Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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MIRACLES OF UGUNESS. Human Frights Assemble In Bel gium's Capital FvIsm Offend for the Moot Utdeoiu Spec imen* at Vectatl Ueformltr - The Coates tent# Proud of Their Repulsive Blemishes. The quintessence of human ugliness of the world is gathered here to show Itself In tlsd international competition for ugly men, says a recent Brussels letter in the New York Advertiser. Every country has sent its Calaban, while many barbaric nations are each represented by several Quasimodos. Brizes of five thousand, two thousand and one thousand dollars go to the three exhibits which the judges decide are the most hideous specimens in this collection of over four hundred and fifty-six frights. The judges have no easy task on their hands, because the candidates are all so pretematurally ugly that it will require the nicest dis crimination to truthfully determine which three should be returned prize winners. Five of the foremost portrait painters in Belgium have been induced to serve as judp Meanwhile the unsightly crew wan dered up and down the town, followed by throngs of curious citizens. Each one seems nglier than the other, but they are all as proud as peacocks. They are of all sizes and shapes. Com pared with the least ill-looking one, the homeliest Chinese idol is a thing of beauty. A squatty Burmese dwarf, scant three feet high and weighing nearly two hundred pounds, with a head, little bigger than a cocoanut, swivel eyes and a nose like a tapir's snoot, was for a time by the press awarded the palm for hideousness. Hut it wasn't long before a host of others far uglier began pouring into Brussels A Kaffir, whose ears had been cut off and his mouth slit from eartoear, after the fashion of the “man who laughs,” was viewed with carious favor until Jhiji Sglingl, from Madagascar, put in an appearance. He has but one eye, and it is double the natural size. Hia nose is of the bulbous type and his lips are so short that the long teeth are constantly exposed, giving his counte nance the look of a wild beast, with a snarl stamped immovably upon his face. Then there is a brawny miner from Norway, whose frontispiece was fright fully misshapen by an explosion. The appearance of this Norwegian is more disgusting than horrible. Seen from behind, his magnificent figure and fine head, thatched with crisp yellow curls, lead moat persons to guess that his face, too, must be handsome. But when they look upon his distorted phiz they are struck with horror. From Brazil comes Sam Bong, a cor pulent negro, with a swinish face, the porcine expression of which is increased by the protrusion of an ugly yellow tusk from either comer of his mouth. A Malay whose face has been clawed out of shape by a tiger is another sight, as is a Laplander minus a nose and with a hairless face as flat as a shingle. Turkestan is represented by four human horrors, brought hither by an enterprising showman, who hopes to land at least one of the prizes. The ugliest one of this lot is one Ethiopian of middle stature and slender build, but with a blubbcry looking head forty-three Inches in circumference and a face like an ogre. Asiatic Russia sends a man whose countenance is so thickly covered with warts that hardly a bit of skiu can be seen. Then there are hairy men, and men with no hair at all, fellows sesmed with torture marks and scarred with fire, creatures livid from disease and every other imaginable blemish that makes the human sountenance offensive to the sight of man. Women, however, seem to have the reverse feeling toward these fearfully ugly men. In fact, wherever these Cal ibans go they are followed by troops of women. Nor arc these feminine dev otees to hideous-faced mankind re stricted to the lower walks of life, for women of fashion are quite as keen in their pursuit of them. It is not at e'l uncommon to see women of qualify stop their carriages to make the acquaintance of the ugly men. Some of these ladles have actually taken some of these manly horrors to their homes to show them off to visitors This sort of thing has set all the good-looking men in Brus sels by the ears. If they had their way the ugly horde would be driven from the city. It is said that the hand some wife of a well-known nobleman became so ensmored of a Hollander with a double nose and a hare lip that her husband has hurried her off to Paris to keep her out of further temp tation. These fellows are proud of their fa cial blemishes, too. But men of this sort were ever so. It was squinting Wilkes’ boast that he was only a quar ter of an hour behind the handsomest mail in England. Another, a distin guished officer, said: “I am quite aware that I am the ugliest man in the British army, but then (and here he used to throw hts shoulders back) I have probably the finest figure ” The Due de Boclore, the favorite of Louis XIV., was very forbidding both in face and person, but there was another no bleman at court who was still less agreeable looking. This person had killed s man in a duel and besought De Boclore's Interest with the king for pardon. “Why do you want to save this fellow’s life?” asked the mon arch. “Sire," replied the dnke, “if he were to