Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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. THE MATABELAR A SOUTH AFRICAN NATION 01 THIEVES AND BEGGARS. Every One Save the King Takes a Hand in Begging and Stealing -Their Military System and Superstitions. HE Matabele, of South Africa, with whom England has beeig having considerable trouble4 are a Nation of beggars. They are thievish as gypsies, and for im portunate demands for gratuities dis count the lazzaroni of Naples. These practices are characteristic of all; from the highest to the lowest. Indunas of the most elevated rank attach no idea of shame to the act of stealing, nor is it beneath the dignity of a member of the King's council to spend hours day after day in begging from a white man's camp. They look upon the white man solely as a con venient repository of desirable articles, which can be begged or stolen from him without scruple or loss of sell respect. Their conversation in his tent consists mainly of entreaties that he will do himself the honor of con ferring upon them guns, or. jam, or his hat, or his boots, or anything that is his. If he neglects to watch them shortly after their departure some thing or other will surely be missing; it may be spoons, or a few knives, or a small ax, or a jar of preserves, or some other little keepsake of the kind. In the whole Matabele Nation there is said to be "only one man who does not beg of the white man, and that one is the King. But then there is little that he can want. He has such num bers of cattle that many of them die yearly of old age; his people keep him well supplied with corn and beer; the subject tribes who own his rule send him tribute in ivory, skins, and articles of native manufacture; every white man who enters the country brings him presents of guns, blankets, powder, champagne, while from the; concessionaires to whom he has grant ed mining rights he receives a good, round sum in English sovereigns, paid to him at each new moon. He has troops of slaves. Whatever skilled labor he may require for thatching, painting, gun mending, and the like is supplied generally for nothing by the white men who live in the coun try. Whenever he needs cloth or beads for the replenishment of the wardrobes of his eighty odd wives he sends down an order, and generally s large one, to the traders at the store, who cannot well refuse to supply him." It appears that the King does some times pay for the goods which he has ordered, but never until a long while after he has received them, and the life of the white trader in Matabeland is described as anything but prosper ous and satisfactory. The military system of the Nation is still much the same as that of the Zu lus, from whom the Matabele are de scended. When the king wishes to raise a new regiment he calls out a number of the young men. Certain lands are allotted to them. Flocks and herds are given them, which the regiment keep up for its own benefit. The regiment bilds its own kraal, has its own induns., and lives there under his command till such time as its members, having seen sufficient serv ice, are given their head-rings by the * King, allowed to marry and to retire into the reserve and live anywhere they please. Till the soldiers get their' head-rings they are known as matjaka, or "young braves." After they have] got them they are madoda, or men. One of the most general supersti tions is an earnest belief in witches and witchcraf b. This is part of the re ligion of the Matabele and the prac tice of "smelling out" the witches and the attendant massacre of the latter has caused much trouble to the English authorities in African stations. Nor is it only the accused man who suffers. His wives, his relations, his slaves, and sometimes his cattle are on occasions slaughtered with him. The terror of witchcraft which prompts these mas sacres applies generally to all agencies which the natives do not understand and over which they have no control. But, curiously, while they fear the spells of their own people, they do nol apparently entertain any fear that the ~white men will bewitch them. It is maid that the Matabele are beginning to recognize the superior efficiency of the white man's medicine, and that his usually gratuitous practice seri ously interferes with that of the old established herb doctors who expect to be feed. The King hi~nself does what little rain doctoring the climate requires,l and on one occasion ordered the cessa tion of revolver practice in the Euro pean settlers' camp lest the sound of the guns should frighten the rain away~ when he was engaged in his incanta-, tions. The "magic broth" which the witch doctors brew is still sometimes sprinkled on the trees and the King's kraal and wagons, and even on the royal person of the King himself, in time of war in order to preserve them from evil influences and to make the bullets of the enemp miss fire. JOHNNT WAS FEELING B3ETTER. Doctor-"Well, Johnnyr, don't von feel better since I gave you the med icine?" Johnny-"Yes; forgot all about be ing sick." Doctor--"That's what I thought; and it wasn't hard to take, was it ?" Johnny-"I guess so, for it took two of us boys to hold Fido when we gave it to him."