McHenry Public Library District Digital Archives

McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 21 Nov 1894, p. 6

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J®0HENRY J. t*H SLTIi, Editor and Pub. iLiiinui\ HfcR LOT AND MINE. OH •umniflr--and she met bmM-" •' At a boartUbg < ' ; Ho »e affording ^ A limited view of the boundless sea; And the fates only knew how it came Set at diniMW %e aw*--she and I (or w«Jt > 7 Y«a. at dinner -- (Whitlior inner Cravings had can led us.) There we twO : Happened to meet, just as peovle do: .• jUttd before the dinner wa« halfway throaga, febehad «obim 1 And ucdone m« "' ' *lth tboae wonderful eyes of liquid bid*." . . . WlrtH to there. Mum And more ssto^i ever on the receipt of this' more puzzled still at the s jfchnn liii *> . •VaworefaoUo voce that she nnd X, v ; Linked in letlier, .<! . Should together ^ttleexistence, ami dire defy / jSe threa ening gi orms of its loHeililg itT. /&, at all evont*. wait t ill the clouds roUed by. •i s We were fated To he mativi,-- I knew It. her iot xhpuld he linked with mine, jAd the years as they passed «|tould the closer twine -Our heart string" locether: we'd quaff the wine vV . Of life's pleasure?,-- Tread its measures, ^lyithtnktliitiii; figures of speech were , ilwalked w.th her oft on the shelving shore, , Captivated, ;i Fascinated; • And I vow'd. -as I think I remarked before.-- _ j; Isat her lot should be linked with mine. I "1 venture to tell you the fait once SUM) i We would weather %~V ; 1 Life together. ? • But I heard, with a shiver adown the spine. That my io\e was a widow with children nine: And that was the point where 1 drew thellne. v Nay. my dourest. .ir-y It were sheerest- u ^fadness to link such a lot with mlnel SirWew York Tribune. THE BANK MYSTERY. FL .. „.1V i*:,\ } One day the directors of the Banic - Of England were much puzzled, and not a little amused, when the secre­ tary read to them, at their usual sit­ ting, the following ili-spelt and some- curious letter; :"Two Uentilinin off Bank England: Too J fhink yow is fill safe hand youre Bank his seafe.'buttl knows bettur. i bin hinside thee Banck thee last 2 nite hand yow nose nuflin abowt it. Butti urn nott a theaf. so hif veo will mett mee in the gret squar rom, werh arlthe moneiy it, at twelf 2 nito lie ixsplain orl to yeow. lett onev 1 hor 2cum «•. alown. and 6ay nuffin 2 noboddy. "JON SMltfF,1' The letter being duly reaid, was, as might'be expected, the topic of conversation and suggestion for some time tiome of the directors thought it was a hoax. Others thought that under the apparently ignorantly written letter a deep mystery was h'dden: but all agreed that the safest way was to put the letter, with proper instructions, into the bands of the detectives specially employed by the bank. The detectives looked grave. There was a plot at work, they saw; and, with their usual penetration, they at once penetrated the deepest depths of the iniquity. Every one knows that a tile of soldiers march every night from the Tower to the _ tank to keep watch and ward over! the vast,, treasure there, but tbey ; simply guard the outside from at- j t«ck. All within is calm and still ! when business hours are over. j . There is a very large room under-j gtound, where the huge wealth of i the bank is deposited--millions and mill ons of English sovereign, bars of < gold and hundred-weights of silver, ; with myriads of note> to an incalcu- ble amount. The detectives of course, knew that this room must be the place which the writer of the let­ ter bad designated as "gret squar j ubm." J|s floor is a sold stone pave- j ment. and its walls, roof, and door j are of wrought iron. The door, the ' only means of access, is immensely thick, and secured by the best modern locks, while a sentinel is stationed in firont of it ail the night through. No - on3 from outside could enter; but, of course, the tclice well understood the trick; there must be some < on- f e d e r a t e w i t h i n t h e b a n k , a n d o n e o f : the conspirators being more cowardly j than the rest, had resolved to betray ! bis fellows to save himself. Their ! plans were taken accordingly. ! All the night long detectives were . tecreted in the room, but they saw nothing and heard nothing, with the Oxcepjion that some said they heard, - about 1 or 2 o'clock, a strange sound, j Which they could not account for. i The next night wa* the same, and the next, and the next, and when the *4Board-day" ot the bank came round, j the directors would have treated the affair as an idle attempt to frighten : them, had not their attenion been ioore strongly called to the subject ;pm the following incident: [ , : A heavy chest had been forwarded % the Parcels' D( livery Company, j directed to the "Directors of the ; Bank of f^bgland " The chest was, of course, opened before them at otice--such a thing being very un- ftsual--apd found to contain a large i packet of most valuable papers and ! securities, which bad been safely de- I posited in the vault With them was ' j|iijbe following letter: "To the Directors of the Bank of England ji^Gentlemen: My husband, who is an hon- ®6t man, wrote to you last week, and told Sou that he had found a way--which he be-eves is known only to himself--of getting Into your strong room, at»d offered, it you Would meet him there at night, to explain die whole matter. He has never taken any- tiling from that room except the inclosed box. You set detectives upon him. and he » ftook the box to show that he could go tl^ore if he chose. He gives vou another chance, a fow gentlemen bo'in the room aloae. •; * And my husbiind will meet you there at 1 .ibianight. Yours very respectfully, , ELLEN SMITH." . This letter was more mysterious than tne last. The only thing that I llwas evident was that the writer, -j^'Eilen Smith," was a better scholar //, than her husband. Tne detectives .