The Aiken recorder. [volume] (Aiken, S.C.) 1881-1910, July 22, 1892, Image 6
Less lliHii thirty thoasaud penou#
own more than one-half of the weallH
of this Republic, iuhabited by 65,000,-
000 people.
Correspondents say that every suc
cessive year sees increased appreciation
of and prices for the works of Ameri
can artists in Paris.
Wonderful progress has been made
in this country of late years in teach
ing the dumb to speak. Last year ar
ticulation was taught to 4235 pupils.
A German professor, Dr. Sander,
ias produced, after a labor of thirty
ears, a German dictionary so vol-
imiuous that he caunot fiud a pub-
isher for it.
England marks the values of he*
copper coins that don’t amount to a
rap and doesn’t put the-value mark on
her coins of silver and gold. This
sometimes cost the careless stranger
cold ducats.
The New South Wales DepartrH»u4
of Agriculture is organizing a month
ly crop report system, which will in
clude colonial and foreign statistics
as they affect local commercial farm
ing. The system will be modeled
upon that of the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture.
In ancient times Greece possessed
omething like 7,500,000 acres of
tense forest, and she was compara-
ivcly rich in timber until half a cen-
tiry ago. Many of the forests have
low disappeared, and the result is
icen both in the scarcity of the water
mpply and in very injurious climatic
iflects. It is now said Greece will
lave to import large quantities of
amber in the near future, so as to
neet the demands arising from the re-
rival of the building trades. Perhaps
he free uie of iron would do uo
larm, suggests the New York Sun.
tfur Choir.
Who soars so hifjh on Music’s wing
When wide she opes her mouth to sing,
And giggles at the slightest thing?
Our S'prano!
Who finds the places in the books.
Convulses us with funny looks.
And never once gets ’’off the hooks?”
Our Alto!
Who stands in danger day by day
Of being carried clean away
By pretty girls? Well, I've heard say
Our Tenor!
Who giveeb forth a ponderous tone—
One which can all but stand alone
On firm foundation of its own?
Our Basso!
Who touches lovingly the keys
And draws forth sounds which charm and
please—
Born in a castle o’er the seas?
Our ’Comp’nist!
It is a quintet to admire.
Untouched by jealousy’s fierce fire—
To be engaged! Wbp wants to hire
Our Choir?
—[B.o.ston Times.
IN A HOLE.
B-V H. C. DODGE.
With the winding up of the school
ear some interesting statistics are
oming in. Colby is a coeducational
istitution. Out of the graduating
lass of twenty-niue five are women,
’ho cost of educating these young
eoplo has been $35,000. On tho other
and, the class has earned during that
ime $16,000. Reynolds earned $1400
s a newspaper man and in a hotel.
Lalloch cleared $1200 as teacher,
arpenter, waiter, clerk. Ross made
700 haying, teaching and in a ma-
hino shop. Wadsworth stayed out
ne year nud langht for money to go
n. Wadsworth earned $950 as a life
asurance agent and teacher; Hurd,
H450 as assistant engineer; Nichols,
1900 in teaching and running a sum-
aer hotel; G. A. Andrews, $500 as
eacher and waiter. Merrill headed
lie list with $1600 as teacher and
ireacher. Storer earned $1025 bust
ing aroung generally. Sturtevant
icttod $800 running a stationary
ngino and singing in church. Singer,
,s coal heaver, book agent, teacher
,nd fisherman, and in newspaper
vork, earned $1000. Miss Sibley
nade $250 as a teacher and by waiting
»n a table. Miss Beekman earned
5166 singing and writing, and Miss
vnight $100 by teaching. This record
if the Colby seniors is set down in
ietail by the New York Sun to show
vhat some people find an educatiou is
vorth.
Tho Rev. Dr. George Hodges, an
Episcopal clergyman of a Pittsburg
mburb, has some practical views
;oucbiug tho puuisement of criminals.
i*I am not in favor of capital punish
ment,” he says, “uo matter in what
manner executions are conducted. I
»ui no more in favor of long imprison
ment than I am of hanging. A crim
inal becomes accustomed to imprison
ment after a time, and many of them
manage to pass a livable if not a com
fortable time. American prisons are
filled with men and women, too, who
are serving a second and some of
them a third, fourth, and fifth term.