-hicago Inter-Ocean. It is marvelous how long a rotten post will stand, provided it be not shaken. Those who are sure of going to Heaven want to take the whole wiord with them. Tragedy has the great moral defect of giving too much importance to life and death. .Various facts go to show that a man's age may be as ripe as the man himself is green. Give a man the world and he will try to kick other planets out of exis tence. Idleness is emptmess; the tree in which sap is stagnant remains fruit less. SXUFFLE-SHOON AND A A. A--ocKs. Ehuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks Sit together, building blocks; 3huffme-Shoon Is old and gray .Amber-Locks a little child, But together at that play Age and youth are reconciled, And with sympathetic glee Build their castles fair to see! "When I grow to be a man"- ' So the wee one's prattle ran "I shall build a castle-so. ' With a gateway broad and grand. were a pretty vine shall grow, There a soldier guard shall standi And the tower shall be so high Folks will wonder by and by !" Shuffme-Shoon quoth: "Yes I know, Thus I builded long ago! Here a gate and there a wall, Here a window, there a door tere a steeple, wondrous tall, Riseth ever more and more; But the years have leveled low What I builded long ago"' So they gossip at their play Heedless of the fleeting day. '. Onespeaks of that Long Ago $ _ . Where his dead hopes buried lie. One with chubby cheeks aglow, Prattleth of the By-and-By. Side by side twin castles grow By-and-By and Long-Ago! Long-Ago and By-and-By Ah, what years atween them lie?. Yet, oh grandsire, gaunt and gray, By what grace art thou beguiled That thou sharest In the play Of that little lisping child? Children both, they build their blocks4 Shuffle-Sboon and Amber-Locks. -Eugene Field in Ladies' Home JournaV The Heroine of Queen's Peak OUR miles north west of the littl< city of Bowie, i1 Northern Texas there is a sharp - -point of land rising abruptl3 abovetheprairie, and known to al * the surrounding c oun tr y aE Queen's Peak. Ite istory is closely associated with tha of a woman who is declared by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat to have come pretty near to being queen in reality as well as in name. It was in 1866 that Ellen Qninm went from Western North Carolina to this part of Texas. As would be judged from her name, she had Irisb blood in her veins, but it was mixed with a copious strain of Indian, de. rived from the Cherokees that still in habit a reserve among the Carolina Mountains. Just under what circum, stances she left her native State n< one seems to remember, but sooz after she announced her intention tc open a school for the benefit of the surrounding country. It seemed as if the school would likely~benefit the "country," literally so called, as there were very few inhabitants to get the good of it. What few men there were, however, got together and pui up a house for her. It was the firsi schoolhouse ever put up in Montague County, and was made of rougi logs cut from the timber surrounding~ the base of what is now known s Queen's Peak. It was situated aboui half way up on the southern side is order to protedt it from the cold northern winds of winter. There were several reasons why this site was chosen. Wood was near at hand foz building the house and supplying the fires in winter, which items were very important ones to the Texans of those days. Water could be obtained from a spring close at hand, and this alsc was not to be slighted. Moreover, the Peak, though only a hundred o: so feet above the surrounding prairie, was the highest point for miles around, and from its summit a watelt could be kept for the approach ol Endians or other hostile characters. From it signals could be given in case of danger. I School opened with four pupils, al: of whom came from the only house within two miles of the place. Soon, however, it began to increase as the fact of its existence began tb be noised abroad through the country. - Growr men who had come to Texas 'whez boys and who had lived on the frontie: without educational advantages would ome to school to Miss Quinn in orcde: o redeem their lost time. They cams from anywhere within 100 or 200 miles, Miost of them could come for only a few months consecutively, at times when there was little to do on farm oz ranch, but they put in good worbs when they did come. For some months the attendance .would run as high as