Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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y? *?:-? t?k<* i I SLA VE I SHIPS f AL4Z)? I FORTUNES M **+A *->+A ?->+A **+A *>>+A ?*+ "By what sentimental jugglery." /iu.. ir? T ummtc i ?i "HjUV n t ho says i imnr? r. uuuw.uo ? \Vest err. Coast." "have we kept the buccaneers aloft? There is not in the history of all the Americas another so damning black and vile." Still there is another quite as damning. as black and as vile, and while the semi-pirates who figure in those pages did not "wallow in the blood of children, priests and babies" they held the suffering and death of the African men. women and children whom they transported to bondage on the shores of the Americas?North and South?but lightly, and with comparative indifference. These men were those engaged in the slave trade. Britons. Americans, French Spaniards and Portuguese, whose vessels. fitted out by merchants in the seaports of foreign lands, and in Boston. New York and Baltimore hovered over the Guinea coast like the Biblical eagles, for they were gathered together around the carcass, they purposed converting into gold, for does not Thomas A. Janvier in his "Colonial Privateers" tell us that even in those days "slave trading was also profitable and was the basis of many respectable New York fortunes, but the profits were by no means certain." These profits were great enough and certain enough, however, to induce the fitting out of many vessels. Rio Janeiro became a great port for the disembarking of the thousands of slaves destined to labor in the plantations of Brazil. Admiral Andrew Hull Foote, a gallant and highly religious American naval officer. who was in command of the brig of war Perry on the African station for two years and a half operating against slavers, wrote: "If there was anything on earth which for revolting cruelty, and heartless atroeitie" might make the devil wonder and hell recognize its own likeness, then it was on any one of the decks of an old slaver. The coast fever of Africa is bad enough where it has its birth and in these vessels. Xo fairer sky or healthier climate were there on earth than in the beautiful bay. amid the grand scenery of Itio Janeiro in Brazil. But it became the haunt of slavers, and the dead of Africa Moated on the glittering waters and were tumbled upon the sands of its harbor. The shipping found in the summer of 1849 that death had come with the slavers. Thirty or forty vessels were lying idly at their anchors because their crews had mostly perished. The pestilence swept along the coast of the empire with fearful malagnit.v. Cuba for the same crime met the same retribution." Captain Hugh Crow, a noted oneeyed mariner of Liverpool, boasted that he had run numerous cargoes of Africans, without losing a single soul, but he was about the only one. On most of the vessels the mortality was great. Another marine master named Collinwood threw some thirty or forty sick Africans overboard in Ho Atlantic sunt lot them drown. As this was in the days when the trade was legalized he made a claim on the underwriters for the insurance, alleging that the safety of the vessel and the rest of the freight rendered it necessary to jettison the slaves. The payment of the claim was refused and the matter was taken into the English courts. The action of Collingwood in casting these sick Africans into the sea probably gave rise to the story that was prevalent in the compiler's boyhood to the effect that some forty years ago Appleton Oaksmith. a noted slave ship captain, while being chased by a man-of-war. had fastened a number of negroes to a chain cable and had cast them overboard to sink to the bottom. The story, while once widely current among seamen, is probably a myth. At one time it was considered the proper thing to serve the Lord as well as to serve mammon, for one British shipmaster returned thanks in the churches to the Almighty for permitting him to make an African voyage without the loss of n man. This worthy also stated that in answer to prayer addressed to the throne of grace he had some remarkable deliverances from dangers. This master mariner, whose name was Newton, is spoken of as having been "a highly religious slaver, who eventually became a preacher and opposed the traffic." The slaves confined in these vessels were fed on yams, beans and rice, with a moderate allowance of water. In the best ships the Africans had front twenty-four to twenty-seven cubic feet of air space in the hold of the vessel, where they were chained for from eighteen to twenty hour? each day. but in many of the vessels they were packed as closely as possible. During pleasant weather they would be brought on deck for a few hours at a time and allowed it little fresh air. In the last century children ranging from ten to sixteen year? were taken in preference to the adults as being more tractable and easiet to handle. r?n?. ,.f ih<i sti-nncfst of the main strain;.* happenings on the sea is th? story <>f the French slaver Le ltodeur which sailed from Bonny on the west coast of Africa in April. 1S1!?, witl: crew of twenty-two men and a cargf of 160 slaves. The fate overtaking the crew formed the theme on whicl John (i. Whittier bused Ills poenf entitled "The Slave Ships," in whicl these lines occur: "In the sunny (luadaloupe A dark-hulled vessel lay. With a crew that noted never. The nightfall or the day." The story of the vessel has beer told more than once, but never better than in the speech delivered ii the French chamber of deputies l>j Benjamin Constant. June IT. 1S2">. it which he said: "The French ship Le Hodeur. witl a crew of twenty-two men and 101 negro slaves sailed front Bonny, ot the west coast of Africa, in April 1 s 1 ! . On approaching the line ; ' terrible malady broke out an ob stinate disease of the eyes?contagion and altogether beyond the resource: of medicine. It was aggravated bj tin- scarcity of water among the slave: r**? **? T-K-St **? **'* >4 I Traffic In Blacks f Yielded Big Profits 4 4? In the Early Days * 4 N ^ J* -4 r?5+ST7?iT75rT75r^>+rT^ (only half a wineglass per day being allowed to an individual), and by the extreme impurity of the air which they breathed. Ry the advice of the physician they were brought up on deck occasionally, but some of the poor wretches, locking themselves In each other's