The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

\ . ’ 7 ’5â€"5- i om... \ j l M‘ I” __â€"-â€"â€" vr' I , wvvw, ~ .wfv‘,‘ w .c._c_..‘v~...,l- a; <# VW‘W‘ AMV V... l , . W‘w V'vvxx‘v‘vkwvlw w-v ,mvvfl . 4} A Midnight Visitor wewoewws oeoeoeoeoeee eeoeoeoeoeoeoeosoeeeos I. here are more terrors at sea than shipwreck and fire, more flights and horrors, mateys, than famine, blindness, and cholera,” said the old seamen, with a slow motion of his eyes round upon the little company a! sailors. “I remember once being aboard a ship in the Indian Ocean. There was ne’er a moon that night. The ship rose faint and hushed to the stars. It was one bell in the morning watch. Scarce air enough moved to give life- to the topmost canvas. As the ship bowed upon the light swell the sails swung in and swung out with a rush sound of many wings up in the gloom. Yet the vessel had steerage way in that hour. Shall I tell you why? Be- cause I know!” The grey-haired, respectable sea- man closed his eyes in silence, filled with significance, and, after a short smoke, thus proceeded: “Some of the watch on deck sprawled about in the shadow out of sight, curled up, asleep. Only one figure was upright forward. ’Twas the shape- of the man on the look- out. “This man thus standing, by no means asleep, yet with his head sunk and no doubt his eyes closed, was suddenly struck on the side of the face by something hairy, damp, and cold. He sprang into the air as though he had been shot through the heart. Oh, heavens! What was it ? A naked figure, shaggy as Peter Sarrano, wild with hair, furious with a grin, terrible with the red gleams the starlight flung upon his little eyes. The sailor shrieked like a midnight cat, and fell in a heap down upon the deck in a fit. “The ship was in commotion In an instant. Such a yell as‘that was worse than the smell of fire. “ ‘What’s the matter?’ roared the mate. “ ‘Hcre’s Kennedy in a. fit, sir,’ sung out a. voice. “ ‘Is that all?’ said the mate. 'And he went forward to look at the man. “ ‘It’s a fit, certainly,’ said he. ‘Give him air, lads. Get‘ a drink of cold water into his mouth. It’s epilepsy.” “When the mate was told the man had his senses and was sitting up, he went forward again and question- cd him. He was sitting on the foot of a cathead, and was too weak to risk: when the mate stood before him. “ ‘What is this you’re rambling about?" said the ofllcer. ‘Aren’t you quite well yet?” “ ‘Blow me, then, it slapped me fair_ over the chops, like flicking yer with the wet sleeve of a jacket, He rose four foot when I swounded. He might ha’ been more an’ he might ha’ been less. Darkness put.- him outâ€"only that I recollect,’ said the man, turning up his pale face to the stars, ‘taking notice of a couple of eyes like red lights floating in water, and a grin of teeth wide as the keys of a pianey.’ “ ‘I-Ie’s mad,’ thought the man, who stepped, nevertheless, into the bows and looked over. Nothing was to be seen. He surveyed the ocean by the light of the stars, and glanced along the deck» 'and up aloft, then told the lookâ€"out man to go below and turn in, and wont aft. reckoning the thing an epileptic’s nightmare. “ ‘Just then a catspaw blew. It was so faint that it scarcely chilled the moistened forefinger of the officer it had to be reckoned with, never- theless. It was an air of wind, any- how, and someone sung out. that the ship was aback forward, on which the mate Went to the break of the poop, and yelled to the seamen to trim sail. Something went wrong in swmging the yards on the fore. 1‘: ‘Jump aloft, a hand, and clear 1'. “A seamen went up the rigging; his shadowy shape vanished in the gloom that blackened like a thunderâ€" cloud upon the foretop. “Suddenly. when midway the rig- ging, he yelled at the 'top of his voice. Il'is cry was more dismal and heartshaking than even that with which the man Kennedy had terrified the ship. He caught hold of a backstay, and sank to the bulwarkâ€" rail as though handsomely lowered away in a. bowline. ' “ ‘By Jingo!’ he roared, flinging down his cap, whilst those who peer- ed close saw hat he trembled vioâ€" lently; 'der toyfel is on board dis ship! I have seen her mit mine eyes! If I hov not seen her, den I was ' a nightmare, and she was mad! Look up dar!” “He obtained no answer. The sea- men, attending the indication of the Dutchman, were to a man gazing aloft with hanging chins; for on high up in the crosstrees, a visible bulk of shadow, there sat, squatted, hunm --what? a “ ‘What’s wrong aloft forrad there?’ bawled the mate. And now he sung out with energy and deciâ€" sion, for the figure of the captain was fllLIJgSlJO of him. “ ‘There’s something aloft that looks like a man!’ howled a. seamen â€"â€"one of the upstaring crowd about the Dutchman. ‘Come forrard, sir; you'll see him.’ "The mate and the captain went trees? C ome grily. “ ‘You sickâ€"hearts, what dye see to stare at? Or seeing, why don’t. you go for it?’ thundered the mate, after a paus‘e, during which the fig- ure on high had made no answer or motion. And as he spoke the words the officer bounded on to the bul- warks, and ran up the fore-shrouds. “He travelled with heroic speed till he got as high as the foretop. There he stood at gaze. Presently, after you might have counted fifty, putâ€" ting his foot into the topmast rig- ging, he began to crawl, with reâ€" quent breathless stops; his passage up those shrouds had the dying unâ€" certainty of the tread of a bluebotâ€" tle when it climbs a sheet of glass in October. “On a sudden he came down into the top very fast. There he stood staring aloft as though fascinated or electrified; then, putting his foot over the top, he got into the foreâ€" shrouds, and trotted down on deck, all very quick. The captain stood near the main hatch, looking up. The mate approached him, and, in a whisper of'awe and terror, exclaim- ed, whilst his eyes sought the shad- ow up in the foretopmast crosstrees: ‘I believe the Dutchman’s right, sir, and that we’ve been boarded by the devil himself.’ " ‘What are yer talking about?‘ “ ’I never saw the like of such a thing!’ said the mate, in shaking tones. “ ‘Is it a man?’ said the captain, staring up with amazement, whilst the seamen came hustling close in a sneaking way to listen, and the Dutchman drew close to the mate. “ ‘It has the looks of a man,’ said the mate; ‘yet it sha'n’t be murder if you kill him.’ “ ‘She vos no man, sir. close. I vent closer don you. I exâ€" pect, sir,’ said the Dutchman, ‘she's an imp. Strange dot I did not see him till I was upon her.’ _â€"_ / II. down!’ he cried I vos “The captain went swiftly to his cabin for a binocular glass. The lenses helped him to determine the motionless shadow in the crosstrees, and he clearly distinguished an ap- parently large human shape, but in what fashion, or whether or not habited, it was impossible to see. How had he come into the ship? The captain went on to the poop and searched the silent sea with the glass with some fancy of findng a boat wthin reach of his vision. Nothâ€" ing was to be seen. “It got wind in the forecastle that something wild, unearthly, hellish, was aloft, and the watch below turnâ€" ed out, too restless to sleep, and all through those hours of darkness the sailors walked the decks in groups. “Why don’t the captain let me ‘shoot him?’ said the second mate .at four o’clock. ‘I cannot miss that mark.’ “ ‘No,’ said the chief mate. ‘I'vc will do. The captain means to wait for sunlight. lint how did it get on board?’ Said he, :inking his voice in awe. ‘There’s hunâ€" dreds of leagues.’ "It was not long before day Whit- ened the east. And then, and even then, what was it? There it sat up in the crosstreesâ€"a hairy, sulky bulk of man or beast. black; and the crea- ture looked hard down, whilst all hands were staring hard up. “ ‘Sleized, if it said the mate. “ ‘No,’ said the fall his binocular. ‘Look for self. Yet it’s not a. man. either. He burst into a laugh, as though for relief. ‘It’s a huge hairy baboon, one of the biggest I ever saw in my no land for isn’t. a gorilla!’ captain, letting your- 7 taed of trying what shooting life. He’ll be as fierce as a mutinâ€" ous crew, and strong as a frigate’s complement. What’s to be done with him?" “ ‘Il‘ow in Egypt did he come hoard?’ said the mate, viewing beast through the glass. “ ‘By that, maybe, .sir,’ exclaimed the second mate, pointing to some object floating flat and yellow, faint and far out upon the starboard quar- ter. ' “The captain levelled the ship’s telescope. ‘A large raft.’ he ex- claimed, after some minutes of silent examination. ‘May be.’ “The captain said: ‘The beast don’t seem taint, but I guess he’s thirsty, and he may fall mad, come down, and bite some of us. So,’ says he to the chief oflicer, ‘send hand aloft with a bucket of water for the poor brute and a Docketful of ship's bread. If we can civilise him, so much the better.’ “But it never came to it, for on the a he I-Ie bared his teeth, and his eyes shone with malice of hell if the men attempted to approach him. It was impossiâ€" ble to let him rest aloft throughout the night to command the ship, so to speak; for he might sink to the deck stealthily as the shadow of a cloud blown by the wind; and he was strong enough and big enough to tear a sleeping man's throat' out. “ ‘I‘Ie must be shot.’ said the capâ€" tain. 'And he told the second mate to fetch his rifle. “The second mate, that he might make sure of his aim, went aloft in- to the foretop. The beast was then sitting on the topgallant yard. He had been in command of the fabric of the fore all day. Had it come on to blow so as to oblige the capâ€" tain to shorten sail, the deuce a seaâ€" man durst have gone aloft to stow The second mate, standâ€" ing in the top, was in the act of lifting his rifle, when the monster, running on all fours out to the dizzy stood erect a the canvas. ’to the second mate, 'and shoot lsight through lho had -is likely to be President or Easte¢o<>c<>o<>°¢o+o~e0¢~o¢e ing Skylarking up in those crossâ€" linen-beast against the liquid ’blue, anâ€" then sprang into the air. “ ‘Come down,’ roared the captain him through the head, for God's sake!’ “As the beast rose with a wild grin after having been so long out of the frightful height jumped fromâ€"you’d have thought he’d have risen with a burst skinâ€"the captain bawled out, ‘Bless- ed if he's not making for his raft!’ “The baboon, with a. fixed expres- sion, and with eyes askew upon the ship as he drove past. swimming very finely with long, easy flourishes of his arms and dexterous thrusts of his legs, whilst the end of his tail stood up astern of him as though it was some comical little man there steeringâ€"the baboon, I say, was un- doubtedly, and with a‘fnazing saga- city, making straight for the raft, having taken its bearings when aloft; but at the moment the second mate knelt to level his piece, meaning to murder the poor brute out of pure mercy, the thing utteredâ€"oh, heav- ens! what a horrible crylâ€"and van- ished, and a quantity of blood rose and dyed a black patch upon the calm blue. No more was seen of tho baboon, but. a little later the back scythe-like fins of three sharks show- ed in the spot where he had disap- peared."â€"London Answers. ~â€"»»+ PERSONAL POINTEBS. .u~ Interesting Gossip About. Prominent Eeople. S )me Dr. Joachim as a lad of thirteen played the violin at a, Philharmonic Society concert in London sixty years ago, and he will this year again perform in. London in connec- tion with the celebration of his dia- mond jubilee. - The Hon. A. G. McGrcgor, Vice- President of the Federal Executive Council of Australia, is the oldest member of the Ministry, being nearly sixty years of age. He was originâ€" ally a laborer on a South Australian sheep farm, and lost his sight through an accident while chopping wood. He is blind and has to be led everywhere. Mr. McGregor has a marvellous memory, is a wonderâ€" fully good dcbater, and enjoys the respect of members of all parties. Lord Edward Churchhill is an teresting man, with a quite unusual variety of occupations and attainâ€" ments. He is an expert at mechan- ics and electric science. He has built a church organ and made a brass in- Queensmead, where he resides, and “wired’f the house throughout. Micâ€" roscopic research also attracts him, and he gives much time to astronoâ€" mical studies. Many people have wondered why the Empress Eugenie always carries about with her, wherever she a little wicker basket, and speculations have been made as to its contents. The basket. is lined with cotton-vool, and in that sub-stance nestles a hedgehog! It is the Emprcss’s only pet, would not dream of allowing it be attended by anyone but herself. She has rather a superstitious atâ€" tachment to the curious creature, and believes that it has a talisman-ic power of ensuring her safety and general wellâ€"being. ‘ Lord llfas‘ham must be reckoned among the great inventors of his time. Three new industries he has