The Columbian., November 28, 1884, Image 1

THE COLUMBIAN.
Published Every Friday-,
AT
ST. HELENS, COLUMBIA CO.. OR.,
BY '
. 0. AT) AO, Editor and Proprietor
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Published Every Friday,
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ST. HELENS, COLUMBIA CO., OIL,
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VOL. V.
ST. HELENS, COLUMBIA COUNTY, OREGON, NOVEMBER 28, 1884.
NO. 17.
TIimc months. " 50
THE COLUMBIAN.
TM'RT A W
unknown.
Oh. what can be the Klory of that land
That li-8 bevond our ken,
liy poet and by prophet vision scanned.
But baffling word and pen-
Since here within these lone, perfected days,
Which grace and beauty till.
Such clouds melt slowly in the sun s warm
rays.
Such shadows clothe each hill?
How can we picture aujrtat beyond more fair
The fraoxant breath of nine.
Incen?e from flowers that wave in Summei
air.
Lakes burdened with white lilies, hall
divine I
Can there be other, frrander skies unseen?
Khali there be no more sea.
With its wild sweep of waves, its changrefu!
. snecn
And strange, weird melody 1 -
Could we but break' the silence, and unveii
The world that lies so near,
"Would not 'AetPtsit prv wary tale
We would not pause to hear?
Ave, it is best, bnt still the asking- soul
Would fain send buoyant wings.
To know what death and change unroll.
And whence such glory springs!
The very breezes murmur of some home,
Curtained from mortal view.
And round our pleasant Summer dwellina
roam.
Our longing to renew !
Boston TrafiscripL,
METEORS.
Their Origin and Cinie Where to
Look for Xneni IIIlorleal Notices
of ftleteoritea.
Almost any clear night when the
moon is absent, a few meteors may be
seen shooting about through the sky.
They look like stars, and, with good
reason. are often called shooting stars.
It should be admitted that the real stars
are at very great and mostly unknown
distances, and in general, never appear
to move with respect to each other;
while meteors, or shooting stars, are
never seen outside of our atmosphere.
But they originally exist entirely out
side; being small solid bodies of metal
lic, or stony matter floating through
space, in orbits around the sun, like
planets. In this original form they are
called meteoroids. And when the earth
meets or passes near them they are at
tracted by the earth with great force
and enter the atmosphere with amaz
ing velocity, which develops heat so in
tense as to set them on tire, and they
burn with a most brilliant light, thus
giving them a star-like appearance.
Thev generally burn up and vanish
while thev are yet high up in the sky.
Their visible paths are often only a few
decrees lontr. Indeed on is nvisinn.
ally seen without any apparent motion,
because it moves right towards us.
Some of the larger ones burn longer,
with greater light, and leave a reddish
train behind them, which is the red-hot
ashes left streaming through the air,
and gradually disappears on cooling.
-Others, still larger, with a brilliant
light, nearly reach the earth, and are
called fire-balls. Some of these
- bodies --probak 1 -v .still - greater size-
fall to the urtb, and penetrate the
soil without being" entirely consumed.
Such bodies have been seen to fall and
taken up while they were still hot.
Others hae been heard and found be
fore they got cold. Such bodies are
called meteorites meteoric stones, and
sometimes aerolites stones from " the
air. Some are much smaller than one's
hand, others as large as a good-sized
rock, weighing several hundred pounds.
A very singular meteorite was found
many years ago near the village of Tuc
son," Arizona. It was removed to the
Smithsonian Institution, at YY ashington,
in November, 1863. Its form is that of a
ring, about four feet in diameter One
side is much thicker and heavier than
the other. Its weight is about fourteen
hundred pounds. Meteoric stones have
thus been deposited in many of the
world's museums, and are valuable
scientific curiosities.
Th.se minute planetary bodies wan
dering through space around the sun,
are much more numerous in some
places than others, occasionally form
ing a collective ring, in some parts of
which great numbers are met with.
And this accounts for the extraordinary
meteoric showers on record. I suppose
nearly everybody has heard of the won
derful meteoric shower which occurred
early in the morning of November 13,
1&J3. It seemed like all the stars of
heaven were increased in brightness
and falling-to the earth. The alarm
which it caused was very great. Wonder
how many people would be scared by
such an exhibition in these latter days!