^'ere shown the letter, and acted ac- Cordingiy. Of course, they saw way In which it had been delivered!, the directors, after a long consumption, agreed upon a plan of action. There were two thiqgs perfectly evkieut: I one, that the writer of the,.,letter really j had access, in some myst-erfeiis way,fe> j the strong room and the other, that he had discovered that the police had been put upon his track. So it was determined that some of the direct- I ora. who could conveniently do so, ; should visit the strong room at the ' time indicated in the letter. | The plan was carried out But, as j might De expected, the directors j were not alone. The police had ad- | vised them too well for that and half j a do, en of the best detectives were dre sed up in the garb of gentlemen and mingted in such a way that any one would have 3uppo*ed thai they j formed one group j They waited until twelve, and tben one of the directors, a little impa­ tient, approaching the table, said: "Well, it's a most extraordinary af­ fair. Feiden. you are used to these matters and you tmve examined the room. Where the fellow can come from is oo aie a pene t mystery. Perhaps if he had not used these words at that moment, the "myste­ ry," as he called it, might have been instantly solved Of course every eye was directed to the table where the letters had been placed: but though every precaution was taken, there was not the least- sign of any living being but them­ selves, or any voice save their own, in the room. They waited there the whole night long, but nothing was seen or heard. Their labor was in vaia About 4 o'clock in the morn­ ing the detectives whispered that it was needless for the gentlemen to remai.i any longer; they themselves would wait as long as the gentlemen chose, but the hour for breaKing into that strongest of all strong rooms-- if it could be broken into at all--was long past. The gentlemen, nothing loath, departed, after ••tipping" their assistants liberally. The detectives also, convinced that their wor£ for tne niuht was done, lelt the strong room about <> o'clock. The next morning the board held an e traordinary meeting, in order to discuss the result of the efforts of the gentlemen who had been all night in the vault Tbey had little or nothing to sav of any consequence, and a.ter a long argument about nothing, were about to separate, when a porter entered with a letter, which he stated bad been found on the table in the string room. It ran as follows: "Yow kin do ess yeou like. Lars night I herd someone speek to Mr. Feldin,' who I kne w is an liossiier of th < pnrlk-e. sow of course 1 did not come; as I mite ave dun. I give yeo another chance. Coome to nite. if two or 3 gentlemen are tbeare aloane hi will be with um. If eny detektaves is thare hi shall give it al up at 1st. Yo may cnocse as you wull. J. 8." Wtt in the strong like miners, can read­ ily deifcefaii net he exact spot of ground undsf which they are, Suu u5 soon bad ft cleW to the whole mystery. He told His wife, Who was a woman of much superior education to his own, of the whole affair; and then hit WfAfa na wo hovA fhfl /j|«AA> tors. Down in the sewer be was able to ' hoar ail their movements as well as if above ground, and thus was not only able to know thehr plans, but to frustrate them, and of course could j watch his time to remove tbe small I but valuable box which we saw was afterward returned, to leave tbe let* [ ters on the table, and to appear so , mysteriously. ( Of course no one ever thought of looking to tbe stone pavem&t, which was supposed to be solid and i mm ova. ble, as it was known that there wer« no vaults below, although tbe Iron walls and doors had been most care* fully tested. The raysterv was now cleared up; and the directors, calling for lights, examined tbe place carefully and fully verified the man's statements. He was liberated at the usual en* trance, after his address had been taken, and a time bad been appointed when he should appear before the board The whole affair, which caused a great sensation at the time, wasduljl inquire# into, and such precaution^ taken that a repetition of the ad« venture would henceforth be impos* sibie. The directors felt that they owed the strange man a debt of gratitude. Although gold and silver was not lying in heaps upon the cellar floor, there was incalculable wealth hidden there, in tbe shape not only of notes and the most valuable securities, but also in*sol d bullion and hard caoh. It is impossible to say what a clever burglar might, if he ouly knew of the secreo entrance, have taken away un­ detected. The very strictest search proved that nothing had been taken besides! the box, which was intact. When this point was fully settled it was agreed by the directors that the mys- terious visitor to their strong room should be rewarded for ^his honesty, and it was currently reported thai they settled upon him a liberal an­ nuity, sufl.cient to support him in comfort for the rest of his days.