arms, leaped overboard in the hope, which universally prevails among them, of being swiftly transported to their homes in Africa. To chedk this the captain ordered several who were stopped in the attempt to be shot or hanged before their companions. The disease extended to the crew; one after another were smitten with it until only one remained unaffected. Yet this dreadful condition did not preclude calculation to have the expense of supporting slaves rendered unsaleable, and to obtain grounds for a claim against the underwriters thirty-six of the negroes, having become blind, were thrown into the sea and drowned. "In the midst of their dreadful fears lest the solitary individual whose sight remained unaffected should also be seized with the malady, a sail was discovered. It was the Spanish slaver Leon. The same disease had been there, and. horrible to tell, all the crew had become blind. Unable to assist each other the vessels parted. The Spanish ship has never since been heard of. The Itodeur reached Guadeloupe on the 21st of June, the only man who had escaped the disease and had been enabled to steer ship into port, caught it three days after its arrival." The Pritish had the reputation in the slave trade of being more brutal and cruel than the Portuguese, but the tendency to suicide on the part of the Africans was noted on the vessels <>f nil nationalities Of the precau tions taken to prevent this. Alexander Falconbridge, of the brig Tartar, said: "The ships were fitted up with a view of preventing the slaves jumping overboard. There was a netting stretched above the rails, but an opening was left in one place, that refuse might be dumped overboard, and through this many a slave suffering from homesickness leaped into the ocean and met his death by drowning. They stole rope yarns, that they might hang themselves and refused food, that they might starve. The first care of the master of the slave ships was to prevent revolts. On one vessel, because of the persistent attempts of the slaves to kill themselves, the master had the dead body of a man who had hanged himself stretched on the deck and beheaded in the presence of the others. The body was then thrown overboard, while the head was kept on the vessel. The captain hoped by this course the slaves would be led to believe that the dead man's spirit would return headless to its African home. Fut the slaves only smiled in a contemptuous way when the interpreter told them this. They were heathens and had not learned the Christian's nupr. Richard Drake, an Englishman, surgeon to the crew of the Brazilian slave brig Gloria, about 1S23-24. commanded by a Spaniard named Kuiz. and which had made five successful voyages to and from the African slave coast, wrote an account of the last voyage, which is incorporated in "The African Slave Trade in America." by John U. Speers. in Scribner's Magazine of September. 1900. In his narrative Drake states that Kuiz. with the Gloria, started on his sixth and last voyage for slaves, running the Cape Verde Islands with his casks lilled with salt water for ballast. it being the intention of reaching the islands to replace the srlt with fresh water and continue on to the slave coast. On the way he fell in with a Portuguese schooner with some 160 slaves and a quantity of gold dust. Being pirate us well as slaver. Ruiz attacked the Portuguese vessel, and after killing all the crew and appropriating the Africans and gold dust, scuttled the vessel. -He then proceeded to the coast of Dahomey, where he purchased three or four hundred additional Africans, and started out on the return voyage to Brazil. While on the African coast the master and mates were much under the influence of rum, and in consequence the filling of the water casks was neglected to a great extent, but this was not discovered by the captain until the ship was far at sea on the homeward run. Drake in his narrative gives the following account of the tragic consequences of this oversight. "We were drawing from the last cask." says he. "before this diseov cry was made, aim tne norror <>i <>ui situation solicrcd Captain Ituiz. He gave orders to have the precious remnant abaft the main grating, ami made nte calculate how long it would sustain the crew and cargo. 1 found that half a gill would hold out until ! we reached the Spanish Main, and it was decided in order to save our eargc we should allow the slaves half a gill and the crew a gill each day. Then began a torture worse than death among .the blacks. Pent in their dun goons to the number of 500 (many ' had already died) they suffered con1 tinued torment. Our crew and drlv' ers were unwilling to allow even th? ' half gill per diem, and quarrelled 1 fiercely over their own stinted rations ' Our cargo had been stowed on tin ' platforms closer than I had ever seer slaves before or since. Instead of lowering buckets of water to them its was customary it became necessary t' pour the water in half-pint measures Those farthest from the grating nevei i got a drop, and became raving mat for drink. Presently diseases of varit oils kinds added to our misery. Matr ters grew worse daily, for the dead t were not thrown overboard, nor tin living served with water, or even food i except the rotten yams that could bt i reached where they lay. i "At last Captain Ituiz ordered th? , hatches down and swore he woult i make the run on our regular watei - rations and take chances of his stock s That night we caroused and satisfiei I s our thirst, while the negroes suffocat f ?'il below. Next morning came a storn s which drove us off our course a bun dred knots. Two days afterwards Kuiz and four of the men were taken with a disease that baffled my medical knowledge, and in six hours they were dead. The first mate went next and then three others of the crew and a black driver. I began to see a low. heavy fog on deck, almost like steam. It was a death I saw rising. At this time all but three of the men and myself had been attacked and we abandoned the Gloria in her long boat, taking the remnant of the water, a sack of biscuit and a rum beaker, with what gold dust and other valuables we could gather up. We left nine of our shipmates dead and five dying on the Gloria."