. There j&io reason in the world why we shouldr^entertain our friends of the shop. Soronia is too .rare a creature to be immolated by Pelee’s bursting boilers. She and the Pere might just as well share tlje benefits. You.see, the presence of others makes it possible. Attend to it, Will you?” “Good bld Peter,” Breen said softly; “but I don’t think they would come. Who’d feed qhe little song birds?” “Have bring tire birds along. They’ll, die there!” “I had planned not to go to the little shop again, Peter.” Constable turned upon him abruptly. “Why?” said he. ■ V ‘You see, Peter, she is such a rare little soul —asking so little and so ready to give her all for the promise of a man —think of it. I have found a good many playthings, pottering around this little sunshot planet—clear little films they are now, which stick in the brain and won’t fade. Let me alone, Peter, and I’ll wander back to reason presently. A very ugly album is a sinner’s memory, and when it is quite full the sinner usually dies—sometimes, off Brooklyn piers. The truth is, I found a shred of conscience developed under your culture and Pelee’s heat; and so I refused another plaything, refused to crowd another film into that sullied album of mine. I lied, said I didn’t understand that admiration meant anything to her —and went away. Not too late, I trust. She is a natural optimist, and slow to lose faith in mankind.” Constable believed that Soronia had found her first lover in Breen, and he pitied the heart so suddenly impassioned and so swiftly dethroned of its dream. He remembered the face of Soronia in the court shadows, and his pity lingered. They talked until the Panther lights shone afar in the offing, misty with dawn and vOlcaho fog; then parted for an hour’s rest. Constable was the first below, and there was little joy with the coming of the day. The rumblings of the mountain were renewed. The great tower of ash shot up yesterday was still falling; the trees and shrubbery in the gardens were bent with the weight of white; indeed, many branches were broken. The dismal bellowing of cattle and the stamping of ponies were heard from the barns. It was only by keeping the doors and windows of the house tightly shut that living was bearable. The native who brought the copy of Les Colonies wore a thick wet rag over his nostrils, and had the appearance of having freshly emerged from a bin of cement. Constable and Breen were first in the breakfast room. “This pudgy editor,” Constable declared savagely, as he read the morning paper. “Yesterday I called upon him and in sweet modesty and limping French explained the proper policy for him to take. To-day he devotes a half-column of in-

sufferable humor to my force of character * and extfeme views.” Constable translated Mondet’s account of the Guerin disaster, and his assurances of the safety of Saint Pierre, so far as the mountain was concerned. “Oh, the flakiness of that French mind!” he exclaimed. “With a volcano in the pangs of dissolution, towering over the is apparently in dread of an earthquake! . * * ♦ ‘Where on the island.’ thus he inquires editorially, ‘could a more secure place than Saint Pierre be found in the event of an earthquake visitation?’” Constable crushed the paper ih his hand. He glanced at his watch and then at the mountain, from a habit now graven deeply. “The northern end of Saint Pierre is flooded out like an ant hill under a kettle boiling over,” he capitulated thoughtfully. “The mountain is gathering for anotner demonstration. Let us flee with all dispatch to the craters of the voice no, to escape this hypothetical earthquake! M. Mondet certainly enthralls me. I must call upon him again. * • * Breen, is there any way to stimulate the distribution of the Panther mails?” CHAPTER VII. Immediately after breakfast Constable drove down to the city to send out final orders to Captain Negley, and attend certain matters having to do with the Madafne’s facilities for entertainment. Uncle Joey was to go for the - mails;' 9 lf he could prevent. Constable was that there should be no hitch nor tangle • at the last moment. In spite of darkish apprehensions, his heart would burst now and then into singing, since he asked but two hours more of old Pelee, upon whose summit was now written in lightning and black cloud the omiudus letters of Disaster. The ladies Were left, to such graceful ministrations of Breen as were found needful. Mrs. Stansbury, having gained her point, imposed no further delays. The eagerness of the daughter was controlled, but in no way concealed. The past three days had left a pallor upon her face, and shadows under her eyes, but the innate fineness 'of her features seemed intensified rather than diminished by -physical suffering, and the more subtle perturbations of the inner woman. “When a strain brings out the splendor of a woman’s face, mark her well for a thoroughbred,” Breen had found occasion to whisper to.his friend. The sentence was soul’s refreshment, as Breen intended it to be. Constable, indeed, was contemplating the full significance of the words, and their possible bearing upon.' his present and future, as he rode down the Morne d’Orange into the Rue Victor Huge. The little black carriage of Father Damien was approaching, and, gripped by a sudden idea, Constable halted it, saying tothe elder spirit of the parish, whom he had met at the plantation house: “Father, take this two thousand francs and use it for the maintenance -of the homeless refugees in Fort fie France. I shall see that more funds get to you to-day.” A little way further, another carriage approached, one of the public conveyances of the city this time. Behind the driver loomed the head and shoulders of’ a white man—hard head and broad shoulders—the sight of whom struck the music from the brain of Constable, aka knife that is •?oshi-Vacross the strings ©f a harp. Both vehicles stopped abruptly. \ "Well, Ijjhm you,” the Ibroad individual AjVhere’s the other that ftnan whom novWraced was the s. me enerperson -who occasioned discord on Jme Brooklyn pier, just as the Madame swung blithely forth into the harbor. Constable was thinking very rapidly. He felt prepared to commit murder rather than have his plans for the morning thrust aside. “The other fellow?” he repeated gently-' “The man hidden in your cabin when you cleared. His name is Nicholas Stem-, bridge, if you 'dbn’Lhappen to know,” the stranger said, with some impatience. “Where is he?” “Where you jsaw him last,” Constable said, with sudden cordiality; “and I want to state that I’m glad to see you—that is,” he added doubtfully, “if you’ve come to take him away. If you’ve looked me up, you’ll have found that I’m usually ready to pay in money, hide, or liberty, for the mistakes I make.” . (To be continued;") No Pay for Mother. “Mother gets up first,” said the new office boy. “She lights the fire and gets my breakfast so I can get here early. Then she gets father up, gets his breakfast and sends him off. Then she gives the others their breakfast and gets ’em ready for school; and then she an’ the baby have their breakfast.” “What is your pay here?” asked the man. “I get $3 a week and father gets $3 a day.” ■ “How much does your mother get?” “Mother!” fie said indignantly. “Why. she don’t have to work for anybody.” “Oh! I thought you just told me she worked for the whole family every morning.” “Oh! that’s for us—but the?e ain’t no money in that.” Saved by the Trolley. Knox —Saw Green and his wife at the opera last night. I can’t see where their enjoyment came in, as neither of them knows the difference between a symphony and a sonata. Blox—Well, I ought to be ashamed to confess my Ignorance, but I’m in the same boat. By the way, what is the difference? Knox—Why — er —a sonata, you know—er —I mean a symphony is—say, there’s my car, old man; see you later. Puzzles the Small Boy. , The small boy is apt to wonder why a young man has the shoulders of his coat padded instead of the seat of his trousers.— Philadelphia Record. Buenos Aires has a population of of which about 80 per cert is foreign, the Italians forming about 60 per cent of the foreign population.