To the person of easv temperament*
or of no ambition, who is content to
exist for the mere existence, caring
little or nothing for any of the better
things in life, a term in prison is not
diflicult to bear, and many per
sons ofl'end the law simply to
return to prison. Hard labor is a
sentence that prevents to a certain
extent many great crimes, but tho
fault I have to find with that is that
such a sentence is seldom passed. Pun
ishment of criminals should be of a
remedial character, and there is noth
ing, in my estimation, so effective
upon the criminal mind towards the
prevention of crimj as the fear of
physical suffering. I am in favor of
corporal punishment, or, to put it
more direct, I am in favor of the
whipping post. 1 think a series of
whippings administered at various or
regular times would have such a ter
rorizing effect upon the average crim
inal that the number of crimes would
be much smaller than it is at present.
Abolish the scaffold, abolish barbar
ous hanging, punish the criminal by
inflicting pain, and you will find crim
inal history much shorter than it is at
present.”
The great cathedral in the City of
Mexico is the largest in America aud
cost nearly $2 t 0$0,000.
I ha 1 been away from the ranch
since daybreak on a solitary hunting
expedition for small game, and now,
with night coming on, I was endeav
oring to fiud my way back.
Where and how far I was from
camp I knew not, but with a general
idea of its direction, I plodded over the
wild plain, expecting every moment
to strike the trail aud get home with
out either trouble or danger.
The thoughts of the good supper and
glad greeting I would have from my
jolly “cowboy” companions spurred
me on while the setting sun warned
me that I had no time to lose.
In spite of my woodcraft and scout
ing skill and fearlessness in travelling
the wilderness alone I began to feel
apprehensive that I was lost. At first
I only laughed at myself for thinking
so, but when mile after mile in the
deepening dusk brought uo sign of
the anxiously looked for trail I began
to realize that the smartest ranchman
sometimes can blunder in his reckon
ings.
Still I wouldn’t admit yet I was
wrong and, fighting back the dismal
feeling of loncsomeness and peril that
oppressed me, I continued to push on
as fast as my tired legs would let me.
On I went through the prairie grast^
straining my eyes in the dusky gloom
striving to find the trail—suddenly
down, down I tumbled straight to the
bottom of what seemed to be a deep
well.
Stunned by my fall, luckily broken
by the heap of soft rubbish I landed
on, I must have lain for a while un
conscious.
When I recovered my senses all was
pitch blackness about me and looking
upwards I could see a few stars faint
ly glimmering from the sky.
After pinching and examining my
body and thankfully finding that ail
my boucs were intact, I struggled to
my feet and groped around to discover
if possible what sort of a place I had
gotten into.
Tho hole seemed circular and ap
parently five or six feet in diameter.
The sides felt like hard clay, and the
bottom was dry and thickly covered
with a long accumulation of leaves
and grasses.
How deep I was down in the earth
I could not tell, but I rightly guessed
the distance was some twenty feet.
How the hole ever got there I
couldn’t imagine. Maybe years ago it
was dug in tho hope of striking water
for the cattle which belonged to the
discarded ranch.
At any rate the hole was there and
I was iu it. The thing that puzzled
me the most was how to get out.
As nothing could be done in that
line till daylight, and perhaps not
then, I laid me down and went to
sleep.
When I awoke after a refreshing
slumber the round spot of bright, blue
skv above me seemed higher than 1
ever knew it before.
As a needful preparation to escape
from ray more than likely grave
made a little fire with some of the
dry stuff and managed to cook one of
the three birds I bad shot the day
before. Oa that with a few drops
from my water flask I breakfasted.
Then I started my wits to work out
a plan of deliverance.
I had with me my gun and plenty of
cartridges, pipe and tobacco, a small
hatchet, matches, hunting knife,
revolver, two birds and a pint of
water; also a few yards of rope.
In the almost vain hope of being
heard I determined to frequently fire
my gun and shout, though I knew the
sounds would be deadened.
After shooting and halooing several
times with no answer of course, I ex
amined the texture of the sides of my
tomb. It was a red clay and firm
enough to cut without crumbling. If
I bad some strong sticks—which 1
hadn’t, though I searched through the
heap of rubbish for them—I might
drive pegs in the side of my prison
and maybe climb up on them. Perhaps
1 could chop spaces tneie to auswer
the same purpose.
Taking the hatchet I commenced to
do it, and for a while it appeared I
might succeed, but after rising a few
feet in that way I gave it up.