?Galveston News. THE PORTUGUESE. Their Occupations, Characteristics and Amusements. Thus Celt, Roman. Goth and Saracen have poured their blood into Porti gal. and its differences from that of Spain are agreed to he mostly superficial. Both races are proud; the Portuguese is conceded to be more courteous; the Spariards is held to be more dependable. It is In the smaller country that the peasantry are still the wealth of the land and the actual embodiment of the national character. To an American they are alternately an exasperation for their antiquated methods of | agriculture. As Mark Twain said of the Azores farmer. "He prays not to be allowed to know more than his grandfather knew, and to plough with a sharpened stick as his grandfather ploughed." To an Englishman, read in the classics, the Portuguese farmer) offers an almost literal preservation | of the golden age of the classical pastorals. The pursuits of the vineyard, the field and the herd are here; and the very implements of the Roman time. The grotesque and graceful superstitions persist, and the naive way of life. Instead of the distrustful politeness of towns, the traveller encounters open-hearted candor and unconscious dignity. More than one have borne witness to this modern survival of a life which we know today only through Theocritus and Virgil; supposing. too, that theirs was a literary version of it. A small population of miners, of fishermen (whom we know in New England to be skillful and daring) and of sailors (all that remains of the mighty tribe of admirals and explorers) are all secondary to the farming population, which dominates the soIcijil the financial and the religious character of the nation. A few manufacturers are "encouraged" to languish. In northern Portugal the farming is almost exclusively on a small scale, from five to fifteen acres for an average size. In all parts of the country the system of holding varies widely, and the details go back into the early history among influences of the Gothic and Saracen invasions. It is perfectly true that the primitive mode of working the land is ihe cause of great economic waste. The soil reecives little or no fertilization. A hundred and fifty bushels might be produced in place of the present hundred. The nation would be richer: whether it would be better off is a question. Its people are well supported, law-abiding and virtuous. They do not, on the up-country farms of Portugal, go in for automobiles and electric lights as we do in Kansas. Still, we may in Kansas ask ourselves if motorcars and switchboards are the chief aim of existence. Judged by its own performances, an Englishman declares of these farms, "Yet it is in this backward country that the thing is done which, if England could do, her wealth would be doubled or quadruples." Poor as the peasants are to an American standard of life, they are guy of spirit, hardy of body and epicures in respect to the fare which they have. Their taste in olives knows all the fine shades of discrimination; dried codfish is eaten with a keen relish for flavor, and their taste in wines (while not that of Paris) is fastidious. The dried fish, bacal hau, has been the battle-ground of politicians, etymologists. financiers, fishermen and merchants. While these wrangled the Portuguese have consumed it quietly in vast quantities, with oil and pepper. It is both a luxury and a necessiay, a delicacy and a staple. It has never occurred to the poor of Portugal that life without salt fish would be either possible or desirable. If the bays of Newfoundland or the fiords of Norway were to fail, half of Portugal, HKe lilt- rice-eaiing nniuus, nuuiu fer t<? go hungry rather than change their diet. It is eaten raw, it is eaten boiled, stewed, grilled and with garlic Workmen tuck it in their pockets to gnaw at noon; fishermen carry it to sea. as "coals to Newcastle;" it solaces the Friday fast of good Catholics and graces his feast again on Sunday. Sixteen hours' toil on a Portuguese farm is not enough to extinguish the gayety of the peasant. The vitality of the people seems to be buttressed by this killing toil under the hot glare of a cloudless sky and in the chill winds that blow from the sea. The evening with its village gathering on the threshing floor (the social hall of the community), the dancing, the bowling, the singing, the guitar playing, are a compensation of toll which the peasantry very willingly accept. In many parts of Portugal, the men play the guitar as naturally as we whistle, not as virtuosi but with a fair proficiency of strumming accompaniment, chords i and arpeggios for a background to the voice. The artisians play, and carry their instruments to work with their tools. The tinkle of the guitar starts heels to clattering. The dancing is ini tefesting even if it is not wholly graceful. Its character is Oriental, for the Portuguese are neither purely a northern nor a southern breed, and this form of art (if their practice can be called such) they derive chiefly from the Saracens. The Portuguese dance has none of the coldness of the quadrille nor the formality of the minuet: their bolero dances are the spontaneous expression of youthfull 11ess and health, not always graceful, for Held work and ballet postures do inn unite* in ih?- same body. Among tin* middle classes of the naI tion. dependent as they may be on the fruits of tillage, there is none of that voluntary rustication during a large ' part of the year which makes in Eng, land the legions of country gentlemen. t and which is being copied in parts of America. The Portuguese family 1 leaves town only in the dullest and hottest season. August and September. and possibly October. The vintage is being pressed and harvests gathered; it is also the season to shoot uuail and hare. The Portuguese go in for the villa, taught of old bv the Romans. and the manner of life there, allowing for intervals, is not unlike. Appended to the establishment is the f.... .1,,. tnn.mt'a fu m. i ily. The villa itself is plain; a square building. spread with whitewash outside and in; eaves broad and over' hanging. covered with vermilion paint ? on their under side. Ordinarily the house has a single large central room, . rather bare, with a number of small 1 cells for bed chambers opening out ol 1 it on three sides. The main apart ment is furnished as we furnish a shack by a woodland lake?with a few rickety chairs and tallies, anything foi use. The Portuguese picnicker if casual as to his