. FEEDING THE GREAT DRACON. In China the dragon as chief of the fabulous monsfers, is worshipped and feared hy many, and is also the em- blem of royalty. 2 The sunerstition of all classes con- rnjng it is probably a modified relic of the widespread serpent worship of ancient times. "feeding" geremony takes place 'on the Pacific ¢pnst when the dragon is taken out by/the Chinese to appear in festival parade. This dragon is S00' feet long, and is operatéd by 150 men in ite sinuous windings through the streets. 'It glitters with thousanas of tiny mirrors, representing scales, These are set in gold and silver and peacock blue and green embroiaeries. The barbaric --efieet) of ---- this great monster borne through 'the streets bv the .Chinese, costumed in aesthetic robes of pale blue, old rose, yellow and pink crepe, and surrounded with banners and pennants blazing with gold embroidery, immensely spec- tacular. : The. feeding ceremonies, which take place just before starting. are for pro- pitiation and to bring good luck to the festival. The tray contains eioht different kinds of sweetmeats and nuts, and the liquor is Chinese gin. is UNBREAKABLE GLASS. the which that "'persons who live in glass houses should not throw stones," it is about to be repudiated. This was always said for the reas on that one knew that when a stone or any other hard substance came in contact with the combination of slica and alkaline earth commonly called glass this as a compact mass would have a thine of the pest. In other words, the glass would break. fut iff the days to come the streets Old tells though maxim is us every become will not longer.be paved with cobbles. or macadamized, the honses will not be built of bricks ors stone, walls or ceilings will not, be pla ball room will not he made of wax- ed 'wood, rails and pillars will not bh made of iron, and the boys may play baseball in the narrowest streets with- out fear of being taken into custody "of a guardian of the peace, for hréak with their balls will not and people who live "in as they literally will do, as many they any fear of harm to the floors windows known, s holises, throw without houses or glass. Thus it can be used tions and walls of buildings and can be moulded into cornices, plates, wall decorations, statues and almost apy thing else. By coloring it can | into mosaics; the closest imitations of precious sgones. The walls can be made of glass. held to- getlier by angle irons, and stairs, bal ustrades, ceili and wall decora tione,. mantelpieces and fire-places can be of-glass, and the pipes for hot and cold water, hot-air, gas and electric wires and drains may all be made of ing he gle may stones as wish for the founda- we made enamels or, glass. NEW MAGIC LANTERN. Much entertainment furnished: a wonder lamp' recently invented in Germany. Its distinctive: feature con- cists in the fact that while it is light brilliant by ing its presents gu series of pictures. The exact manner in which it works has not been divulged, but those who, have seen the pictures produced by cit vividk-and in cresumng ern dinary + necessary sav that othe those are more respect fron <h« bv a It x sg that can be fixed avith ratus for producing in order to obta regular lamp tures, but best should all n t who taught things which result wonaer be use agr an a peculiar<kind « Jeads to pulled 1s often noses "heads. Ume can't judge a man bv his coat; his necktie is a much better criterion. i | | | 1 nad than : : | lesque show MONARCHS' MALADIES. Mental and physical have in a peculiar measure ravaged royalty, the percentage of alllicted crowned heads much greater than that of any other group of individuals. Ex- cluding illnesses ofthe nature of King Edward's and restricting ourselves to chronic and incurable it is found that almost rul- or is a sufferer from some dangerous malady. . The czar of Russian has been afllicted with melancholia his dave, and his-malady has incréased in intensity and in' the frequency: of its manifestations since his acc to the throne the Romane the skill of the renowned ciglists of France diseases beir diseases, every crowned since earliest [OH spe and the the will that the Britain removing Germany in uo malady io sncepeded ever-present blighti of all the not forgotten, present ruler of Mu&covite empire owes his to the mental /in- capacity of his brother, the neural heir, Germany's strenuous kaiser leads an embittered life bécadse of his paraly zed arm and incurable disease. of the. ear, which will ultimately reach his brain. It will be remembered that the emperor's father, Frederick, suc cumbed to cancer, Alfonso of, Spain is admitted to be stricken with scrofula, and jt confi dently asserted that" the youthful nyon arch -has frequently -eyhibite f insanity. "Ahdul the Darmed™ quent spells of freedom ® from melan cholia, and harrgwing pen-pictures have: been drawn of the abjeet condi tion to which the "kingly malady' re duces Turkey's despotic monarch. The late King Milan of Servia the subject of oft-recurring fits madness, and the King of Wurtembe does « not i entive sanity. Ba varia's last ruler terminated a