suffer I should be left the ugli est man in France." FINGER FOR A NEW NOSE. The Remarkable Operation at a London Surgeon on n Koeeleee Man. The achievements of American sur geons in bold and extraordinary opera tions have long been the wonder of the world. But now from the other side of the Atlantic comes a story which shows that the old country is waking up a bit in the art of engrafting human flesh. A young man has put his finger to his nose, snd it remains there per manently. A few months ago, says the New York World, a youth whose nasal or gan was missing, as the result of an accident, caljed at Charing Cross hos pital, London, with the request that the surgeons would supply the de- 1 fleieney, artificially or otherwise. He expressed himself as willing to under- PICTURES IN THE SKY. They Are Common Around Lffke Ontario Region. the CHALDEAN SWORD IN MEXICO. A Find Which May Throw Uffht an the Peopling of ThU Continent. There will shortly be presented to the savants of Europe and America a relic of antiquity rescued from the dust of the dim dawn of human life in the western world, which promises to at once throw light on the origin of man on the western hemisphere and prove The region about Buffalo and for a the open sesame to further reading of A Surprising sad Impmtlvs Exhlbltloa KsMatlv Witnessed bp the People at Buffalo —A citv Buffalo—A City la tbs Air. the early races of the earth in the far east In a rock-hewn tomb In southern Mexico there has been found a bronze and hammered iron sword bearing on its blade and handle in rich inlaying of silver characters of record and rep resentations of life distinctively As syrian and Grecian. The characters on one side of the blade are cuneiform. good many miles east of that city seems to be a favorable one for seeing the more distinct and remarkable effects of that optical illusion known as the mirage, says the Hartford Times A surprisingly distinct one was seen between nine and ten o'clock on a recent morning by the people of _ ^ Buffalo. Like a previous one, seen by go any sort’of t^a^ntTy whichhU York Central I “*» » writer in the St Louis Globe- disfigured face might be made fairly I * dozen mile » OT m °re east of Democrat those on the other cannot presentable, and not absolutely rl ! the *P eCta ' le , pulsive to his best Sunday summer at 016 “ orth ' T h ® cm ® ■ een from ’ T , h ^ i tourt ^ ® ,xth - eighth and girl Mr Uloxam the senior .nrtreon the c8n, showed Lak « Ontario, with : eleventh letters in the easily recoguiz- took the interesting ease in hand ’ I f" , iU .. C8pe " and °‘ her shor e features, cuneiform characters of Chaldean First the am nutated flnerer of an : lnoIud,n F th e trees, with remarkable an Oqulty are exactly alike as graven other patient iJas carved *and fash i dl8tlnctne ss in the sky, although the u P° n the blade; the first, fourth, sixth, other patient was carved and fash- real lake at ttg nca ^ >t gho £ WM j eighth and elovonth letters in the thirty or forty miles away and wholly invisible. The one seen at HufPalo was the entire city of Toronto, in Canada, on the lake, some sixty miles away. Its steeples, docks and other features were seen, at great distance, A RARE OLD MISSAL Romantic History of on Ancient Volume Now in California. ioned to the semidance of a nose, and then securely grafted on the face. But It was found that this mutilated digi tal appendage had not survived its cut ting up. It was "dead,” and failed to take fresh root. The noseless man, nothing daunted, thereupon agreed to the surgeon's sug gestion that one of his own (the pa tient's) fingers should be cut off to fur nish a nasal organ. But In order that the finger should not be wasted in the event of this operation being unsuc cessful, it was only half amputated. The patient's arm being encased in plaster, for four weeks he held his own live finger to his face in the hope of ita taking root. This it did. The portion which was still attached to his hand was then cut through and soon joined the rest in adhering firmly to the face. Although minus a finger, the young man now has a new nose of his own flesh and blood. The transferred cartilage has been so mystic inscription on the reverse are also identical. It is in the possession of Benor Gonzalc M. Molincr, a de scendant of one of the oldest and most illustrious familier of Spain, who is resident in the City of Mexico. He with wonderful distinctness of detail. ® oon 1*7 before the Smithsonian institution Even the steamers on the lake ami a yacht were distinctly shown—the former pouring out the trailing smoke from their smokestacks, and the lat ter, showing exactly the position of the sails, could be seen careening before the west wind. The lake itself was largely visible. It must have been a very surprising and impressive exhibi tion. Seen in the sky by the caravan trav elers on the desert, the mirage pre sents an appearance of objects reflected in a surface of water; cool lakes, with shady palm tress, mock the hot and thirst*stricken travelers. The heated earth rarefies the lower air faster than manipulated by clever Dr. Bloxam that ? h ° U its original identity is entirely lost, ' tomarv exnc r ii>ncp. »n<WK fl't 6 CUS I ~ a v • -a x wmary experience and the flatnesa of