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PILGRIMAGE TQ SABOHN J Hysterical, shrieking women quieted by plunging under ice-cold water and having holy oil forced between AT THE SHRINE OF THE N^W [tt&ir unwilling lips seomed quite as RUSSIAN SAINT. A Hilltop in a Great Forest--Ac-|, count of tbe Miraculous Cures. The hermitage of Saroff stands in a magnificent situation, raised high iupon one of those natural fortresses which the Tartar invaders of Russia seized and held; to this day the mixed races populating the neighborhood bear witness to their domination says a writer in tho London Times. After the Russians had retaken the Tartar town established there, they allowed the place to lie •waste for three centuries, until at length there was founded the monastery known as the "Hermitage of Karov," or "Desert of Sarov," now made famous forever to tho orthodox Russian as a place of pilgrimage honored before all others in the empire. The present monastery, hermitage, or desert, is a very handsome pile belonging to an unmistakably wealthy corporation, which owns something fike 100,000 acres of splendid forests, and so rich that it can afford to let this jirofitable source of income stand untouched. It is surrounded with high whitewashed walls and cloisters, within the area of which are three magnificent and richly bedizened churches. Outside one of these is a curious glass house erection, displaying within tho grave of the new saint. His remains were twehumed last December, and it was found that, after only some seventy-years in the grave, nothing remained but the bones and hair. The most revered "holy remains" in .Russia, and there are scores of them, aro asserted and believed to exhibit precisely the same appearance as in life, even after hundreds of years in the tomb. Apparently, means have been found to waive this fundamental objection to the recognition of Father Seraphin as a saint, presumably in view of the miracles worked at the spring connected with his name. But even among the devout this falling away from the stricter tenets of the true faith has caused murmuring, and there are not wanting those who assert that the Emperor has been persuaded to give the authority Of his presence to support the inherent weakness of the present claim to sanctity put forth by this enormously wealthy monastery. THE LITTLE STREAM suggestive of natural any sort of miraculous intervention. Moreover, the number of cripples and blind and deaf people coming away from the spring was fully as large as the number proceeding There were always persons about ready to explain to all and Bundry that St. Seraphin had not given grace in any particular instance because the petitioner's faith was not yet great enough, and he or she must make several pilgrimages more to the holy spring before they might hope to be healed. At booths near the spring the monks were doing a brisk trade in bottles, specially manufactured and lettered "holy water from the spring of Father Seraphin." These sold at ten kopeks each, and might have cost two or three at the outside. Filled from the nearest spout of the holy spring, they would thence be borne over the length and breadth o£> the vast Russian Empire, and the suffering in far-off latitudes would beg for but a drop to heal their pains, and would, perchance, by some curious effect of faith and hope, feel momentary relief, if only in imagination, Tbe faith--or superstition--of the common people in Russia is something which no European could realize in these days. It stands on a level of civilization which in our country had liegun. to disappear when Chaucer wrote the "Canterbury Tales." A severe mental effort is needed to arrive at an approximate understanding of the state of mind of the common Russian of to-day. The Church has proved itself to all who saw the spectacles at Sarov to be absolutely the strongest power in Russia, at. any rate until it becomes militant. In the "great heart of the people" its supremacy is safe and secure, and the people have now the example of the Czar to strengthen the wavering in faith and frighten into the silence of discretion those whoso opinions upon Church and State are neither acceptable nor permissible in Russia. SUBMARINE CABLES. Over 200,000 Miles of Them Use To-day. In a recent address before the London chamber of congress Mr. Charles Bright stated that the total length of submarine cables now amounts to over 200,000 nautical miles, representing a total investment' of about $260,000,000. The present market value of the combined capital of these cables largely exceeds this figure. The cable con-and shipping of Great Bri-about 100 nautical miles -by which we had encamped runs past the base of the hill on which the monastery stands aloft, and is fed partly by the miracle-working sacred spring of St. Seraphin, which is about a mile and a half up stream from the monastery. The road thither is picturesque in true Russian stylo, a weird sense of beauty ming- j iJKl ""r- "„.n ., Una with a consciousness of un-i^ be estimated at $750 per mile kemptness and of unpleasant things | *o cost of laying at about half felt but unseen behind the fringing «f A cable carefully ma.ii.u- fa,-t,cud laid, if the conditions sea bottom be faVotrable, should be expected to last thirty It might