wretch ed a frenzied. suicides and that country's nt monarch suf fers from softening of the brain. Hapsh Bourbons and Guel; hv the dread a peculiar and striking out royalty for their own, poisoned blood which has their veins has cursed a dozen dynas tes, cmperor Russias. be moreover, Lie accession an ontvinfre of enjoy existence prese Romanolis, been scourged whith have, to degree, marked and the flowed from hs have dizeases, STATUE WEEPS BLOOD ? erable excitement in Naples recently owing to a rumor that tears of blood had fallen from a mar- Madonna in thatycity. Several 'persons vowed that they them fall, -and others, while so positive as to the quali tears, werd nevertheless cer- the statue had wept. church. in which scovered that it tion, the 1 hile There was consi seen not quite tv of the tain that i: 5 . The rector 'of th statne stands Si jrly who were a case clay very the 1 tell them that from a delusien. then told. his congregation that they stipposed to be miracle hallucination, wheigat une increased that. they him "from the pulpit and would done him serious injury if he had barficaded himself in the rectory. excit not were hesi= suf- tor did they and to a mere <0) "i jects, « { practic mistake. the fate | Rave otter beliove 1 a t. recall Many men they hesitated worm Cause said that never he e neve saw Sof co have a t} brilliant "thev must ast reflect thers. good girl has her goo and that's why , fellow gets her, | vosbstts uck on very 1 st | minutes, The little girl in this picture is playing with a live snake, five feet in length, which was playing alone in the pine woods of Ocean county, 'N..J., four days the picture was taken. The child is cight "vears f age, lacking a month, and her name Miller: Her father, C. 1 Miller. is a newsdealer in Main stroet, East Orange, near the Newark lin and" he is not only an enthusiastic na turalist, but an amatéur photogra pher. In photographing livi objects Mr, Miller shows more patience than Job Dr. R.. V. Shufeldt; and he had much success with: snakes, toads, tree frog turtles, newts, lizards and other specimens of the class reptilia, at range. It requires extraor dinary patience and an utter disredard of the cost of plates to be successful with those erratic creatures as sub pecially when the pictures are taken indoors, : all of Mr. Miller's are. This one of the little girl was taken in a room with .a=southern exposure, in slightly more with before ol is Fannie or has close as a.most than one second, only the light from two windows and .a background of many colored rugs. The reptile, which seems so con- tented with its head upon hér knee and its tail around her neck, is com- mon in South Jersey, where it i¥ known as "the pine or bull snake. Its classical name "pityvophis melano leucus."" Its general color white, with chestnut-brown irregular mark- ings," edged with black. It is one of the most docile of reptiles, and never to bite. If it tried it could do because its teeth are cut upon an ordinary manicure file and they cannot trate the most: delicate skin. The specimen. shown was taken from Forked River to Newark by Thomas B. Booth, of that city, two weeks ago and presented to "*Harsdmac," who took it to*Mr. Miller and asked him "to try his skill in getting a pic ture of it. Mr. Miller's seventeen- months-old baby boy, Arthur, fa niliarly known as "Bubs." squealed when he saw the big reptile, but was not a note of fear. He wanted that snake and wanted it right away, is 18 essays no damage, as fine as those pene- was 1t CHILD CHARMED FIVE-FOOT SNAKE ON SIGHT. and was not satisfied until he had it in his hands. Then he toddled down- stairs and went down Main street with the snake tightly gripped Ly both chubby hands to show it to the neighbors. Those who happened to be on the street fled precipitately. Mr. Miller ran out "Bubs" and the snake. and captured Several attempts were made to photograph "Bubs with the snake, but both were too busy to remain quiet, for the tenth of a second. The baby was too young to understand the requirements, and spent most of the time trying to pry the serpeant's mouth open and make it stick out its black, forked tongue. air Mr. Miller took-**Fannie" a subject, and, after a few trials, succeeded in making what good judges of photography regard as one of the most extraordinary pictures of the twentieth century. "Pity," as the snake is caHed, "till alive, and is apparently fond the two children and completely signed to captivity. : is of re- EA EPRINTS TENT PE a EE Iv wrotight havoc mn the Eastern Can ; commotion that was felt from Tiflis "to the Caspian Sea and fr the Caucasus to the north of Pers the town of" Schemacha was | ruined, every prominent either wholly or partly Durine an earthquake, which recent causi a | casus, ym build THQUAKE'S STR | were ANGE FREAK. a a NTT TNR Russian Xion of which tury in a singular destroyed, including church, the roof and were turned manner. . Photographs were taken of the vari- ruined buildings, which the, pic topsy ous anong f ' after isaster, and the decompanyving SEVEN. mosques, soon 1 «o ture was found te he the most curi