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ors 80 Dazzling jarkness of tho Vast Crater "Terrifias the Spectator--A Fountain of Fire. to all the rules of school a voleuny ought. to Le 'top of a mountain; It ought jut stones aud ashes and ul; (ts crater should be lu the i inverted cone, und should nojses; periodically It onthe fsland of Hawaii, con- BS to none of these specifications. } thrown out neither sioves nor patioa 'anuibilated the wmy that 'marching against 'Kumehameha, sandred aud fifty years ago. pg its lava within its own cra- h ds not shaped like an in- cone. The sides are from 100 high and 785 miles in cir 'aud the floor covers 2,650 lk 'across the Soor of the cra- 'about two and one-balf miles, is hard Java bed, more or less up d down, since luva hardens quickly d remains as it flowed, in great ropes ripples. A few yards from shore comes naturally to call the bank p"--a ragged crack is crossed by wooden bridge. At the time thls opened, a large party was in the They stayed long because they s delighted with the unusual ac- of the lake and had no idea it this nctivity extended beyond the pit of fire until at last they started to "80 back to the hotel. Jt was night, and as they approached | the northern bank of the crater their Yanterns suddenly revealed a huge fis- i @irectly across their path. Al ily .molten lava was bubbling up at the bottom. They followed the edge of the crack, keenly conscious, un btedly, as they turned to keep lel with the crater wull, that they op on the inner edge. Aft last they md a spot where the lava had split © , leaving a projecting ledge on Jump to the other side. Thegwhole gperience, with the thought of siuk- ing to the fires beneath or of being helmed by the lava slowly rising lin the fissure and the utter Lelpless- pis Of thelr situation, was enough to the most fearless. 'Kllavea is really an enormous qui- t crater with an active inner pit cavity 1s, perhaps, 1,000 feet , and its precipitous sides lead pwn to a lake of molten lava several ; In extent, somctimes higher, times lower in the pit. This is manag, which is commonly ted (although incorrectly), "the of everlasting fire." It is cer the house of the goddess Pele. light the lake of fire Is a yal Sm is Testless, beeating rapidly, : up at ome point and sinking B at another; throwing up sudden of scaflet molten lava that a few minutes and subside, leav- shimmering mounds that gradually fle to the level surface of the lake, ping brown and yellow as they sink. 'As darkness comés, the colors on the grow s0 Intense that they almost the eyes. The fire is not only red; } 48 blwe and purple and orange and Blue flames shimmer and dart put the edges of the pit, back and br across the surface of the restless Sudden fountains paint blood the great plume of sulphur smoke Figen constantly. es the spurts of lava are so nt, so exaggerated by the night, it one draws back terrified lest some bn of their molten substance should over the edge of the precipice. the whole lake is in motion. of fire toss snd battle with each and dash in clouds of bright ver- determine the wind's velocity. | | | | | | | | ch it was possible to stand, and so | blg guns has Bis Guns Only 43 per cent powder Is converted explodes. The te Is uncousumed residue; in the for of smoke, powder it is differen converted wholly into. greater volume bf gus § the explosive effect creased. pony When the war with Sous broke out in 1808 the United States government did '1udt have any smokeless powder. The Spaniards, on the other hand. had ininy gun: when it BT per cent th we sce smokeless ition it is A much \ sduced, and Bpurtion:tely plenty of it and used it on both land ! and sea. Consequently the Amcrican besiegers at Santiago were unable to see the Spanish soldiers ring at them, whereas the enemy. could see by the puffs of smoke just where to shoot. When Admiral Cervera's ships cume out of the harbor and tried to escape, the vessels of the American squadron found it hard in the fight that followed to fire accurately because their view of the foe was obscured by the clouds of smoke from thelr own guns. There ave many kindg of smokeless gunpowder. One of the best Lnown is the English cordite, Which, when forced through holes in & perforuted metal plate while in a plasic condition, * takes the form of thick strings that