and the further process of shaping it is the deMirt contribute8 ^ thc duration now being proceeded with It is not of the attrat . tiTe but dect . ptive appl4ri . ,£°.? n ^ I tion. There must be some real lake, i in some cases, as a basis for these re ported exhibitions The mirage is It is not known whether the Briton prefers the “nez retrousse the aquiline. He will doubtless be in a position to take his choice. He is certainly not the sort of man to be con tent with any sort of nose that hap pens to tnrn up. LANDSCAPES WHILE YOU WAIT. Enxllch Ja«lff*a. By 1806 ten of the thirty-three Eng lish judges will have served fifteen years, and be entitled to retire on pen sion. The master of the rolls, Lord Esher (Brett) has served twenty-five years; Boron Pollock, “the last of the barons" of the exchequer, twenty-two; Lord Justice Llndslcy, nineteen; Lord Justice Lopee and Justice Hawkins, eighteen. The late Lord Coleridge had been twenty-one years on the bench. L Railway Accidautft tu America. The interstate commerce commission is figured out that one person ia killed by railroad accident in this country out of every 1.491,910 persona who ride twenty-four mue^ Com|MMitor'a'sirtkrYn<U<L Bbookit*. N. Y., October The bor troubles which have existed in ths Brooklyn Citizen office for the past five months were ended yesterday, ths onion force resuming work in all de- P*rtment* as the result of mutual oon* essions. The Times ia alao about t« uniog labgf. A Lightning Artist Who Keeps Up with the Auctioneer. The great American desideratum of speed is strikingly Illustrated by a painter who has opened a studio and auction room on one of the principal business streets, apparently to demon strate that Longfellow was entirely in error when he wrote “art is long,’’ says the Boston Transcript. A man who happened to stray into the art gallery one morning chanced to speak of Raphael, and was asked by the painter who Ranhael was, and if he be longed in the 2:30 class. Before he conld answer the artist had executed “The Falls of the Yellowstone” in oil, the picture had been framed, sold, and the purchaser had gone out with the 1 prize under his arm. The lightning colorist had his paints spread out be fore him in heaps on a sort of mortar board and ranged behind him in pails, while on one side of him are .the thou sand canvas frames that he turns off before breakfast. Follow him while he produces a moonlight scene. First, he gets out his whitewash brush with out the long handle, and, dipping it in the slate-colored ink, primes the sky of evening. But he is careful to leave a small circle unscathed In the center; that is to stand for the moon. Then across thc bottom of the canvas the brush is flashed, leaving behind it a heavier trail, while two big patches of black paint at each side form the shadowy hills. Then, with a narrow brush of black, the trees and their bare branches are located, as if the artist were striping the wheels of an express wagon. Another dash of black answers for a boat, and two irregular touches are the men propelling it By this time the auctioneer is crying: “How much for this elegant moonlight scene in the north woods?- Start me!— One dollar and sixty-five cents do I hear? Sold!” And the buyer gets the colors on his sleeve in putting it under hts arm. “Little boys,” said the auc tioneer at this point, “you had better go home and give the old folks a show. But, boys," he cries aftef the slowly- retreating forms, “come down to-mor row. I’ll have some nice beds put up hero to-night, so that you needn't go home to sleep." And the “professor” has thc lead by three pictures on the auctioneer, who begins to point out the merits of “an elegant forest scene.” An Unmnal Coincidence. The Vienna correspondent of the London Standard says that on one of thc estates of Count Potocki in Galicia the vary rare event of a mother, daugh ter and granddaughter each giving birth to a son on thc same day has just occurred. The mother is forty-eight, and the infant son is her sixteenth child. The daughter, who has just presented her husband with his eighth, is thirty-three years old, and the grand daughter, who was married last year, is not yet quite sixteen. All the three new-born sons are strong and healthy, i and the same may be said of their mothers, who belong to the Polish peasant class. India Shawl, at IVlml.or. ! Queen Victoria’*store of India shawl* | is failing. The shawls are getting scarcer and scarcer every year. After the India mutiny tribute was laid upon j certain princes and chiefs in India to ; their sovereign lady of divers costly ; stuffs, and for a number of years the I shawls, etc., arrived regularly; but of ' late years, owing to thc deaths of some ! of the tributary potentates and the suppression of others the stock has much declined. The precious articles are kept in sandalwood wardrobes at Windsor under the care of the queen’e first wardrobe woman. caused by the excessive refraction, or bending of light rays in penetrating adjacent layers of air of greater differ ing densities, not far above the surface of the earth. This excessive refraction presents, when the lower stratum of air is heated by a very hot sun, an up lifted, distorted or inverted image of some actual object or