A similar show, though not so great,
was witnessed in 179y just thirty-four
3 ears before; and another still less,
though very considerable, in exactly
thirty-three years afterwards, viz: No
vember 13, 18G6. But it wa3 much
more prominent in England than in
America.
Sometimes a large meteorord strikes
the atmosphere with such violence aa to
explode with a loud noise, and break in
several pieces, which fly along in their
eparate tracks. A noted example of
this kind was seen by many persons in
this State at nine o'clock in the evening
of December 21, 1876. When meteor
ites are analyzed and examined with a
microscope, they are found to be com
posed largely of iron, mixed with other
substance, all of which are known to
exist on the earth, but in different pro
portions of combinations. So that a
meteorite, as a mass, is different from
any other body we know of, although
of the same materials differently put to
gether. Besides the group of meteor
oids which the earth passes, or pene
trates, near the middle of November
each year, there is another which we
pass about the 10th of Augnst, when we
may expect that shooting stars will be
more numerous than they are in ordi
nary clear nights.
Observations for a number of years
show that the August meteors generally
move in a direction from north to south,
and by extending their paths northerly
they seem to meet in the constellation
Perseus, near the northeastern horizon.
This is called the radiant point, and the
August meteors are called Perseids.
The November meteors are called
Leonids, because their radiant point is in
Jeo. A Chinese record indicates the
fall of a great meteorite on January 14,
615 B. C, which "broke several chariots
ji.ii i.i: fii t'n men." Another chronicle
iiJ-uni". u-i that in the year 944 A. D.,
t- m of tin traversed the atmosphere
burnt tcveral houses." A shower
,c i :uvs fell at Rome in 343 B. C.
IV'-i'i. no other single meteorite
ever caused so great a "sensation,
o - ;reated so much interest in several
v;.s, as ono seen, to fall about noon in a
'.vhcat-iieid iiearEnsishcim.Gcrmany, on
November 7, 1192. A strange and loud
n ise was heard between eleven and
t velve in the morning over a considera
ble portion of !outhern Germany and
Switzerland, followed by a confused
roar, and the fall of a great stone from
the air. It was taken from a depth of
nearly six feet, and weighed two
hundred and sixty pounds.- This mete
orite was a theme of general conversa
tion for a long time. The Emperor
Maximilian talked with the nobles about
it, and they decided the occurrence to
be a wonderful miracle from God. The
stone was ordered to bo hung up in the
church at Ensisheim, not to be molested
by anyone.. But the Emperor must
have two pieces of it one for himself
and one for the JLmke ot Austria. - Many
peopla came to eoe the wonder and it
remained In .'the church for three
hundred vears. In the turmoil of the
French Revolution, 1790, it was re
moved to Colmar, for greater safety.
and afterward restored to its resting
place. A fragment of this interesting
relic has been secured and placed in
the British Museum, and one in the
Garden of Plants, Pari3-
On the 27th of November, 1627, Pierre
Gassendi, a noted astronomer, witnessed
the fall of an aerolite surrounded by a
halo of rainbow colors. It was in the
southeast corner of France, and the
stone wrighed fifty-nine pounds. He,
with others, then supposed it to have
come from a volcano, in 1 9o, ueeeni
ber 13, afternoon, a man plowing in a
field in the County of York, England,
heard a loud explosion, followed by a
hissing noise.- He looked and "saw a
stone falling, which went several feet
m the ground not far from where he
stood. Its weight was fifty-six pounds.
In Normandy, Northeastern France,
seen passing through the air with a
about one o'clock in the after
noon of the 26th of April,
1803, a very brilliant lire-ban was
rapid motion, and soon a violent explo
sion was heard, the sound of which was
prolonged fire or six minutes. Then
fell an immense number of mineral
fragments, of which about three thou
sand were picked up, manv of them
weighing several pounds, but none
more than seventeen. A stone weigh
ing nearly seven hundred pounds, and
about one thousand smaller ones, fell in
Hungary in 1866, and on April 20, 1876,
a mass of meteoric Liron. nearly eight
pounds, fell at llowton, England. The
fall of this meteorite was preceded by a
noise like thunder, tha shook the air
for manv miles. It occurred near four
o'clock in the afternoon, .and was quite
hot when dug from a depth of eighteen
inches an hour afterward. These are
only a few of numerous meteoric phe
nomena which have been observed at
different times in many parts of the
world. W. Dawson, in Indianapolis
Journal.