pictures?a series ir the life and death of Pope Plus VII., the Pattle of the Nile; the loves ol Suez de Castro or the legendary vision of King Alfonso Hcnriques, or if the householder intends to provide extra I comfort for the sojourn, the provision is furnished by an ox-cart load of ex1 tin furniture. The landlord busies himself with his livestock anil his 1 trellises: his daughters ramble in thi gardens rich with (lowering plants ol the old fashion: the children swim 1 oranges in the irrigation trenches and - the sons hunt.?Boston Transcript. ill ioccllaiuiub iiradiuii. A DARING WOMAN b??uiT. Fought Sheriffs Posse and Burned the Home of Her Enemies. Bloody Tangipahoa parish, the home of the feudists, and the blackest spot in Louisiana, is on the hunt for a woman bandit who has been robbing homes and holding up pedestrians in lonely lanes and roads in that rural neighborhood. She is rounding out a J career of crime which began when she shot a neighbor's noisy dog and retaliated by shooting and wounding the neighbor when he protested. She has shot two men, burned down the house of a neighbor whose daughtei refused her son's attentions, given battle to a sheriff's posse until wounded and captured, served a term in prison and come from her imprisonment vowing vengeance on society. "I am branded a convict," she says. "I am one of the victims of society. I shall have my revenge." So she goes up and down the roads of "Bloody Tangipahoa" robbing and terrorizing so effectively that the victims fear to identify her. A few weeks ago Mrs. Georgia Wren was liberated from the state's prison, where she had served two years on conviction of arson. She had been given an easy place as cook in the Angola convict farm, not far from the borderland of Tangipahoa parish. Immediately on liberation she procured a revolver and a bowie knife and started for her old home ar.d her revenge. She has been "on the road" since, committing any depredations that came within her range. Unrequited love is at the bottom of Ivr strange choice of vengeance. The 18-year-old son of Mrs. Wren became captivated by the rustic charms of Mary Wyly, the daughter of a neighbor in the cabin settlement. The bucolic affair was running smoothly enough until suspicion of numerous petty robberies fell upon Mrs. Wren and her son. The W.vlys were among those who believed the imputations, and they began to discourage the attentions of young Wren to their daughter. Nothing, however, came of the suspicions until the dog-killing episode and the wounding of the animal's master by the woman. The parish settlement ostracized the Wrens and the son was forbidden the house of the Wylys. No arrest followed, however, for the wounded man probably sanely concluded that the aim of the woman might be better on the next occasion should he give further stimulation to her ire. It is the habit of the place and people. Petty bickerings are settled in personal encounters; trifling enmities are answered by the shot in the dark or the bullet from ambush Feuds are more frequent than crops, and the hand of private vengeance thrusts itself into every phase of life. Thus is Mrs. Wren rather a product of the environment. This she demonstrated in answer to the Wylys' demand that her son remain away from their home and their daughter. One night not long afterward fire broke out in the Wyly cabin and it was consumed. A torch had been applied from the exterior. In this case the law was invoked. Mrs. Wren resisted, with the result that a sheriff and three deputies were sent out for her. Armed with a revolver she gave the men battle, firing three ineffective shots even after a ball from an officer's ri'le had cut a gash in her neck. More frightened at the blood than the law, she surrendered, was tried and sent to prison for two years. Her son was found guilty of complicity and given a term half as long. When she surrendered she cursed the officers for shooting at a woman and vowed her revenge on them and those who had caused her arrest. Prior to this arrair sne naci snoi ana wounded another man besides the owner of the noisy dog, which caused her first resort to firearms. The neighborhood in which this woman bandit now operates is inhabited almost entirely by the poor and the "hauls" she makes are in proportion small, yet she goes about her work with all the color and dash the Jameses knew. Armed with two big revolvers and her knife, clad in a wide sombrero of straw, a kimomo waist, and a rough skirt, she looks a land pirate. She is tall and powerful, with a coarse, masculine face and a voice in conformity. Yet she is not without a leaven of consideration. Those who shelter her she does not rob and she has even been known to return the fruits of her holdups when poverty was pleaded. Her chief aim appears to be vengeance on those who have excited her anger and a general vendetta against an organization of human beings that punish wrongs. Neighbors who accused her of robberies, the Wylys, who sent her to prison, the officers who arrested her, and all her sundry enemies are uneasy of the result. t)n leaving the prison farm she walked to the nearest railroad station, and I then down the track a few miles to a little farmhouse. It was growing dark and she asked for supper. Her "cowboy" costume excited a little curiosity, and even fear, among the women folk at the farm, who eyed her nervously as she ate supper. Upon finishing she drew her revolver and demanded: "Give me what money there is in the house, and be quick about it." This command was quickly obeyed. The woman had only a few dollars, which was handed over, the eldest saying: "This is the last of my only bale of cotton: I was saving it to buy coffee. I am a widow, and these two girls arc my daughters. mAnAttl T n r? M.I/lAtf myself. I will m>t make others suffer. I should not have demanded money from a woman!" the bandit answered. The woman roldter then threw half a dollar on the table for her supper, put her revolver beneath the folds of her klmomo, and left. An hour later she met a section hand walking down the track. He was evidently surprised to meet a lone woman at that hour, but was more surprised when she thrust a revolver Into his face and ordered: "Turn your back while I search your pockets!" He saw the gleaming barrel of the revolver by the faint light, and the coarse, rugged features of the