thirty avd then again it would drol: :own to three or four. Tuition was niformly SS per month. It must have been an interesting sight to see the little room crowded with big, bearded owboys poring over their books. They probably had spurs jingling ai their heels and big six-shooters dang ling from their belts, but the black aired little Indian-Irish woman was istress for all that. On one occa sion a big six-footer refused to obey some command she had given him. Go ing to the flour sack in which she kept a collection of her miscellaneous be. longings, she gathered up a handful of black pepper. She had probably pre pared this for just such emergencies, ud before her recalcitrant pupil knew hat was coming she threw the pepper quare into his eyes. The bully sprang o his feet with a roar of pain, while he rest of the school shouted up oarious approval of the act of disei line. Then a dozen of the devotees f learning grabbed and carried him bodily to the foot of the Peak. He was then informed that if he ever en tered the schoolroom again or in anx way molested the teacher there woulc be a feast for buzzards and coyotes. For a while Ellen Quinn was troubles by occasional travelers who, in pass ing through the country, would use er schoolhouses as a lodging place fo: the night. One night, just as such s party were pushing in the door, a roai like that of a cannon started them, anc n investigation it was found that usty old musket had discharged aboui double handful of slugs into the roo: with force enough to have killed ozen men had they been in the way. From that time on ro nocturnal in se... eatend that schoolhousa bythe door, and as windows had no yet come into fashion in that part o Texas the house was free from intru sion. - The teacher always had a loaded rifl Atting in the corner of the schoolroon during school hours, and had it strung behind her saddle as she rode. She was a fearless rider and an unerrinj shot. , After the school at the Peak hai been going on for about two years i singular state of affairs began graduall to come into being. The fame of he school had gone out over all the sur rounding country. She had exactl. those accomplishments and exactl3 that turn of mind calculated to wi for her the respect and admiration o: the men of the frontier. The resul was that they respected, trusted an< almost worshipped her. By degree she acquired almost unlimited influ ence over the men for over 100 mile around..:. They would come to her t< settle all disputes, and .would alwayi respect her decision. If any giver man felt -inclined to resist her decis ion such feeling was useless, as everi other man felt honor bound to hell enforce it.: If a question arose as t< the ownership of stock the partiei would bring the cattle or horses in volved up to the Peak. . Each claiman would state his side of the case an< call on anyone else he might choose t< substantiate it. Then came the de cision from which there was no ap peal. If a man was suspected of steal ing stock or of committing murder th process was the same. A case coul be disposed of completely in thirt minutes. On one occasion a mere bo: was brought up under accusation o: murder. The case was clear aginst him and the verdict ran as follows: "Well, he ought to die, but he', nothing but a kid. Give him a pon3 and let him go, but hang him if you find him within forty miles of thi place by to-morrow morning."g The boy left. IMeantime a natural metamorphosii took place in the name of the plao where she lived. From Quinn's Peai it was changed to Queen's Peake, the schoolma'am being by that time uni versally known as the queen. -Her death, however, was as it should have been, the climax and crowning point of her life. .. It was all that wai necessary to make her subjects worshil her, not almost, but altogether. During the fall of 1869 the Co manches began once more to make raids through this portion of Texas. The Comanches have been called the Ishmaelities of the West, their hand being against every man's hand and every man's hand against them, The queen had formerly acquired almost as much influence over the Indians as she had over the whites, and in peri ods of open 'Indian hostility this in fluence stood her in good stead. The Indians seemed to consider that hei Indian blood made her one of them selves, and so allowed her to pass back ward and forward to and from their camps unmolested. Though a Chero kee, she had soon acquired the Ian guage of the Comanches. For a long time her influence was successful ir protecting .thee. settlers* around the Peak from any disturbance, but on one occasion it failed. All the men fo2 forty miles had gone some distance below to Clear Creek Canon, toward which locality it had been reported that~ a-large band of hostiles were ad vancing. While the cduntry was thus unprotected, a fourteen-year-old boy came dashing up on his pony and called to the queen that a band of about twenty Comanches were coming as fast as they could traveL. He begged her go meet them and pacify them.' .