created at leastâ€"that of machine wool-combing, the power-loom velvet and plush weaving, and that of the utilization of waste silk. Tn work- ing out the machinery for these in- dustries he spent, as he loves to reâ€" late, over $3,000,000. To-day he reaps his reward in a colossal inâ€" come. .The story of Lord Masham's career is one of the romances of dustry. In his time he has taken out over 100 patents, and all in connection with silk and wool manu- facture. Alton B. Parker, who is to be Doâ€" mocratic candidate for the Presi- dency of the United States, was born on a. farm four miles from Cortland, New York, on May 14th, 1852. He was successively schoolâ€"teacher, lawâ€" yer, judge, and, finally, Chief Jusâ€" tice. His mother, who is now nearâ€" ly eighty, has been talking of her “I do net know whether Alton gees, many soft and she to in- son. not," she said. “I began to use the switch on 'Alton when he was very young, and I attribute much of his goodness as a boy and his success as a man to those early corrective measures.” Mr. George Lansell, the gold king of Bendigo, who has been repeatedly urged to become one of the members for that Australian golden city in Parliament, has invariably declined. He has just given the reason to an interviewer. “My father threw himself heart and soul into the agiâ€" tation for the repeal of the Laws, neglected his business, and was ruined. It was such a lesson to me that I have carefully avoided pol- I! Corn itics ever since. Mr. Lanisell was born in Margate, England, eightyâ€" two years ago, but Bendigo has been his home for half a century. He is the sole proprietor of several of the most productive gold mines, and a large shareholder in others. His Bendigo mansion “Fortuna,” with its valuable pictures, statuary, and delightful gardens, is,one of the most in the Connnonâ€" luxurious places wealth. ##w SAME LINE. “I wonder what has become of Goodley? When he was at school, you remember, he used to talk much about uplifting mankind. tered the ministry, so China. given by a. native Ell- ' overheard the [SHINESE Burns was EVORD IS AS GOOD AS THEIR BOND. Keen Sense of Justice and and Conscientious Objections to Progress. THEIR The Chinaman is a complex pro- blem, and it is not within the scope of the European to‘ do justice to any one side of his character; but we are perhapsâ€"those of us who live in the Eastâ€"better able to apâ€" preciate his business capabilities; for the 1‘eaSon that it is in this capacity that we most nearly come into touch with him. Successful training is the aim and ambition of the middle class China- man, and he devotes himself to this end with an energy of which few Europeans, with their many other interests in life, are capable. The greater part of my life having been spent in the north of China, says H. Fulford Bush in the Shang- hai Times, it must be understood that my remarks bear upon the norâ€" thern native merchant, who is a more phlegmatic and cautious man than his southern brother and the more typically Chinese, in that he is less familiar with foreigners and their ways. The strong gambling instinct in- herent in every Chinaman prompts him to a boldness in trade speculaâ€" tions which foreigners do not care to emulate, and whichâ€"uncombined with that intimate knowledge of past transactions and apparent intuitive forecast of conditions governing prices, exchange, northern and south- ern demand and supply possessed by ever ' native traderâ€"would inevitably lead to disaster. The Chinese mer- chant, however, going on the broad principle. which experience of years has justified, that continues intelli- gent trading in the staple exports and imports will yield a return of five years’ profit as against two years' loss, enters into forward conâ€"- tracts, purchases in large quantities and stakes the greater part of HIS CAPITAL AND CREDIT on the' correctness of his estimate of the present, visâ€"a-vi'sl the future, mar- ket, winning five times out of seven and waxing prosperous on the fruits of his bold reliance upon his busi- ness perspicacaity. The foreigner cannot hope to com~ pete with the Chinaman in his own lines without adopting methods which to the Western mind appear unpractical and opposed to all busiâ€" ness precedent. The native does not trouble about bank guarantees, de- livery of goods