scene. Along certain portions of the Italian coast it sometimes produces the exhibition of an inverted ship, up in the air—the real ship being distant and invisible and, of course, right side up. These aerial and marine reflec tions, often strange and complicated, and known as mirage, “looming," and the Italian, “fata morgana," according to the characteristics they present, are all allied to a general law. The school books have explained the general phe nomenon. It is out of the usual course of things for the lower stratum of air to be rarer than the one above It, but it sometimes happens Suppose the light rays are coming from a distant (and in visible) object, situated in the denser stratum, which in these wonderful ex hibitions lies over instead of being be neath the rarefied stratum—as a hill a little above the earth's surface—the rays come in a direction nearly paral lel to the surface, and meet the lower, rarer medium at a very obtuse angla. Instead of passing into that wanner air, the rays are reflected back to the denser stratum above — the common surface of the two strata acting as a mirror. Let the spectator be looking from some eminence, at an object thus situated, like himself, in the denser air, and he will see it by directly transmit ted rays; but rays from it also will be reflected—from the upper surface of the lower, more heated air—preeentlng the image inverted and in a lower posi tion. In the reproduction of distant and invisible objects—as in the ease of the city of Toronto, seen so plainly in the sky sixty miles south, at Buffalo — the phenomenon belongs, apparently, to the class knows to sailors as “looming." HOW HE FOOLED HER. The Utils Bsldheeded Mu with th* Mas. tarfol Spease Got Besr Mod*?. A little man with a bald head and an Inoffensive blue eye drifted into a Main street saloon and threw a half- dollar on the bar, says the Buffalo Ex press. “Gimme a schooner of beer,” he said. The schooner was given him. Just aa he was about to drink it a big naan came in and said: “Hello, Shorty, who's buying?" “I am,” replied Shorty, with dignity. “You,” scoffed the big man, “why, you never had a cent in your Ufa Your wife gets your wages.” "That’s all right,” said Shorty, “mebbe she does, but I’ve got money to-day.” “How’d you get it?” “Well," replied Shorty, "I don’t know as I mind tollin'. I had a couple of bad teeth an’ she gimme enough to get 'em pulled." “Did you get 'em pulled?” “Sure, but I worked her for fifty cents for gaa, an’ this ia the fifty. in person, and untU that time it will not ace the light of re search outside of Mexico. The sword and its scabbard of bronze are massive and well preserved. In total length the sword is twenty-six and one-haK inches, with a blade c f nineteen inches The roughly hammered iron blade Shows the crudity of the early days of the iron age, but the exquisite Inlaying of silver on the bronze bears testimony to the cunning of thc silversmiths who wrought the weapon. To all appear ances, and according to the inscrip tions, it was a royal arm. for on ita ample hilt it bears in horizontal lines the crowned head of its evident wearer, while below, in cuneiform characters on the blade, are apparently the title and name of the sovereign. The sword and scabbard weigh twelve pounds, of which the sword alone rep resents two-thirds of the total. The si.cry of the discovery of this in- teresiing relic is a romance. Seven years ago a curiosity dealer in the City of Mexico purchased it for a few paltry reals from an ignorant Indian from Merida, in the state of Yucatan, in southern Mexico. The dealer supposed it to be nothing more than an old Roman sword, such as were often worn by the Spaniards at thc time of the conquest of Mexico. The Indian said he found it in the depths of a tomb which ho had penetrated, and that, with a bronze spoon, now also in the posses sion of Senor Moliner, it was the only thing of interest he had found. Thu sword and scabbard were incrusted with half an inch of oxidization from their long burial, and on being cleaned up were offered for sale to tourists along with the customary more or less valuable stock in trade of an enterprising curio dealer. For one reason or another it remained in stock until recently, when it by chance caught the eye of Cenor Moliner, who has mode an intelligent study of an tiquities, both lu Europe and America, and who at once bought it at a curio sale price. his big red Ears. They Prevented Him from Malctaff a Good Match. Nothing is so hostile to romance aa ridicule. This truth was strikingly 11- lustrated in the case of a collage friend of my own. He was a good-looking young fellow, but had, unfortunately, been gifted by nature with a large and red pair of ears, which stood out from his head in a distressing fashion, says a writer in Answera. His sweetheart's young brothers chafed her unmercifully about this peeuliarity of her lover’s They compared his ears to Chinese fans, and talked up some preposterous story of one of the old travelers about an African race whose ears were so large that they used to wrap them selves up in them during inclement weather. They insinuated that their sister's lover was the sole surviving member of that race. Absurd as It may seem, their foolish talk