look like hrowh rabiben Phe strings Vly flan A chu cteristic of smokeless pow- ders Is that they burn very slowly; on that account modern guus fie very long, in order that all the powder of a charge may have time to be tranms- formed Into gas before the projectile driven by it leaves the muzzle of the weapon. The smokeless powder used by our army and navy is made by soaking nitro cotton In a mixture of ether and alcohol. It is thus converted into a plastic substance that mag be molded or cut Into any shape re quired For small arms it is manu- factured in a form resembling spaghet- ti--long strings that are chopped into little pieces and packed futo the car tridges. For big guns it is ade in long rods, which, after being perforated from end to end with a number of holes to insure qu ition, are cut into short lengths. That kind of powder, which might be called an ex- plosive celluloid, is of a horny con- sistency. As in the case of other smoke. less powders, the slowness with which it burns is owing mainly to its density. The very cloth of the used to contain charges of gunpowder for the itself been made of smokeless powder--that 13, woven of threads of exuctly the sane substance. That is an invention of the (iermans. The bag thus becomes part of the ex- plosive charge and when the gun is fired is wholly consumed.-- Professor Charles 8. Munroe in Youth's Compan- fon. Steller's Sea Cow. An inhabitant of the northern seas which has disappeared is Steller's sea cow. When Bering"s expedition was caught in the ice near the strait which bears his name his crew lived mainly on the flesh of this huge and stupid Arctic animal. It was larger than an elephant, full grown speck mens being as much as twenty-five feet long and weighing five or six tons aplece. It bad Ho. teeth at all, their 'plrce being 'takeh by horny plates. The very last of these harm: less monsters is said to have been killed by a Russian sealer in the sum mer of 1848.--New York Presa. Hard to Understand. (Arriold Daly says that once, when he was talking to Bernard Shaw, the latter admonished him, "If you wish tq get on In the world never take any body's advice." "This," sald Daly, "resolved itself into a paradox, for if T took Mr Shaw's advice 1 was taking so body's advice then I should never get on, yet if I didn't take Mr. 8haw's ad vice I shouldn't get on, and--well, | came to the conclusion that Bernard Shaw Was one of those people whom as Lord Dundreary says, 'ne feller can understand.' "--Baltimore San. Wind Velocity. The majority of people are unable to When spray against the black sides of | the smoke from a chimney moves in a Sometimes one of these sides in with a roar that echoes back forth, and mighty rocks are swal- 4n the liquid mass of fire that "over th a whirlpool, like over a ship. ! straight, vertical column it means that a one to two miles an hour breeze ls blowing. A three miles an bour wind will just stir the leaves on the trees. Twenty-five miles an hour will sway the trunks; at fofty the small branches everything is guiet; a thick will break, and it takes a mile a winute forms over the surface of the gale to snap the trunks of big trees.-- d, like-the scum on the surface | London Answers. "lonely forest pool Then it shiv- Washes of fire dart from side te "The center bursts open, and a Not Guilty. It was 4 a. m., and Bilkins crept soft. igri of lava twenty feet | ly into the house and removed his and fifty feet high streams into shoes, but as he tiptoed up the stairs r and plays for several minutes, | one of the treads gave a loud creak. of blinding fire flowing out "Is that you, John?" demanded Mrs. 'agatust the sides dotll | Bilkins from above. rocks are starred all over "No, my love," replied Bilkins, "It's of scarlet All sensations | the stairs."