Had the well been narrow so I
could brace myself by using my gun
against the opposite side I think I
should have accomplished the feat.
Then I attempted shooting with a
light charge of powder a bullet from
my pistol to which I attached my
watch chain fastened to an end of the
rope, thinking it might somehow
catch on a bush outside and bear my
weight whiie I climbed ou stepping
places I should dig.
But that plan proved a failure, too.
By this time it was high noon, aud
the hot sun was shining for a few mo
ments straight to the bottom of my
awful tomb.
Like a caged beast I was becoming
furious in my vain efforts to gain
liberty and the harder I tried the
more difficult grew my task.
I kept firing my gun and calling for
help, for now it seemed that that was
my only chance for life.
The afternoon passed slowly away
and night appeared again, aud dis-
pairiug, but not giving up hope, I ate
my last bird, drank nearly my last
^Jrop of loiter, aud managed to fall
asleep.
It came morning at last. I had my
gun raised fire to a signal when I de
tected a something alive peering from
the ground above me into the hole.
Could it be a human being? Even
an Indian iu his war paint and certain
to scalp me I should have hailed with
joy. »
The object showed itself again
plainly. It was the head cf a wolf.
Taking a quick aim I fired aud hit
it squarly. With a howl of pain the
wounded brute plunged forward and
into the hole, lauding on my
shoulders.
In a moment it recovered from its
surprise aud before I could draw my
pistol it was crouched to leap upon
me. Hatchet in hand I met its on
slaught. As it jumped with bleeding,
open mouth I ducked my head and be
fore it could turn a lucky blow buried
the blade in its skull and finished it.
Now with its flesh to eat aud its
blood to drink I could exist for a
week, at least, aud if help came iu the
meantime I wouldn’t perish.
For three long, weary days and
nights I lived on my providential sup
ply of wolf meat, firing my gun
hourly and yelling till my voice gave
out, but all for naught.
On the fourth day I completely de
spaired of assistance from outside
and resolved to make a last struggle
to get out of my horrible living tomb.
While I franctically chopped with
my hatchet at the sides of the hole
trying to heap up dirt enough to rise
on, even though I undermined and
brought the earth to bury me, I re
membered a picture of the tower of
Babel that I had seeu in the big,
family Bible at home.
It had a spiral road running around
its outside on which the workers as.
cended as the tower was growing.
Why couldn’t I cut out a similar
path on the inside of my under
ground, turned-over tower?
With a glad shout of joy and won
dering why the idea hadn’t come be
fore, I commenced at once the cork
screw road. Starting as high as I
could conveniently work I cut into
the hard, clay wall of the well until I
had dug out a space big enough to
hold me. By shelving the roof of the
excavation and curving it to the back
part of its eighteen inch wide floor I
prevented the earth from caving.
I laid out this open, half tunnel to
ascend on a rather steep grade so its
winding road-bed would be sufficiently
supported, and after some hours’ hard
and careful work, I finished the first
circle and found that my engineering
calculations promised to be success
ful—providing the earth as it neared
the surface would keep from crumb
ling.
Not daring to continue digging as
evening aud darkness came, I lightly
crawled back to the bottom of my
prison, ate some more wolf meat and
went to sleep with hope renewed and
comparatively happy.
Bright and early in the welcomed
morning I began my toil for deliver
ance. The higher I dug my way the
more hazardous it became. I almost
feared to go ahead for I knew that a
break now would be fatal to my only
chance of escape from a horrible
death. When night once more caused
me to stop, I was within about six feet
of the end of my agony or—alas 1
might be only at its beginning.
The awful uncertainly of being so
near and yet so far from life and the
glorious, beautiful world kept me
wakeful. Bv the following noon I
should know my fate.
At daylight I tremblingly crawled
up my circular stairway aud recom
menced operations. The earth that
had been removed lay in a big pile on
the bottom, but of course not high
enough to help me in case a cave-in
occurred.
Carefully I started on tho last cir
cuit, and, as I expected, found that
the dry earth there was much less firm
than below.
Still I could make headway, al
though once once or twice I thought I
was doomed to failure when
the ground broke over and under mo.
Now 1 reached the place to dig
straight up, aud, holding my breath,
I attempted it. Slowly I scraped my
shaft’s ceiling, little by little, then as
the sods above me loosened I tore
them away ami—after a week of liv
ing death—I once more stood on the
earth’s solid surface.