against documents and accepted drafts, elaborate book- keeping and fixed hours. Dealing largely" on the barter sysâ€" tem, he delivers imports against exâ€" ports, each firm making a memoranâ€" dum of the transaction in a rough day book, without any bank interâ€" vention; and every merchant is pre- pared to do business at any time in the twenty-four hours, at his home, his hong (business residence), the tea shop, opium house, theatre or public bath. There is no sign of "rush"â€"â€"why rush when you have the whole :lay, and if necessary the whole night, for deliberation and conclave before determining your line of action? And yet, when an 0-pâ€" portunity offers such as a sudden fall in the prices of produce, or ex- change, or freight rates, the native merchant can make up his mind and act as promptly and withal as calm- ly as the smartest Westerncr could wish. Though extremely conservative and opposed to innovation, the Norâ€" thern Chinanlcn is beginning to adopt such Western improvements as recommend themselves to his sense by reason of their money-saving qualificationsâ€"and the last few years have witnessed great changes in the c '5‘ ‘4‘ is now constructed in Hong Kong on a semiâ€"foreign planâ€"improving the output of oil and allowing of a reâ€" duction in the labor HUMAN AND A NI MAL, employed, as compared with the old process. There is still vast room for improvement in this direction; but, though fearless to a degree when. emâ€" barking upon enterpriscs purely Chin- use in their nature and working, the Celestial is timorously 'autious in the matter of striking out a new line in which the methods is a necessity. cisely this seemingly cont‘adictory trait in his character which baffles the majority of Westerners, who enâ€" deavor by their rhetorical efforts to over persuade the possible purchaser, whose hesitancy is due as much to their only too apparent eagerness as to the dictates of his conservative and superstitious mind, which looks upon all things foreign as partaking of the nature of the evil one. ‘he traveller lies under a, heavy handicap in North China, where the Englishâ€"speaking Chinaman is a rara avis; and the.“employment of an inâ€" terpreter is merely an additional handicap in that' the Chinuman has a hearty, if unreasonable, contempt for those unacquainte'd with his Ianâ€" guagc. Good and trustv.'orthy inter- prefers are almost impossible to get, the average intenpreter's rendering of the loquacious foreigner’s disserta- tion showing up the weak points of his argument and entirely omitting his eleoquence. assistance of foreign It is preâ€" Apropos of interpreters and their unreliability while present at a big oflicial reception in the north of Viceroy I COH- bean cake factory inlCl‘Dl‘C‘lOl‘ appointed? cellence of the entertainment provid- ed by the host, prefacing his inter- pretation by the words “T'a Shuo" (he says). He would thus have quoted the remark of a coolie, a' man of no class distinction. The use of the pronoun was absolutely in- excusable but the foreigner did not understand Chinese, and the Vice- who should have RESENTED THE INSULT to his guest passed it over as being doubtless good enough for a non- Chinese-speaking foreigner. In no country in the world is eti- quette more rigidly observed and held in honor than in China. but the foreigner is a Walkuojen (a. man from without, in slang parlance, an out- sider), and as sueh not entitled, un- less acquainted with the language and etiquette, to any great consider- ation. / This may be a somewhat extreme instance. but it serves to demonâ€" strate a fact which foreigners desir- ous of doing business in the country cannot afford to ignore, viz., that the average Chinaman, whether oiliâ€" cial or merchant, considers himself superior to the European, and that the latter must therefore be careful to acquaint himself with the lan- guage and manners of the people. With such knowledge, he will find that he can cause an entire change of sentiment in his individual case, and put through matters of moment with an case which is conspicuously lacking when an interpreter is necesâ€" sary. But it inust not be inferred that any overâ€"discourtesy will be shown to the European who is ignorâ€" ant in these essential matters; on the contrary, the impression he will receive will be that the Chines