-- New York News. WISP Active Ur-v through "the dod«*e.,: The cleverest ;i0j • :|mcn were posted in the room. f in the morning they told a strange vstory. They said that they saw a •light at about 12 o'clock. It seemed < to come from a dark lantern; but di- ! ,rectly they ran to the spot from1 * whence the light proceeded it went out. and the strictest search had dis­ covered nothing. The bank omcials became alarmed. Every night the strictest watch iras set, but nothing turned u£ until, on the | morning of tbe next sitting of the fi board was to be held, another letter i was tound uj on tbe table of the 'letrong room. How it got there, « considering ! the room was guarded j;i day and night, was a mystery, its ^ contents were as follows: "It was lor your own good that you were ii> warned that the strong room of the bank is * | not really safe. At any time any one can 'i f) enter It, If we wished to steal we certainly 0 would never have told yon about it, or re- * tucjMMi that box. You have eet the police to • see to jbat vou ought to have looked after "'f ' This extraordinary communication was a source Of no small anxiety to the'bank directors. How it could 1 nave been left on the table in the ^ strong room, guarded as it was, none i could imagine. They, however, at last agreed to do what perhaps would have been wiser if done at first, namely, to depute a few . of their | number to visit ths vault alone, j Lvery suitable precaution was I taken when night came. The sen- tinel paced up and down outside; the detectives were not far off: and after the most rigorous search had been in­ stituted, the gentlemen were locked in. Hour after hour pass d by, but nothing appeared. Sometimes lor half an hour they pretended by silence that the room ws empty, in order to tempt the depredator, if present, i from his biding place Tben they j would move about, and talk in such | a way tba« any berson who over­ heard tbem would know that they were alone, but not a sound or a whisper, save what they themselves uttered, was heard. At last one of j them, who paced tbe floor rather 1m- | patiently, beginning to think that ! perhaps after all it was only a clever trick, cried out: I '-You ghost, you secret visitor, you i midnight thief, come out: There is : no one h^re but two gentlemen and myself. If you are afraid. 1 give you my word that tbe police are not here." It was more in jest than in earnest that Major Clifford--for he was a mil­ itary man--shouted out this absurd speech. His astonishment, however, was great when, in reply to what be had said, he heard a voice saying: "If you have kept your word I will keep mina Put out your light, and then I'll come." The Major and his fellow-directors did not much like putting but the lights, but they were not cowards, and after some demur it was dune. Where tbe voice came from was, how­ ever, a mystery, for there was no hidiug-places in tbe room, every side being of thick, many-plated iron and steeL When the light was out they waited in silence, while the Major grasped tirmly in one hand a revolver. For a little while alow grating sound was heard, then the falling of a heavy body, and the next instant a man was visible standing in the middle of the vault witn a dark lantern in his hand. Of course be came from some- ! where, but the puzzle was--how? A a hoist could not have entered more mysteriously, tor .they already knew that the walls and ceiling had been j most carefuly examined, and there I was no possible way of ingress. The man, however, soon spoke for him- | self, and the directors,, who were still | at a loss to explain his presence i . there, listened in astonishment. i t It appeared that he was a poor! i man, and obtained a precarioualiving in a strange way. When the tide was low it is tbe custom of a certain J class of people unknown to refined I society to enter the sewefs to search i for any articles of value which may have been accidentally washed \down into them. It is a dangerotra task and revolting in the extreme, but they not unfrequent y I nd very pre- cioils things hidden in the tilth. The man was one of those strange adventurers. One night, he bad dis- | covered an opening leading to some j place above. There was a large souare stoue which he found could be easily raisec*.1 He listened for some time, and . finding All was,: silent, lifted up the stone without much Susceptible Indian. Mr. Cremony, in his "Life Among the Apaches," gives an entertaining account of a lady's man with whom he once enjoyed an interview. "A tall, strong, well-made and handsome young dandy," he calls him: strut­ ting about with an air of very su­ perior consequence, displaying his colossal proportions, his splendid leopard-skin saddle, quiver, leggins, and the like Alter a while Sait-jah came swag­ gering toward me.and said, in broken Spanish; "Our chief says you great medicine; he says vour pistol lire s^x times without reloading: he says you bring tbe trees which are afar oS close to tbe eyes, as