be kept in 9 and in the depths af the forest 'actn.iv 1 beyond. The roadway had obvious-iof 1 v ly been recently widened and levelled, but was, of course, tiinoccmt of any attempt at paving. One the right ran the streamlet, a»s£ on the left rose up the spurs of the hill range whose highest point was crowned by the monastery. The road was filled with pilgrims, both going and returning. Two things became noticeable among them at first, the entire absence of any bet i ei-class-looking, people, which caused our little party ' 000■0,(1 to be stured at more curiously than respectfully; and, s Sence of any loathsome, unciean eases. The sick on uilgrimage the spring of healii,; had cert been selected in MUM manner or other, for they consisted almost entirely of what a professional man would class as surgical cases, together with the blind and deaf. A largo proportion were cripples of that class which makes its livelihood by its deformities, and these in most cases had probably been artificially produced in childhood. All along the route wero wells of pure spring water at frequent intervals, and, apart from the sanctity of the water, which was eagerly di 1 operatisn indefinitely by the sive replacement of the parts. The cost of maintenance is usually put down at from $30 to $40 per mile per annum, though there is always the possibility that heavy expenses may be called for to make repairs. Deep sea cables have genorally proved very remunerative. About 6,-0 cable messages are now sent. ?ar, having increased out of onV'iy," tlie ab- all proportion to the increased milc-'" dis- i aCe of the cables. welct j in tho scorching sun over that sandy road to the spring. The common peoph drank after crossing t lemselves a1 and each had some with it, told by lay b better-informed pilgii knew by what ager in charge hazarde that it was becaus foundation, for the place associated v works of the Saint e healing propel WHAT THE CENSUS SHOWS. A notable result of the recent census of church attendance in London is the discovery that prayer meetings, which were once regarded as the vital breath of the life of the church, have almost ceased to exist. But 8.3 per cent, of the German born males in the United States have failed WHAT WE AM LIVING OH WE KNOW EXACTLY HOW HEAVY OUR WORLD IS. Speculation as to the Atom in the Universe That We Call the Earth. Hardly any two scientists agree to the age of the earth--that is, to the length of time which has elapsed since the earth's cms came solid. Considering the very slow rate at which rocks are deposited by water, and the i thickness cf the beds of these ified" rocks as they are called, seems that at least 1,000,000,000 years have passed since the globe evolved in its present shape the whirling mass of ince matter which it must once have been But Lord Kelvin, arguing from tl known rate of loss of heat, declari that not more than 100,000,000 years is the limit of time which has passed by since firm rocks appeared and life began upon the earth. More recently Prof. Tait ha.s on to believe that a tenth of Lord Kelvin's estimate may be nearer the truth. All geologists, howet clare that the latter estimate We know with the utmost exactitude how heavy our little world is If you put down the figure 6 and follow lt by twenty-one naughts, you have it within a very few milUon tons. Roughly speaking, this implies that the earth is live and s half times as heavy as a globe ol water of the same size. But, in spite of this accurate know ledge of the earth's weight, we have no real idea of what is the condition of things inside our planet. Thousands of experiments made in all parts of the world show that the temperature rises on an average ahout 1 degree for every 00 feet BELOW THE SURFACE. If this rate of increase continues gularly toward the centre, that part of the globe must be at a heat appalling that imagination is able to grasp it. When this fact of increase of temperature with depth first became ascertained geologists got the idea that we were living upon a furious furnace, of which volcanoes wore the escape pipes. Now we know better than that. We have found, among other things, that an earthquake in Japan is able A~ register itself in England. This tually happened in the case of disaster in north Japan four or years ago, when 30,000 j pie lost their lives. A tremor this kind could not pass unless the earth had a rigidity approaching that of steel, and observations tides and the attractions exercised upon us by sun and moon have made it pretty certain that our world just about as hard and solid as nAich steel. This does away with the liquid terior theory and makes it fairly certain that the earth is solid through, with perhaps occasional cumulations of fluid rock here there in parts where, for some n on or other, the pressure is not great as it is in others. It also upsets the old theory volcanoes, and the modern idea with regard to these mountains of death nd destruction is that water fr< he surface finds its way through 3W miles below the surface, a then, being suddenly turned ir m, causes an explosion, or seri explosions, like boiler burstings i giganiic scale, .