Kawartha Lakes Public Library Digital Archive

Fenelon Falls Gazette, 14 Jul 1893, p. 2

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â€" w a», V W.Wufl,. Vv are, va ~va .vi. Vx. v V-NWWM . .A‘~’VVWMWVVW ,-.â€" N M VW \â€"â€".L_ l ‘ All OBSI‘INATE J UROR. The jury had. retired for consultation prior to bringing in a verdict of “Guilty” which was expected of them. Retiring at all seemed little more than, a. farce, for from the beginning to the end of the case \he evidence had gone so steadily against the deendant that by the time the last witness had been called there Was no man- ner of doubt in the public mind that Robert Sullivan had deliberately and in cold blood murdered Jack Wilder, and it needed not the vigorous speech of the prosecuting at- . torncy to convince anyone to that effect. . The evidence being briefly summed up, ran as follotvs: Robert, or, as he is more familiarly called, Bob Sullivan, while in a. state of intoxication, quarrelled with and lost his last cent to Jack Wilder, a profes- sional sharper. Awaking the morning after his debauch to find himself beggared, he had sworn in the presence of several witnesses to get his money back or kill the man who had outwitted him. Accordingly he had set out to meet Wilder on his re- turn fi‘orna neighboring‘ town, and next day the body of the latter was found in a lonely stretch of the road with a knife sticking in his heart. . Sullivan had been obliged to admit that he had met his enemy near this spot, and that they had a. stormy interview, but maintained that they had parted without V blows, as Wilder promised him to restore his money. There was no tittle of circum- stantial evidence wanting to confirm the appearance of Sullivan’s guilt, and even the attorney for the defence was privately convinced of the falsity and absurdity of his client’s plea of “Not Guilty.” The judge, a large pompous man, having instructed the jury in his most severe and autocratic manner, busied himselfwith some l papers, and did not deign a. glance to the: assembly below. It was, as could readily be observed, a gathering of small trades- ‘people and farmers. Here and there the reen face of a. lawyer or that of .1. stranger from the neighboring city stood out boldly from the sea of honest vacuity which surrounded it. The prisoner sat- with his face buried in his bands, which had lost their former tan, and were pale and trembling. Near himl was his Wife, hugging a sickly babe to her I breast, and showing in her wild eyes, l twitching mouth, and every line of her meagre, stooping figure, the terror which held her in its grasp. A breathless silence was upon that audience in the shabby country court-room: even the baby had ceased its fretful wailing, and the buzz of a blue-bottle fly entanged in a spider’s web in the Window was the sound that broke the stillness. Five minutes passed, ten, twenty, and, still the jury had not come. A murmur of} impatience began to be heard, and present-l ly the judge beckoned the sheriff to him and whispereda few words in his ear, saw him depart through the same door which apparently swallowed up the jurors. The‘ sherifi'made his way through several gloomy passages into a large, light room, where he inquired of the foreman if they were not yet agreed. “No, we ain’t l” gruny responded that functionary. “ There’s eleven of us for hangin’, but Conway there won’t hear to it. He wants to clear the feller out an’ says he’ll stay with us till Kingdom come before he'll budge an inch.” Giles Conway, the man whose obstinacy .vas causing such unnecessary delay, wasl mated rather apart from the rest, and wore the brown jeans and soft hat which marked l -' him a farmer. Even had not the absence of ’ . any attempt at foppishness proclaimed his caste, there was something about him which inscnsibly connected itself in the observer’s '- mind with the free winds and untrammclled sunshine of the country. He was much the same colour from his head to his feet, for eyes, skin, hair, and beard were alike brown, and only the deep lines on his firm, . , squarely-cut face showed that he was no longer young. Just at present he seemed in no wise disconcerted by the wrathful im- patience of his associates, but- pushing his i felt hat further back on his head, and set- I tling himself more comfortably in’ his wooden chair, said slowly: “ No, friends, you won’t ever get me to hand over a. man to the gallows on such j evidence as that, an’ there ain’t no special use of cussin’ about it, for it won’t do a bit of good.” . “ Oh. but that’s such foolishness i” broke in one of the group. “ Here’s all this evi- dence that no man in his senses could doubt, ' agoin’ to prove that Bob Sullivan killed