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About The Columbian. (St. Helens, Columbia County, Or.) 1880-1886 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 1884)
THE COLUMBIAN. V Published Evxby Fp.idat, AT ST: HELENS, COLUMBIA CO., OIL, 7 1 Published Every Friday, at ST. HELENS, COLUMBIA CO., OR., BY . 0. ADAMS, Editor and Proprietor Advertising Rates: One square (10 line) first insertion. . $2 0 Each subsequent insertion 1 W A E. 0. ADAHS, Editor aid Proprietor. Subscription Rates: One year, ia advance 2 00 Six month, " 1 00 Tnroe month, " U) VOL. V. ST. HELENS, COLUMBIA COUNTY, OREGON, NOVEMBER 7, 1884. NO. U. THE COLUMBIAN. iUM OUR HOPES. The past from our hearts has receded, The future is all that remains. Our life towards the ocean is ebbing, The star of our destiny wanes. Our hopes, let us carry them with us Like leaves that are borne by the waves, The saddest of earthly deceivers, Let us hide them away in our graves. OWLS AS PETS. Their Solemnity to be JBelled On, Bat Their Voire Against Them. New York Sun. "Are owls ever caught to be sold as pets?" "Yes, occasionally. The best way to catcli tLm ir to . surprise them in r. ii-t in iJ& old JSUiow tree. . Boys tie a stocking to the end of a long pole and run the pole cautiously down the in side of the tree through the opening. Instinctively the old owl, to protect her young, turns on her back in the mid dle of the nest, and is ready, with her claws in the air, to fight anything that that comes. Slowly the stocking de scends, and as it touches the bird the strong claws and beak are tearing it to pieces. The boy pulls on the pole, and the owl is so busy fighting and sputter ing that it is at the top and in the boy's arms before it shall I say tumbles? Then the boy has to look out for him self. If he escapes with torn clothing while he is descending the tree and put ting the owl in a big he is a lucky boy. "They are usually kept in a parrot cage," continued the naturalist. "All my birds are very tame, and will sub mit to be tic kled on the head, and, I Bnspect, rather like it, though they look so solemn all the while that I laugh outright sometimes at the notion of toying with a thing that has eye like saucers and seems to be perpetually meditating on the infinite. Their tem pers vary. The European horned owl sets up a fierce hissing, snapping, and barking noise when first captured, or when provoked with a stick. The American great horned owl barks like a dog, and, when it lets itself loose, gets to be a nuisance in the house, for it can hallo with a loud hoo-hoo-hoo-e, and can imitate to perfection the screams and gurglings of a chok ing or drowning person. The screech owl is easily tamed and is gentle. The Acadian owl is the only kind of owl in this country which .wanders into cities. It is caught occasionally in old belfries or in deserted or unoccupied houses. It is seeking for mice. It makes a noise like a saw-mill at work, and is commouly known as the 'Saw whet' owl. On that account it is ob jectionable as a pet. The barred owl found in the southern states makes a sound like an affected laugh. It is called the buffoon of the woods. Some people keep it in their houses to catch mice." "Can owls learn tricks?" "Yes, some simple ones, like eating out of your hand, seizing the end of a rope in your hand and letting you swing them around in a circle, coming to you at the sound of their name, climbing the balustrade in your hall, or jumping through a hoop. The solemn air they carry all the while makes them amusing." Spain's Government Cigar Factory. Chicago Tribune. Miss Emma Stratton, of New York city, writes --a letter from Seville de scribing the government cigar factory of Spain, 700 fet long and almost as wide, very dirty, and in the vestibule 250 girls make cigarettes, all talking as loud as they want to ; 100 girls in the next room doing the same; and on the next floor 3,000 women as close as sar dines in a box, in a single room, making cigars, some having their babies with them not a month old, and dogs lying on the tobacco stems. The women were divided up into sevens at each table, three on each side and the mistress at the top. Around each table were shelves against stone pillars, on which lay children's shoes, Bocks, and clothes. There were stone jars of water here and there for drinking, and the air was stilling, and the buzz of conversation ' only bronen by the wail of the babies. The floor was dilapidated, and it was possible for an incautious visitor to fall through. Two other side apartments 100 feet long were both packed with laborers. The factory consumes 10, 000 pounds of tobacco a day, and em ploys over 5,0 JO persons, who receive 50 cents a day for twelve hours' work. The matron at each table gets her pay from the women she commands. The pirls and the super.ntendents had very little manners. Comments on the Corpse. Nieuwe Amsterdamsche Courant. When any one dies they ask in France : "How old was he?" In Germany: "What complaint did he die of?" In America they say: "A good thing he is dead at last V In Italy : "Poor fellow !" In Russia: "He doesn't need to work any more ; he is well off!" In Holland they ask: "How much