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SMOCK MARRIAGES INI MAINE. BlsmaVck, and the monarch elthe* learned itlie speech by heart or read it from a manuscript. He knew that he possessed no gift of language and had no confidence in his ability to improvise in public. William II., soon after he came to. the throne, gave orders that a stenographer should always be present during his speeches, whether at home or on travel This duty is fulfilled in Germany by one of the official stenogra­ phers of the relchstag, who took down the speeches of the Emperor and Prince Henry at Kiel. The Emperor himself supervised the shorthand writer's tran­ script before it was transmitted to Wolf's telegram bureau--the German Keuter. The speeches of the Emperor, sent over the official wire, are therefore ipsissima verba. A different shorthand Writer accompanies the Emperor abroad, where the speeches are, for the most part, delivered in a foreign lan­ guage, and could, not. therefore, be noted down by a German stenogra­ pher.--Pall Mall Gazette, ABE FOR PKOTECTION eBIim r n ~ r " a l a s k a - v Queer V Who Inhabit Kind's ifl PP®»e Bering Sea. A racfof Cave dwellers live on a small island off the Alaskan coast. It is King's Island, in Bering Sea, due south, of Cape Prince'of Wales. There is only one village there, and this has a population of 200. Dr. Sheldon Jack­ son, the United States agent of educa­ tion in Alaska, sa^s that it is one of the most, remarkable settlements in America, yet few people know cf its existence. , King's Island Is abofit a mile in length, and Is a mass of basalt rock- which rises perpendicularly out of the sea to a height of from 700 to 1,000 feet. At the south side this is cleft, in two by a deep ravine which is filled by a huge permanent snow bank. High Hp on the west side of the ravine is the vil­ lage of Ouk-ivak, Which consists of about forty dwellings, partly hollowed out of the cliff and built up outside with stone walls. Across the top of these walls are laid large drift wood poles, over these are placed hides, and over the hides grass and dirt. The houses are entered by a tunnel which runs along underneath, sometimes for a distance of fifteen feet, and ends un­ der a hole--eighteen inches in diameter --in the floor of the room above. This is the front door of the establishment. The tunnel is so low that it is neces­ sary to stoop, and often to erawi, the entire length of it. . In summer these houses generally be­ come too damp to live in. The people then erect another dwelling on top'; this is a tent of walrus hide, whieTi is stretched over a wooden frame and guyed to the rocks by ropes to prevent . its being blown off into the sea. These tents allow of a room abotit ten or fif­ teen feet square, and entered by means of an oval hole in the hide about two feet above the floor. A narrow plat­ form two feet wide runs along outside' of the door and leads back to> the hill.. These platforms are often fifteen or twenty feet above the winter dwelling below. At the other side of the deep ravine, at the base of the cliff, is-a huge-cavern into which the sea dashes. At the back, of this is a large bank of perpetual snow. The cave dwellers use this as a storehouse. They dig rooms in the snow and store their provisions, which freeze solid and keep the year round, for the temperature in the snow never rises above 32 degrees.. -- Pittsburg: Chronicle Telegraph. A.n Amusing: Custom AVhich Was in Vogue a Century- Ago. A Bangor lawyer attending court in • the ancient town of Wiscasset went rummaging recently in the colorilal ,court records of the place, and in the course of his reading ran across the official registration of a "smock mar­ riage." Not knowing what sort of mar­ riage that was, he looked further, and got considerable light upon a custom that prevailed in England a century or ,two ago, and also to some extent in the American colonies. Smock marriages were weddings where the bride appeared dressed in a |WJhite sheet or chemise. The reason of isucli a garb was the belief that If'a man imarried a woman who was In debt lie could be held liable for her indebted­ ness if he received her with any of her property; and, also, that if a woman married a man who was in debt his creditors could not take her property to satisfy their claims if he received nothing from her. In England, says an antiquarian, there was at least one case where the bride was clothed puris nat- uraJibus while the ceremony 'was being performed in the great church at Bir­ mingham. The minister at first refused to perform the ceremony, but finding nothing in the rubric that would excuse him from exercising his functions he married the pair. »• To carry out the law fully, as the peo­ ple understand it, the ceremony should always have been performed as it was in the Birmingham church. But, mod­ esty forbidding, various expedients were used to accomplish the desired purpose and yet avoid the undesirable features. Sometimes the bride stood in a closet and put her hand through a hole in the door; sometimes she stood behind a cloth screen and put her hand out at one side; again, she Wound about her a white sheet furnished for the pur­ pose by the bridegroom, and sometimes she stood in her chemise, or smock. Eventually, in Essex County at least, all immodesty was avoided by the bridegroom's furnishing to the bride all the clothes she wore, retaining title to the same in himself. This he did in the presence of witnesses, that he might prove the fact in case he was sued for any debts she might have contracted. A marriage of this kind occurred at Bradford in 1733, and the following is a true copy of the record of the same: "BRADFORD, Dec. ye 24, 1733.-- . This may certifle whomsoever it may concerne that James Bailey of Brad­ ford who was married to the widow Mary Bacon Nov. 22 last past by me ye subscriber then declared that he took the said person without anything of ' estate, and that Lydia the wife of Elia- zer Burbank & Mary the wife of Thomas Stickney & Margaret the wife of Caleb Burbank all of Bradford were | witnesses that the clothes she then had [ on were of his providing & bestowing upon her. WILLIAM BALCH, "Minister of ye Gospel." 1 It is noted by the same writer that in ' all cases of smock marriages that have come to his knowledge, the brides have been widows. It is thought that during the reign of ] George III. there were many smock . marriages in Maine, then a part of the : province of Massachusetts Bay--chiefly in Lincoln and York counties, or in the ! territory which is now so known. There is nothing to show that the practice outlived the revolution. In Maine, up to 1852, a husband was liable for debts of his wife contracted before marriage, and no such subterfuge as the smock marriage could relieve him.--Chicago . Inter Ocean. w SOUTHERN CONVERTS TO THE AMERICAN POLICY. Louisiana Patriots ISxpress Their Warm Loyalty to Many of the Prin­ ciples of Protection as Applied to State Manufacturing'Affairs. THE CONQUERING m - m H E R O : m m go and find Annette and the child." .And as she rose there was the crack­ ling of a twig under a hasty footstep and Kate Selden stood face to face with her husband. He was very pale, and his lips looked pallid and drawn with the effort to keep from trembling. She had flushed deeply When their eyes met, but now the color ebbed away from her girlish face and she said con­ fusedly: "I am so glad!--I mean not to keep you waiting. You see I am here first." "You are very good," he said; "but, you are always good. You got my1 letter?" "0, yes, or I wouldn't have known you were coming here." She moved backward a step and was very glad to drop into the old rustic seat. "It Is very generous of you, Sidney, to agree to everything, and particularly about baby." "It is all I can do, now--to try and please you," lie'answered, weakly; and the perspiration was like dew on his The Prolific Life of Alaska. John Muir, who has summered audi wintered in the Alaskan lands, says in the Atlantic: Nowhere on my travels so far have I seen so much warm­ blooded rejoicing life as in this grand- Arctic reservation by so many regarded' as desolate. Not alone are there whales in abundance along the shores, and in­ numerable seals, walruses, and white bears, but great herds of fat reindeer on the tundras, and wild sheept foxes, hares, lemmings, whistling marmots and birds. Perhaps more birds are born here than in any other region of equal extent on* the continent. Not only do strong-winged hawks, eagles and water fowl, to whom the length of the conti­ nent is only a pleasant excursion, come- up here every summer in great num­ bers, but also many short-winged war­ blers, thrushes and finches, to rear their young in safety, re-enforce the plant bloom with their plumage and sweeten the wilderness with song, fly­ ing all the way, some of them, from Florida, Mexico and Central America. In thus going so far north they are only going home, for they were born here* and only go South to spend the winter months as New-Englanders