Jack Wilder, and here you sit like a bump on a log, and won‘t listen to none of it.” . “ That’s just it,” replied Conway. “ You I all think that evidence like that orter hang - ainan, but if you’d seen as much of that sort of thing as I have you’d think different. I ain’t much of a talker, but maybe you ' wouldn’t mind listenin’ to a case of this kind I happened to know about, an’ maybe the time I’m doneâ€"an’ it won’t take me ongto tell itâ€"you’ll see why I don’t want to hang a young fellow I’ve known nearly all ‘ my life for something that very likely he . didn’t do. “ You all know how when I wasn’t much over twenty I went West an’ put all the money I could rake and scrape into a. ranch an’ cattle. \Vell, the place next to mine was owned by a young fellowâ€"we’llpall him Jim Saunders, although that isn’tliis nameâ€"who’d come out like me to make his V fortune. \Ve took to each other from the‘, first, an’ pretty soon we were more like: brothers than a good many of the real article I’ve seen since. After a while Jim told me he was goin’ to get married, an’ al few weeks later, he brought home the pret- l tiest little thing you’d see in a day’s ride. She had lots of yellow hair that was always tumblin’ down over her shoulders, an’ big blue eyes, an’ a voice like a Wild bird, an’ J imâ€"well, he thought there wasn’t nobody like Milly in all the country. “ She seemed fond of him, too, at first, but it wasn’t long before I could see that it was a clear case of misfit all round. There was lots of excuse for-her, for of course it was a hard life, an’ she loved finery an’ pretty things, an’ Jim didn’t ‘ have the money to give ’em to her, though I he worked early an’ late, an’ did his level v best to make somethin’ more than a livin’. “Maybe it would have turned out all right in time if it hadn’t been that one day | Jim went to the nearest town to buy seme‘| farmin’ implements, an’ fell in there with a fellow he used to know back East, and nothin’ would do him but he must go home with Jim to see how he was fixed. Well, nothin’ else, and she bein’ a. woman was mightily set up to think a‘city man would set such store by her. ' “ He made himself so pleasant an’ so much at home that they begged him to stay all night, an’ long about twelve o‘clock he was, or pretended to he took awful .sick. They worked with him till he got better, and wouldn’t hear of his tryin’ to go away next mornin’; so he stayed on, ssttin’ on the big rockiu’ chair with a pillow behind him an’ talkin’ to Milly .while Jim was off at work. He didn’t seem in no particular hurry about goiu’, but Jim never ’spicioned for a minute that anything was wrong, for he liked the fellow first-rate, an‘ wouldn’t no more have thought of doubtin’ Milly than he would the Lord that made him. “ One eveniu’ lie-came in late, tired an hungry, an’ found that his wifeâ€"his Wife that he loved â€"-had left him and gone away with that devil that he thought was his friend ! He Went wild for a while. It seemed to him like everything was black around him, an’ there was great splotches of blood before his eyes, an’ he could hear voices that kept alaughin’ at him and call- in’ him a. fool, an’ the only thing he hold fast to was that he must follow ’em to the world’s end and kill the man that had took away all he had. So he tr'acted ’em, now here, now there, but always they doubled on him, till at las’, when his money was gone, helost ’em altogether. “ Then he came to himself a little, an’ sold his ranch, an’ went back to his old home to waitâ€"for he knowed some. how that one day, sooner or later the Lord. would give him his revenge. He worked while he waited, an’ made money au’ got well off, an’ nobody knew nothin’ ’bout his over beiu’ married, so he had somethin’ like peace. But he never forgot, 1111’ after awhile it seemed like he didn’t feel so hard towards Milly, for he remem- bered how young she was, an’ how foolish, an’ What a devil she had to deal with ; au’ sometimes he could see her with the pretty colour all gone from her cheeks, an’ the laugh from her voice, heartbroken an’ de- serted. “At last, twenty years afterward, when he was gettin’ on in life, his time came. He was ridin’ along no: thinkin’ about any- thing in particular, when he happened to look up, an’ there, comin’ towards him ’roun’a bend in the road an’ ridin’ on a big black horse, was the man he’d waited for all these years. They knowed each other the minute their eyes met, an’ the fellow got white as chalk an’ pulled his horse clean back on his haunches tryin’ to turn roun’ au’ make a run for it, but it wasn’t no good, for Jim was off his horse in aminute au’ had him by the throat, an’ in less time than it takes to tell it he had pull- ed liim down, enrsin’ an’ cuttin’ at him, to the ground. Then, lioldin’ him there, with his knee on his breast an’ his knife at his throat, he says: “ ‘ VVhere’s Milly? Tell me, or I’ll cut your devilish heart out 1’ “The fellow glared back at him like a rat in a trap, an’ seein’ death in his eyes, an’ knowing ’twas no use to lie, says: “ ‘ She’s dead; she got sick when we got to New York, au’ I left her, an’ she (lied in a week.’ “ ‘I’d orter kill you like a snake, but I’ve always lived square, an’ the Lord helpin’ me I’ll die that way, so I’ll give you an even chance. Get out your knife and fight, an’ remember that one of us has got to die right here.’ “ Then he let him up, and they went at it. They was pretty evenly matched to look at ’em, but Jim thought of Milly dyin’ all alone, an’ fought like a. tiger, an’ pretty soon he left the man that had come between ’em stiff an’ stark with a knife in his heart, aii’ a white face a-glarin’ up at the sky. “Then comes in the part of the story that I want you all to take for a warnin’, before you’ll be so quick to find any man guilty on iiothin’ but Circumstantial evidence. W hen the body was found nobody ever thought of ’spicionin’ Jim, but everything pointed to another man as the one who had done the killin’. He’d sworn to kill the dead man ; he was on the hunt for hi.n when last seen, an’ he couldn’t prove no alibi. So they arrcsttd him, an’ the first Jim heard of it he was summonsed on the jury that was to try him. Jim hadn’t never thought of giving himself up for a murderer, for 'he knowed he’d fought and killed his enemy fair an’ square, an’ he was glad he done it. He didn‘t see that it was any business of the law’s to interfere between ’em, and he didn’t like to drag Milly’s name before the judge an’ jury an’ all the people who wouldn’t remember, like he did, when she was young an’ innocent. Even when he was summonsed he didn’t have any notion but he would be cleared when they’d looked into things some, an’ he made up his mind not to say nothin’ if he could help it. “ But when he got there everything went so Edead against the prisoner that if he hadn’t knowed he’d done the killin’ himself, he’d a-tliought sure he was guilty. He got kind of dazed at last, an’ didn't seem to know nothin’ till he fouudliimself in a room with the rest of the jury, ’an all eleven of ’em wanting to hang the man that he know- ed was innocent. Then he came to his senses and voted against ’em, an’ when they asked him for his reasons he told ’eni the story I’ve been tellin’ you.” Giles Conway stopped and gazed steadily into the eyes of his audience, who had gathered around him till they hemmed him in on every side. 4 “An’ what did they do with him ‘2” asked the foreman at last. ~ “ I don’t know,” he answered slowly. “ It ain’t decided yet, for Jack IVilder was the man that run off with Molly, an’ it was me that killed him.” A Weather Theory- Professor Wiggins believes that telegraph wires cause drouth, that the atmosphere cannot absorb moisture unless it,is charged with electricity, and that up -n on oblate spheroid like the earth the electricity will ineVitably collect at the equator. “ If. how- ever,” he says, “ there be elevated spots on a spare, electricity will collect on them. Should these spots or continents be connect- ed by wires it might accumulate on each alternately. This has happened this year, and America has all the electric energy, and Europe has lost it ; so that our contin- ent is flooded and Europe is burned up with drouth.” His conclusion from all this is that electric wires should be buried. Spots of grease in silk generally disap- __-_ be come, an’ it was a black day for Jim: ear if covered with magnesia or gently. when he Set foot on his threshold. for from , rubbed with water and the white of an the minute he saw Mflly he hadn’t eyes for ‘ egg. ‘ ' _. Wm._.. ,._._T.=..T._.-Hc, condition of things, just imagine that the deposits of our Banks were doubled; that , _ - . they were fiercely competing with one an- ijcct Lessons for the “brillâ€"A Canadian other for persons to borrow the money Biiiilr Manager on 3511‘ Situationâ€"(Fur they had an command; that the Loan Com_ BuniringSysicm a Safe Guard Against panies of Ontario had double the money to the Australian lixpcricnrcwfluch Quiet [end that they have; that everybody’s dis. "‘1‘! 