--Exchange, * in a sense of awe. This i Great Disasters In ars In Which a --- if tary Life Was Spared. TALES OF NARROW ESCAPES. Curlous Case of a St. Pierre Prisoner During the Mont Pelee Eruption. The British Retreat From Cabul--A Tragedy of the Terrible Manacies. There are many curious cares on ree- ! ord where death In one of fis many dread forms of disastér grips an entire party io Its clammy embrace and then, while its Icy tingers close upon the rest, lets one solitary meyiber of the baud slip away to be the sole survivor of the tragic calamity, Oue hnndred und 6Ofty-eight dead, one saved. That was In brief the tale of ¢ the wreck of the mail steamer General Chanzy, which struck in the terrible storm of Feb. 10, 1910, on the rocks of northwest Minorca. { Marcel Bader, the solitary. survivor from the wreck of the Chanzy, owed his preservation entirely to the fact that be was a strong and fearless Most of her trew Were swept away ' and drowned, but three--thie skipper, & | sallor and 'the ship's boy--clambered on | to the keel, where they drifted without food or drink. On the third day the sailor was washed off, but the skipper saved him. Then the boy went mad ! and died. On the fifth day the sallor was washed off again, and this time tbe captain had no strength to help him. On the seventh day the capsized vessel drifted in sight of land. A life boat put out and found the captain stlll alive. The Manacles have seen many eights "of horror, but none to excel that Janu- | ary night many years ago when two British trouopships--the Dispatch and the Primrose--both went ashore on these terrible rocks within a few hours of one another. Seven soldlers strug- gled ashore from the Dispatch throngh the crashing Urenkers and roused the village of St. Neverne. When the fish- ermen gained the beach the Dispatch bad vanished. But there was the sec- oud ehip--the Primrose--on the rocks. They pushed out, byt the doomed ves- sel was shattered to fragments before they could reach her, and all that the boat brought back was a fifteen-year- old ship's boy, whom they plcked up swimming desperately in the trough of the icy waves. Perbaps the most terrible disaster in modern British history was the retreat from Cabul in the winter of 1842. An army of 3,480 soldic with over 12,000 samp followers, started southward from the Afghan pital under promise of Bafe conduct. On the following Jan. 13 a solitary figure, filthy, npshaven, unkempt, Lis wind almost. destroyed with the horrors throogh which he had passed, rode out of the mouth of the Khyber pass. He was Dr. Brydone, the only survivor from all that mighty host. The bodies of the rest, slain by the treacherous (ihilzals, lay scattered for miles along ibe snoweiad floor of the defile". i | Jt Was stupidity, fot troRChEry, which caused the disaster to a battalion of a Japanese regiment in January, 180L On the 23d of that month a detach- ment of 210 men and officers, under command of a major, left the town of Awombri for a long route march. It came on to snow very heavily, and goon a regular blizzard was raging, with the temperature many degrees be- low freezing point. They lost their way and wandered on, burning their rifle stocks for fuel By the 25th only seventy-one were left alive. On the afternoon of the 27th a corporal alone was picked up by a relief party, alive but badly frozen. . At the end of April, 1902, Mount Pelee, the blunt headed volcano behind St. Plerre, began to show signs of ac- tivity. These increased until on May 5 a little before 8 in the morning there was a terrific roar, and a huge column of whitebot sand, burning cin- Jers and poiscnous gases came rolling down the mountain side. Whatever that cloud consisted of, # destroyed St. I'lerre completely. 'I'he very stones were cracked with the aw- ful heat, and within a few seconds 40,~ 000 human beings perished. Yet days afterward, when the ruins were cool enough to explore, a man was found alive. He was a negro prisoner who bad been confined in an underground cell and who, though scorched, scarred and almost suffocated, still survived-- the only living thing in fifty square miles.--~London Answers. Soothed Hen * Among the many stories about the bistiop of London fs one told of bim and a dying girl who trembled at the thought of death. "Would you be afraid if 1 were to carry you into the | next room?" he asked. 