go to Flor­ ida. Sweet-voiced troubadours, they sing In orange groves and vine-clad, magnolia woods in winter,, in thickets- of dwarf birch and alder in summer, and sing and chatter more or less all the way back and forth, keeping the whole country glad. Oftentimes in New England Just as the last snow patches are melting, and the sap in the maples begins to flow, the blessed wanderers may be heard about or­ chards and the edges of fields, where they have stopped to glean a scanty meal, not "tarrying long, knowing they have far to go. Tracing the footsteps of spring, they arrive in their tundra homes in June or July, and set out on their return journeys in September, or as soon as their families are able to fly well. RAT-KILLING ROOSTER. Gamecock that Makes Deadly War Upon Rodents. William Gray, a farmer living near here, has a game cock that makes war upon rats. Rats had for a long time been destroying eggs and even killing fowls in Gray's hennery. The other day the farmer bought a game cock for stock purposes. On the second day after his purchases Mr. Gray saw the rooster with a rat in its bill. It had nabbed the rat by the back of the neck in such a way that it was powerless for either offense or defense. After reaching the yard the rooster swung the rat forcibly against the frozen ground until it was stunned, and then tossed it into the aiir. As it came down the rooster gave it a vicious dig ^ with its spurs that started the blood. Before the rat could recover itself it was tossed into the air again and again the spurs did bloody work. Soon the rat was dead. The rooster has since killed at least, a dozen rats. Mr. Gray's son, who has kept watch to see how it is done, says that the rooster watches by a hole and nabs the rats by the neck as they come out. It seems to delight in killing them, and after it has disposed of one struts about and crows lustily as if to call attention to itself as the only rat- killing rooster in Southern New York. -- Middletown (N. Y.) special New York World. • j A Living Curiosity. No-wa-sh^ Jack Pots, an old Indian, Who resides with his four squaws on Snake^Creek, in the Creek Nation, Is one of the greatest living curiosities in this country. He is said to be 109 years old, but, judging from the differ­ ent events which he claims happened within a lifetime, he must be even old­ er. The most remarkable feature about No-wa-she is that he has already lost two sets of teeth and now has grown a third set complete. His hair is jet black, with no signs of turning gray; his step is firm and bearing erect; he has buried twenty-two wives and is now, living with four. He was originally a Dela­ ware, but was captured by the Apaches when young and held for a number of years; he was adopted by the Musco- gees when a middle-aged man and has been regarded as the oldest man in the tribe for the past thirty years. No-wa- she is treated with the greatest rever­ ence by the members of the tril>e, who regard him as a superior being, and the crafty old fellow doesn't hesitate' take advantage of their superstition^ by accepting all their favors they feel disposed to bestow upon him.--Gushing (Col.) Herald. Lieutenant--If you plense^^sir, we still have one chance to defeat those3 Yankee pigs. General--A chance, say you? What is it? Lieutenant-- If we can only hold out until they have elected another free trade President and passed another Wilson bill, hard times will help us to win. An Admirable Selection. In the appointment by Secretary Gage of O. P. Austin as chief of the Treasury Department Bureau of Sta­ tistics it will be found that an admira­ ble selection has been made fqr this important post. The people of the' country are paying more attention to the statistics of our foreign trade than* ever before, and the value of those fig­ ures as a measure of the exceptional prosperity which has attended the re­ vival of the American policy of protec­ tion was never so highly estimated as now. The fact that Mr. Austin is in thorough sympathy with this policy furnishes added cause for satisfaction at his appointment. lJlaulcets and Diamonds. The howl that, went up in free trade papers about increasing the tax on the poor man's blankets and reducing it on the rich man's diamonds has ceased, for the logic of those changes has shown that it was beneficial to both the poor man and the government. Un­ der the provisions of the Dingley tariff the poor man can get better blankets, made at home, for the same or less money than lie formerly paid for the shoddy article imported from abroad, and this not only benefits him as a con­ sumer but has given employment to thousands of American workingmen.