ous and most interesting of all. Why the upper part of the church was less able to bear the shocke®6f the { earthquake than the lower part is a problem which has not yet been scl- ved. : | CLOGCKLESS BARBER SHOP. | For 1 cuspomers a shrewd barber, time several of his to know why he did not have in his but he "always evaded a direct -an- swer. last, however, he his to me. H*Promize not I'll give vou keepin "if Lua 1 kn some want ck shop, diplomatically At secret condided and not tell reasons for 10 anvone,, my ock, > he =a.' one thing that a-man-when he having his han to do it. or hut ners with 11, as soon 2 con Is hie eut/ it He may haté any en \ somehow he wants and hic ey would swear to and get opinion that 1 w a"poor barber "Now, anv barber kno vou can not do first-class work in fifteen min- utes, and so the ided struck me to Te as 1 1igny move the clock. It has worked sphn didly. They Won't know how long | take to shave them ent their and they -are just well satis- if not better. Now and then ustamer savsi he in a hurry and anfs toy know what time is [ answer that he has plenty of time and that L will hurry him along. "That's the.way I jolly them along, and evervthing runs smoothly, ut when 1 had the clock I hail to hustle tell you, and then now or as a ¢ Ww it a, time, I hal barber my reat results.' cried with The from "Next feeling truth ht and 1 got as. if then in what he struck me. seat deal of thot the ' man consults his a chance put the tows around him chair, and h te get ervthing els ts into. the and ey on as he ue is usually too bundled up | his watch. It isn't n Sal to weich t ich to tind people in the: balance them wanting. Many a fellow who can read a menu in French hasn't the price of the din- ner, NO CHINESE WASTEPAPER. rd as sacred paper that written. upon in : Chingse reg is either printed or their own language. | © Alconseientious Chinaman would fear | for the peril of his -immor soul were he to destroy even the smallest scrap. Printed labels, such as thase found*on { ginger jars, are not even exempt. In the Chinese quarter of New York a furnaces with its own - priests and attendants, lichted twice a week to consume the accumulation of waste which collected from the <trects and" houses by rmen specially selected for the purpose » After the papers are burned the ash- es are taken from the furnace, put in a ship belonzing to a Chinese com- panv, and as sooni'as the vessel is } it out to sea, whens the are scattered over the waters. a : paper, onde goes KH, million hurch with the devil great and far manner man, the vomar twice as many troubles 1en 'have n, for they have "twice as many 3 clothes. Several women in Germany are now making beautiful and artistic orna- ments and household utensils out of tin. Apparently the first to utilize her talents in this direction was Frau Clara Hoppenrath; of Berlin, She fa- shioned artistic tin vases, and since then she has made a beautiful imita- tion of a cluster of silver thistles which has been 'bought by the King of Roumania. Tin is an easy material to manipu- late, and any woman who is a& good artist will ~ have little "difficulty in shaping it as she desires. The design must first be carefully drawn on tha tin, or rather punched in it, and then as! carefully cut out. Only a few tools are needed for the work, and the necessary skill in their use can soon: be acquired. . As decorations for frticles of mas jolica and wood delicate tin orna- ments are now becoming popular in Germany, 'and almost all of them are made by women. TOWN'S BOOM TAX. The value of "letting people know about it" is being recognized in curi- ous quarters nowadays, when any- thing is to betbought or sold. In the Valley of the Sacramento, in Califor- nia, there is levied a tax of two cents on 'the 8100 for the purpose of crea- ting a fund with which to advertise the valley in the newspapers of the cast and elsewhere. This is an un- usual recognition the value of press. advertising. Another instance is that of the rail- roads in Nebraska buying space in the papers of the state wherein to ex- ploit their reasons against the pro- posed increase of railway taxes. The people. of the state are strongly in fa: vor of a higher rate, in view of the published accounts of the excessive dividends declared by those railroads' last year. ia In the mean{ime there is a merry war between the advertising and edi- torial columns of some of those Ne- braska papers. The one gives numer- ous good reasons why the rate should remain as it is, while perhaps the op- posite page will contain" lengthy edi- torials showing good cause why the rate should be increased. of NEW GUINEA MASKS. Among the odd customs in New Guinea is that of holding a solemn ceremony on stated occasions for the purpose of initiating the young men who have attained manhood into a secret society. At these times masks are worn by most of those present. Many of the masks are fashioned of tottoise shell and all are grotesque. They are the work of skilled artists, for they shave a symbolic and religi- ous dignificance. and, consequently, if in any way defective, are wholly use- loss. 