5"“‘11’1'05901'1‘1' In Canada. count account was doubled or treblcd; that At the recent) annual meeting of the di_ imports and mercantile credits were doubl; rectors of the Merchant’s Bank of Canada i”’ or quadrupled ; that the vf’lu‘e 0’ farm' the general manager, Mr. Hague, in the “’3 land was doubled’ “lad c’ty “Pd tow” course of his address. Spoke as follows :_ property all over Canada increased in value The financial world has lately had some four or.hve'f°’d_.3‘n reabmg on cont’nuany very striking object lessons in the matter Increasmg anPP”es 0’ borrowed money; of abuse of credit. Since the beginning of the“ that the present year there has been the most A TRE’IENDOUS RE ‘0“ ’3' terrible succession of bank failures in Aus- 0111118 2 that Values fell, credlts were curtdil' tralia that has ever been known. What 43d, lmlf the country ruined, and every was the cause of it, 9,11? The cause can be Bank in the country shut up except three. stated in one word, viz., too much borrowed I make bind to say that “‘11 “his might have money. For many years ban the Austm. happened, and probably would have hap- lian Government were borrowing money to POUGd. if the BEHkS Of Canada: had laid an amount far beyond anything we have themselves out, some years ago, to obtain ever known. Victoria alone, with a popu- dePOSitS Of English and SCOECh money 81:! lation of only a million, has run up a debt those Of Australia: did. They had the 013‘ of $220,000,000. The other colonies bor- pprbunity 0f dOiDg ill, and mum have got rowed somewhat in the same ratio. The My number of millions if they had desired enormous amount of five or six hundred “3- We, ourselves. Were 311110“ teased With millions of borrowed money was spent in 8. applications from SCOlilavnds aSking to be population far less than that of Canada. This allowedto open agencies for the receipt of of itself was sufficient to produce a certain dePOSil‘IS there- We (lid not take a dollar. amount of inflation, but it would not have 84nd 1301‘ this gOOd. reason 3 We W0111d have produced the disasters that, have over. been compelled to lend the money on this whelmed tliehanking interest haditnot been Side, either 011 the Stock Market or to Mer- supplemented by another enormous ‘iufiux cantile customers. - The first would have of borrowsd money, viz., the amount, of driven speculation wild, the second would EngliSh and Scotch money sent, out, to Aug. have eventually ruined our customers. And tralia in the shape of deposits. These two if 1‘11 the B3111“ hold P‘lmued the same great financial currents were in operation course: we WOUId have had several years Of at the same time, but, the second wag, in a, wild boom, followed by the most dismal and far more dangerous form than the other. It crushing poverty “18-h Canada has ever amounted to nearly two hundred millions knOWH- The People Of the Dominion: OWing of dollars, and was an poured into the to the good judgment and sober-minded banks, who, as they paid stiff rates ofinter- sense Of 5116 bankers Of Canada: are 1105 est for it, were driven by constant pressure plunged in the depths 9f SUCh misery HOW-- to seek employment for it. Unfortunately » for the banks of Australia, they were not I k'IRgT Us]; or SOAL ' under the restraint of wise and thoroughly digested banking laws, as we are here. And \It Was aNovelty in 1656 and ‘Wns Preceded I will pause for a. moment to say that, so by Wooxl and Charcoal. far as I. know, there is no country in the world where banking laws have been so thoroughly discussed in all their bearings, both in Parliament and by bankers them- selves, as Canada, and no country whose banking law is, taken as a whole, as good. But, to return to Australia, the effect of all this was an ENORMOUS LENDING by the banks on lands and mines and fixed properties, this not being confined to one city or locality, but extending to every lo- cality and to the whole population. This was very bad banking, as we know from Though coal has been employed for cen- turies in the manufacture of salt on the shores of the coalfields wood had hitherto continued to be the fuel at the inland salt works. The use of coal at. Nantwich is mentioned as a novelty in; 1656. Drowich wood fuel and leaden pans were in use 11p till 1691. In this era. the sea-salt manufac- ture was in the zenith of its prosperity. But the substitution of coal for wood in the island salt trade, aided by the discov- ery of rock salt, which took place accident- ally in boring for coal in Cheshire in 1680, led to the general decline and final extinc- former experience in Canada. Along with tion of the manufacture of salt on the this came inevitably an enormous increase coast. The only traces now remaining of of spending on imported goods, immense this once flourishing industry exist on such extensions of'inercantile credit and lines of names as Howden Pans ontthe Tyne, Pres- banking accommodation, and also of prodig- tonpans on the Forth, Saltcoats in Ayrshire ions and rapid development in building and and Salt-pans in Arran and Kintyre. 