resulted In a broken engagement. ACCIDENT TO JUDGE FRASER. Earn Over by a Trala at Opelika and Motfc Lege Crashed Off. v Opbi.ikz. Ala., October S. — Judge Thomas U Fraser of this place waa ran '-wyer by a train yesterday and so crush- ‘ '»* to necessitate the amputation 8U Vh legs below the knee. Judge of 1,1 «r is one of the influential men ol tabama. He was formerly pro- East A.aLg 0 f Lee county, and » • bate judV n ijp t >e political field, strong ~ Mrs. Clerelaad’e First Ftoees. Doubtless there ieone woman In these United States who is thankful that she did not marry her first love, says the Philadelphia Press. When she was a young girl she met, on • visit to friends, a theological student to whom, eventually, she became engaged. This youth afterward showed hhnself fickle and jilted the girl Later on he again jilted another young woman to whom he afterward became engaged and, al though she forgave and subsequently married him, he has never been any thing more than a very ordinary coun try clergyman whom the first girl could not regret. She has since mar ried, too. snd her pieseut name is Mrs. Grover Cleveland. THE FIVE FIREMEN KILLED. Starr ef the Wrscksa* of th Furaltur* BaUdln* la Detroit. Detroit, Mich.. October «.-The fal ling of the burning walls of the Keen an and John’s furniture store yaitarday killed six men, five firemen and one spectator, direct and Injured a number of others, some of whom will die. The building was a complete loee by ffrs and wreckage. It was a five story brick and had been condemned as be lNr«w»s« A Rival to Bnbbor. It ia one of the remarkable facta of existence that when a substance that has hitherto been deemed indispens able fails us, there are others brought out almost Immediately that appear not only to take its place but to far ex ceed it in utility and the range of use fulness. A new material, bearing the name of cellulose, is said to be com posed of exactly the same elements as starch. It will absorb any color, takes polish readily, may be turned in a lathe or rolled into flat sheets of any desired thickness and stamped into plates, pans, trays, boxes, book-covers or almost anything of a similar Chir ac ter. Made liquid and used as a size, it is admirable aa waterproofing and has a thousand uses that could not be found in rubber. It ia said to be ex ceedingly tenacious and will be a per fect substitute for glue. At the rubber crop has not in all particulars been satisfactory, this new material will be hailed with enthusiasm by consumers who appreciate high-class productions at reasonable prices Aa Riperiosoat la rSoporstlon. Agseta Park, near Dslft, in Holland, la the result of an Interesting experi ment in cooperation. A tract of ten acre* has upon it one hundred and fifty houses, each with its little garden and with certain common buildings and common grounds The houses are oc cupied by the employes of a great dis tilling company, who form a corpora tion which owns the park. Each mem ber owns shares in the corporation and pays rent for his house; the surplus after expenses are paid comes back to him as dividends If he wishes tc go away or dies his shares are bought sp by the corporation and sold to ths man, who takes his pi sea It Was Brought Ovor ths Ocoon hr Co lombo. sod Again hr Cortes—A Trsosurod Rolls of th* Lots Gov. Plo Pico. Under lock and key, In the state li brarian’s office at Sacramento, is a vol ume worth more than twice its weight In gold, says the Sau Francisco Chroni cle. Six centuries have rolled by since the pious Fra Ambrosius satin his monastic studio and mixed the watery blue, thc pale green and startling crimson hues with which he Illuminated this ancient missal. He devoted one year to the labor of copying, with microscopic ex actness, the Latin prayers, the calen dar of the saints and hymns of praise on selected parchment leaves. In the Introduction he wrote in IA tin; “I : have entered upon this work with a ; consciousness of my shortcomings and sinful Impulses, which render me un- 1 worthy of so honorable a task, but after much fasting and prayer I have been guided by an Inner voice which bids me to write.” The history of this missal Is full of romantic interest. The monastery In which Fra Ambrosius worked waa broken up! and the book over which he had spent so many weary days passed into the possession of a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana. who shipped on the Santa Maria when ('Kristopher Colum bus started on his voyage of discovery to ths aew world. Returning with the great admiral on his second voyage, Do Triana married a native woman, and endeavored to carry the message of the cross to the people whom he had adopt ed as his kindred. Ills success as a mis sionary Is problematical. The missal, however, was kept by ills children, and when the Spanish padres began to flock to the heathen shores that Co lumbus had given to Castile, a priest bought the volume and made In it a note of thc fact and the date. The discovery of such a work in the hands of the natives mode a strong impres sion on the missionary, and he investi gated its history, making a report to the head of his order in Barcelona, at the same time forwarding the missal. The little volume, with Its check ered history, reposed