money has he left?" and in England: "Was he in sured ?" His Beautiful Cane. Arkansiiw Traveler. A horrible story has just reached us. During the recent cold weather, an Arkansas man, while walking along a road, found a beautiful cane with bright colors. After walking with it all day, he went home and stood it in the corner. Presently it climbed down and crawled under the house. He had been walking with a frozen snake. P.T. Harnam'H Wealth. -P. T. Barnum is a stockholder in two sewing machine companies ; owns three newspapers, two of -which are in Bridgeport ; about four hundred houses, numerous vacant lots, and a cattle ranch. He has 1,000 lots in Denver. A building owned by him in New York pays him a rental of $05,000 a year. Paris' Bad Wine. Six hundred and fifty bottles of wine, bought in different parts of Paris, have been analyzed at the municipal lab oratory, aud the wine was pro iounced pure in only sixty cases. Arkansaw Traveler: When I see a o:ai d t alius 'wants ter pray, I some how kaiu' he'p thinkin' dat he's done su thin' dat he wants de Lawd ter wipe out. MME. AUGUSTE'S LION. N.O. Times Translation from Horace Bertin. I. She had come, one summer Sunday, to erect her canvas booth under the poplars of the village of Lo Cours, not very far from the church. On either side of the entrance there was a flaring painting representing lions of enormous sie, with open jaws and waving manes rising upon their hind legs as though seeking to devour the spectators. The peasants, especially the women, felt cold chills run down their backs ; and in spite of the pressing appeals of the doorkeeper, no one dared for a long time to enter the interior. At last when the Ijix-collector, who was an ex-oifieer of zouaves made up his mind to cross the threshold of the menagerie, some of the villagers sum moned up courage enough to follow him. A boy moved back a sliding partition in the cage, and poked a big iron pitch fork between the bars. Then a lion was seen to rise up painfully an aged lion, all broken down and worn out a blear-eyed lion, whose fur was meagre and filthy, and whose tail was all raw, excoriated, scabby. When he yawned, only a few stumps of teeth were visible in his jaws. Madame Auguste drew a curtain aside, and introduced herself to the public. She had a thin face scarred with smallpox, and a nose like an eagle's beak. Her faded velvet bodice and tights speckled with grease spots, nevertheless excited the admira tion of the country people. She entered the cage, brandishing a whip. The lion uttered a feeble roar. There was a timid shrinking toward the door way on the part of thespectators and some of the peasant women even had one foot on the street. A little girl sobbed with terror, aud pulled at her mother's dress. Madame Auguste, however, flogged the old lion ; and the animal finally re signed himself to the duty of leaping over a bar ; but only to lie down again immediately at the further end of his cage. Then the lion-tamer crouched down before the animal, and, opening his mouth, thrust her pitted face again against his jaws. All the spectators uttered a cry of horror, and the women rushed out in affright, communicating their panic to the whole crowd of urchins gathered at the door. A few of the men, seeing that the tax-collector merely shrugged his shoulders, held their ground. Madanie Auguste then arose with a smile, and the performance was over. As they went out the country folks discussed the wonderful courage of the lion-tamer ; and continued to ask one another whether the bars of the cage were really strong enough. The tax-collector was the only one who had a hard word for the lion, when they talked the thing over among his own circle. "He's limp as an old tobacco-quid," said he to the notary and the druggist; "I've seen a very differ ent kind of lions in the province of Con stantino 1" ii. Three o'clock had just struck. The men of the village were amusing them selves in various ways; some playing at piquet in the tavern, others at ten-pins on the public road. The women were hurrying by to disappear within the doors of the church, where vespers were commencing. The peal of bells from the steeple alone broke the silence of Le Cours, which soon appeared com pletely deserted. Behind the canvas booths a thin column of smoke was rising from the roof of the canary colored wagon, with its shafts in air. Madame Auguste was cooking in her traveling-car. The menagerie was tranquil; the old lion continued to sleep, and the menag erie boy had gone to the inn to see whether Madaine Auguste's horse and mule had received their peck of oats. But after a little while, the lion teased and harassed by flies, opened one eye, moved his tail, and rubbed his head against the bars. Forthwith the barred door by which Madame Auguste had entered the cage moved upon its hinges, and stood ajar. It had not been properly secured, and nobody had observed the fact not even the lion, who had lain down more content edly than usual after the departure of his mistress. The captive pushed his muzzle against the door, looked before him, and after a moment's hesitation, leaped into the booth. He proceeded very slowly, very cunningly, and