01' in improvements .of all kinds, both private and the Scottish proverb, “ Carry salt to Dyâ€" public. sart,” synonymous with the English, “Carry There never was in the world, apparent- coal to Newcastle.” In no branch of industry ly, such a wealthy and prosperous common. was the scarcity of wood more keenly felt ity as filled the Australian colonies a few than in the smelting of the metalliferous years ago. But the foundation was not I ores. Continued efforts to accomplish this solid. Winnipeg and Manitoba were exact- with coal began immediately after the acces- ly in the same condition ten years ago, and sion of James I., and were persevered in from the same cause, viz., that coincidently' throughout the seventeenth century. But with the expenditure of immense sums of for a prolonged period the new fuel proved borrowed money on public enterprises there very intractable and scheme after scheme were enormous sums of money taken from ended in failure and disappointment. outside the province and deposited in banks. After eighty years Of oft-repeated trials The very same features were common to the tantalizing problem remained unsolved. both, viz., a prodigious rise in values, vast Wood and charcoal still held the field in the increase of wages, incomes, profits, and smelting furnaces, and all hope of ever see- luxurious expenditure, large numbers of peo- ing coal substituted for them had well nigh ple rolling in wealth, and a general belief ’ died out. In 1686 Sir John Pettus, in his that this was the natural condition of things 3 “ Essays on’ Words Metallick,” concludes and would go on forever : followed by ' his observations regarding sea coal and pit a turn of the tide, difficulty in rcaliz- coal with the remark :â€"â€"“ These are not ing property, heavy fall in values, enor- useful to metals.” The unpromising pros- mous losses to the lenders of money, and pect, however, soon began to brighten. finally an all but universal break down of Immediately after the revival of lead and credit and business. In the ease of Manitoba, copper mining, which took place about 1692 if there had been establishedin the province I -â€"having piobably been more or less in at that time local banks and local loan com- ’ abeyance since the interruptions caused by panics, every one of them would have fail- . the civil warsâ€"these ores came to be smelt- ed. As it was -â€"-every bank ‘and loan com- ed with coal. pany that did business there, ourselves! The extraction of silver from lead with included, made heavy losses. In Australia. l coal was accomplished -by a Mr. Lydal in the Loan Companies were the first to feel 1597 and the same individual appears to the reaction. They also had been borrowing . have been the first to successfully employ money freely in England and Scotland, and coal in the smelting of tin in 1705. The iron lendi'g it no inflated values. These concerns ' ores proved more refractory, no substantial became embarrassed or bankrupt one afterl and permanent success in smelting them another for a year or two, and then the , with coal being obtained till near the mid- turn of the banks came. These banks were l die of the eighteenth century, when the mostly large institutions with manufacture of charcoal iron had dwind(lled I h , , . J , to very small proportionsâ€"in fact, was y- A ml“ ’1 C‘u 11"" ing out for want of fuel. It then at length and “mp’e reserves' xii” t’11‘33’ we’ll" down ', became an accomplished fact at Coalbrook- one after anomer‘ the failure 0f one mel‘eals' l dale Iron \Vorks in Shropshire. The success ing the diStI‘qu in Othel's sunt’il ablast “191"? was at first ascribed to the Shropshire coal, Were only. thrfw left; thes? l’hre‘i having but probably the employment of a strong been distinguished for their caution and ; 1,1831», had agreat deal to do with it. From Prudence 1“ the mld“ 0t “boundmg tony this the coal became the life of the iron and excitement .- ' . . . n f-. t r .â€" t m or Rex w. I need not remind you that the state of ' ma u dc “ e [00“ e P My ’6 things above described has no parallel in Canada. No conclusions with regard to A Frightened Whale- Canadian credit can be drawn from this Several months ago Mr. \Villiam K. Australian experience. The Dominion Gov-lvauderbuiws yacht, the u Alva,” was emment' has “0” been on the Engll’lh l sunk near Chatam, off the Massachusetts niarketas a borrower for years. The large I coast-h Efforts have been made .to raise the expenditures on the 11mm" railroad "on" I vessel, which was a handsome and costly Sl'l'lwl'llon were fim-‘Jlled mimy Years 3450' lone and as these have failed, it was decid- There has been no general inflation in real ed go blow up the hull with