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F»r Auburn Hair. Henna tea has a, tendency to turn the hair auburn, lit is made by steeping an ounce of the leaves, finely broken, in a pint of boiling water for twenty-four hours. At the end of that time it is strained, and the hair is shampooed and dried thoroughly. It is then wet evenly with the tea, letting it dry in the sun. Another washing in clear water is required, again drying in the sun. The shade is affected by the strength of the tea. == The Lingerie Mob Ca*. The girls of the summer are going in heavily for the elaborate Charlotte Corday ha* The sketch shows one built of white dotted net. the crown surrounded by a soft blue taffeta ribbon. z * The bunphes of rosebuds are of pale pink, which is a good color to put with pale blue'this season. For Health and Beauty. A good rule to acquire a graceful- way of sitting is to be careful that the hips are never farther forward than the shoulders. To keep erect sit so the end of the spine touches the back of the chair. This gives a graceful, swaying motion. To get a good color, wash the face with very hot water, after first having

GUIMPE DRESSES. v/ / fl \ ' J ' Wliw wfi !■ i f wl ■w 11 \' W// IfcAw \W I \ ' / I ' ’ 111 \ r ilk itpk J. ‘"if y

removed the dust from the pores with cleansing cream, then rub the cheeks with small pieces of ice inclosed in a towel or crash washrag. A color thus given will last one through an evening. Bathing the eyes in weak salt water is an excellent strengthened Where there is inflammation, however, weak boracic acid and water will generally relieve it and can not do harm. A Shampoo. Once in three weeks the hair should be washed. Always after washing the scalp should be rinsed in cold water to contract the pores. A good shampoo is made of a raw egg, beaten in half' a gill of lime water. is well rubbed over the head beTore washing in clear water. Every other night I the scalp may be massaged w;th a mixture of boracic acid and alcohol, a dram of the former to three ounces of the latter. C'Mnese Women’i Feet. Women ail over the world will rejoice 'for the sake of their sex to hear that foot-binding in China is a jhing of the past. Minister Wu says that to-day one walks the streets of Chinese cities and never sees a girl under 10 years old with bound feet,'and ladies of middle age whose extremities have > been cramped for a score of Jears deem it