*,. "No," she answered sadly ; "it's nc use this time. Their blood's up be cause our men have gone to Clear creek and they won't be pacified. You ridE like the wind and get all the women and children hid in the creek bank. I'll hold the Indians long enough for hat." ..+ 'Even as she was speaking the Indians ame in sight over a rise in the prairie. hey would willingly have passed her y without molestation, but she was etermined they should not. Taking keliberate aim at long range she fired knd onelIndian tumbled from his horse. ~hen she sprang upon the topmnost ~tone of the Pekand, standing at fufl eight, sent out a ringing yell and de. ~isively waved her gun. The . boy faited to see no more, but keeping the tooded base of the Peak between him ~elf and his pursuers, he dashed off, ar e had been told. No one will ever know the details of vhat happened after this. There was anatural barnicale of atones on top ol the Peak, and keeping behind it she had the advantage over her foes in the ppen prairie. The Indians seem finally to have taken positions inside the tim er around the Peak, and then gra ually to have drawn their lines nearer the summit. Doubtless they were n pble to tell whether it was defended y one person alone or by .more. Doubtless,wheni they had drawn niearer and were preparing to make the last fatal rush, she dropped her rifle and used her heavy six-shooter with deadly Ieffect. Certain it is that she was game to the last. Finally, the last cruel rush was made, and the brave teacher queen had given her life for those of her subjects. All this took time, and ,ime was valuable just then. There were noi more than three or four families then living within several miles of the Peak, and the boy messenger had ample timE to notify them and get them hidden in the timbered bank of the creek. II must have been after the nightfal] when the summit of the Peak was fin ally stormed, and about 10 o'clock force of men came galloping in from Clear Creek, having heard of the threatened attack. The Indians still remaining left under the cover of night. Next morning the settlers vis itedl the Peak. There, behind a big bowlder, on the very summit they found Ellen Quinn, the prairie queen, stiff and cold in death. H~er body had been pierced by half a dozen bullets and her scalp had been taken. Rifle and six-shooter were both missing. Around the barricade, down in the timber at its base, and out in the oper 'prairie, they counted the bodies oi eleven Comanches. That told the story. No death in the whole of this part of Texas could have moved the people as did hers.: She could have escaped he morely doinu notinU. bu BAe de iie rately enoseto a~ht~ taia e lives ol some fifteen or twenty defenseless women and children might be saved. It was decided to bury her and raise a monument to her on the Peak's mound, on which she labored in the school room and on which she died. Everyone for miles around asttended the funeral. There was no minister to preach, but it was a solemn affair not. withstanding. The body was buried on the very summit and above it the men piled up a vast heap of roug& stones. These may be seen there to 4ay. A new set of people have filled ul he surrounding country. About all hey know about the matter is thai these stones mark the grave of an In :4ian named Queen, who was killed ov ;the summit and after whom the Pea) 'was named. Bismarek at Home. After coffee and cigars had beer fassed, Bismarck's long pipe, with iti china bowl decorated with the family boat of arms, was brought to him and )ighted. A small table at his side held a tray *with long queer matches, a mall rod, and other pipe appur tenances, all of which were from time to time used. Never had I seen the process of smoking require to be elped along so often; for, during ani. mated conversation, the pipe was for gotten and allowed to go out. In thif need, as in every other, I was impressed with the alertness of the attendants. proud were they of their master, and tenderly watchful of his wishes and physical infirmities. And here another picture. Bis ,narck lying .back in the large chair, puffing at his long pipe-that his. toric pipe, in the cloud-smoke of pvhich the Germany of to-day first took shape-his face animated, strong and ever-changing, the two dogs nom stretched in front at full length, with their big heads crossed over their aster's feet. "This one was a gift ta e from the young Emperor," said Bismarck, pointing to the larger of the two. Talk turned upon the affectionata ness and faithfulness of dogs, and some one asked how the unmerited ex. pression, "gone to the dogs," had