woman? more like a man than a woman?and lie obeyed, perhaps uncertain whether the strange creature was In earnest or jesting?whether an acquaintance masquerading as a woman and playing a practical joke. She relieved him of a few dollars, all J lie had, and n revolver, which she put in her belt. As she strode away she warned, "Keep mum about this." The next several days numerous farmhouses were visited and the occupants were "held up." There were a few dollars, and only a few, at each house, for the people in that section are extremely poor. At houses where she asked for lodging for the night she considered it a breach of hospitality to rob, and paid her bill in the morning. She talked little, giving her hosts to understand that she was tramping it through the country merely to be travelinc that she was coins* to Now Or leans to see the world, and as she had no money she had to walk. But the farmers had heard of the "mysterious woman," and she was never refused meals or lodging. They were glad to escape so lightly.?Chicago Tribune. PEOPLE WITH BIG BRAINS. Some of the Largest Heads on Record Belonged to Lunatics. Is there any truth in the commonly accepted idea that big brain is necessarily associated with a big mind? The human brain consists of five major divisions, which, though intimately connected, are severely distinct as to function. Named from below upward these parts are the medulla, pons midbrain, cerebellum and cerebrum. All parts of the brain are permeated by nerve fibers, and are therefore concerned in the transmission of nerve impulses; but at least three parts are primarily occupied with other business. The medulla, which is the stalklike connection between the brain and the spinal cord, contains nuclei of nerve cells, which propel the heart, lung':, blood vessels and so on. The pons is a broad band of fibers, which serves to connect the right and left sides ?f the base of the brain. The midbrain is the forked upward extension of the medulla, a prong passing into each of the great hemispheres of the cerebrum, and, like the pons, the midbrain is chiefly a conducting portion of the brain. The cerebellum, or "little brain." lies under the back part of the cerebrum and on top of .the pons. It is the regulator of voluntary muscular motion. An animal deprived of its cerebellum can move, feel and think, but cannot control its movements. Finally, we come to the cerebrum, the largest division of the brain, which overhangs the other four divisions In the form of two big convoluted hemispheres divided by a deep longitudinal fissure. In these hemispheres reside the physical mechanism of consciousness?reason, feeling, will. Here, let us observe, that of the five parts of the brain, only one, the cerebrum, has to do with the intellect. In fishes the cerebrum is the smallest part of the brain. Accordingly, though the whale has a larger brain than man, most of the brethren of Jonah are possessed of higher intelligence than is exhibited by the largest of fishes. The whale has more brains, but man has more cerebrum. A cross section of the cerebrum shows that this part of the brain is made up of a large core of white nerve fibers and a comparatively thin rind of nerve cells or gray matter. In animals of low intelligence, rodents, for example, the coating of gray matter is comparatively smooth over the surface of the cerebrum. But in higher animals the gray matter is seen to dip down into grooves and fissures now and then, an arrangement which requires more gray matter to cover a brain of given size than is required to cover the smooth brain of a rat. In man the infolding of gray matter is carried to a high degree of complexity. But in idiots the brain is smoother and less convoluted than in intelligent men. Consequently an imbecile might have a larger cerebrum than a bright man, but less gray matter. The brains of children are less convoluted than those of their elders. Another feature of the case is that the amount of cerebration Is largely dependent upon the amount of blood circulating in the cerebrum. An individual possessed of a large and well convoluted cerebrum might be so handicapped by a feeble heart and poor nutrition as not to measure up to the average mental standard. The average white man's brain weighs from 49 to 50 ounces. More delicate of frame and faculty, the members of the fair sex come next with an average brain weight of 43 to 4 5 ounces. The smallest human brains are found in Central Africans. And the average civilized infantile brain, at birth, weighs from 10 to 12 ounces, a brain mass much greater in proportion to the body than obtains in the adult. Some of the largest brains on record belonged to lunatics. Several of these weighed upward of 60 ounces, and one weighed 641. If, however, a large brain does not necessarily mean a large intelligence. it certainly does not necessarily indicate a small intelligence. An excessively small cerebrum nearly always is associated with idiocy, and contrariwise, some of the greatest intellects have resided in excessively large brains. Cuvier, who did so much for comparative anatomy and philosophy, had a brain which weighed G4 1-3 ounces; the brain of Daniel Webster welshed 63 ounces, as did that of Abercromble. the great Scotch authority on the brain and nervous system, and both "Byron and Cromwell had abnormally heavy brains, showing marked evidence of disease." And, finally, the colonel appears to have a rather large head himself.?New Orleans Times-Democrat. Soidiers on Skates. In the Norwegian army there is a corps of infantry which can cover a distance of eighty miles in a day's march. This extraordinary record, which equals the performance of the best-trained cavalry in Europe, is only possible because every man in the corps is a highly trained skater and when in marching trim is provided with a specially constructed pair of skates. The corps can be manoeuvred with extraordinary rapidity. The heels of the skates are so shaped as to enable the men to spin round as if on a pivot at the word of command. As n mutter <?f fact, they can perform "right about face" far more quickly than any crack regiment of infantry. The evolution of the corps are naturally confined to the great (lords which indent the coast of Norway and during the long winter season are frozen solidly over. For patrol and scout duty these soldier skaters will lie of the greatest service should Norway ever go to war. The men of the corps are the pick of a skating nation, and their commander was once tho champion skater of his ' country.?Harper's Weekly. IF Verses by English Author Glorify Strength of Character. Rudyard Kipling has a new poem in the October American Magazine, which he entitled "If." It follows: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, T>..