you c*n county tbe leaves; he says our guns reach a great way and never miss; he says a great many other wonderful things, which I cannot believe. You have bewitched him." Drawing a six-shoo'ter from my belt, 1 pointed out a tree about seventy- tive yards distant, and began firing rapidly. Each shot struck the tree, a<|t blazed off large fragments of the bark. Sait-jah was astonished, and made no attempt to conceal the fact; but his admiration broke into emphatic expression when he witnessed tbe precision and reach of our Sharp's, rifles, and the rapidity with which they could be leaded and fired. His pride bad evidently received a heavy fall, and bis lofty bearing was toned down many degrees. in my possession was the mininture or a young lady, whose graces of per­ son, cultivated mind and amiable dis­ position, rendered her one of the most lovable of Boston's fairest daughters. Sait-jah happened to see this pic­ ture, and asked permission to take a good look at the pleasant feat­ ures. The miniature was placed in bis hand, and h s eyes seemed to de­ vour Its expressive lineaments Throughout the remainder of the day he bored me with frequent re­ quests for another look, and the next morning, as soon as the camp was i astir, he offered me his bow, arrows, ! and splendid leopard-skin for the picture. Tbe offer being refused, he added his horse, and whatever other prop­ erty be might have; tben, finding me deaf to his entreaties, be took one long, last look, vaulted on his horse, set o£ at full speed, and rapidly dis­ appeared in the distance. | Tb* fanlte school* Should Do 1 Work ia Xhli Line.; Some efforts have been made In late yea;s, in country places, to pop.1 ularlze rural life through the public j scbo-jls, writes Phillip Snyder. Tree j planting (on "Arbor Day") Is in : course of experiment, and fiower' i-grcwing* S5(! **»rdeniDg have be«n i I suggested, and practised occasionally. ! But no large results have been re- { ported---and uevpr will be under the present system of giving the bulk of the summer to vacations. The system of closing the country schools in June and reopening in Sep­ tember has been acquiesced in, but really, it is hard to see any weighty reasons for it in the rural distriots. Summer heat is not a continuous fac­ tor in summer lire, and even when It is very hot children are quite as well off in the modern school building as at home, or such places as country children frequent in summer weather. Were the schools kept open at that season for at least four or five hours a da? there would unquestionably be a fine chance to instruct them in such details of rural ornamentation as they generally fail to receive at home, and a love for country life in­ stilled that city temptations could not easily overcome. One great difficulty, even yet, to cooiuub ia iiiiti wuiJju oi iuuu whtutiou to grow flowers, vegetables, hedges, trees, or grass, and^to lay out walks and groves. Land is Cheap enough, but to set apart an acre or two for school purposes strikes the average patron as mere waste and nonsense. But under a wise teacher, who is something of a landscape gardener as well as a teacher, it would be a very practical matter. Nothing, is so wanting in country life as cultivated taste--the taste to appreciate the beautiful when seen, or to make ,a landscape beautiful in tbe mind's eye and then to develop it before the physical eye. Every country school- house ought to stand in the midst of a beautiful little park planned by some expert, but the work done largely by the children and kept in order by them the year round. Once taught how, they would delight to do it, and taste for it developed at school would be sure to find ex­ pression at home whenever there was serious,occasion for it. The writer can remember a teacher, over half a century ago, who, under­ standing child nature and loving rural life himself, obtained the use Of a few rods of land ad oining the school house and made a little garden of it, to the intense delizht of the pupils and his own pleasure. But what a little Eden he might have made of that spot, if he had had two, or three, or tive acres under his con­ trol,. in which to plant trees, flowers, evergreens, a hedge of evergreens to j inclose it, fruit trees here and there, | and shady arbors, and had been able j to make us all feel that this was a j permanence--the pro'perty of the dis- | trict, kept up for the good of the children, a thing of beauty for them to enjoy while life and memory lasted! But alas! one short summer; ended the dream; another district bid . tor bis services much more than my 1 district would think of giving, with ! their views of liberality, and he went away amid a flood of tears such as gay and light-hearted children seldom shed. There is no mystery about a school- house park that would p tzzle bright children very long, i'iowers they love fiom the start; fruit, perhaps even more than flowers; weeds they hate when they know their nature and o lice; trees they admire for their imposing presence and majesty; and the green velvet of a rich lawn turf they would treat as gently as moth­ er's carpet if only trained to appre­ ciate its wondrous beauty. As to hedges and screens, and low-trained and well-trained evei -greens, there is a concentration of