'And-the girl , | shook her head. "Then why should, you be afraid of being carried away by | one who is ten thousand mes kinder i aul more. Jorg Eon quilon Eprom. to nage John? © 0h, ids sh Y sti ought a8 mometisog pay Ip he untiguse Tatenens begets vices ay standing wa- ter produces serpents. - Vices atw whet stones which Sharpen Ties 'scythe piety fas How $n ganized to Rob By ESTHER VARD! Ethan Trowbridge. s miner rado, who had been prospect own account, came to his evening sick and Qtscouraged some time before entered a which he had found evideus and had been endeavoring to § | it was of suflicient valve to to secure capital to develop Eo workiug in the rain he had severe cold and had on this wm ble evening cowe to his home feave it again. In a few days b Trowbridge left a wife and 8 daughter three years of widow was absviutely pebnll fade very. effort to # Mra. Trowbridge's death Aan t Sue ried the little gir] to ber on home | took care of her the same ais one of 8 own children. % Twelve years passed.' Bdith Tro bridge, ~now fifteen yedrs of age and old enough to understand that she wits d living with'a different race from 'ber own, left ber foster mother with deep: 3; gratitude for her kindness to go forth into the world to earn 'her own Ii¥lsig. The old woman parted with her re luctantly. 'But her own children were at work, and she realized that it was time Edith should be. Besides, it was proper that the white girl should associate with those of her own color. Edith Trowbridge found a poxition as purse with a Mrs. Kimball, a lady who shor{ly afterward removed to St. Louis, taking the irl with her. Edith's story interested her employer so fat that she sent her to school, where, be- ing very' bright, she Tearned rapidly. At nineteen she had become a member of the Kimball family. though sbe con- tinued to relieve Mrs. Kimball of many household dutles. * Edith Trowbridge was known dur ing the time she lived with Aunt Sue by the name of Springer, that being Aunt Sue's pame, so fir as she had a name. While with Mrs. Kimball: she became known as Edith Kimball. At twenty years of age she was enjoying many social advantages and was a. fa- vorite. Among her young men friends was Arthur Ingersoll, whv bad recently been admitted to the bar and gave promise of a swecessful career. soll fell in love 'with Edith. She recip rocated, and they became engaged. One day a man appeared at Aunt) bin and told ber that Edward | Sue's Springer, her master when ghe had been a slave, had died and left ber an: her children $1000 each AlLS to do to secure her jnhe "give him a list of her Sue could map the names requis to serve her foster' cl Edith. at the bottom of the Hst, a being called In to witness ft ture. 3 It was about this time that & came to the St. Louis postofiio dr >d to Edith Trowbridge Kimball address. Edith opeus 2, letter, wondering who it was who If her by her real name. 'The § asked ber if she wonld self acre lot, of which she was the on Clear creek, near Georgetown, and if so what price she put npon: T was Greek to Edith, who | no knowledge of such lot and bell the writer had made a mistak: she wrote him to this effect Eé back that the land had heen pi ed by one Ethan Trowbridge { teen years before and it was suppe that she was her father's only hell Edith now referred the letters lover, who took the matter w| through a correspondent in "Col discovered that a valuable vein had been discovered on property Joining the claim enfered by _E Trowbridge shortly before his 4 The vein wns supposed to 'through the Trowbridge clal many persons were-trying to find | owner ofthe Trowbridge pro order to buy it. On learning these facts Ingersoll the information to his sweethear theré was a joyful meeting, Edith | ing become un heiress. It wi ranged between them that he 4 go to Colorado as he agent an into the matter. So After signed a power of attofney tot , fect they parted, and the next' getsoll started westward, That was the last meeting the lovers for some | Tager- J ose 30" €h ¢ } Sp yo was ote 'd my b etitllen * sn't dat right? ive youl and the children recetved fh legacies?" asked KSdub, ignoring question. aud 1 haben't see de gentleman » - afraid you never will. = All he Bted of yon was to get your state that I was your daughter." b, my goody gracious' ur Ingersoll returned to &t, fouls eeply disappointed man, He re- ed from attempting tu see {dith, wrote a note to Mrs, Kimball to hat he thoug!nt it best he and his jer fiancee should pot weet again Kimball replied that Edith bad to Colorado to sollect proof that was of pure white blood and the » dud liter of Ethan Trowbridge. 