( f..x (In,if doubting, too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give away to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream?and not make dreams your master; If you can think?and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted hy knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk It on one turn of pitehand-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings . And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the will which says to them: "Hold on!" If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings?nor lose the common touch. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, hut none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute at- -*u j-1 _ wun sixiy stTdiui a >viu in sm uiotance run, Yours Is the earth and everything that's in it, And?which is more?you'll be a man, my son! PASSING OF THE DIME MUSEUM. Circus Freaks Have Given Way to the Moving Picture Shows. Much has been written of the changes in the theatrical world by the entrance of the popular moving-picture show, but the disastrous effect of this cheap amusement on the class of entertainers know to the public as "freaks" Is not generally known. But a few years ago, so short a time, in fact, that young men and women of 25 and 30 years cannot help but remember them, the dime museums of the country were heavily patronized. Most of the amusement seekers of today can remember when their home town held such a "palace" of entertainment where they could inspect the most alarming- looking examples of human life, look over a bewildering collection of wax works, and listen to a vaudeville show all for the sum of 10 cents. Who among us of mature years has forgotten the wonderful glass blower always to be found in those days in a corner of the museum, or the marvelous product of his skill which he sold as "souvenirs?" With the increasing popularity of the moving-picture houses, these museums have, year by year, become less in favor. The armless wonder no longer attracts. The daring sword swallower cannot even interest the boys, and the jovial fat lady with her package of photographs has become a decided back number. Outside of the circus tents few human curiosities are now exhibited. There has been a great slump in the freak business. The popularity of nature freaks as public entertainers was at its height about fifteen years ago. ? lit-in,r r*in miahitkfi thf? hll man frog and others of like ilk traveled over a circuit of museums two or more times during a season. They commanded salaries that would compare favorably with the remuneration given now to some of our foremost theatrical stars. Now the human frog is glad to hop about a fifty-foot tent for $15 a week, and the living pin cushion has to stand lots of "painful" tests for not more than $20.' Twenty years ago the famous Bowery, in New York, was lined with dime museums. Now there is not one of these houses in Greater New York. In St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and other large cities conditions are rapidly assuming the same aspect. That the moving-picture show has caused the downfall of the freak is conceded by theatrical men generally. The never-ending variety of entertainment offered by the great rolls of films is the reason. It was at the Gaiety Museum, in New York, which long since has been closed, that "amateur night" was originated. Sixteen years ago roughness and horse-play and cries of "Get the hook!" were not associated with amateur nights. The amateurs who went on were the genuine article. Stagestruck girls from the factories, singing and whistling newsboys and young plumbers or clerks in Bowery stores who fully believed they were destined to be Herimanns or Kellars went on at the old amateur nights at the Gaiety. Amateur nights at the Gaiety was only once a week, but the freaks were on hand all the time. There were some more popular than others who had drawing power and following all their own. There were the Murray triplets, for instance, mree goou-nxming young men, dwarfed, who were carefully chaperoned by their mother. The fond and watchful mother kept a child's toy bank on the platform at the feet of the best-looking of the triplets. When any particularly bold or forward young girl pressed forward too closely, watchful .Mrs. Murray would say: "If you think so much of Tommy, put a dime in his bank." It was surprising how many dimes would be forthcoming in the course of a busy day and evening. One of the prime favorites in St. Louis museums was Emma Schaler, the ossified girl. She was a bright girl and pretty so far as eyes and features were concerned. She entered the ranks of human curiosities as "the living skeleton debutante," and as such starred over the dime museum circuit east and west and north and south with James Coffee, "the skeleton dude." Eli Rowen, the armless wonder, was a man of handsome face and stalwart torso. He was well educated and was undoubtedly one of the most intelligent of freaks. He did acrobatic stunts, wrote visiting cards and was otherwise a capable entertainer. Occasion ally he edified the museum audiences with souk and story. Before the days of Jack Johnson's success as wit and repartee as well as fistic endeavor. George, the turtle hoy, was most famous among his race as a wit. The turtle boy had flippers instead of arms and legs. In his lithographs he was represented as crawling along with a hard-shelled hack. This last particularly was an exageration. George always had a cheerful word for everybody, and in his hours of ease delighted in shooting craps or playing pool. As skillful as George, the turtle hoy, was with the cue, I .a Loo, the Hindu marvel, was equally expert on the green table. La Loo was the freak ...1*1. * I a Willi IWU 11UUICO <11111 WIIC licciu. OVU/IV thr museum opened and after it Hosed, when playing the same dates, the turtle hoy and the Hindu marvel eould bo found in the nearest