among the ar chives of the Barcelona convent until Cortez fitted out his expedition to the land of the Montezumas, taking as his chaplain the pious Father Olmedo. Be fore Olznedo set out on the dangerous voyage the bishop of Barcelona gave him his blessing, some good advioe and this missal. So armed, the chap lain sailed away to the overturning of the dread deity Quetzalcoatl whom tbs dwellers of Anahuac worshiped. The bloody wars of the conquest placed the banner of the cross over the ruins of the teocallls and made Cor tez the governor of New Spain. Father Olmedo soon after presented to Cortes the now historic missal, as a founda tion for a library by ths conqueror, and in Ills diary made mention of the travels end adventures through which he had passed. Cortes afterwards took up his residence in Ca3'oacan, one of the suburbs of thc present City of Mexico, and carefully preserved the book for a number of years. When this Cayoacan establishment was broken up, the conqueror gave the missal to the Franciscan Brothers, who were then waxing rich and strong in the new world. One of their number brought it to San Francisco In the earl} days of the gold excitement, and it passed into the possession of the late Gov. Pio Pico. When the state library became an established fact Gov. Pico gave the book to the institution, where it now remains. The missal is a fine specimen of il lumination. It contains one hundred and seventy pages of carefully-painted contents. The gold letters are made of gold leaf firmly gummed to the parchment. The frontispiece is a gem of medieval art. it represents the crucifixion, with Mary and Martha (who are given a slightly Japanese cast of features) standing at the foot of the cross In ths background n river flows, on the other side of which are seen several edifices that are archi tectural curiosities. This interesting volume la valued at two thousand dollars. THE OLOUD WAS ALIVE. A Vast Swarm at Wlaffod Arts Movtag Swiftly la ths Sky- “While driving home from Oneldn the other day,” said a farmer who lives in the extreme western part of the county to a Utica Observer man, “I saw a big cloud moving due north over the fields and woods Thera wasn't any wind blowing; the air waa still and I waa unable to account for ths presence of a big dark cloud speeding away across ths heavens on such a still, bright day. “At first I thought it was a cloud of smoke from thc railroads but then when I first saw it the cloud was in such a position that it could not pos sibly have come from the West Shore railroad, and even if it had there never was a cloud of smoke that hung so closely together and so long as that did. As I sat in my wagon It appeared to me to be a mile long and perhaps half a mile wide, but of course that part of it was all speculation, for no one can make a very accurate guess of the size of a cloud. Ths body in the sky was as dark aa the smoke from a locomotive and looked to lie quite dense, it traveled quicker than any cloud ever scudded before a thunder shower In this section. When it first attracted attention it was high up in the heavens, but it rose and fell sev eral times, like the soaring of a bird. Once it was but a few feet above the top of some woods Again it took an upward course and continued onward in an unswerving north course. It was about five o'clock that the cloud passed. “That evening I noticed a number of reddish-winged wood ants about on the grass and in the roads It occurred to me that the strange cloud In motion might have been a cloud of these flying ants. The more I pondered over the phenomenon the more I became con vinced that It was a cloud of ants that passed over the country. Such a story was too big for me to tell, although there was proof enough of the fact for my mind, so I held my peace and simply spoke to ray family of the strange cloud. Others had seen it, too, yet none sus pected what it was and we finally dis missed it. “A day or two afterward I was in ConstableviUe and there the farmers told me they had seen the same thing. There was no doubt about It, either, for a number of them watched the cloud and at that place it passed so low that they caught the inaecta in their hands They were the same fly ing ants. We compared notes and found that it required just an hour for the swarm to move from the place where they were first seen to Con- steblevills. The distance in a straight line la thirty-one miles. They were in Oneida county at five o'clock and at jnst six o'clock they were seen in ths north. The ants continued northward and nobody has told me where they stooped.” AN AWFUL BATTLE. Bosac* os ths Chon-Yusa Dsrlnff ths Tola River Fight. A British naval officer attached to the Chinese naval squadron which was engaged in the fight off the mouth of the Yalu river has written a letter to the Iiondon Graphic in which he gives additional details of the fighting, and says: “On board the warship Chen-Yuen the fighting was awful. Ths decks and the space around the guns were strewn with human fragments. Three of five men working on a four-ton gun were blown up by a shell from the Japanese warship Naniwa. The fourth gunner was shot while try ing to escape from the turret and the fifth stuck to his post. “This man fired three