-cry schoolboy knows thi shape of the earth is an oblate spheroid--that is to say, that it flattened a little like an orange two poles. The polar diameter be earth is actually twenty-soven s less than its diametei Two lized, while cent, of the English, 35 per the Russians, 53 per cent of ians, and 80 per cent of the :e are still aliens. TOLD IN FIGURES, nillions of London's inhabi--lever go to church, the city of New York there are 787,477 white persons born of i income tax returns show that grim vit.h v t-ries v i supposed to !;, and the pil- iiid dii THE SACRED SPRING | of healing now p< much as .f it had below a wooden chapel on the bank of tl c stn ily constructed rough s bathhouses for ire., an enough to raise the /* earthly consideration their * nakedness to t large under the spout ^bathhouses appt :trel ^full; ii each there v. es irth icy cold forth from a which looks , house.0 Just which stands lingle-boarded * which the held gasping and selves. Outside the mixecfup together, bi j parontly in such a tei ad- m above the of exhibiting outside.d The a fervor of religious uere mundane con-rodesty and decency ief in their gen-: was sufficient tions of the scep- WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN. The brain of a child at birth r-i,?hf under ten ounces, but at the d oi a year has increased to two iiin'd-i, Full growth is attained by ri . about 20 years of age, and i women at 18 years. _ _ eqiu But ab- tained whether Battening is similar at both pol Some Artie explorers appear to of the opinion that the flattening is greater at the North than at I" South Pole. ANOTHER STARTLING FACT which has recently been demonstrated is that the equator is not a perfect circle. If you could drop a plumb line from- Ireland through to New Zealand it would be somewhat longer than another which cut the earth at right angles to it. The elifference absolute i level as an invariable quantity, is positively startling to find how very far from level the of ( fro: nfluence of tides and winds, there are great and permanei vations in the sen--positive i tains, in fact. It is calculated that in the Bay of Bengal the watc at a level exceeding that of Indian Ocean by fully 300 feet, and that of the Pacific Ocean along the coast of South America may be heaped up as much as 2,000 feet "They say Mr. Leghorn is born of a "I should say so. Why, his mother v ly five hundred dollars," higher than the water in the opposite Atlantic. These water m tains depend upon the attraction of great mountain masses, the Bay of Bengal upon the Himalayas and the South Pacific upon the Americr" Andes. The height of our highest mou tains has been measured to within an inch or two, and we have accurate information on the subjeel of the great depths of the sea. Bu1 we do not yet know with any certainty how deep is the atmospheric envelope of the earth. At one tinw 27 miles was given as the limit. This was increased to 40, and soon ever this estimate was extended to 100. Our only means of measurement is by the meteors, which spring into ar incandescent blaze through frictior when they strike our atmosphere. As man cannot live at a much greater-height than five mi'es, it may that we shall never learn oxf how thick is the atmosphere ocea the bottom of which we crawl. i Sodeh- PERS0NAL POINTERS. Notes of Interest About Some Prominent People. The bracelet which King Edward wears on his left wrist is one of hi most cherished possessions. It b< longed originally to Maximilian, tl: ill-fated Emperor of Mexico. The oldest teacher in the presumably Herr Dorfer, i len, Prussia. In spite of his ninety-jven years he is still teaching. He ever has been ill in his life. The most costly dress in Mme Sarah Bernhardt's wardrobe is one oi ivory satin, lavishly adorned with diamonds and turquoise and with lined with the fur from 200 Apart from the jewels, th( dress is worth $7,000. The Grand Duke Alexis is the most tattooed Royalty in Europe, ther? being no fewer than seven distinct designs upon him which he has caus-be added at different times King Oscar of Sweden is almost a* tely adorned. William C. C. Whitney, the American millionaire, is an enthusias-portsman. He has won the Derhy once and tried on other oc-'ons. He has two magnificent ng establishments--that in Texas the biggest place of its kind in the world. He has the greatest game preserve ever bought in one plot-- 70,000 acres of it, in the Adiron-dacks-- and a mansion in New York ing tapestries valued at $50.-000, bronzes, minatures, paintings, nd ceramics beyond price. The Sultan of Turkey, it is said, keeps fifteen dragoman secretaries constantly employed in translating he best of the world's literature for lis reading. The translations include not only serious works on history, politics, and science, but nov-'n every European language. They written on large sheets of thick white gilt-edged paper, fastened together by ribbons. The Sultan Is said to hav? a special weakness for rgt-orts-^tTameros Trials and for •els in which a great crime is the chief motive. Kennerley Rumford tells the following love story. "My engage-he says, "to Miss Clara Butt differed in some respects from the usual betrothal, for it may be said taken place on the public platform while we'were both singing the old English duet, 'The Keys of Heaven,' in which I had to sing the lines, T will give you the keys of my heart, and we'll bo married till Death us do part..' " The famous