modest beauty about them^ t^at appeals to a sensi­ tive nature with something like spiritual power. Awaken the ad­ miration or love for these, and the city's enticing temptations will have small seductive power over them. Even if they leave the country at maturity, a tie is formed that will be likely to bring them back at the first opportunity. In any case, country life wiil have a tinge of en­ joyment to which thousands are now strangers, looking upon it as a sort of ijeiKpBaiQI* flKlfl Q) m CElta or am phosphate, iff the tumbler half full of shaved ice, shake W6l£ fill up with soda water, sift on a little nutmeg and serve at once. Dr. Ely of Rochester, has been call­ ing attention to the very great ben­ efit that he has derived in-the treat­ ment of disease by the use cf eggs. Some of his patients have taken as many as fifteen, twenty-five and even thirty raw eggs In twenty- four hours, and have kept this up for months. One of his patients took three thousand eggs in one year; | another one five thousand four j hundred and seventy-five eggi. Mrs. Behn and Noll Gwyn. In the course of a search among the Lord Chamberlain's ecords, copies of the following warrants were found, which are not without inter­ est to stage annalists: Whereas, the Lady Slingsby Comoe- dlan and Mrs. Aphaw Behen have by acting and writing at His Royall Highnesse Theatre committed several Misdemeanors and made abusive re­ flections upon persons of Quality, and have written and spoken scandalous speeches without auy License or Ap­ probation ot those that ought to pe­ ruse and authorize ithe same. These are therefore to reauire vou to take into yor Custody the said Lady Slingsby and Mrs. Aphaw behen and bring them before mee to answere the said Offence, and for soe doelng this shalbe your sufficient "Warrant. Given under my band and seale this 12th day of August 1682. "To Henry Legatt Messenger of His Maties Chamber, &e." Who was the "Comoedian" Lady Slingsby? She is not claimed as an ancestor in the pedigree of the York­ shire Baronets of that name. The other warrant is dated June 8, 1682, and runs: "These are. to require you forth- Wi^h to deliver unto Madame Ellen Gwjha oi> whome she shall appoynt these Hangings, vi/., one peece with with the figures of King James and Queen Ann, one peece of King Charles and Queejg^Miwry of blessed memory, and another peece of Chris- tianus King ot Denmarke. And for soe doing this shall be yor Warrant. "To Phillip tvinnersley, Esq., yeo­ man of Hi* Maties '.emoving Ward­ robe' of riedds."--The Athenaeum* So Like a Girl. it was in a Lewiston horse car of the up-town line the other evening, after the performance of "Shore j Acres," when everything wascrow ed. | Amonir the party who entered after j tbe car was crowded were three young | ladies. Each of them grasped a strap I and stood. One of the girls who | lifted her gloved hand had a beauti- I ful bracelet upon her wrist. A inid- i die-aged man jumped up and offered her a seat. She declined, waving one of her friends into it Then a young man who is interested in the Lewiston Y M» C. A. jumped up and offered his seat The young lady bowed and told a lady back of her to sit. Then several gentlemen prof- ferred her seats, but she declined them all with a sweet smile. After she left the car she said to her friend: "I'm awfully tired, E can bardly drag one foot after ttfe otheft." "You ought to be," was the reply. "Why?" f "You should hare sat down in the car." "Yes, but you are not as strong as I." "I know, but another seat was of­ fered you." "Yes, but that was Mrs. S-- and I want to make friends with her.'* "I know, but even then there were seats offered." ' "Mabel," said the pretty girl sud­ denly. "don't be a blockhead. Do you suppose I was going to sit down when my bracelet was showing o& so lovely?"--Lewiston Journal. Chinese Hospitality. **Very few people have any idea ot the great hospitality of the Chinese," said a Pittsburgh Celestial recently. "Chinamen coming to this country retain their ideas of oriental hospi­ tality and always keep open doors for any of their race who may need shelter. A Ch naman arriving in Pittsburgh without money would never want for a lodging and board- wide open prison they cannot well es- j ,nfif place. He would simply go to Looking Into an The development of a chick within the egt: isj one of the most wonderful things in nature. At the end ot the fifty-eighth hour ot incubation tbe heart begins to beat, two vesicles are seen, and a few hours later the auricles also appear, and the fourth day the outlines of the wings may be perceived and sometimes of the head also: on tbe fifth day the liver is visi­ ble; on the sixth, other internal or­ gans appear; in 190 hours tbe beak is fully formed; In 200 hours the ribs are clearly developed; in 240 hours the feathers are visible; in 268 hours the eyes appear; in 2ss, the ribs are completed and the feathers on the breast; in 3:^0 the lungs, stomach,and breast have assumed a natural •'ap­ pearance On tbe eighteenth day the first faint piping of the chick is I sometimes audible.