rounds at the Naniwa, one shell entering the A UNIQUE KINGFISHER. Ths Only One of lha Specie* Known to Ornithologiets. A registered parcel, bearing sev eral kinds of stamps so curious as to attract the atteution of the post master, arrived at Sandusky, O., says the Register of that town, re cently addressed to Prof. Moseley. It contained a specimen which has traveled fur enough at one time and another to have gone quite around the world. But its chief interest lies in the fact that no person or in stitution in the world has another specimen of the same kind. It is a beautiful kiuglisher which was shot by Prof. Moseley in the island of Negres, Philippines, one thousand miles southeast of China. It is not as large as our American kingfisher, but has a greater variety of colors, the breast being buff and white with bars of black, and the back green, blue, buff, black and brown, arranged in such an intricate pat tern that a full description would occupy a column. It was shot at dusk from a bamboo on the bank of a little stream about a mile from the ocean. It was alone and none like it was seen during the remainder of the expedition, nor did Bourne and Worcester, who have since spent two years collecting in the islands, obtain a specimen. Prof. Steere, the leader of the first expedition, on arriving in this country and comparing the speci men with other kingfishers from the East Indies and the descriptions in works on ornithology, decided it to be a new species and named it “Halcyon moseleyi.” But Prof. Moseley, not feeling sure that it was really distinct from other species of Halcyon already known, took it to the British museum, which contains the largest collection of birds in the world. The chief ornithologist o^ this musaum, Mr. R. B. Sharpe, has made a special study of the kingfish ers and is the author of a book de voted to them, and illustrated with colored plates. Mr. Sharpe pro nounced the bird distinct from any previously described, and tried to induce Mr. Moseley to let the Brit ish museum have it, offering liberal exchange. Not succeeding in this, he obtained consent to keep It long enough to have an engraving made of it. After this it was in some way lost, until a few weeks ago one of the ornithologists of the museum, in overhauling some cases, ran across it and sent it on. It will be kept at the high school building, and San dusky may well be proud of having a bird which is unique in the true sense of the word. Mosstslns Dtaappaarls*. M. de Lappa rent, the eminent pro fessor of geology at the institute of Paris, in a paper read before the Scien tific Catholic congress, expressed tho opinion that all mountains will vanish off the face of the earth in course of time. He declared that, if the actnal natural forces at work upon our globe retain their present intensity, in fonr and a half million years all Inequali ties of surface will he leveled. He in stanced as a striking example the re duction of the Ardennes, which wen once a chain of the Alps, but whiol: had already shrunk to their preeen' dimensions at the outset of the tertiary epoch. The Alps, he said, exemplified the youth, the Pyrenees the maturity and the mountains of Provence the de dining years of mountain ranges while the central plateau of Francs was typical of their death and diaeolu- tion. He adduced other arguments in support of his thesis—namely, the lev eling of the earth's surface in a given nnmberof cycles—and paid an eloquent tribute to the labors of the geologists who rerd the records of life upon the earth before the advent of man. COLONEL HENRY M’GHEE DEAD. SodAss Bsartee at • Fviil**rt Gi ir*iaa am Boss* la Cstasibsa Oor.c»n!Vf. On., October 8 —Colonel Henry MoGhee, a prominent eitlzen of this comity, largely engaged In farm ing interests, died suddenly Inst night while sitting with his family convers ing. He was wall knows throughout tbs state. Heart dtaeans is given aa the ftatWM. Recent scattered washouts MB* ths Tfit* *u4 P8«i#« Mnmgftto tw »»«* Hanpsrj's Thvasudth Tsar. The Hungarians are making prepara tions on a grand scale for a millennial exhibition, and the government , at Prague has addressed a prayer to Em peror Francis Joseph, at Vienna, that he might lend them all the historic relies In his possession which may have any connection with Hungarian his tory. Tho emperor has granted the re quest, and relics valued at two million florins will shortly bo forwarded to Prague. FRAUDS AGAIN IN TENNESSEE. Arrest of As si ter Ctettsussg* Oslsrs* Doe tor for Verger?. Cbattavoooa, Tenn., October 8.