3 ersoll was in a quandary. wored to assist the girl be loved, ve that she was exclusively of hite race and it turued out that 8 not, he would be more deeply ed with ber. If, on the contrary, picd her such assistance and she | thot sie was all white it would Janta mount to deserting ber in time rouble. Ile pondered on the mat- ut for a long while came {o no 0 ek's indecision was cnough for > He decided. that he would not Edith. Having come to this in, he took a train for Colo- 1 Edith at a hotel In George p advanced to mect her with bint she drew back. ere can be nothing more between "till this matter is clean- me help you clear it 'her 0 opt of her tuberitance: fhe, they. both went (0 work td va- fieme. f They were mot long fn discovering fthat a man of the name of William Trowbridge bad: laid claim to the prop- erty in question, clalining fo be Bthao 'rowbtidge's only brother; that be and than had. -pever had a sister; conse: round ont which to dispute this man's claim was that Edith was Ethan Trow- bridge's ~ daughter and consequently helr-at-law. But the enemy had Aunt ue's statement that Edith was her daughter. The only hope was to prove hat in Edith's blood there was no ne- gro Llood. Having filed the necessary papers fa 3 the case, the lovers returned to- St Louis, where they consulted physi ans and men of science, with a view 0 discovering whether there was any nown test for pure white bleod. They 'were informed that there was, but it "would be necessary for Edith to go te he east, where the most advanced spe- Seialists were located. So far as Bdith's immediate circle s concerned, there was no : lor making: the journey to submit to uch a test. for it was plain to them bat there had Deen a conspiracy with view to securing her inheritance. Buf he proving of her:ease in law seemed o render {he matter obligatory to ber. i ust as she was about to start word rame from Colorado that a wo! en found who had known the Trow- ase mily, had heen gt the house bh was born and bad beex ! It he wa accoultt OF L818 péctiltit attfactlon "of all solids tor all gases, any scien- Ufle or other instrament devised to workin a vacuum must first be thor Jughly heated before it Is teady: for ht a solia has an extraordinary power of absorbing or occluding gases, the fact - is utilized for other purposes. Charcoal will absorb gas, and It is con- sequently used to take gas out of ves- sels and as a sanitary ageyt lo tact, charcoal {s medicinal in some respects, g- prescribed for patients tronbled gas on the stomach. After the charcoal is swallowed it absorbs the ' gas in the stomach and the unpleasant ' distension 1s gone. If one cares to try a little experiment let him fll the mouth full of tobacco smoke and blow it gently and slanting. ly downward on the surface of a smooth table. - The smoke will be seeg fo remain on the surface for three or four minutes, or even longer, although smoke. as Is well known, tends to rise on account of being warmer thao the airs also in spite of the fact that the process of 'diffusion is tending 3 make 'it mix with the air. If the is fried at night utdér a red light bent auw su st 48 carried about withoot E ie > trouble. When once attached they stick like glue, and they are occasion wily used for purposes of fishing. A line Is fixed to the fish's tail, which is then set free. As soon as it discovers a fish or & tortie it takes a firm hold. In the simplest form of fishing the line Is dragged in and tbe sucking tsb bauled ap, together with Ms captive. lo the case of a turtle the fishermum dives after (he Ine und su secures the victim, The Only Time. Fred--There are times when I care nothing for riches -- when 1 would pet 86 minch as put forth a hand to Feceise millions, Kittié--Indeed! That must be whe you-are tired of the world ang Its strug. gles and vahfties-~when your soul yearns for higher aod nobler things. not? -no; you &re wrong" "Then when is it?" "Wher Pm sleeping." - Excoangs -- i Eggs of Crabs and. Lobsters. Crabs and lobsters are hntched from. Related by #1 i "Ah remembabs de tis pe kiah Jinks went an' married bis dea wife's pister,". sald -Rastus -Jobnsing, San' wheil Al axes bins for 'who be bf in mwurnti' ge Bp. a ways, Mal sid" fer-n-law Without a Guide. « "I went tJ Junesbory' to sed my fa ther aud MoteY the other diy, Perey." "By Jove! Aud how afd you: find them "Ob ¥ knew' where they fived® AR: "La Height of Annoyance: "Fm wad at wy-wite. To anger or I shalt Girt: With sole other Woman." "If sou want to manke bet. apsuiorety furions awk Wome ober woman A