poked his head through the calico curtains which concealed the entrance of the menagerie from the public. Le Cours had all the asect of an uninhabited place. The lion stepped into the street and halted again. Then he recommenced his promenade, but very timidly, with an embarrassed air-as though very distrustful and supremely suspicious. One would have thought that he had already regretted having proceeded so far ; and every once in awhile he would turn his head half-round to look at his domicile. Nevertheless he skirted the church-wall, and finally took up his po sition under the porch, without making the slightest noise. The church -doors had been left wide open, be cause of the heat, and within a profound silence reigned, broken only by the outbursts of the preacher's voice from the pulpit, and the mad music of the crickets from the neighboring trees. The priest had only just commenced hi sermon ; and the peasant women in their rows of straw-bottomed chairs, were either listening or yielding to the drow siness of the hot day. It was the beadle who first perceived the enormous shadow of the lion upon the wall of the porch. He let his hal berd fall to the pavement, and cried out in a voice half-choked by terror "There's the lion!" The whole congregation was imme diately seized with unutterable terror. Chairs and benches were overturned in all directions. Some rushed toward the organ-loft, others to the door of the sacristy, others to the high altar. White as sheets, and with eyes wild with fear, the women shrieked helplessly or uttered nameless cries. The children yelled, and called upon their mothers to save them. Several peasant women almost died of fright, and huddled to gether in the nave, actually holding their breath from terror. People trampled each other on the pulpit stairs behind the altar on either side of the sanctuary railing. Prayer books, chaplets, benches, stools, can dlesticks and censors were scattered on the floor. The beadle had barricaded himself within the confessional; the chanter, whose face was fully lit by a gush of light from the window, was livid, and his knees were knocking to gether almost violently enough to break the bones. A little boy that had squeezed himself under a big chair thrust out from betwixt the rungs a face comically distorted by tears of terror. The sacristan had run up the steeple stairs, and was ringing the bell with all his might, as . if there was a conflagi ation to be extinguished. The few women - who had succeeded in get ting out of the church with the first rush, were running through all the streets of the village, throwing up their arms, and screaming for help. The priest alone who, from the height of his pulpit had seen the wild beast walk quietly away tried to re establish some calm among the faithful. But his voice was lost in the tumult of the panic; and already, from all the houses, drinking-places, club-rooms, taverns, etc., men were running to the scene armed with Lefaucheux revolvers, pitchforks, spits, and billiard queues. The lion, indeed, had very quietly re traced his way to the menagerie, as soon as he had heard the beadle's hal berd fall on the church pavement Madame Auguste at once rushed at her boarder, raining lashes upon him with her whip, and hurried him into the cage, with many kicks in the hinder portion of his emaciated body. But the whole village had been ter rified. Headed by the tax-collector, who had taken down an old revolver from his panoply, the peasants poured into the booth ; and, in spite of the supplications and even tears of the lion-tamer, who clasped their knees in her vain despair, they put the muzzles of their weapons to the poor brute's head and blew his brains out. One peasant even caried his ferocity so far as to shove a billiard cue down the lion's throat. The village folks seemed to have been wrought up to a pitch of unheard-of fury ; and every possible term of abuse, invective, and insult were lavished upon the wretched animal's carcass. "And now," shouted the tax collector to Mme. Auguste, who had almost fainted with grief, "now this will teach vou that I have never been afraid of lions !" in. Madame Auguste long remained motionless with grief and despair. Her lion represented all her earthly posses sions, her only resources besides, he had grow n old in the menagerie, and his submission, his docility, were extra ordinary. She would not think of re maining any longer in the midst of such people ; and she gave orders to pack up and leave town that very evening. But at the approach of nightfall the sky clouded up quickly and heavily. A furious wind came whistling through the trees, tearing away the leaves and whirling them abroad, and the thunder began to roar in the distance. Nevertheless, Madame Auguste's two wagons left the village by the high road. The storm burst over the country. Be tween the shafts of the traveling wagon trotted a great big mule from whose flanks the rain-water poured in streams. The old horse who pulled the other vehicle containing the carcass of the lion, hung his head sadly under the furious downpour. The thunder rolled madly overhead; and, by the light of the lightning, Madame Auguste