--St Louis Globe- ! Democrat diffieul-y, and found, after some lit- Utilizinsc Spiders' Webs. Cobwebs are still valueless as a raw material for manufacturing purposes and, liKe many another article, await the ingenuity of man to turn them to better account in the service of man. >'o thoughtful observer of the wonderful elastic webb of the com. mon garden spider, for example, can resist the temptation to speculate on tbe possibilities of the spider and its web, Indeedf considering the rate of progress in arts and sciences, we ought not to be quite so fair, contends our contemporary, from the day when the cobwebs in the cellar will be carefully collected and converted into sliic dresses for , Uie 4>aAi room--- Draper's Becprd. \ - - /i-; \ *t cape from. A schoolhouse park, well cared for j by children, teachers, and others who love it, would exert an incalculable influence on rural taste. Now, tens of thousands, even of grown people, • have never seen a well-kept park, ] and tbe dreary barrenness Of multi- ! tudes of rural homesteads, and the anxiety of tbe younger occupants to get away from them, attest the necessity for them. They would be object lessons to revolutionize rural life and taste. What pupils learned there of flowers, trees, plants, and ' landscape setting thev would en- . deavor to reproduce at home, draw-! ing parents int,o it in spite of them- I selves. And that is exactly what is wanted. Country lire, to be satis- | factory, must minister to some otber j taste than that of bread winning-- even that poorly supplied. A foolish idea prevails that beautiful grounds ' are unattainable except to the rich. The instruction obtained through the schoolhouse park and garden would dispel that idea, and awatcen an interest in amateur rural adorn­ ment that would rescue the country from threatened depopulation. It is tbe home and the school to which we must look for the advance­ ment of society in morals and taste. Make tbem what they should be, and tbe rest is easy. This suggested im­ provement in school methodsjn volves no question of sectarianism, and no large amount of cost In many cases the land would undoubtedly begiven, and such work as the chiklrentcoul.l not do--twider proper supervision, of course--would furnish employment to the poor laborers of the district, while the proximity of a beautiful little park would enhance all values nearly m. if '1 f . Raw Exk*. The is no one thing quite so nutri­ tious as raw egg^ For the convales­ ce®!), or those who are feeble and whose digestive apparatus is not in good order, raw eggs prove most wholesome and generally are very ac­ ceptable. They are readily and rap- Idly digested and when taken with a little sherry Wine are quite palatable to most people. • popular drink at the first Chinese laundry or residence, feeling assured that he would find a welcome there. If. after staying a couple of days, be Should learn that the circumstances of his host were such that the latter Could not well afford to keep him. he would move away, making his home with another Chinaman. He would contiuue doing this, dividing himself up, so to speak, until he was abie to get work and support himself. Of course^ such wanderers usually etuleavor to find the most wealthy Chinamen and be­ come their guests I have known some of the laundries in Pittsburgh to have ten and twelve transient vis­ itors--you could not call them board­ ers--to stay over night."--New iork Home Journal. Misapplied Assistance* Two women sitting side by side in a street car the other day had an amusing experience They were strangers to each other, and one hap­ pened to notice that her neighbor was having serious difficulty with a jacket she wore and at which she tugged, with tbe result that it would neither go on or come oif. "Permit me,,: said the woman who sat near to her, aud she pulled upon one shoulder and jerked up the to^ of the collar. Still the woman with the jacket struggled with it, and the s de that the other woman had so obligingly assisted up slipped down again, to be grabbed once more and pulled into place by the obliging passenger. ! "Now. if you'll turn this way I'll help you on the other side," she said to the astonished wearer. q"Thank you, ma'am," snapped the other woman, "if it's all the same to #;you, I'm trying to get this jacketoff," f'and with a final jerk she succeeded4 | in freeing herself from the encumber- f ing wrap And the woman who had tried to help her gazed into blank futurity and recalled the example of the man who got rich mina ing his own busi- i ness.--Detroit Free Press. Jtamck Feopl# J ration • The love of the Ifcfriijib itar display In burial ceremonies $it JM.pointed out as charactertstfc of the nattofeu The people have a pathetic itQg of saying "although It costs muoh to live, in Paris, It costs still more to die " This is. in a nmasnra tr'm, and that it is so, says the Baltimore Sun, is due to the fact that the Govern met has- a mon­ opoly of the work ot buying the dead, and has established a scale of prices by which the style or funeral is regulated, from that costing hun­ dreds of dollars to the one which opens the fosse commune .common grave). As a rule the, French are fond of fine funerals. For statesmen of the first rank the Government de­ crees a State funeral, which is an oc­ casion of great display and frequently leads to political demonstrations, but private funerals are also costly, and many a man who has lived with the utmost meanness all his life is laid