a 'patriotic duty to release themselves from their bondage. This change in public sentiment can be measured by llkeiiing it to a sudden determination on the part of American women to abandon the corset and kereafter to allow the body to be free. For many years before the corset was thought of, women of China had their feet bound and crippled, and their resolution now to submit no longer to that custom marks the rise of a spirit of temmifift independence that is remarkable, V Probably the origin of the foot-bind-ing fashion is to be sought in the selfishness and vanity of men, who wanted to make sure that their womtvi could not escape from the captivity in which they existed. If that is so, Chinese men also are becoming more liberal and enlightened. Mr. Wu seems to be right in saying that China has awakened at last. Avoid Wrinkles. Frequently wrinkles are the result of bad habits, such as repeated con-, tracting of the eyebrows, which forms small lines —sometimes one deep one—between the brows; the lifting of th" eyebrows, which results in transverse lines on the forehead. A stereotype»l smile frequently imprints a heavy furrow, from nose to corner of mouth, on either side. Little lines about the mouth are usually the jesult of much laughter; these, to my mind, are not objectionable; good humor and gayety being more conducive to beauty than lines are to ugliness. Six Million Women at Work. The census bureau has brought out 1 one fact that will amaze the country. In the United States 6,000,000 women work for their living, outside of the home. Does this seem possible In what we like to think is the most highly civilized as well as the richest nation on earth? Half of the single women are selfsupporting. In New York City 400,000

earn their daily bread and lodging, and 40,000 more are. looking for work and cannot find it. Chicago has at” least-two-thirds as many. There are 303 vocations of life, aslisted by the census bureau, and women are found in all but nine. Women have sprung into competition with men only within the past quarter of a century, and the number increases so fast that in the future it seems likely that the sex barrier in the world of labor will be entirely broken down. But if that happens, what will become of the family and the home? Will the world live in vast boarding houses and send the children to State institutions to be reared? America’s Business Women. A Frenchman who was going through a model department store with Mrs. Richardson, a writer in the Woman’s Home Companion, said: “Your working girls—they are derful. See, they are ladies! Such wellkept hands, such beautifully coifed heads, such smart shoes! They must spend much time to make themselves ready for work. Nowhere else in the world will you see such girls earning their living.” “The self-supporting woman in America has won an enviable reputation for good taste in dress,” says Mrs. Richardson. “Not even tn Paris, where

.every woman is supposed, to be chic and to have an ‘air,’ do the self-sup-porting girls bear the stamp of gentility in clothes that you can note in any large city or factory town in the United States.” Dainty Ne<ll<ee. /• ■/ GA S-* 77 IP. A in MhiW/' Mo ~ h/ / - The question of neck finish is a vita, one in connection with the selection oi a summer sacque or wrapper, but toe many women overlook this problem entirely, requiring only that the neck shall be low and cool. As a resuli many a woman looks a fright even in a dainty negligee. This one is ideal ir its simplicity. It is made from th« much-used cretonne in a delightfully .fine quality and dainty design. Note the little fan insets on each side of front. The Eeason Why Women Talk;. Many attempts have been made! by scientists to explain why it is that women the world over are more talka-. five than men. One recent theory, we recall, was that talk, through mouth and throat, does not tire women as it does mem A man wearies after discoursing for awhile, but a woman can chatter all dhy .long and be as fresh as when she started. However that may be, the reason why women wish to talk more than men wish to do so is stated by Father Bernard Vaughn of London to be that women must have many safety valves and outlets for her temperament. Shh is so high-strung and.emotional that if she did not talk she might be expected to burst. Nature has provided the relief she needs. i has . made her like to talk, has made it easy for her. Therefore, she talks, and it were vain to expect to stop her, as it would obviously be unwise and contrary to the great scheme of things. For the most extraordinary phenomena, in the world there is underneath valid cause, if we can but find it. — Chicago Journal. The Bridal Chest. Every fall bride will want a box to hold the articles of her trousseau a» they are gathered together. Beautiful boxes of cedar may be purchased for little, and are made in a very convenient way. Instead of the lid liftinfl up, as did the box of great-grandma so long ago, the front may be dropped down, revealing two drawers to hold the things. The box locks securely and the effect is very neat. Dark cedar boxes are ornamented with the bride’s initials in German letters of solid brass placed on the salsa lid. Neceuary Precautions. A little Southern girl was sent to 4 boarding school in New York. When taken for a. walk she seemed to be much interested in watching the automobiles. After a while she pointed to the extra tires on the passing machines and timidly Inquired: “Why do they carry life-preservers?”—Harper’s. Pincushion Is Useful. At first glance the pincushion invented by a Tennessee man does not appear to be a very important addl-

tion to the thousands of labor and time - saving devices, but second thought will show that it has Its uses and that they are not so insignificant after #ill. It is a horseshoeshaped affair, with a bowed clamping

PINCUSHION.

spring arranged inside, and it fastens on the arm of a sewing machine wherever it is needed. The pperator can thus have a cushion full of pins right at her hand, where she can get them without stopping the machine delaying the work for an instant. Only a woman who does a great deal of sewing can appreciate the time and trouble that will be saved by this little device.