ever originated. Bismarck said: ,"The meaning of that saying has be come entirely perverted. In olden times, when a pack of hounds was s necessity, not a luxury, on every country estate, horses and cattle, when they had outlived their useful ness, were slaughtered and given to the dogs for food. -This is what was originally meant by 'gone to the dogs.' Conversation next turned upom America, and Bismarek asked mucb about his old friend Carl Schurz. "In 1845," he said, "I anticipated quite as little as did Schurz what the future had in store for me. My highest ambition was to become a good farmer, and to be able, eventually, to purchase the lands adjoining our estate. Occasionally I cast a hungry eye upon the office of Justice of the Peace, but the only chance I had to obtain it was cut off"-with a smile at the Princess-"by my not succeeding in marrying the girl who could have helped me attain it."- - "So much the better for me," was ehe Princess's laughing rejoinder. And the better for us all, thought I; for what a wholesome and blessed ex ample of happy marriage has this historic home presented to the world -aturing the last half century -. Century. v A Imitation MIarble. One of the most recent novelties in -artificial stone is the manufacture ol marble from chalk, whereby effects are produced which are hardly distinguish able from those of the natural material. The chalk, which is very porous, is placed in a bath of some mineral oxide, which percolates through it and gives it color. It is the same process that nature employs, to which the various :olorations of marbles are due. The slab of chalk is then placed in a bath of liq4uid silicate, which permeates it in all its parts and cements its parti :les together. The result is a stone having the hardness, temperature and he "ring" of real marble. It is capa ble of receiving a most exquisite pol sh. Many artificial marbles are now be, fng manufactured, and find a ready sale, owing to the high cost of quar rying and working the natural ma erial. However, there is no danger hat they will ever drive the real stuf! ut of the market.. They are of no use ~Or statuary or for certain other pur oses. The chalk process will not ild slabs more than six inches thick. -Washington Star, To See the Great Llaia.' Prince Galitzin, of Russia, is a fel low of the Geographioal Society of St. Petersburg and one of the most fa mous travelers of the world. He will start soon with an expedition to pene trate the plateau of Thibet with the intention of entering the sacred city of Lassa and interviewing the grand Llama. It is said that no European has ever faced the grand Llama, and the success of Prince Galitzin in his undertaking would be open to grave doubt were it not for his record in the way of wonderful journeys. It is over a year since his appearance at the head of a small Cossack caravan in the passes of the Pamiir table land on the extreme northern ?rondier of India startled the English Government. He has demonstrated by a journey of ovei 1200 miles from the terminus of trans Caspian railway, at Samarcand, that the Indian frontier was accessible to Russian attack through the Pamir table land, hitherto considered inac cessible. Retracing his steps with his carav'en he passed through the Quen lun Mounteins, crossed Eastern Turki stan into Siberia, p'til he struck the caravan route leadi ig to Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal, in Southern Sibera. He then pursued his way east to Vladivos tok, thence through Japan and tc Tancouver and the United States. Ii Prince Galitzin succeeds in entering Lassa and getting out alive his nexi icurney will be from the eastern term inns of the trans-Siberian railway, along its proposed route to Bering~ Sea. Then, crossing into Alska, he will try to pass through British Co. lumbia to the northern boundary oJ MONTANA'S PAINT MINE. tour Colors in Which the Indianm I Used to Dress Themselves for War. It is not generally known that we aave in this' locality, very near the ! "Geyser," a paint mine. We might say to It was a quarry, there Is so much of it. One of our enterprising citizens, Mr. Joseph Blessing, recently took a wagon and shovel and loaded up with two colors (there are three or four colors to be had) and brought It home, pounded it up with an old hammer, mixed It up with linseed oil, and put It on his picket fence. He now has one of the hand somest fences In the State-the upper part of a rich old gold and the lower a beautiful maroon.. The mine seems to be simply Inex haustible. This mine and the "Gey ser," which Is near It, were discovered, or. rather, located, about eighteen years ago by that veteran old-timer and prince of good fellows, Naylor Thompson, whom everybody knows and likes. It was shown to him in the st first place by a friendly Indian