-- Tacoma Ledger. Good for the farmers. Money continues to pour into the cof­ fers of the farmers of the country, in marked contrast with the low tariff times of the past three years. The March exports of agricultural products, including breadstuff's, cotton and pro­ visions, amounted in value to over $76,- 000,000, Ifgalnst less than $45,000,000 in March of last year, $42,000,000 in March of 1896. and $37,000,000 in March of 1895. And this in the face of the frequent reiterated assertion, made during the consideration of the Dingley bill, that its high rates would destroy our markets abroad.--Colorado Springs Gazette. ' f o Very Destructive. Protection is so "destructive" to our foreign trade that exports for the past ten months are by.far the largest ever known, leaving a trade balance of over $514,000,000. Nothing like it was ever known in any country. Barcelona is now the most populous city of Spain, the result of a census just taken showing 520,000 inhabitants to Madrid's 507,000. Tho Origin of Tally-Ho. As quaint a mixture of words an<? ln- terjectional cries as I have met with is in an old French cyclopedia of 1703, which gives a minute description of the hunter's craft and prescribes exactly what is to be cried to the hounds in all possible contingencies of the chase. If the creatures understand grammar and syntax the language could not be more accurately arranged for their ears. Sometimes we have what seem pure in- terjectional cries. Thus, to encour­ age the hounds to work, the huntsman is to call to them "Ha halle, halle. halle!" while to bring them up before they are uncoupled it is prescribed that he shall call "Ilau, hau," or "Half, tahaut!" and when they are *ncoupled he is to change his cry to "Haul la y la la y la tayau!" a call which suggests the Norman origin of the English tal­ ly-ho.--Primitive Culture. America's Good Fortune. Outside of England Hoii. Champ Clark will find some difficulty in dis­ covering any signs of movement lin the direction of free trade, and even there it no longer commands the general as­ sent'it once Aid. Assuming that it is possible for the Missouri statesman to forego the luxury of talking for a few moments longer, Ave would suggest that he might find profit in reflecting that had other nations, including this, ac­ cepted tho invitation^Sof the English free-traders And adopted free trade- settled the tariff by abolishing it, to use his own expression--that prophecy would have been fulfilled and England would to-day be the world's workshop, the United States occupying tlie glo­ rious position of a producer of raw ma­ terials and food for her busy manufac­ turing hives. Fortunately for Ameri­ ca, she did not begin to breed politi­ cians of the Champ Clark variety until wiser, clearer-headed and more practi­ cally patriotic men had adopted and wrought out a policy which fostered and built up her own industries and made the nation industrially .as well as politically independent.--American Craftsman. Manifest Oetstiny. # The Salt Lake Tribune, having pub- ' lished the statistical array of imports All in Due Time. It was Mark Twain, if I remembet rightly, who pointed out the ingrati­ tude and inconsistency of the human race in neglecting during all these years to put up a memorial to Adam, to whom (under Providence) th« whole race practically owes its existence, while erecting monuments to so many worthies of later date, whose services to posterity are comparatively insig­ nificant. We are getting on in that direction, however. King Alfred is to have ^ commemoration, and (I take it for granted) a . statue. Hengist and Horsa will no doubt have their turn next. There is hope for Adam yet. Everything comes to*him who waits.-- Truth. Commercial Travelers in Germany. Germany has about 60,000 commer­ cial travelers on the road 300 days a year. Their expenditure in hotels is es­ timated at $150,000 a day, or $45,000,- 000 a year. The Kaiser's Stenographer. It is not generally known that undef the present Emperor a new office lias' been created, that of personal stenogra­ pher to his' majesty. William I. but rarely delivered a speech, and, when lie did, the text was always decided on be­ forehand, in consultation with Prince In time, people become so accustom­ ed to outrages that they pay no atten­ tion to them. Power is powerless?'unless you are conscious of your ability, .. '.f»V .