—A. F. Perry, a colored doctor, who cut a big swell here, was arrested in Chicago n few days ago, and tell arrive hare to morrow to answer to the charge of fogging another physician's sign atari to an application of oao Lillian, b ne gro, for a pension. Perry was arrested on the Information of Psnaton Examine! Pitapatrick. Charles Delevsn, a aw tary, la also under arrest for uttering the fraudulent signature. The negroes •re greatly exercised over the arrest THE DISMAL SWAMP. Inhabitants of the Place and Its Chances of Becoming Rec'aimed. The fauna of the Dismal swamp ia peculiar, says the Washington Post. The trees being mostly juniper, cy press and black gum, there are few which bear nuts, and so there are not many tree squirrels. Of course, rodents of species which live underground are absent. Bears are very abundant, and hundreds of them are killed every year within tlie limits of the great morass. There are considerable numbers of horned cattle—the progeny of indi engine room of the Japanese ship and viduals which have escaped from do- mestic herds. They are mostly small and black. They are extreme ly wild, and when hunted are often dangerous to the sportsman. Com bats between the bulls and the bears are said t<j be frequent. The method adopted by the bear in these fights is to spring upon the back of the bull's neck and rend the muscles which support the head, thus render ing thc horns harmless. The cattle are occasionally enticed out into the cultivated fields by offerings of salt and led to join civilized herds. During the old slave days a con siderable part of the Dismal swamp was drained by ditches. These were dug wherever they happened to be wanted, and without any general system. If the same amount of la bor had been devoted to one com prehensive scheme covering the en tire region, it would have sufficed to redeem the whole of the swamp to agriculture. Doubtless this will be accomplished eventually. It is reck oned that the achievement would render an area available for tillage which would produce sixteeu million dollars of value per annum. The re claimed land yields from eighty to one hundred bushels of shelled corn per acre. It is enormously rich, the soil being an accumulation of veg etable matter deposited through centuries on centuries. Whereas in an ordinary forest the products of decay are steadily absorbed by the atmosphere and carried away, in a swamp they are retained. another smashing her forebridge. The Naniwa then hauled off. The Chinese admiral rewarded the surviving gun ner with a present of one thousand taels. “A shell glanced from the steel deck of the Chen-Yuen snd went through her tower, shattering everything there in. A lientenant who was in the actof speaking throngh the tube leading to the engine room waa blown into atoms and his head waa left hanging to the speak ing pipes Huge fragments of armor and the teak backing thereof were car ried on board by the shot, crushing a large number of sailors into a shape less mass. “A European engineer who was in the act of groping about in aa endeavor to repair a steam pip* waa drenched from head to foot with the blood of an assistant who waa disemboweled by his aide by a shot from the enemy's ship. “Then Chen-Ynen arrived at Wei- Hai-Wei th* day after th* fight in the ' same eondition in which she left the 1 battle. No attempt baa been made to wash the blood from her or remove the oorpass which strewed her decks ” The writer expresses the opinion ; that if the European rulers could have ' teen the decks of the Chen-Yuen they would have foresworn war henceforth and forever. As ITapopnlsr Woman. Ex-Empress Eugenie has never been popular in England. She ia generally disliked, partly because she is thought to be a fanatical Roman Catholic and partly because she is believed to have driven her son, the prince imperial, to ■elf-banishment and death by her harsh treatment of him. This charge against her is distinctly made in Comte d’ller- rison's book, “The Prince Imperial, Napoleon IV.,” jnst published In Paris He says; “After hia father’s death all persons that had been devoted to the emperor and the young prince were dismissed; Empress Eugenie re fused to notice that her son was no longer a child and treated him accord ingly. The stipend allowed him was ridiculous)} 1 small, so be was forced to borrow constantly from hia compan ions HU letters had to pass through the mother’s and the governor's hands before they were delivered with sneer ing remarks; in short, the young man was humiliated by hU mother and her servants constantly and in every way possible.” Potato** with Their Jackets An English scientist, after care ful experiments, finds that when po tatoes are cooked without removing tho ■kins they loee only three per cent, of nutritive quality through extraction of tha juloe. When the skins are removed before boiling the low was fourteen per cent, which makes the proceesof cooking the po tatoes without their jackets aa ex ceedingly wasteful on* TO BE SETTLED IN THE COURTS. Tte Vazad Quaatlna la tte Wort RateSol* at tte Row Tariff BUI. WAjinjrGTOX, October a—The vexed question arising in the wool schedule of the new tariff bill will be finally set tled in the courts This decision wa* reached by Secretary Carlisle yesterday as the moat satisfactory method of dis posing of the mattor. Until January 1 next, therefore, the position taken by the board of general appraisers at Hew York that the MeKInley bill rata* of duty obtain on wool, and that heir of animal* U wool, will be followed by th* treeaury department in eaaeasing the duty on this schedule. Importer* can file their protests and protect them- reives, awaiting the decision of the courts If adverse to the government, th* difference between the higher and lower rate* of duty will of ooura* be refunded. BRIEF NEWS OF THEiWEEK. Colonel Merritt Barber’s recent 1 to the Omaha representative* of th* Army of th* Tennessee may tens* j court martial, „—•