poolroom playing pool. Those who played with the turtle boy had to consent to what he called "his ground rules." These were that he was to be permitted to walk around the edee of the table, a feat of equilibrium that was wonderful to see. Flossy Le Blake, the female Hercules, played the dime-museum circuit for many years, until in an evil moment she married an emaciated little man, whom she had arrested ere the honeymoon had waned for beating her severely. Word of this reached the museum managers, and the female Hercules' dates were canceled, the story from real life not being in keeping with the lady's lithographs, which depicted her vanquishing nine burly ruffians. The ossified, for some reason or other, were always popular with dimemuseum audiences. The pioneer ossified man was Jeremiah Bass, Oliphant, Mich. At the acme of his ossification Jeremiah Bass, who was then a man of middle age, with a farmer's beard, weighed but 40 pounds and was perfectly rigid. He was exhibited sunported upon the backs of two chairs, placed five feet apart, and was carried by his manager in a shawl-strap to and from the museums. Bass was a cheerful old fellow, and. although blind in his latter years, had a remarkable memory for voices and would greet inquiring friends by mentioning their names. Other notable freaks who have helped to make dime museums famous were the wild men of Borneo, brought out by Barnum; Jo Jo, the dog-faced boy; Murray Abott, who claimed to have been tattooed on his back with the crucifix in colors by a lightning stroke, and Billy Wells, the iron-skull man, who during his part of the performance allowed Belgian blocks to be hammered upon his head and spent his spare time keeping his skull in working order by cracking hickory nuts on it with a hammer for himself and his fellow freaks.?Brooklyn Eagle. NOT LIKE THE OLD DAYS. Man With Flood Story Got no Sympathy When He Tried to Tell It. Back In the days when Cyrus Leland was supreme in Kansas politics there were some gorgeous political fights. The great battles with Populism rank in history as record-breakers and high-water marks. "Uncle Cy" dearly loved a good political scrap. The other afternoon Leland and a number of his friends were visiting together and they got to telling stories. "Once upon a time," said Leland, "a certain man who was drowned in a iramniidAiia ll'ftnt to VlDQt'Pn F.VPf hear this story?" he asked. They shook their heads. "Well, the man knocked at the pearly Kates. "'Who Is ihere?' asked St. Peter. He was told. " 'Come right in,' was the invitation. 'We have a plare for you.' "After the spirit pot inside, St Peter added: " 'Now, these people here like to hear the latest news from the other world;! in fact, are anxious to hear it. So we ask all newcomers to relate the latest happenings. That is the way they keep in touch with what is going on over on the earth.' " 'Be glad to tell them of the flood I was drowned in,' was the reply. "So when he got inside he found a dozen or more men grouped, and they were glad to see him. "'What is the news of the earth?' was their first question. " 'We had a terrible flood down there.' he began. He got immediate attention, for they were anxious to know all about it. He noticed one man particularly prick up his ears at once and give him the closest of attention. He was a little man, dried up, very old, round-shouldered and had a long beard tucked into his belt. The flood .nan went on graphically to tell of the horrors of that dreadful freshet. He told it well and gave all of the details There were many exclamations of surprise and horror when he had finished. In fact, all of them exclaimed much over the catastrophe, except the little, old, round-shouldered man. He spat on the ground and grunted: "Oh rats!' "That sort of worried the flood man, but he went on to another group and told them the story. He noticed that the little, old man was in the group, ton, and again listening attentively. While all the others were much im pressed with the story, this old man attain spat on the ground and grunted: 'Oh, rats!' "Disconcerting as this was, the flood man told his story several times more to other groups, hut each time this little, old, round-shouldered man was on the fringe, and after listening closely would snort: 'Oh, rats!' "The flood spirit had stood it as long as he could, and proceeded to hunt up St. Peter and tell him about it. " 'What kind of a looking fellow is this man?" asked St. Peter. " 'Oh.' was the reply, 'he is little, and old, round-shouldered, has a long heard, and?' "Don't pay any attention to him,' laughed St. Peter. 'Don't notice him. That's Noah!'" "Did you tell that story as a comparison between the political fights you used to have and the ones we have now?" askeil one of the number. "No, I don't," replied Leland. "But then there are no Kg political fights now!"?Kansas City Journal. Bringin' Up Chillun." Dinah?"Mandy wha' foh you give dat baby a pieec of pohk ter chew on? Don' you-all know the poh child'II choke on it?" Mandy?"Dinah, don' you see the string tied to dat piece er fat pohk? De udder end's tied to de chile's toe. Kf he chokes, he'll kick, an' if he kicks, he'll jerk de pohk out. Ah reckon you-all don' learn me nothin' 'bout bringin' up chillun!" A VAST PAGEANT OF EMPIRE. Plans for the Crowning of King George Next June. London, Oct. 25.?It Is probable that London will scarcely be able to accommodate all the visitors who will crov, o into this city next summer, for ther? has been arranged a round of festiv'ues in connection with the coronation of King George and Queen . Mary that will draw people from all the ends of the earth. Although nothing official regarding I the xirt date of the coronation has been a im unced it is generally accepted that it will take place in the week commencing June 18, probably on Wednesday, June 21. Already the arrangements are well In hand. It is to be made a vast pageant of empire in which ail the overseas dominions will take part Each will be represented by a contingent of troops, and the procession which will accompany their majesties from Fuckingham palace to Westminster and the forces that guard the line of route will be thoroughly typiical of the might and strength of the empire. The word has gone forth that nothing must be wanting to make the event worthy of the empire. Socially the last