singers were married some time ago, and Mr. Kennerley Rumford claims to be the happiest husband in England. There is residing at Graham, Lincolnshire, England, hale and hearty, despite his ninety-seven gymnast and contortionist a remarkable record. Henry Johnson, born on Christmas morning, 1806, at St. Mary's, Norwich, performed, in company of Mullaba, the great Chinese juggler, before King William IV., in 1830, on a stage erected on the lawn at Buckingham Palace. Johnson and Mullaba so delighted the King that he them a Royal license to perform in any town, market-place, or hotel, and a present of $250 each. Johnson also performed before the Duchess of Kent and Queen Victoria at the Royal Hotel, Turnbridge ."ells, iving a the 1 Queen Victoria's hands of fi ereigns. Sir Edward Clarke was predestined n youth neither for law nor politics, but for the less ambitious career of commercial traveller. His father is a goldsmith and jeweller in London, and Edward spent his time from thirteen to seventeen years old learning the business." But his t was evidently not there, for he tells how, even at school, the first book he ever bought with his own pocket-money was "Brougham's 5 of Statesmen," in three vol-. The consumption of such fare twelve-year-old boy is proof enough of an early hankering after olitics. Sir Edward would most kely havo distinguished himself in ny career, for his old friend, Sir Henry Irving, is fond of declaring ■th emphasis that he would have done brilliantly "at tho Lyceum." Thomas ~Lipton's yacht Erin perfect museum of interesting snirs in gold and silver, each connected with some incident in his life or those of other people. When conducting visitors over his palatial vessel, the first object he draws attention to is the silver model of a Viking ship, won by Shamrock II. at the Glasgow Exhibition on tho Clyde in 19Q1. Next •der comes a cigar cabinet, full of the choicest brands, and made from oak and copper saved from Nel-Foudroyant. Another memen-_f that hero is the.solid silver candelabra bestowed upon Nelson by Corporation of Porstmouth in 1798. In showing it Sir Thomas often says it is not much to look ipon, but he rejected with horror the suggestion of an American friend to it sent to a silversmith for ITELLEOT AO ISDHES. MO ANTARCTIC WASTE. MANY NOTED MEN WERE OF SPLENDID PHYSIQUE. lisary Flout ag was a Splendid Fellow--Charles Meade's There were few more magnificent men of his day then Henry Fielding who is described by Jefferson as "a splendid fellow, frank in bearing, agile as a trained wrestler, rather exceeding 6ft. in-height." Add to this picture aristocratic features, an engaging expression, and a presence of impressive dignity, and we hav the presentment of a man of quite exceptional personal endowment. An equally striking picture is drawn of Charles Reade, who is banded down to us as "a stately and imposing man, over 6ft. high, •.vith a massive chest, herculean limbs, and a bearded and leonine face;" while Thackeray would, with Fielding and Reade. have made an admirable third in a trinity of men all" exceptiona ly dowered with "intellect and stature." In height he rose well over 6ft., and to the last he carried his broad-shouldered, well-proporttoned, commanding figure with the erectness of a trained soldier. "Ho seems to stand," Theo-iore Taylor says, feet, mid by praise or pugilists." The effect of Edmund Burke's eloquence was heightened by a physique which few orators have ever rivalled. "You may call me mad, I know," Mme. d'Arblay wrote, "but if I wait, until I see another Mr. Burke for such another fit of ecstasy I may be long enough in my sober good senses." Burke is described as a finely-made, muscular man, about 5ft, 10 in. high with a frame that denoted GREAT PERSONAL STRENGTH. Burns was noted oven among Scotsmen for his splendid figure, and had a countenance which once seen could never be forgotten. Like Burke he was only 2in. under 6ft.. and ln his body he combined agility with immense strength to a remarkable degree. Captain Marry at was a man of such muscular development that he might well have posed for a Hercules. "He was not a tall man --5ft 10in.." according to a writer in the 'CornhiU/ "but. I think, intended by Nature to be 6ft., only having gone to sea while still almost a child, at a time when the be-tween-decks were very low-pitched, he had, he himself declared, had his growth unnaturally stopped. His Immensely-powerful build and massive chest, which measured considerably Over40in. round, would incline one - ' belief." Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd." was a "fine figure of a man. in height he was 5ft. lOthr.; his broad chest and square shoulders indicated health and strength; while well-rounded leg and small ankle nd foot showed the active shepherd who could outstrip the runaway sheep." There were few finer men to be seen in Princess Street. Edinburgh, than John Wilson, ter known to fame as " North," author of the brosianae." "Figure to yourself,-' De Quincey says," a tall man about 6ft. high, within, half an inch or so, built with tolerable appearance of strength, and wearing, for the predominant of bis person, lightness and he seemed framed with an express view to gymnastic exercises WILLIAM COBBETT proud of being recognised as most stalwart man in bis regiment, just as, in later and very different years, he was the giant of the Hons* of Commons. 