I soon found the camp, and my
friends, who, after searching in vain,
were mourning my supposed death.—
[Chicago Sun.
Trees.
What a strange underground life is
that which is led by the organisms we
call trees! These great fluttering
masses of leaves, stems, boughs,
trunks, are not the real trees. They
live underground, and what we see
are nothing more nor less than their
tails. Yes; a tree is an underground
creature, with its tail in the air. All
its intelligence is in its roots. All the
senses it has are in its roots. Think
what sagacity it shows in its search
after # food and drink. Somehow or
other, the rootlets, which are its ten
tacles, find out that there is a brook at
a moderate distance from the trunk of
thd tree, and they make for it with all
their might. They find every crack
in the rocks where there are a few
graindtof the nourishing substance
they care for, and insinuate themselves
into its deepest recesses. When spring
and summer come, they let their tails
grow, and delight in whisking them
about iu the wind, or letting them be
whisked about by it; for these tails
arc poor passive things,, with very lit
tle will of their own, and bend in
whatever direction the wind chooses
to make them. The ieaves make a
deal of noise whispering. I have
sometimes thought I could understand
them, as they talk with each other,
and that they seem to think they made
the wind as they wagged forward and
back. Remember what I say. The
next time you see a tree waving in the
wind, recollect that it is the tail of a
great underground, many-armed,
polypus-like creature, which is as
proud of its caudal appendage, es
pecially in summer time, as a peacock
of his gorgeous expanse of plumage.
Do you think there is anything so
very odd about this idea? Once get
it well into your heads, and you will
find that it renders the landscape wou-
derfully interesting. There are as
many kinds of tree tails as there are
of tails to dogs and other quadrupeds.
Study them as Daddy Gilpin studied
them in his “Forest Scenery,” but
don’t forget that they are only the ap
pendage of the underground vegeta
ble polypus, the true organism to
which they belong. — [Dr. O. W.
Holmes.
BAMBOO CULTURE.
A Useful Plant that Can be
Raised in the United States.
Successful Bamboo Planta
tions in Southern California.
The Diameter of a Lightning Bolt.
“Did you ever see the diameter of a
lightning flash measured?” asked a
geologist. “Well, here is the case
which once enclokpcd a flash of light
ning, fitting it exactly, so that you
can just see howwig it was. This is
called a ‘fu ! gt»ite,’ or ‘lightning
hole,’ and the material it is made of is
glass. I well tell you how it was
manufact ured, though it took only a
fraction of a second to turn it out.
“When a bolt of lightning strikes a
bed of sand it plunges downward in
to the sand for a distance, less or
greater, transforming simultaneously
into glass the silica in the material
through which it passes. Thus, by
its great heat, it forms at once a glass
tube of precisely the same size.
“Now and then such a tube is found
and dug up. Fulgurites have been
followed into the sand by excavations
for nearly thirty feet. They vary in
interior diameter from the size of a
quill of three inches or more, accord
ing to the bore of the flash.
4 ‘But fulgurites are not alone pro
duced iu sand; they are found also iu
solid rocks, though very naturally of
slight depth and frequently existing
merely as a thin glassy coating on the
surface. Such fulgurites occur in
astonishing abundance on the summit
of Little Ararat in Armenia.
“The rock is soft, and so porous
that blocks a foot long can be ob
tained, perforated in all directions by
little tubes filled with bottle-grceu
glass formed from the fused rock.” —
[Scientific Magazine.
A Oueer Ohl Texan.
An eccentric character named Brit
Bailey came from Tennessee to Texas
iu 1830. While on route in company
with several others he requested each
man to tell what he was coming to
Texas for. When ali were through it
came to his turn, and he said: “lam
going to Texas to establish a charac
ter. I have not got any at home, and
I am going to try and establish one iu
Texas.”
He settled at Bailey’s Prairie, and
soon after trouble commenced with
the Mexicans, and participated iu the
battle of Yelasca. He carried home
with him a cannon ball as a relic of
this fight. When he came to die he
requested to be buried standing up six
feet under the earth, which would re
quire a grave of more than 12 feet iu
depth, as he was 6 feet 2 inches in
height.