dynamite in (339439, and any, “llre‘lbemng slflfipwms in Iorder that the wreck might not be the particular localities have subsulcd. And lmmns of further disaster, as the u Alva n as to our own vanmml Governmem” “'3 I l lies in the channel where vessels pass every note further on, the tendency to imprudent . dav A ton of dynamite was placed in the borrowmg has been entirely stopped, and u Alva. " as her 1,1,3; cargo - the diver who an equalization established between income ’ placed it there came to the surface, and and .expenm”.ure' My Judgment" ’31 that was taken to a distance of six hundred feet. desl’me calm“ unf’womme features in Communic Ltion was maintained with the business which cannot but press themselves dvnamite by means ofa. wire through which ("Rule a‘tmntl‘?“ 0f bank‘frs' tihere 15’ “me” an electric current was passed,and the charge flu“?b and “lid Prosperlby “1 Canada at exploded. Au immense mass of water rose I’rcfm‘b' ' two hundred feet into the air and the'region Canada, as a. .wliole, never went through all, “how, was discolored by the clay bottom zfi experience like this of Australia, though which was disturbed by the explosion. The ontario once did from the same_causes, oddest part of the whole performance was With the same 53”“PL9r‘15: and Win” the the fright of a forty-foot whale, which had same result. ‘ At the time of the construc- been Havering about, After the explosion “on Of the Gram} Trunk ra'llway’ nearly it was seen lashing the sea, as if in imita- forty years ago, immense sums of money tion of the explosunl. Suddenly the whale were rapidly poured into'Canada, while in began rushing violently around the bay, Ontario 8. series of magnificent crops sold narrowjy escaping“ collision wit-,1, the con. at high prices (two dollars a bushel for “actor's boat, and finally running squarely wheatl produced along with the other a into a belpbuoy, After a struggle the COde-On (:5 {ufiamou Whl'fh carried away whale broke the chain which held the buoy everybody s judgment. The â€"bauk of Up- lto the rock below, and passed out of sight p‘afrc’a‘nadn made ’3‘ profit of 2‘) Per 039’" l" to the eastward, with the buoy still attach- lSoo, and'was foolish enough to pay it all ed to him, ringing hard and loud. The away to its stockholders, to their great ringing of the 1,011 appeared to make the glory and gmt’mw‘mon' Three 0” foul'yea'“ whale more excited than ever, and the last atterwargs ’1’” Bapk was W’pell out" 0’ ex’s' seen of him he was going at a. terrific rate. tence With ignominy; and so in course of . M time was every other bank in Ontario that _ had participated in the abounding wealth The total gold production of Central that preceded the downfall that came in Queensland for the last year was 160,000 1857. oz., with ore averaging 1 oz. 13 dwt. to the . 1 If you want to realize the Australian 'ton. ______.____â€"_â€"-â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"-â€"-‘- ma;â€" HBAT Ill AFRICA. The Dark Continent ls the Hottest Corner 01' the Earth. Africa is the hottest part of the world. One needs to turn only a few pages of: African travels to feel cool by comparison in thinking how very hot it might be. Mungo Park, the intrepid pioneer of the . ‘ Dark Continent, remarks upon the awful heat produced by a vertical sun in- a dry and sandy country, with a scorching wind blowing from the desert. The ground. be- comes umbearable to the naked foot, and even thoroughly seasoned negroes will not run from one tent to another without sandals. Often the wind from the Sahara was so great that he could not hold his hand in the currents of air coming though the chinks of his but without feeling sen- sible pain. Massowah on the shore of the Red Sea, has an average temperature for the month of May of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and even in midwinter the thermometer is said to rise frequently over 100 degrees in the shade. A naval officer says the hottest town in India is nothing toAden, while Aden’s heat is nothing to that of Massowah. It was at Massowah that James Bruce, the famous 13th century traveller, was astonish- ed to find the heat had made his sealing wax more fluid then tar. Captain Lyon, who made the acquaintance of the Sahara early in the century, was much struck by absence of vegetation. He observed many skeletons of animals, and occasionally the grave of some unfortunate human being. The sun’s heat had so dried all these. bodies that there was no appearance of put-refine- tion. Even animals just dead gave forth no offensive odor; and after a long tine their skin remained unbroken‘ with the hair still on it though so brittle as to fall apart from a slight blow. Journeying towards