'In stature," writes in his biography, "the late Mr. Cobbett was tall and athle-I should think he could not have been less than 6ft. 2in., while breadth was proportionately Carlyle, who in his shriv- " Christopher great": and latter years elled spccim( scribed ' Would Help Scientists to Understand What They Already To attempt to sum up all the advantages to be derived from such an exploration of the South Polar regions as has been bestowed on those of the Northern Hemisphere would make a lengthy catalogue; but among the subjects of primary importance which would increase our present stock of knowledge may be mentioned the obtaining of new facts about tho atmosphere, the Polar ice, and the innumerable subjects which bear on it; the distribution of land, the magnetic conditions which there pre-d that bearing on meteorology, together with observations of tides and ocean currents, the depth of the ocean itself, its temperatures, and the life it contains. This last subject involves the great question of the distribution of animal and vegetable life, both in the present and the past, and may havo a connection with the history of the climate of the globe. Tho geological history of the South Polar regions may be said to be still practically unknown. Without such information, which in only be derived by patient ob-irvations collected on the spot, it may safely be said, once more to quote Sir John Murray, that "we an never arrive at a right under-tanding of the phenomena by which ve are surrounded, even in tho habitable part of the globe," and that e results of a successful Antarc-expedition would mark a great ance in the philosophy, apart from the mere facts, of terrestial sci-ce," while "without such informa-sn as would be derived from the llections and observations brought back from such an expedition, it ia impossible to discuss with success tho present distribution of organisms over the face of the globe, or a true conception of tho antecedent conditions by which that distribution has been brought forth." CONDITIONS REVERSED. The geography of the Antarctic re-ions, though of secondary import-nee to the subjects above mentioned, presents features of much interest. The scientific world seeniB to be reed on the fact that there is this liking difference between the North and South Poles--that in the North a Polar sea almost completely surrounded with land, while "n the South this arrangement is re-ersed, and there appears a large aass of land surrounded by the >cean. An expedition to the South Pole might succeed in discovering whether this mass of land, to quots Sir Archibald Geikie, "is one great t, or a succession of islands and archipelagoes," as well as what To quote the same authority, "We now that in Victoria Land it ter-linates in a magnificent mountain range with peaks from 10,000 to ,000 feet high." We have, how-sr, only the merest fragments of knowledge with regard to the rocks lonstituting the land, though, so far ts the comparatively few specimens lave been studied, they resemble •ocks found in other parts of the larth. -SOLVE. BRITISH HISTORY. The whole of Britain, except the south of England, was buried under he ice-sheet which extended from he North of Scandinavia into the Flot I feet i the his f humanity," is de-|ditioi also tilled up the bed of the Bait and North Seas and advanced int the Atlantic, terminating there in cast wall like the Antarctic "ban-The countcrpa Lor Sir Walter Scott, apa mple of a nl . rords f Lockhart he , from his a splendid In the "tall, ond ■the usual standard, and mould of o young Hercules; the head set on with a sin-the throat and chest ?st models of the antique; the whole outline that of extraordinary vigor, without a touch of •lumsiness." Sir Phi'ip Sidney was "tal1, shape-v, and muscular." Hallam is recalled as "a tall and remarkably handsome man, very stately in look ' ave detracted nothing from the fine dignity of his deportment. Harrison Ainsworth was lavishly gifted with physical perfections although as a young man he did his best, by foppish arts, to neutralize Nature's generosity. He is pictured to us as "an English gentleman of goodly stature and well-set limbs, with 'a fine head on his shoulder- " and life." bly hai : So.il > be s md it that in the Ant and snow there 12,000 feet "flame and Other volcanoes have clearly once also been active. Mount Erebus, as Ross named his volcano, stands so lecti > beer 1 be inform us as to the nature of the molton magma with the earth in that region, and might enable us to compare the succession of volcanic products there with those found in moro temperate latitudes. WIND AND STORM. Much i ith regard to tho tem-e Antarctic Ocean, and vind blows. This in-■ be expected to throw will not. improbably WITH THE SCIENTISTS. M. Curie, the discoverer of radium, has found that the rays of radium color glass a violet blue. The brains of the Japanese, both male and female, average greater in weight than those of the English. The unexplored antarctic region, which equals Europe ir largest unexplored a tho nld. In an 450,000,000 e on "The Age of tho Edward Fry, the fam-reologist, declares that sako of the magnetic i Government persuaded A