He also requested that there should
be buried with him bis rifle, 100
rounds of ammunition, his butcher
knife, two plugs of tobacco, one bot
tle of whisky, his dog, andthecanuon
ball from Velasco. All this was done
with the exception of the dog. He
died at holme in 1838 ou Bailey’s
Prairie, Brazoria County, and was
buried on I Oyster Creek. Ho was
liked and rdsp^ted by all who knew
him.—[Dallas (Texas) News.
The Department of Agriculture rec
ommends the cultivation of the bam
boo for economical purposes iu the
United States. A suggestion to the
same effect is conveyed iu a recent let
ter from Mr. Charles Heath, consul to
Sicily. He says that the plant could
be grown in this country as far uorth
as New York, aud would doubtless
prove hardy throughout California
and the Southern states. Sicilian far
mers consider it their best paying
<;rop, and grow it abundantly ou oth
erwise worthless wet land, utilizing
for the purpose borders of fields,
brooks, swamp bolesf etc.
The bamboo is a perennial plant,
dying to the ground each year aud
producing a fresh growth in the
spring, fit is propagated from cut
tings of the roots. Marketable canes
are produced in one year, and a plan
tation yields for a dozen years, requir
ing no cultivation. A single plant
gives five or six canes thirty feet long,
the stock becoming stouter each year.
The dried canes, being very light,
stiff and durable, furnish material for
fencing, roofing, fish poles, grape and
bean poles. Split, they are utilized
for laths and iu the manufacture of
woven hampers and baskets.
Iu tbe United States the bamboo is
cultivated to a small extent, but only
for ornamental purposes. There are
at least ten species—natives of China,
Japan and the Himalayas—which may
reasonably be expec ed to thrive in the
milder latitudes of this country. Two
of these have been found to be hardy
even iu New England. A number of
successful bamboo plantations have al
ready been established in southern
California. Oae of them, belonging
to Gen. R. W. Kirkham of Oaklaud f
is twenty-four years old. The canes
grown on it, originally obtained from
Chinese stock, made a growth of as
much as thirty-five feet in one season.
In other parts of the state tho Indian
bamboo, which attains a height of
fifty feet, is successfully growu aud
has been found capable of enduring a
temperature of zero. At tho semi-
tropical exhibition at Ocala, Fla., a
collection of bamboo stems big enough
for fence rails was shown by Lee
county in that state.
The bamboos belong to the true
grasses and comprise about twenty
genera, with nearly 200 species. In
size bamboos range from 10 to 150
feet in height and from one inch to
two feet in diameter. Of the sixty
species indigenous to the Chinese em
pire only six or seven are cultivated
for economic purposes.
Bamboos are utilized for the mak
ing of matks, rafts, water pipes, ship
rigging, carts, boxes, mats, cordage
and paper. Furniture manufactured
from the stems is very much in fash
ion just at present.
The plants also furnish valuable
supplies of food. A few species have
a berry-like fruit and tho seeds of
other kinds resemble rice, especially
when cooked, having about the same
market value. The young and tender
shoots are cut for fodder, aud such
delicate portions of one or two Japan
ese species are cooked and eaten like
asparagus.
These plants are gregarious in habit,
their numerous stems rising iu dense
and impenetrable masses. As the
shoots mature canes are cut down
from year to year, new ones con
stantly springing up. The rate a twhich
some kinds grow is astonishing. An
Indian species, called tho “Dendro*
calamus giganteus”—meaning “giant
pen tree”—sometimes attains a height
of forty feet in as many days. A
record is given for even two and a
half feet in a day, and Gen. Kirkham
has a record of eight inches of growth
per diem on ids California plantation.
The myriad uses found for bamboo in
China, Japan and other regions re
quire a greater supply than can be de
rived from natural propagation.
Supplies of bamboo seeds for planting
are difficult to obtain, as the plant
seeds rarely, sometimes not oftener
than every twenty-five or even sixty
years, and a few of tho most useful
kinds grow in Japan are said never to
seed. The seeds, moroever, are ex
ceedingly diflicult to germinate, and
hence the plants are propagated al
most exclusively from root cuttings,
eves aud offsets. — [Washington Star.
water there, as has been sometimes
supposed. It is certainly a singular
fact that two constituents which are
so abundant here should seem to be
entirely wanting in the moon, and it
is an interesting subject for specula
tion, as to what has happened to the
water on the moon if it once existed
there. It is generally believed that as
our satellite cooled dowu the water
penetrated into the interior, and was
there seized upon by the minerals
which required water in order that
they might assume their appropriate
crystalline forms. The water on the
moon has therefore, according to this
view, become transformed into a solid
form, incorporated with the bodily
texture of the globe. It has even been
surmised that a similar destiny awaits
the oceans ou our own globe; broad
and deep though they seem, they yet
may be inadequate to quench the
thirst for water possessed by so vast a
mass of crystallizing minerals as must
exist in the interior of the globe. But
whether this be the explanation of the
absence of liquid water from the moon
or not, tho fact of that absence caunot
be questioned.