chief, tu who took a liking to Naylor and as- co sured him (Naylor) that It was the in source of supply for all the Indians ca west of the Mississippi River and hai to been for centuries. M Those were the days when Naylot fr, could draw his chair up to a table and o sit down without knocking the table th over-he was very active. Well, the v Indians came thousands of miles for this paint and used It to decorate their ar persons when on the warpath; trails Fi led from the mine to all directions, at showing that it had been a natural cen- Si ter of meeting for the red men, just ar the same as the well-known pipestone m quarry of Southwestern Minnesota. f? Naylor never made any use of the paint; he was in the habit of reaching a high state of exhilaration at times, when he would mount his bronco and let out a few yells and go out~for some fun-and then woe to the tenderfoot or any one else who got In his way. At such times he was In for fun and noth ing else, and a gatling gun would not make him change his mind when his neck was bowed. He would then paint the town in lurid colors, but he did not use any paint from the mine-that was all long ago. He still retains his inter est in the mine, and claims he can fur nish paint in four colors by the train load sufficient to paint all creation. If t any one doubts Naylor would like to ba see him. It is a big mine.-Townsend ho Messenger. .I lea The Exploits of Diving Birds. Engineers have often announced that submarine vessels would some day ac quire a speed much greater than that of ordinary ships. The diving birds furnish us with a powerful argument A33 In support of this opinion, for they move with surprising rapidity under water. - - sh The penguin, for example, can neith- N er fly nor walk, but hops along as If lhe m< legs were tied together. Nor does it ev ewim, for it literally fles under water. E When, at the Zoological Gardens of co London, the keeper brings food to these ph birds, a sudden transformation is wit- ta~ nessed. The bird, which Is heavy and sh awkward, suddenly becomes a superb and rapid creature, covered with glob ules of silver formed by the air impris oned in Its plumage, and flying in the depths of the placid water with sa rapid Ity of evolution that is unknown i ierlal flight The motion of Its wings is identical with that of ordinary flight, and its feet, extended In a line with its body, serve neither as motors nor as rudders. Steering Is effected throurg the accel eration of the motion of one of the wings at the expense of the other. The fish thus chased Is captured and swal lowed without any retardation of the speed of the bird being visible. The cormorant, on the contrary, swims with Its feet, which act like the paddle boards of the wheel of a steam boat Yet the conditions of the sub marine medium are so exceptionally si favorable that the speed obtained there- fr( In by the cormorant Is three or fourth times greater than that which It miakei iar ipon the surface. . th Interesting Aztec Ruins. rej L. 3. Court, an old-time prg~pecton '~ tas just made a three months' sojourn pr n one of the most interesting and least '' known portions of tho territory. The wonderland from which he has re turned Is the country lying between the the azatlan and Verde ranges of moun mins- or tik yet Mr. Cor hnsthat section con- ods tins morre Aztec ruins than any other portion of America, evidences of hu an habitation being found from the ighest peak to the lowest valleys. In flio ne place he found a road or street b tree miles in length, perfectly smooth shy and straight and sixty feet in width. n either side of the street, the entire h istance, are ruins. The road was evi- tur lently built prior to sonme mighty earth- w uake, as it ends abruptly ut the brink co >f' a yawning chasm. .g He dug up and found lying about aot freat number of skeletons, which were int nu a fair state of preservation, the heads lar f all being alike, very large over the bo: yes and receding and almost flat to-de ard the back of the head, jaws well Tt eveloped but front upper and lower - eeth small and sharp. The ruins showv te people to have been workers in tone, some fragments of work in tur- hei uose being found. Every availablepe foot of land had once been cultivated. on [he region, although little has hereto- arr fore been known about It, is very ac- sen essible and will, no doubt, become an tre uteresting resort for travelers-. cer wa Woman in Politica- oun "Laura never seemed to me par-ticu- eve arly strong-minded. I wonder why she epi mes become such a suff'ragist?" frii "She was converted last fall. Her by. iance ran for the Legislature and was sor efeated, and now Laura is sure that sit< oman is needed in politics."