showed her tear -streaming face at the little back window of her wagon and at in tervals flung the epithet, cowards I into the great tumult of the tempest. Children's Charitable CInb. Washington Letter. The Children's Christmas club, of which the president's daughter, li ttlo Nell, is president, gave a Christmas feast to poor children, and three other clubs, the outgrowth of this, gave din ners in other sections of the city; so over 2,000 youngsters had a vision of good living far ahead of their ex pectations. The club which has gained a national prominence was started by Miss Marion West, the daughter of Commissioner West of the district, the day after Thanksgiving among a little group of acquaintances. Miss West, by the way, claims San Francisco as her birthplace, and it has reason to be proud of a gen tle young lady who has made so many poor homes happy. Miss Nellie Arthur accepted the presidency of the club and with it considerable hard .work, as she has had to sign hundreds of member ship cards. They not only gave the children all they could eat, but also all they could carry home in the way of eatables and toys. I never saw such a crowd of delighted faces. President Arthur entered the hall in time to see a "Punch and Judy" show for the entertainment of the chil dren and took a seat very democratically in their midst. Such a scene was probably never witnessed here before. Nell Arthur sang with a chorus of girls. Tiny Tim's injunction, "God Bless Every One," is the watchword, and the president, like simpler folks, wants his daughter to grow up generous and thoughtful. For a child of 11 years, petted and noticed as she is, she is not a bit spoiled by it all, and came attired in a simple blue worsted dress. The Christmas club is going to be a perma nent affair and expects to do muoh more next year. A White House Itoom. The Current. A room in the White House is decor ated in the style of the thir teenth century. It contains also a Japanese screen, the por traits of Grant and Van Buren. a tiece of tapestry showing Gutenberg reading and furniture of cherry wood. When, n.ftr the lnnse of a centurv or two. the decorative artists of that period search for specimens of nineteentu century decorations, they will doubtless find themselves a trine puzzled, on entering this room. NEW ORLEANS CEMETERIES. A lottery Man's Revenge Changes a ltaee -Course into a Cemetery. Letter in New York Times. Any stranger here in search of curi osities is pretty sure to go back again and again to the cemeteries, just as I am eomg back to them, for they are, without exception, the most interesting points to visit. All the other rew Or leans curiosities may be duplicated in other cities, but there is nothing like the cemeteries anywhere else in America. They are so full, so well kept, so cunous in their arrangement, so quiet and restful, that it is a pleasure to go into them. ' One of the oldest of the French cemeteries is in the heart of the city.only a few blocks from Canal street. It is inclosed with a high stone wall, and the entrance to it is through a narrow gateway. The graves are all above ground, as they are in all the New Or leans cemeteries, and the little burial houses are so close together it looks impossible to find room for another body. There are several large vaults belonging to benevolent societies, and two or three are filled with bodies of Confederate soldiers. Narrow walks wind among these dwelling houses of the dead, with which the entire inclosure is filled. The inscrip tions on many of the tombs show that tbe occupants came years ago from the French provinces, but a fair proportion of the names are Ger man, Irish, or American. Nearly every grave shows some mark of aflection, with its bouquet of liowers, festoon of crape, rosette of black beads, its tiny cross, or font of holv water. The French do not forget their dead friends. There are graves in this cemetery so old that the plas'er is crumbling away, that still are ornamented with fresh bouquets of flowers. But this old French cemetery in the middle of the city has not the charm of the newer ones m tiie suburbs. About three miles from the center of the town, straight out Canal street, there is a village of cemeteries whose population must equal, I should think, that of the city. It is just a pleasant walk to them on a fair day. The first to be reached bears a sign over the gate "Temene, Derech, Best ;" the next is the Lutheran cemetery, then the Jewish "Cemetery of the Congregation Dispersed of Judah," St. -Patrick's cemetery, w hich probably is not filled with Frenchmen ; the beautiful Fire men's cemetery, and the "Odd-Fellows' Lest. I he last to be reached in point of distance is the largest of all, the JNIetairie. ihis word was a sticker, and it took me a long time to find out what it meant. I asked several gentlemen whom I met on the broad gravel walks, and they all to'd me it was a race-track, but the exact connection between a cemetery and a race-track was hard to see. It was plain enough, however, when I heard the story. A few years ago Metaire was the fashionable race-course of New Orleans, owned by a club composed of a number of prominent citLens. The