The moon has been subjected to
careful scrutiny for centuries, yet no
one has ever seen any genuine ocean
or sea, no one has ever seen any indi
cation of the present existence of
water, and we are entitled to assert
that water, in a liquid form, is absent
from the surface of our satellite.—
[Good Words.
The Great Mystery.
I know not whence or how or why I came.
I walk and talk—I laugh and cry—
I breathe to live—I live to die—
And dying, leave a name to fame, or shame.
I know not where or how or when I’ll go.
The end will come some day, and then—
A sigh—a tear—a prayer—amen!
I know not now, but when I go I’ll know.
— [H. T. Hollands, iu Detroit Free Press.
HUMOROUS.
to Gazzam. “
Gazzam, “dead broke,
Able to be Around.
He was a smart young man. There
was no question on that score. If
necessary he would have admitted the
soft impeachment himself, in strict
confidence, course. He and his
running mate took seats iu a crowded
down-town cafe, aud oh, dear! such
a time as they had. Whenever a
hungry guest passed their table the
bright young man would suddenly
glance up and exclaim loudly, “How
do you do?” as if accosting the
stranger. Then instantly turning to
his companion he would complete the
sentence by adding, “when you are in
New York and want to go over to
Brooklyn.”
It was great fun. But no one
seemed to enjoy it except the two
dudes who took an active part iu it.
Indeed, those in the immediate vicin
ity seemed to be greatly bored. An
old farmer who was quietly sipping a
cup of coffee at a neighboring table
watched this little play with consid
erable interest. Finishing his lunch
lie arose, picked up the waiter’s check,
and started forward to the cashier's
desk.
He had almost reached the table
of the two brilliant young jokers when
suddenly one of them exclaimed,
“How do you do?” But the speaker
never finished the sentence. Before
he could utter another word a brawny
hand caught him by the collar, lifted
him bodily to his feet, shook him un
til his teeth rattled like castanets, and
then slammed him dowu upon the
floor with all the force of a pile
driver.
“I’m very well, thank ye,” said the
fanner softly, as he passed on to the
cashier's desk, paid his check, aud
went out.— [Clncasro Mail.
A little learnHg in a fool, like
scanty powder in a large gun, will
sometimes mike considerable uoise.
“Pa,” said a five-year-old eon, “can
a rope walk?” “I think not my son,”
answered tho father 4 “but it might if
it were taut”
“This mummy fell to pieces as wo
were unpacking it,” said the director
of the museum
replied
deutly.”
Although you grieve when
you are poor,
It’s always well to learn—
You never really know for sure
Which way affairs may turn.
“Why do you always employ wo
men as typewriters?” asked Mrs. Cur"
taiu Lecture. 4 -So that I have some
thing to dicta'o to,” replied the
unhappy man.
“His attentions to you have been
marked, have they not?” said the
young woman’s experienced friend.
4 ‘Oh, yes. Ho has never taken tho
price-tag oil any of his presents.”
Maiden (listening to Mendelssohn’s
“Wedding March”) —I don’t see why
they have tho clashing of the cymbals.
Young Mrs. Benedict—Why, as a
symbol of the c’ashings which are to
follow, of course.
‘•This business of tracing one of
my lost manuscripts makes me think
of a dog I once owned,” said Scrib
bler. “In what respect?” queried
Mawson. “Ho had a habit of chasing
his owu tail,” replied Scribbler.
>o Water on the Moon.
Every kind of life, whether animal
or vegetable, requires both the pres
ence of air and the presence of water;
we do not of course say that in other
parts of the universe there may not be
types of life for which neither air nor
water is essential; nothing is, how
ever, more clear than the evidence
which we are able to produce with
reference to the presence or absence
of the substances we have named.
First, with regard to water. There
are, no doubt, some reasons for think
ing that there may have been once
water ou the moon, but it U now cer
tain that there is no liquid ou its sur
face, nor indeed can I find much rea
son to believe that there is even frozen
Oddities About Rats.