fortnight in June and the early days of July will be a period of unexampled gayety. First and foremost will be the Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace, in which no fewer than 20,000 persons drawn from all parts of the empire and from all ranks of society will take part. The pageant which will be seen at the Crystal palace will be almost as brilliant a spectacle as the coronation itself. Then there will be the great imperial exhibition at the White City. Every country in the empire will be represented. There will be a hundred buildings devoted to an exhibition of their arts and industries and the home life of their people. There are committees engaged now in distant lands selecting inhabitants typical of the various races. In addition to gold miners, backwoodsmen and other pioneers of the empire there will be aborigines from Australia. Maoris from New Zealand, Red Indians from the Far West, the semi-civilized tribes from the Fiji Islands, colored people from the Matabele and Gechuanaland, Eskimos from the frozen north and Chinamen from the Malay Peninsula. The homes and habits of these people with their work will be shown. The United Kingdom too will take its part. The resources and industries of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales will be in evidence. In some of the many buildings there will be replicas of noble British mansions, while the grounds will contain representations of some of the beauty spots of the United Kingdom. Earl's Court is also to reopen its doors with an attraction which is to make London open its eyes with wonder. About this time also there will be the Horse Show at Olympia. Beginning with the Ascot races on June 14, there will be an uninterrupted round of festivities in and around London lasting for many weeks. Record crowds of visitors are expected. Already scores of rooms have been engaged at the big hotels and hundreds of passages have been booked on the great steamship lines from all parts of the world. The Invasion of Americans, which Is growing In volume year by year, will exceed anything yet seen, says a manager of one of the leading shipping lines. The manager of one of the chief tourist ; agencies says: "London will next j year be the capital, not of the British empire only, but of the world. From the universal inquiries we are receiving I am convinced that there will be such a crowd as even London has never seen before." Although London was never so well supplied with hotels as at present, extensive alterations are being made in a number of these establishments to meet the demand for accommodation. One big hotel in the Strand has just added two floors to its already lofty height while many of the smaller hotels are hastening to absorb as much of the property in their neighborhood as they can. The route of the coronation procession has not yet been decided upon, but nevertheless wholesale booking of seats to view it are being made. It has already been arranged to erect a great stand on a piece of unoccupied land In the Strand capable of accommodating and catering for no fewer than 10,000 persons and other big schemes of a like kind are in contemplation. The people who are booking seats thus early are not all residents of this country. From all quarters of the globe inquiries are arriving asking for the best positions. Before the end of the year it is probable that 100,000 places will have been engaged. A director of a leading booking agency told a reporter: "This morning we had a communication from Java requesting that a score of seats be reserved for coronation day for a party coming over from that island. "Another letter from Burma asks **<-??? avqa# /lotn r\f nArnnotlnn ceremony and what are the best seats obtainable. "We have also got orders for seats from Calcutta and other towns in India. The greatest number of Inquiries. hoyever, come from Americans and It is probable that an unprecedented invasion of people from the United States will be seen here next June." The coronation will bring to this country royal personages from the courts of Europe, although no reigning monarch ever attends a coronalion. In the thousands of invitations which will be issued to less exalted guests the mayors of all the principal cities of the empire will be included. Life In Nova Zembla. The Russian government has recently given attention to the development of the northern portions of its empire especially the Island of Nova Zembla in the Arctic ocean, which, only a few years ?.*o, was inhabited by but fifty souls. The governor of the province of Archangel induced eight Samoyede families to emigrate thither. All their wants were supplied with the greatest care, according to the official reports, and much attention was lavished upon t hom The Russian's solicitude for the Samoyedes of Nova Zembla extended even to such details as the following: The settlers included a brother and sister, both grown, and in answer to the usual queries as to what articles they stood in need of, one requested, among other things, a wife and the other a husband. As these were not forthcoming, with the consent of the parents, the authorities brought out with them a bridegroom and a bride. Each having been introduced to his or her destined partner. the authorities allowed them an hour to become better acquainted with each other, after the lapse of which the weddings were immediately to take place. The young Nova Zemblan was much pleased with the bride the obliging authorities had brought him, and she in Vw?t* turn him To the query put to the bride as to the young man, she replied, "Oh, he'll do. He's a real Samoyede." So the business in respect of that couple was soon over. Hut not so with the other. The Nova Zemblan bride would have nothing to do with a bridegroom of the Russian authorities' choosing. "He a Samoyede!" she exclaimed, indignantly. "He's never killed a white bear! Why, my little brother, who is only 11 years old, has killed several, and I myself have shot over a score of wild deer! And what has he been doing? Killing tame reindeer! No, I won't have him! She was as good as her word, so that the match making of the Russian officer was not altogether a success. The unlucky bridegroom could only pull a long face and retire. There was no help for it, and the authorities confine* themselves to one wedding.? Harper's Weekly.