president of the Lou'siana Lottery company de sired to join the club, but the respect able gentlemen connected with it did not care to be mixed up vith any 4 11 44 business, and promptly black-balled him. He made effort after effort to get in, but was black-balled every time. At last he grew indignant, and said to them : "It's not much of a race-track, any how. I will buy it and make a cemetery of it." He kept his word. Before lonjr the sporting club was in difficulties, and the lottery man got possession of most of its stock. As soon as he was able to control it he tore down the grand stand, laid the whole place out in burial lots, and the old race-track is now the fashionable cemetery of New Orleans. No choice lots, how ever, are reserved for the lottery com pany's victims who spend their last dollar for quarter tickets and die in the poor-house. This connection of a swindling lotterv company with a cemetery is beautifully appropriate, leaving nothing to be desired but an alms-house on one side of the big arched gataway and a jail on the other. rtllizinx Old Corks. ( Mineral-Wa er Trade Review. In a low wo; den building in Mul berry street old corks are made as "good as new." This is the only place in Sew York where they are dealt in. The dealer buys the corks by the bar rel, and pays irom $1 to $3. His trade is mostly in champagne corks. The best and cleanest of these he sorts and sells to American champagne-makers. The bottom of the cork, where the first bottler's braud appears, is shaved off, and the name of the second stamped on them. These c rks were cut expressly for champagne bottles, and, as they can be bought much more cheaply than any new ones, the bottlers purchase them. The old-ccrk dealer obtains 25 cents a dozen for them, and makes a handsome profit. The broken and dirty corks go through a pe.uliar process. They are first subjected to a sort of Turkish bath to clean them, and after they have dried are cut down. They are put in a ma chine and turned, while a sharp knife runs across them. They can be cut to any size, and, with the soiled surface removed, look as bright as when new. The corks cut down are purchased by root - beer and soda - watar makers, who use smaller bottles. They can save a considerable amount by purchasing old eorkv which, as it is easy to see, will do as well as new ones. 'Ihe "old cork man" is rushed with business. The champagne and root-boer and soda water bottlers take all the corks he can furnish. He gets his supply at the hotels and elsewhere. On the Verge of He act Ion. Helen Wilmms in Chicago Express. The day of military leaders is past. The day of political leaders is past. I doubt whether there will ever be a new party formed or a new church. I doubt wheth -r they are needed. I see something better ahead ; I see that cor ruption in the old parties and in the old churches, having gone its entire length, begins to tremble on the verge of reac tion. Wilkins : He who makes the best of life losos the worst of death. Arizona's Petrified Forest. Cor. Boston Herald. One might almost pass by and notice nothing unusual. But on looking closer the rocks are found to be the trunks of 'fallen trees turned to stone. They lie about you here, there and every where, some preserving their shape and outlines, others broken or cracked. The scene is a strange one. It smacks of enchantment. Perhaps some potentn magician blew upon this forest in the vigor of its prime, and before his chill ing breath the stout trees bowed them selves and fell, and froze into flint and agate. Still you hardly see why you came, but after the coffee had been boiled and breakfast eaten your Mexi cans slowly enlighten you. They bring out hammers and drills, and selecting a likely spot in a stone trunk endeavor to force a way into it. The stone is like adamant. Again and again the drill bounds away, but finally pieces are shivered off the cracks made, so that you see what the petrified forestj has hidden within it. Emeralds, sap-J phires, and diamonds are convenient! names, but alas, our discoveries would hardly be counted as such by Tiffany. Yet they are singularly beautiful. You find blocks of stone, there sides bristling with great hexagonal crystals, some green, others purple, and others a pure white. You cut through geodes whose hollows are lined with prismatic crys tals sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow. Much of the stone is beauti fully marked flint. Often you find! pieces with a brown corrugated eoatingJ which, I fancy, is the petrified bark All the stone abounds in the most deli-j cate slladings of gray and white, with; dark lines, but the crystals, lining fis-j sures or gathered in the nests of geodes j are the especial delight of seekers. Here, too, there are moss agates, and exceptionally large and. clear garnets which masquerade under the name of rubies. And of the ordinary forms of petrified wood there is no end. Beating Brass. Philadelphia Ledger. "Do you beat brass?" is the initial catechism of the latest fashionable handicraft in Philadelphia. It is a part ticular pet with feminine fingers, and requires thorough and practical knowl edge of hammers and tracing tools brass and