--New Sn fork World., of A FAMILY SEcREr. Neighbor-"I hear your father in ends to put up a new house. Who i iis builder?" a Boy-"What's that?" * *a, "Why, the-ea-one who bosses thf hos ob." ci "Oh! Whiy, ma, of course. "-Good Friendly societies in England have tna greed to pay indemnity to all mem- wi bera ho ma beimure at football. ban PNEUMATIO PAWu.-TURRI Convenient Device for Musical Par formera, 4. Musicians are not aiays fortunat ough to have someboly with then turn the pages of their music, conse V.V - THE PAGE-TUNXEE . ently, they are frequently obliged t< >p, at sometimes critical moments, t( rn over to the next page. This in nvenience is entirely done away wit the pneumatic page-turner, whici n be adapted, with two set screws any kind of a music stand. A pneu Dtic release throws a thin steel. wir 3m the right to the left, taking with i1 .e leaf, and is immediately ready foi e next page, so that at the given mo ?nt there is no delay. [n figure 1 are shown the page-turnet plied to a violinist's music stand gure 2 shows the detail of the appar as, which is made as light as is con tent with strength and durability; I e the set screws holding it to any isic stand; 2 are the wires placed be rehand between the pages that are P DETAILS OF THE APPARATUS. be turned over; 3 is a rest for the k of the music, and 4 are guides to Id it in place; 5 is the pneumatic re se, worked with the foot, and at !hed to a long rubber tube, which In cially manufactured music stands !arried through the foot of the stand. WATER LOCOMOTION. Invention Which Enables One to Perambulate on the Aqua. L French Inventor has recentl3 >wn at the Nouveau Cirque, says La ture, a pair of shoes with which a tion on water is obtained similar in ~ry respect to walking. An enor us ellipsoid frame of thin wood ~ered with rubber has a rectangula, Lte of sheef-tin or aluminium at. ~hed to the flat base of the water e. This plate acts like the fin of a ~WALKIN~G ONt THE WATER ; when drawn forward, it bends to' rd the bottom and encounters no re tance. When pressure is brought m above, the plate falls down and Sresistance of the water is very ge. This is the principle motion, as diference between the two actions >resents the actual distance covered. lile progress is slow it is still- ap. hciable. The long pole Is carried to intain the equipose easier. Flints. 'robably few people are aware tha~ 're still exists in England a manu 'tory of gun and tinder-box flints such is the case. The same meth. are employed in the mining and hioning ol' flints as in the stone age, i little alteration. In order to break .t into pieces of convenient size, the rker paces the mass on his knee, and, a dexterous blow with a hammer, vers it into fragments as easily as it were chocolate. The pieces are n split into flakes, and these, In n, are fractured into little squares ich, with very slight trimming, be e finished gun-flints. Most of the i lints are exported to Zanzibar and er ports in communication with the rior of Africa; but, besides these, ge quantities of flints for tinder :es are still made at Brandon. Tin --box flints chiefly go to Spa.'. an/ ly for use in isolated districts. Luttrell. ot infrequently Lady Holland, in casual sort of way, invited more pe than the table would hold. On occasion, when a superfluous guest 'ived after the diners were already ted, Lady Holland called out: "Lut 11, will you make room" "IL must tainly make It, for It does not exist," the ready rejoinder to the imperi lady..t may have been the same ning wat Luttrell, known to be an cure, caused m~uchi surprise to his mda by lettiit the side-dishes pass The fact being that he was ab bed in contemplating a man oppo 3who was listening to Sydney Its jo)kes without moving a muuscle his face, Her Bad Cold. rou have a bad cold," he said. "I 'e," she replied huskily. "I am so trse that If you attempted to kiss my uldnt screan."-New York Press. A Refutation. )octors say that the practice of kiss 'is a very unhealthful one, but girle o are always getting engaged don't - partiulrly sick.--Atchisonl Globe 6HS WAO TO "POPP flow a Lady TreatOd'a~ Oervans W WantO Worwe4g'sF,_ Weses. She was clumsy, to be true, but the 'air hair that Swe49s have and the rich coloring that tints the cb@ela 0l the women and the petals of tie roses of Sweden were hers. She wUa ame bling north on La Salle avenue look ing at the numbers on the houses. Finally she stoppe4 before a flat )uld ing. She took a newspaper froii un, der her coat, glanced at a want 'ad,. then looked again at tQe niwmber ol the flat building. They corresgued She walked up the steps, mbled among the bells a moment, and then rang the one that belonged to the second dat, . The lady who lived there, being without a servant, dropped her embroidery and went t the speaking tube. - ft r "Well, who is there?" she asked. "3e. Gusta Guetavson. El come to tak work.' "What?" "Me, Gusta Gustavson El come to