'he 'lvoung men swhile being initiated wear masks of this kind, and are quite gs proud of them as young Am- ericans and Europeans are of their college gowns and caps. Prof. Alired C. Haddon recently witnessed one of these ceremonies and © availed himself of the opportunity to Jearn all 'that he could about these curious masks. NO ANIMAL LIKE IT. In the Berlin Zoological Garden there is now an animal which is whol- ly unlike any in the world. It i§ the offspring of a female puma from the ntine Republic, and of a male ard from India. . The owner of a menagerie in many obtained these two animals some time ago and, as he had only the cage unoccupied, he put the two into it. At fir<t he was afraid that they "would quarrel, but they became good friends atoofhice, and so he allow- ed them to Témain in the cage. One morning a little cub was born, and at first it was supposed to be an ordinary puma. In a few weeks, how- ever, it resembled a leopard as much as a~pumy, and then the' truth be- came known. Scient® is are studving this strange animal with much inter- est, which is not surprising, since no one ever imaginal that 4 puma and a leopard would pair The animal itself is stromg, healthy and of a beautif@l color. In some re- spects it is wonderfully like a leopard and in others like a puma. Ger- ---- Tht: great bulk of chalk is composed, of eight different species ot tiny shéls, but nearly 300 kinds have been found in chalk. : A trué marriage is perfect happindss --and there is no such thing as perfect happiness in- this world, PROFITED BY SPENDING. Novel was an experiment" once tried by Rudyard Kipling for the purpose of checking household expenses, and it had a somewhat different result than was anticipated. He opened a small account book at a local bank in order to 'pay every bill with a check. Many of the checks were for very small amounts, and the shrewd shop-keepers soon discovered that they could get more for the checks from autograph collectors than from the bank. The consequence was that at the end of the month Mr. Kipling's bank account showed a bigoer balance than the counterfoils of his check book. This puzzled him Very much until he happened one'day to call at an -of- fice where the head was an -enthusias- tic autograph collector, and found ono of his checks framed and hanging on the wall. "LEND YOUR MEDICINE." One doctor, whose ministrations are at present confined exclusively to pa- tients in a poor New York section, has come forward with a word of advice to his fellow-practitioners. "lf any man in my profession needs to be taught a lesson in regard to the strength of the medicine he pre- scribes he ought to practice among my people for a while," he said re-- cently. "When 1 began my duties in this- neighborhood 1 wrbte out several prescriptions calling for some pretty powerful drugs. . "The consequence © of my drastic treatment was that I soon had double. the original cases on my hands, sever- al of which came well nigh being fa- tal. I was at a loss to account for the peculiar epidemic 'at first, but up- on persistent inquiry 1 found that the neighborly kinaness that prompted my subjects to loan and borrow every- 4 thing else they owned was extended toi "the medicine bottle, and that when one had been treated with a- certain appropriate dose, the neighbor across the hall, should he show similar symu- tons, was allowed to partake of it also, "The generosity displayed fin thus seeking to alleviate another's suffer- ing was beautiful, but the. resulta were deplorable. I had hard work to convince my 'patients that such kind« ness was not always - commendabla from-a-physieal - standpoint, howeven praiseworthy it might be spirituality, In their opinion a cough was a cough) and a headache a headache, and, no matter how radically different might be the causes of the two attacks, the same remedy ought to be equally ef<« fective in both cases. Hence the spirit of helpfulness -and the numerous de- ranged systems resulting therefrom. "lI have found, upon investigation, that in most of the highly popiilous sections of the city, where familiarity it a plant that flourishes most laxuri- ously, 'the medicine bottle is passed round from door to door as freely as the tea pot or. the beer pail. In view of the fact that: it is impossible whol- ly to cure this class of their propens- itv for lightening each others physical ills, I strongly recommend the pre- scribing "of very harmless medicine, so thet 3 winimune of deaths may fol- OW. You can best judge of a man's friends by the umbrella he carries. WHEN YOUR COSTLY WATCH is out of order you have it regulated; Yen don't at once throw it aside. y, then, when your bowels are out of order, do you treat them as 'useless? That is what it means to take violent do not regulate the bowels, Ts their work way from them, debili- tate them, and make you more 'You had far better throw away your good watch than treat your 1s roughly. You can get another yateh, but you cannot renew your 3 ' ee: cure Son Culipult is y cure for a gentle laxative with tonic action. IRON-OX TABLETS Are the Perfect Tonio Laxative