block. A class of ladies, un der the patronage of the Scandinavian Thor, have produced some beautiful and lasting work. The instructor teaches them the way of using and holding their tools, and the proper kind of stroke to make upon the steel dies. The method is simple. On a block of wood a brass plate of sheet is fast ened. The design is then drawn upon it; the outline hammered by a die, which has a row of dots. Other dies give the groundwork a frosted or mottled appearance. Everything depends on the skill of the workwoman. Really valuable articles in repousse brass can be made from a piece of brass costing but a small sum. Card-receivers, paper-weights and plaques can be niadev The brass beating educates the hands and develops the muscles. It is worthy of note how much interest in the me chanical arts is publicly shown. Some times the hammering of brass is com bined with the use of the paint brush. A brass tray lately seen has a loose spray of pxyple pansies, apparently flung down carelessly upon it. Uncle Remus on the Art ot Court ship. Joel Chandler Harris in Atlanta Constitu tion. "I know'd a nigger one time," said Uncle Remus, after pondering a mo ment, "w'at tuck a notion dot he want a bait er 'simmons, en de mo' w'at de no tion tuck 'm de mo' w'at he want um, en bimeby, hit look lak he des natally erbleedz ter have um. He want de 'sim mons, en dar dey is in de tree. He-mouf water, en dar hang de 'simmons. Now, den w 'at do dat nigger do? W'en yon en me en dish yer chile yer vrants 'Bim mons, we goes out en shakes de tree, en ef deyer good en ripe, down dey comes, en ef deyer good en green, dar dey stays. But dis yer yuther nigger, he too smart fer dat. He des tuck'n tuck he stan' und' de tree, en he open de mouf, he did, wait fer de simmons fer ter drap in dar. Dey ain't none drap in yit," continued Uncle Bemus, gently knocking the cold ashes out of his pipe, "en w'at's mo', dey ain't none gwine ter drap in dar. Dat des zackly de way wid Brer Jack yer Tjout marryin'; he stan dar he do, en he hoi' bofe ban's wide open, en he speck de gal gwine ter drap right spang in 'um. Man want gal, he des got ter grab 'er dat's w'at. Dey may squall en day may flutter, but flutter'n an' squallin' ain't done no dam age yit as I knows un' en 'taint gwine ter. Young chaps kin make great 'mira tion Tbout gals, but w'en dey gits ole ez I is dey 'ull know dat folks is folks, en w'en it come ter bein' folks de wimmen ain't got none de 'vantage er der men. Now dat's des de plain up en down tale I'm a tellin' un you." For Oyster Eaters. Detroit Free Press. The New York Times proposes the organization of "a new party in favor of spelling 'Orgust' with an ' and thus enabling American citizens to eat oys ters thirty -one davs earlier in the season than is now possible." The Times does not know, perhaps but it is a fact that The Chicago Tribune has inaugu rated a system of spelling which, if faithfully followed, would give us just such a bad spell of August as The Times wants. There is an easier way. however, to lengthen the oyster season by thirty-one days. Let the month of JUay be called by its true name, the month of Mary. A S 105,000 Dress. Cor. Boston Herald The most noticeable feature of a re cent evening at Saratoga was the mag nificence of the costumes of the ladies. Perhaps the most costly of these was worn by Mrs. Moore, the wife of a Phil- uueipuiu millionaire, une wno ; pro fessed to have accurate information on the subject told me that she wore laces and silks which cost $30,000, and also diamonds that were valued at $75,000. This makes $105,000 for one evening outfit. Whatever the cost, the toilet was certainly superb, and I doubt if anything more expensive or elaborate has ever been seen m this country. CROWS AT WASHINGTON. The Part They Play in Preserving the Health or the Inhabitants. C ir. Cincinnati TitneF-Str.J One of the professors at the Smith sonian has evolved some curious theo ries about crows and the effect they have on the health of Washington. Ar lington and the dense woods of the Virginia hills thereabout are the "roosts" of countless flocks of crows. This professor estimates them at some thing like a million. These curious birds, which he has studied a good deal, are of great value in keep ng Washing ton as healthful a city as it is. They go on the river flats in the even ing just before roosting time and clean away much of the refuse whi -h would breed miasma. They are down there nearly every evening digging away on the flats like a gang of workmen thousands of them at a time. "Hundreds of thousands, I presume almost a million of these birds," he said, "roost here every night. In the even ing it looks as if a pall had been thrown over the cemetery or night had settled on the tree tops. Every tree and you know the trees at Arlington are large and close together is so covered that yo i can't see the limb3. They look like pyramids o: crows, and the ground is covered, too. "They are very curious birds," he continued. "Early in the evening, be fore settling down to roost, thousands of them will fuss and fly about the cemetery, now settling upon the tree?, then flying up and soaring about, their wings