WMETHDIG FOR EVERYBODY

The exposition being arranged’ for 1912 at Tokyo will cover 292 acres. . The entire population of the world could be placed on the Isle of Wight. There are stiver ingots in the Bank of England which have lain there for more than 200 years. Jewls societies in London are agitating the problem of restoring the pure Hebrew of antiquity to use as th£ Jewish national language. i? Largfe quantities of machinery are being ordered by Japan from Great Britain. Among the latest orders is an Immense heating plant, for a group ot manufactories, and a complete outfit for a new sugar-making Industry. Every night while the British Parliament Is in session a letter is dispatched from the House of Commons to King Edward, giving a summary of the pro- [ eeedlngs during the sitting. At present the letter is written by Herbert Gladstone. Os the 600,000 miles of railway in the world, only about 10 per cent are found in strictly tropical territory, and no mole than 15 per cent within what would be termed tropical and subtrop leal areas. Tracks abound in the temperate zope. “The Nu Spelln Leag of Amurrika has,” the says the Glasgow Herald, “Just added seventy-five more, wurds to the langwage. ‘Tisis’ and ‘tung’ are two of the wurst. It wood giv us a slk feelln about the diafram to eat an eg spelt with wun ‘g.’ We get a numnessthru all our lims at the sltb of such foren wurds as’*agast’ and ‘gard,’ ‘lam’ and ‘lndetted.’ There are about sixty more, but these are mpre than enuf for wun parragraf*” A driver on the Avontuur railway. South Africa, while staying at the Gamtoos, caught g. large cobra de capella alive. The cool way in which he-' did the trick (says a local paper) sent a cold shiver through every one who saw it. He simply caught hold of the joint of Its tail, gave it a sudden jerk toward him and caught it by the back of the head. He thru placed it »in a biscuit tin. The snake was three Inches in diameter and about four feet long. We hear that a Parisian metallurgical engineer claims; to have perfected a process of welding 'to steel wire so as to make a noncorrosive coating. Many advantages, it is said, will result from the use of this newswire, such as high tensile strength and elasticity, combined .with surf are exposed to wind and sleet than would be the case, with Iron wire of the same conductivity. This , wire is especially useful over long spans, as pole intervals may be much greater when it is used . —Engineer. The inhabitants of. Grodbn, In ths Tyrol, recently celebrated the advancement of their town to the grade of “market, place.” The streetswere elaborately decorated, and in place of statuary, -says a correspondent in the Welt Spiegel, great Images 'wdre made of snow, of which there was a great quantity. A gigantic statue of St. Ulrich . and busts of heroic size, on artistic pedestals., of former burgermeisters and of the Emperor Francis were produced, and the unique street decorations showed that the. little place contained much artistic talent. Another hot spring was recently added to the nineteen which Carlsbad had for years enjoyed. Workmen who were engaged in clearing out the channels of the “Muhlbrunn” suddenly ■broke into a new spring of hot mineral water twenty-two feet below the surface of the ground. The frater gushed up and,, overflowing the promenade, ran into the river Tepl. The appearance ot the new spring was not altogether welcome to the citizens, because they fear that its flow may diminish that of the Sprudel fountain, which Is Carlsbad’s most valuable asset as a health resort. An Austrian engineer has discovered that trunks of trees retain the salt ot sea water that has filtered through tn the direction of the fibers He has con-' structed an apparatus designed to utilize this discovery in obtaining drinkable water for ship’s crews as quickly as the process of filtration is accomplished. This apparatus consists of a pump which sucks up the sea water Into a reservoir and then forces it Into the filter formed by the tree trunk. As soon as a certain pressure Is reached the water is seen at the end in from one to three minutes, according to the kind of wood used. It makes its exit froin ■ the other extremity of the trunk at first In drops and then In fine streams, the water thus filtered being drinkable, freed, in fact, from every particle of the salty taste. As long ago as the thirteenth century a Chinese named Ye-jin-yang, discovered a method of inducing the formation of pearls ih the Chinese river mussels. The mussels were gently opened, and small pellets, usually of serted. The mussels were then placed In about two feet of running water. At the end of two or three years, says a writer in the Manchester Guardian, they were again opened, when It was often-found that nacreous matter had been deposited on the pellets, forming pearls, millions pf which are sold in ■ Ciilna. The most curious pearls represent the form of a small seated Image of üßddha. The figures are cast In thin lead or stamped on tin, and Inserted in the mussel. Instead of the ordinary pellets.- When covered with the pearl-forming matter they become objects of great veneration to the people, who pay a high price fw them.