the great desert John Davidson was murdered by the na- tives, and his private printed journal (1839) is a rare and most interesting record of African adventure. When the ther- mometer in the sun marked a. temperature of 141 degrees, he had to wrap pieces of white wool about his stirrups, Moorish daggers and all metallic articles, because they grew too hot to be handled. It is affirmed that eggs may be baked in the hot sands of upper Egypt and Nubia, and the Arabs say. “ In Nubia the soil is like fire and the wind like a. flame.” When Bayard Taylor traversed the Nubian desert he seemed to absorb the sun’s heat until he glowed like a live coal. The skin of his face cracked and peeled off, and had to be annointed every day with butter, from the alternate buttering and burning, attaining at last the crispness of a. “well-basted partridge.” This dry heat acted also upon the provisions. Dates be- came like pebbles of jasper, and . when he asked for bread he was given a stone. In his notes of the African experiences, which ended with his death at Khartoum, the lamented General Gordon made such remarks upon the weather as : “ No man under 40 years of age should be here, and then only those who are accustomed to these climates. Young fellows never will stand the wear and tear and malariafiof these countries. , - The greatest of African travellers, David Livingstone, tells howthe hot wind of' Alahari desert warped every wooden thing not made in the country, shrinking the best. seasoned English boxes, and furniture. DEATH PROM; BRIGHT. Cases in Which Shocks to the Nervous Sys- tem lliivc llesultccl Fatally. .“ I have interested myself somewhatin looking up unusual causes of death," said a well known doctor, “ and have met several, well-authenticated instances where fright~ was the cause. The English‘ Surgeon Gener» a1 Francis tells of a drummer in India. across whose legsa harmless lizard crawled while he was half asleep. He was sure that a. cobra had bitten him, and it was too much, for his nerves and he died. “ Frederick I. of Prussia was killed by fear. His wife was insane, and one day she escaped from her keeper, and, dabbling her clothes with blood, rushed upon her hus- band. While he was dozing in his chair. King Frederick imagined her to be the white lady whose ghost was believed to in» variably appear whenever the death of a. member of the royal family was to occur, and he was thrown into a fever and died in six weeks. ’ ~ “But perhaps the most remarkable- death from fear was that of the Dutch painter I’entman, who lived in the seven- teenth century. One day he went into a room full of anatomical subjects to sketch some death heads and skeletons for a pic- ture he intended to paint. The weather was very sultry, and while sketching, he fell asleep. He was aroused by bones dancing around him, and the skeletons suspended from the ceiling clashed together. In a. fit of horror he threw himself out of the window, and though he sustained no serious injury and was inform- ed that a slight earthquake had caused the commotion among his ghostly surroundings, he died in afew days in nervous tremor. I could cite many other cases where the shock to the nervous system, which we know as fright, has produced death.” Valuable Find of a. Diver. A very important archaeological find was made in November last" in the harbor of Salofiiche bya diver- in search of sponges. When the diver came up from the bottom of the sea be displayed a hand- ful, not of sponges, but of silver coinsof a very antique date. He turned over the coins to the proprietor of the boat, 'who ordered him back to find some more coins. He went down to the bottom of the sea several times in succession. Finally he found atadepth of 100 feet an iron box, silver coin. The proprietor of the boat made the seamen in his employ promise to be silent. He made them some presents in money and the find remained a secret for nearly three months. Recently one of the seamen, having quarreled with the master, betrayed the secret to the Greek Government and the latter compelled him to produce the coins. They date back to the days of ancient Macedonia and are in excellent preservation, showing the bust of Alexander the Great, holding in one hand the sceptre and in the other a bird, seemingly a. falcon. The coins Zhave been turned ‘over to the museum at Athens. â€"â€"_..___ In small hotels in Russia eao'ra guest is expected to find his own bed-clothing. which contained nearly eighteen pounds of’ .VKAAw,‘ , ~ Wfikks-fiww‘rf‘fl‘? «\xâ€"xs . n». < I. ,v ‘0 .\,._l K _ \p . ..,\;W--.;cs.~_;_.m______.__. ._..___.__,w... .. an -: .r '-'«;T-\..‘-‘<;‘~;<\{"‘~ ../

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