to rest with princely pomp. The door of his residence is hung with black curtains, embroidered with silver: his monogram, in silver, fs on all tbe mourning coaches which follow the hearse; the drivers are dressed in black, wjth knee breeches, high boots, three-cornered hats and long crepe streamers oa uiejr arms; tne horses for the hearse are caparisoned with sweeping draperies of black anc silver, and on the hearie itself are plumes and silver figures oi angels and cherubs. Then, too, the custom of sendiug out notices of the death and invitations to the fuueral is very common, and sometimes those no­ tices are as elaborate and as elegantly engraved as tbe most expensive invi­ tations to a ball. in striking contrast with the de­ corous funerals of the rich are the scenes when the body of a very pool person is to be laid, in the grave. The city is strict in Tegard to them. The body can only be kept twenty- four hours from the time of death, and it must be buried in a ?offln made of thin deal boards, unpainted, unvarnished, and so slight that io is always wrapped up and fastened with ropes lest it should come to pieces It is taken to the grave in a hearse which is hardly better than a dray. At the fosse commune the priest is allowed to include six funer. als in one service. Fully to explain the necessity for the fosse commune, it is necessary ,to say a word about French graveyards! They are gov­ erned entirely different from ours, and their objects seems to be to atlo d graves to the millions who are <^ad, without taking too much space from the millions who live. In certain parts of the cemetery graves may be bought outright, though at enormous prices, and remain forever in the pos­ session of a family. In other sec­ tions the graves are bought singly for five years from the date ot burial, and at the end of the specified time the bones are taken up and buried in the fosse crtmmune. The fosse com­ mune-- the lowest ,gravc of all--is a ditch twelve feet deeft twelve feet wide, and as the size of the grave­ yard permits. Here the cortins are put side by side in two rows, the he&ds meeting in the center. When a certain number are in the ditch it is closed and on another layer of earth more collins are afterward laid. When the ditch is filled ,to the sur­ face another one alongside opened, and so until tbe available space is used up. Then the first ditch is re­ opened and fresh coihns are put in place of the old ones, which have de­ cayed. Indian Bargains. Indian travel is full of surprises, and otherwise. A gentleman wish­ ing to purchase some of the beautiful cashmere shawls which are made not far from Delhi, went to one of the largest establishments in the city. The merchant showed him a book in which we;*e written recommendations of his goods, by Gen. Grant and his son, as well as by many others. Among -the recommendations was this one in German: "Ihave (ought shawls of this mail, and flhink I got them cheap; but do not> offer him a third of what he asks." The gentleman selected two very beautiful shawls, and asked the price. The merchant, after a little consul­ tation with his clerks, said: "1 have not sold a shawl to your party! 1 sell you very, very cheap. You may have these beautiful shawls for fourteen hundred rupees." "Absurd! Let us go!" said the gentleman, having in mind the Ger­ man's advice; and he started for tbe door. "Don't go,w said the merchant; "make me au offer." "1 will give you four hundred rupees for both shawls." * To his astonishment the merchant replied: "i'ake them; I will send them to your hotel.4. At Jaipur the same traveler lodged in a hotel conducted by a native, but owned by tbe rajah. He found the following amusing notices posted in various places: "If visitors are not satisfied with the food or cooking, they can deduct rrom the biy what they consider fair." "Guests are requested uotto strike the servants." "Guests wishing ice are requested to give a day's notice, and name how much they require." Give the people two pieces of gos sip at once, and they will accept the one with most slander in t* •:{ t* i'. ' . . . " . . Egyptian Geometry. The Ahmes papyrus doubtless rep­ resents tbe most advanced attain­ ments of the Egyptians in arithmetic and geometry. It is remarkable that they should have reached so great proficiency in mathematics at so re­ mote a period of antiquity. But strange indeed, is the fact that, dur­ ing the next :',0oo years they should have made no progress whatsoever in it All the knowledge of geometry which they possessed when Greek scholars visited them, six centuries B. C., was doubtless known to them 2,000 years earlier, when they built those stupendous and giganti - struct­ ures the pyramids. An explanation for this stagnation of learning has been sought in the fa t that their early discoveries in mathematics ana medicine had the misfortune of being entered upon their sacred books, and that, in after years, it was considered heretical to augment or modify any­ thing therein. Thus the books them- Belves closed the gates to progress. -- tory of Matbematics-«Cajorl. the Pnrolitwr Bad to Cut Op . f ' Ithrw to Complete tbe gfcta. "It is not often that a man gleets to buy the front en when he buys himself a home;" ex-Judge Dittenhoeferto a l%ew zone v i reporter, "but this is precisely w|^S friend of mine did--ind he Mi, ^ dearly for tbat front door wnefi W 'fi d i d a c q u i r e i t I w a s i n m y o t f k e o n e « | afternoon, when my. friend H came in, ami after the exchange ot the compliments of the day he remarked: • ",A 'Judge, I've bought me a new home : • P: out on West One Hundred and Twenty-third street' " 'That's good,' I replied. 