flashing like polished armor in the setting sun. Others walk solemnly among the graves, in search of food, or sit silently upon the tombstones. Their numbers increase rapidly as the even ing advances. They seem to divide ofl into companies, as roosting time ap proaches, and drop off in flocks of two or thres hundred, dropping suddenly head first in among the trees. "Their feeding grounds stretch out in a direct line to the bay, toward An napolis, and they feed all along the route. The 'feed' commences in the open fields in Maryland just outside of the district, and an immense number of crows are scattered out during the day over a belt of country from Annapolis to Washington. The greater number, I thin'c, however, go clear to the bay and range along its shores, for miles and miles, near low water mark, pick ing such food as they can find. They Bem to have the power to travel a great distance iu a very short time, but they are frequently on very short rations. I think, howeer, that the distance of their feeding ground from the roost is regulated by their strength and age, the very old and feeble feeding in the fields near b , and the others further away according to their ability to travel. "The shore of the bay is, doubtless, their chief resort for food, and they have almost exterminated one of our greatest table luxuries, the terrapin, which formerly abounded in the bay and lower Potomac, by, in certain sea sons, destroying their eggs. The ter rapin, in the breeding season, lay their eggs along the shore, burying them in the sand, pressing the sand over them with their breasts. In. this way the cross mark on their breast leaves an im pression in the sand which enables the crows to find the eggs, and they eat them with all the relish of an epicurean taste The crows rise early, before the wind or tide has had a chance to oblit erate the mark, and wherever they see the cross on the sand they dig for the eggs. In this way they have almost done away with tie breed of terrap ins." The Oyster to the Htrawberrj-. Pittsburg Chronicle. A dissipated oyster that had just com pleted a winter's round of orgies at church fairs and Snnday school sup pers, met a young and unsophisticated strawberry on its first trip from homei "I've an eye on you," said the oyster, leering at the strawberry in a way that made it blush. "Come up to 'tend the spring festivals, I suppose ?" "I thought of so doing, sir," modestly replied the strawberry. "Going to take in Chautauqua Lake, Ocean Giove, and so on, mebbe?" " l es, sir." "You're the short-cake feller that goes around with his face" tied up in sugar and cream, ain't you?" "Beally, sir, I have seen but little of the world as ytt, but " "'I hat's all right. Now just you take the advice of an old rounder. I've been through this festival racket. It doesn't pay. It gets people down on you and ruins your reputation. Short-cakes are frauds. You keep away from them. Don't go near cream. It's the worst thing-you can get mixel up with in war n weather. Just you wait until you see a feller with a big diamond on his shirt and a tombstone on his little finder shaking up some sherry and s:'gar in a glas -. Keep your vest on until you see him put on ..top of the sherry a piece of pineapple, a piece of lemon, a chip of orange, and a sprig of mint; and then you get right in among them and pass the summer in good society. You hear me twitter." Ig iornre In Hlsh Llf . iTcxris Sifting. "You have got a verv picturesque pa per," remarked an elegantly dressed young gentleman, looking over the shoulder of a man who was reading a copy of Texas Sittings. It is an actual fact, that the young man, although residing on Fifth avenue. New York city, was under the impres sion that a picturesque aper meant one that was full of pictures. This is almost as good as the story of the clergyman, who imagined that gar bage meant pretty much the same as garb, and who consequently rebuked the frivolity of the ladies whose dress or "garbage," as he put it, was too ex travagant. Dancer in lrnc. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. It is rightly observed that the great danger in rsiug narcotic .drugs lies in the fact that the dose taken to-night that will not give you -sleep, may to morrow night put you into a sleep from which you will never wake. As an old phyjician remarks, the real strength of a drug often depends as much upon the condition it finds you in as upon its own potency. Women Men Captains, Harper's Weekly. Mrs. Mary A. Miller is not the first woman who has served successfully as mistress of a ship. Mrs. Capt. Patten, of Bath,. Me., who while her husband was lying ill in his berth, navigated his ship around Cape Horn and up to San Francisco, although his timid first officer wanted to stop at Valparaiso for assistance; of Mrs. Capt. Abbie Clif ford, of the brig Abbie Clifford, who, after her husband had been washed overboard, brought the vessel safe into New York harbor from below the equator; of Mrs. Capt, Reed, of the Oakland, of Brunswick, Me., who was a practical navigator of celebrity, and of Miss Jenet Thorns, who often used to navigate her father's ship, who is now teaching a school of navigation