tak work." 0'! you want to work for me?" '"Ja; ei taz work." "Well, come up-stairs." The two women surveyed each other critically at the door of the flat "Come in," said the mistress. "How many in dis house?" queried the would-be servant soimething after the manner of a pompous attorney ross-examining a witness. "My hustand, myself, and one little girl" - "Wash place light or dark?" "You mean the laundry, I supDose. There are no windows. It is in the basement and is lighted by gas." "Don't like dat. Ei no wash col lars or shirts. Ei have man Liei Ericsson. He comes Tursday nights. I tak your work, no shirts, no collars; Lief come Tursday night-for $7 v week." The Swede, having delivered her self of this disjointed but compre. hensive proposition, settled back com fortably in her easy chair and let her eves wander with interest over the bric-a-brac on the pretty mantel and the Persian rugs on the floor. But aer inspection was abruptly ended. "Seven dollars a week!" cried the mistress of the at in an injured tone as she gasped for breath. "Ya; El come for $7 a week and haf Lief Tursday nights and wash no shirts or collars." "Well, I don't want you," rejoined I he mistress, rising and opening the loor. "Yoa are altogether too cheap for me. Seven dollars a week! Is that all? Why, I wouldn't have any help around me that would look at less than $10." The door closed behind the rosy cheeked Swede with a hard, metallic elicl, and nothing but the sound of heavy feet descending the stair broke the stillness of the hall. "Ei ask $10 at de next place," she said in a bewildered way as sihe turned into the street and started for the next number indicated on the well thumbed newspaper "want" page that she plucked again from underA her coat-Chicago Tribune. - Odd Customs of Slam4 To an European eye the good looks, fi they anywhere exist, of both men -ad women in Siam, are immediately destroyed by the universal use of the betel, which blackens and corrodes the teeth, and causes them to protrude, which renders the spittoon an indis pensable article of furniture, and is responsible for the great splashes of red saliva that may be-seen everywhere adorning the -ground, as they have been ejected from the mouths of the passers-by. Like their fellows in An nam, the Siamese women enjoy great freedom and influence. Being of a most mercantile and managing tem-, perament, they become the self-consti tuted stewardesses, .treasurers and hucksters of the home or shop or store. They may be seen by the hundred go ing to market, each seated alone in her own canoe with her wares spread out before her. . The last King kept a body-guard of Amazons,with red coats and trousers and small carbines; but the present sovereign, has converted them into a species of interior palace police. The National character is docile, is dolent, light-hearted, gay. The Siam ese are devoted to the holiday-makmng and-ceremonies and processions whicb vcompany the most important annm aersaries or incidents of life, death and religion, and which cause .an, inflnjte amount of money to be squandered and time lost. Theylove games; kite fying, a sort of shuttlecock football, and fighting with cocks, crickets, bee tes and fish; though it is to be sur mised that the main attraction of these pursuits consists in the scope thereby afforded for betting and gambling, which are the cardinal National vices. & Siamese will stake money och any thing; licensed gambling-houses exist in the cities, and are a large source of income to the Government, who farm out the monopoly; a royal lottery is extensively patronized in Bangkok. The gambling-houses and the pawn. shops, which are their corollary, andi which are stockedwith objects pawned or stolen, are a disgrace to the capital. n some streets every other house is a pawnshop, kept by a Chinaman. If suppression of these places were found difficult, at least a great reduction in their numbers might be made, while a substantial revenue would accrue to the Crown by the imposition upon them 3f a heavy tax.-Fortnightly Beview. Nio Gardens "When I first saw the palaces le longing to New York magnates. said a foreign visitor, "I was struck by the total absence of any kind o1 garden surrounding these splendid abodes. In Paris London, Vienna, Rome, St. Petersburg, or Berlin, the 'htels' owned by the upper ten are always entered'through a garden, and are thus isolated from direct contact with the street. This certainly con. tributes to make life pleasant for their inmates, and I cannot help being surprised that where money is no object such a plan should not be generally adopted here." The sur prise is one to be shared by others. Why Is not- a beautiful house sur rounded wi4th the luxury and privacy f trees ana gardens? -A|on of good coal is said to yiel about 85000 feet of purified gas,