'Did you get a bargain?' ? «*•> "Oh, pretty fair! At leait'11 thought I had; but I'm not so sure > now. 1 can't get in the troht door.' \ "/What do you mean?' ' " The man 1 bought tiom refuses - ^ ^ to give me the Key'to the front door, < 'l Sl;| Oft T 'MS0 Vi . i and I can get in and out only by hack Way.' I1*; ^ " •What reason does fte' gl^e acting in that manner?' . "'tie says I didn't buy tbe front of the house, and he is going to let me in tbat way.' " 'Have you got your deed all right?' 1 asked. • a'Oh, yes! That's all right' / if Hnwm row and let me look it over/ "The next morning B. appeared .̂ With the deed, which to a casual glance appeared to be in form. But on examining scription of the property and bounds I discovered omission. The point o: was at the juncture or ti and westerly boundary thence to the north then to tbe street there. Bencethe f ment, not being des conveyed. And th the legal owner of bouse, tbe frontage the property of tbe he had a right key, smoke bis stoop and put on ter of the house, sneak in through Whether the omi tional or not was fop out But it was q.u that the owner of 1 meant to profit by th accident it was. him he calmly remar frontage was his aud claim it Being thiea suit and the assu ance t of equity would compel the of the deed, he replied. 'Fire away!* Finally, rather than to have the ; property tied up in< the courts pos- ^ sibly fqr two years, I advised B. toiii^ compromise the matter if he could, V! and by the payment of $500 he ac- ,;?'3 quired undoubted right to the- latrh key of his own front door "' rrect case- not was of the hnically and the latch $he front of mas- Id only door inten- find plain s it V: orrection The Chinese Son of Heaven. In Pekin is the residence of a mon* # arch who is still the Son of Heaven- to 350,000,out) human beings, whom a ^ bare score of living foreigners have \ even seen, and who at the end of tbe nineteenth century leads an existence f befitting the Veiled Prophet of Kho- y rassan. He is Vicegerent of Heaven, himselt ail but a go l, and lives a prisoner's life. To the innermost palace no man is admitted, and the ' imperial person and harem are sur­ rounded by a vast body of eunuchs estimated at from 8,000 to 10,000. ?' Wheu the Emperor goes out nobody is allowed on tne streets, which are ^ very likely paved for the occasion, while the houses are barricaded or closed with mats. v? Th« ceremonial functions of his life are manifold and engrossing, and / his education in tbe native classics is •- not neglected. Kuang Heu, the " present, Emperor,, takes a deep in- . terest in everything English, aud re- ceives daily lessons in our language from two t.binese students, who, un-; like the Ministers, are allowed to sit in his presence; but with the sad Si routine of his oilicial life, rig.dly pre­ scribed by an adamantine etiquette, |: and the temptations of the harem, it is unlikely that an. Emperof of China^ can develop force of character or \ learn lessons of statecraft Should a. strong sovereign emancipate himself <; from tne petrified traditions of the palace, the phantom of imperiai! power would, it is said, twllapse.----... Tbe National Review* y-m £ %-.f- I Mr. Choate'a Onei Letter. Joseph H. Choate is a man of in*-"; posing mien and authoritative dis* course Some years ago- a yountr kinsman of Mr. Choate arrived ic New York, |||^| armed with a letter of introduction to tbe eminent lawyer. .. After reading the letter Mr., Choate turned to the young man and : ;.r said: "Well, sir! What other letters, • have you?" The young man named half a dozen, men of more or less standing to whom , he brought introductions. "Ah, young man,"said the lawyer,'c; with a reminiscent, look in his eyes, • . "you a e far better piovided with'-" recommendations than I was when I '•/% came to New York, at your age, to „ ̂ seek my fortune." "Yes?" said the young man inquir- s: ingly- !•*£} "Yes! I had only one letter to introduce me Into the great me- ^ tropolis." "May 1 ask from whom it was?" queried the young relative <M{hdent- iy-' "From Rufus Choate to WilHath'" ip M. Evarts," answered Mr. Choate. -- ,,, New ,)Cork Herald. A Mew One on Tim Campbell. Here's the very latest story at Tim Campbell's expense: Dandy .. Jim Horbacher,. it appears, left a fine silk umbrella at the elubroom the other night Tim fouqd It and. w called Landy Jim up on the tele- phone. "Hello, Dandy! Is that you?" Tim asked. '• Dandy evidently answered yes, for the next question Tim asked was: -'v "Did you leave an umbrella at the cluh. Dandy':" ^ - Dandy must have said yes again, for Tim ycildd: „ "Ye did, and is this it?" holding •' • the umbrella up at the telephone as , he said it--Boston Herald/ • - ' SOME women have such small waists v v* that it makes you uncomfortable tov v;fe look at them. / Ui i - .1* 5a 'iS . * . - \ J . •wisw-C

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