in this city and who "was in part the author of Thorns Navigator, a book of au thority among mariners. These cases are all ox recent date, 'lo them The Leavenworth (Ean.) Times adds the case of Mrs. Capt. John Oliver Norton, of Edgar town, Mass. Her hus band commanded a whaling vessel, and she frequently went with him into the Arctic waters. On one of these expedi tions all the boats were out, leaving on board the captain and just enough of the crew to manage the vessel. A whale was noticed off to the starboard, and the captain and men were puzzled how to get it. It was the woman who solved the problem and settled the fate of his whaleship. Going to the wheel she prevailed upon her husband to leave the ship in her charge, with two dis abled men, while he and his men went after the whale. He did so. The woman managed the ship all day until nightfall, when the boats returned, that m command of her husband having cap tared the biggest whale ever seen in those waters. When the ship put in home the New Bedford owners made the "woman commander" a handsome present. The Might or One Man's Intellect. Emll Du Bois Raymond Siemens telegraph wires gird the earth, and the Siemens cable steamer Faraday is continually engaged in lay ing new ones. By the Siemens method has been solved the problem (by the side of which that of finding a noedle inv a hay stack is one of childish simplicity) ' of fishing out in the stormy ocean, from a depth comparable to that of the vale of Chamouni, the ends of a broken cab'e. Electrical resistance is measured by the Siemen mercury unit. "Siemens" is written on water meters, and Russian and German revenue officers are assisted by Siemens apparatus in levying their assessments. Lhe Siemens processes for g lding and silvering and the Sie mens anastatic printing mark stages in the development of thoee branches of industry. ' - Siemens differenLal regulators con trol the action of the steam engines that forge the English arms at Woolwich and that of the chronographs on which the transit of the stars is marked at Greenwich. The Siemens cast steel works and glass houses, with their re generated furnaces, are admired by all artisans. The Siemens electric light shines in assembly-rooms and public places, and the Siemens gas-light com petes with it; while the Siemens electro-culture in green-houses bids defi ance to our long winter nights, : The Siemens electric railway is destined to rule in cities and tunnels. The Siem ens electric - crucible, melting three pounds of platinum in twenty minutes, was a wonder of the Paris exposition, which might well have been called an exposition of Siemens' apparatus and productions, so prominent were they there. The Hollow Square In Warfare, New York Times. The "hollow square" formation that won the battle of El Teb is undoubt edly a formidable one in these days of long-range rifles, when the assailants can be exterminated long before they ever reach the bayonet points. But that infantry sin ares have been broken by cavalry on more than one occasion is now a matter of history. Authorities are still divided as to whether Victor Hugo was right in affirming or Siborne denying that the French heavy brigade drove in the face of a British square at Waterloo. But M on tb run's cuiras siers broke a Russian square at Boro- -dino in 1812, and Col. Caulaincourt's horse, in the same battte, actually charged into an intrenched redoubt. In the course of the Anglo-Arabian war that followed England's annexa tion of Aden, in 1K39, an English square was attacked in the open plain by a mass of Abdali horsemen. The Arabs forced their way in so far as to kill sev eral men in the third rank, and were then beaten off with bayonets and clubled muskets, an occurrence util ized by James Grant in one of his mili tary novels. The Irish brigade had a similar experience at Talavera. "So, my Connaught boys," said Gen. Picton to them after the battle, "you let the Frenchmen get into your Bquare to-day, did you?" "Well, your honor, an swered a brawny Irish grenadier, with stern significance, "the blackguards got in, sure enough, bat, bedad ! they never got out again." The Color Line In Liberia. Macon (Oa.) Telegraph. The tendency among the negroes is to draw the line between those of pure blood and mulattoes. They had trouble of this kind in Uayti, and it crops out here in tbe south to a greater or lesser extent during every political campaign. It has become the controlling issue in the politics of the republic of Liberia. The constitution of that republic erects a bar against all men of white blood. They cannot hold office and are re stricted in their rights of citizenship. The black negroes now propose to bar out the yellow ones. J. J. Roberts, Liberia's first presi dent and the George Washington of that country, was defeated when he last ran for office on the color issue. He was very fair, almost white, in fact, and a native of this country. The Liberians now have a black president, who is a native of Africa, and the mulattoes are given to understand that they are not wanted. Very few mulattoes can now be induced to go to Liberia, the dispo sition being to let Liberia be purely a black republic.