mer- chants he has visi ted have been kind- ness and courtesy personified. They will dodbtless have plied him with tea‘,“ cigars and cigarettes. the while they have listened with an air of charmed interest to his imperfectâ€" ly interpreted utterances; and he will take his departure convinced 0 their willingness, circumstances per- mit, to do business with him and his firm exclusively. Ile cannot, of course, be expected to realize the fact that the conversation between the merchant and interpreter, when the mutual exchange of compliments has been exhausted, has been confinâ€" ed principally to matters of local business interest. TIâ€"IE EXCHANGE RATES, the resolution of promissory notes into hard sycee (silver), the probaâ€" ble cause of the detention of the bean craft up river, and its effect upon produce prices and so on. One of the most striking character- istics of the Chinese merchant is his my business integrity. Much has been written and said on this theme, and it is impossible to extol too highly the absolute reliance that can be placed upon the merchant’s bond. The writer’s father, Henry E. Bush, for over thirty years in conâ€" stant touch with the merchants of North China, neVer experienced a bad debt in all his many business transactions with the various native Hangs. Dir Ewan Cameron of the IIong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporâ€" ation, when speaking of his tenure of office in China, extending over many years, said he has never lost a cent through his native constituents. When it is considered that the said bank is the leading bank in China, aod the one with which native as well as foreign merchants are the most anxious to-do business, it will be admitted that no finer tribute could well be paid to the integrity of the native trader. 'At the time of the Boxer outbreak the Russoâ€"Chinese Bank at Newâ€" chwang had over 5,000,000 taels inâ€" Vested in the native city, and de- spite thc business stagnation result- ing from the disruption of the usual commerce conditions since that date, that money has all been accounted for. The main cause of this admirable state of affairs is, in my opinion, the guild organization. Every merchant is a member of a guild, every trades- man has his guild, and what the guild ordains is faithfully carried out by each of its members, No Chinese merchant can afford to lose caste, or “face,” as he would express it. His “face” is literally his fortune. Were he to be engaged in any discreditablc transaction, and be reported to his guild, he would lose “face,” and with it credit, bus- iness standing and his entire clien- tele. The Chines merchant has a keen sense of justice, in spite of the fact that the Chinese oilicial class is sin- gularly deficient in that respect; and if the foreigner can but show that he has “1i” (right) on his 'side he will find it an unfailing argument, one to compel a body of Chinamen. for the sake of their “face” to decide in his favor, their sympathy with their fel- low merchants notwithtanding. ....-..__.~.-_.. . TURKISH SULTA'N’S WEALTH. There. is an amazing collection of jewels in the Sultan’s treasury at Constantinople. The turbaus of all the Sultans since lliahomet II. are there, all glittering with rare and large gems of the purest water. "J‘hcre are also the lloyal Throne of Persia, carried off by the Turks in 1.514, and covered with more than 20,000 rubies, emeralds, and fine pearls, and the Throne of Suleiman 1., from the dome of which there hangs over the head of the Caliph an emerald (Sin. long and 41-in. deep. ’l‘hese two thrones are the chief ob- jects in the collection. I w... The rcal “harp that'ynce through .. _. - '.._‘."- ..,....p. ... ..-~._ i... ‘Aâ€"“A‘ “ugly” . *wsw,q.Wm.m.~___â€"â€"â€"â€"~mm-Wlmw mum D I perhaps?" . 3 He's manufacturing exâ€" voy plosive shells and torpedoes." topgallant yaudarm, tothe principal foreign guest Ibreathless instant. poisedâ€"in human postureâ€"a marvellous picture of the forward and looked up. , ‘ " ‘If. is a man!’ exclaimed the capâ€" tuw, “Aloft there! What are you do- eued to come on deck. Tara's halls the soul of ‘mpsic shed" to the Viceroy the said guest'slis in the museum of the Trinity Col- complimentary remarks upon the exâ€"Ilege, ’Dublin. of an eightyâ€"one ton gun. He also constructed electric dynamos for “Oh, no.