Rats are natives of Asia and their
raids westward belong to comparative
modern times. From tbe fact that it
is not mentioned by any of tbe early
Europeans, it is surmised that it was
unknown west of the Ganges iu an
cient times. The black rat first came
from Asia to Europe in the sixteenth
century—along with the plague—and
was first known as the “Graveyard
Spectre,” because he preyed on the
flesh of those who died during that
awful visitation. He was also known
as the “Plague cat,” because the com
mon house cat had a similar habit of
feasting on the dead. This black rat
was the common house rat until the
brown or gray rat made bis appear
ance in 1775. The gray rat came t 0
Europe from India by way of Russia,
and is uow popularly known as the
Norway rat, from a mistaken tradition
that it came from Norway to England
and from the latter country to
America.— rPhiladelphia Press.
The Mississippi Levees.
Louisiana has 780 miles of river
front, and to protect this from the
overflow of the river over 75,000,000
cubic yards of earthworks have been
constructed. The complete system of
levees now erected has been at the
enormous cost of nearly $40,000,000,
while annual repairs in ordinary sea
sons are estimated at $2,000,000.
The new levees, which were con
structed iu 1873, are 22 feet high aud
142 feet at the base, with a cross sec
tion of 1672 square feet. They are
enormous dikes, probably, with but
few exceptions, the largest in tho
world. But even these have been im
proved upon, and larger ones made at
certain bends in the river where the
danger is great
In 1833 tho water rose to such a
tremeudous height that it broke down
the great levees with apparent ease,
and inundated tho country for miles
away, flooding portions of St. Louis,
New Orleans, Baton Rouge and other
cities. Five years later another tre
mendous outbreak was effected, and
millions of dollars’ worth of damage
was caused.
When a break is made in a portion
of the levee it is almost impossible to
stop the flowing waters, and the coun
try is so level back of the embank
ment that an inexhaustible quantity
can flow around. In the present case
it is rushing dowu through the coun
try, destroying crops and houses, un
til its volume can be increased by
another stream from a second break
in the levee.
Tho only places that are saved from
the floods at such outbreaks are those
which are situated upon high eleva
tions, aud it is not an infrequent oc- /
currence to find one-half of a city
along the river’s bank flooded whiie
the other half is above the water.—
[New York Times.
know
Beeswax.
Many tons of beeswax are imported
to this city 4r° m tropical and sub
tropical parts of this continent and
from Spain. Much of this comes
from Cuba, where a tropical vegeta
tion supports and employs au enor
mous number of bees. Much of the
Cuban wax comes in great masses
sloped like the frustrum of a pyramid,
and weighing from 65 to 70 pounds
each. In spite of the fact that various
substitutes for wax have been dis
covered, it is still used iu great
quantities iu the manufacture of
candies, especially for ecclesiastical
use. Much of it, too, is used iu the
manufacture of wax lay figures, not
only for museums and the like, but
for milliners and mantua makers.
In For Keeps.
4 dlow is that little mining scheme
of yours getting along? Any money
in it?”
“Any money in it? Well, [ should
•ay so! All of mine, all of my wife’s.
and about $3000 that I got
my friends,”—[Yankee Blade.
from
Mexican Funerals.
‘•The most curious sight
American eye in the City of
is the funeral procession,” saul
Lambert of Boston at the Sotf
‘•There is not a hearse, as we
that vehicle in the capital. Instead,
the Mexicans use a strangc-looking
street car to haul their dead to the
cemetery. The car is more like an or
dinary flatcar of this country than
anything else I can compare it to. In
the center of this car is a raised dias
in the shape of a coffin, on which tho
casket rests, and is bound to the body
of the car by ropes and poles, around
which are wrapped flowers. The
mules drawing the car are whipped
into a fast gallop, and go through the
crowdfed, stuffy streets at a break
neck speed, followed by a long pro
cession of other closed cars filled with
mourners. Rich and poor are all
treated alike when they are carried to
the cemetery for burial.”—[St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.
In the Same Box.
“You have been in the army a great
many years, but I never heard of your
capturing anything,” said an old co
quette to a somewhat veueralbe offi
cer.
“You ought to have a fellow feel
ing for me,” wa« the reply.
“How 80?”
“Because we both know what it U
to grow old witbont making any con
quest*.”—[Texas Siftings. j