----- . --rlivWutr
At this time of uie 3"ear one commonly
reads of persons struck dead, blind or
senseless by lightning; some of the phe
nomena are very puzzling, especially in
cases where persons are Dut slightly in
jured. -
On June b, 18M1 was in the open
country near the sea between Gosport
anil Southampton, in a place where
there was no shelter. Here I was sud
denly overtaken by a violent storm of
thunder, lightning and rain. Before 1
had time to think of escape, tne air be
came darkened by the pouring rain, and
to save nryself from a drenching 1, per
haps foolishly, put up my umbrella; at
the same instant I saw a blaze of fire on
the right-hand side of my face; the thun
der burst the same moment, and a vio
lent wrenching pain seized the fingers
of my right hand (which held the um
brella), the pain instantly traveling to
my elbow and shoulder, where it ceased.
YY ith the exception of a strong pain in
the arm like rheumatism for the rest of
the day, I felt no further ill effects.
There is a blind beggar sometimes
seen about here who carries a label stat
ing that his eyes were destroyed by
lightning; there is no iris to either eye;
both are quite white. One day lately I
asked him bow he lost his sight. He
said that he was leaving a country pub
lic house during a thunder storm, and
he received the blow from the lightning
at the street door, as he stood on the
top of a short flight of stone steps.
He could only remember seeing, the
blaze of the lightning, and being hurled
to the ground down the steps into the
street. On his senses returning, he was
blind. He states that he had a little
glimmering sight at the time of recov
ery, but first one eye and then the other
soon became totally blind.
A few years ago several letters ap
peared in Nature regarding the descent
of balls of fire in thunder storms. On
July 5, 1881, while watching a storm
from my windows at 11:30 p. m., I dis
tinctly saw in the south a ball of fire
drop from the clouds to the earth. The
descent was rapid, but not comparable
with lightning, and with an inclination
to the east. The ball appeared large,
and about one-half or one-third the ap
parent size of the moon. A carpenter
who was working for me at the time,
Mr. George Hebb, on calling upon me a
few days after the storm, told me (I
had not previously mentioned the mas
ter to him) that he had seen the descent
of the saLae ball of fire from Mild may
park while he was walking toward the
south, It is the only example I have
seen. Worthing ton O. Smith, in Na
ture. A bright little fellow about eight
years of age was very anxious to go to
walk with his father. No," said the
"come along." On the way home the
little fellow became tired and wanted
his father to carry him. "I thought
you were a big boy," said his father,
pretending to sneer. "I was a big boy
when I started out," he said, Vbut
I'm a little boy now." He was carried
the rest of the way. Boston Globe.
It is har d work to be honest. Ev
erything worth having that is good or
sreat costs labor, enduranca and sacri
fice, and honesty is one of the charac
teristics that calls for this cost. Why,
then, should not honesty receive some
little encouragement thrqugh the
prjirpt punishment of those who offend
against it Ucston Commer. al Bulletin.
latter, "you can't go; you re too little."
"Oh, no, papa," he said stoutly, "I'm a
bir bov." "All riirht," said his father.
Kerguelen's Land.
In former years the Kerguelen group
of islands was noted as a favorite breed-
inrr-nlaee for the sea elephant. On this
account it has been much frequented by
sealers for the last forty years, and re
sorted to by whalers as a wintering
place The elephants have been so
recklessly killed, that they are now
.5,1 r 1
quite rare, Dut are sun iounu in con
siderable numbers on Hurd's Island.
Probably they would long ago have
entirely abandoned the - Kerguelen
Island, but for the single inaccessible
stretch of coast called "Bonfire Beach,"
where they still "haul up" in the
months of October and November, and
breed in considerable numbers This
beach is shut in by- precipitous clifls,
across which it is . quite .impossible to
transport oil in casks, nor can boats
land from the sea, or vessels lie at- an
cbor in the offing, on account of the
heavy western winds which prevail a
great part of the time. On capturing
a small female some scientists made
a careful examination of it with
this result: It was eight feet and ten
inrhpa lnnnr nnrl in mrth 5orht. fet. nnft
four inches, being enormously fat.. The
layer of fat, beneath the skin, was four
inches thick, and the body seemed al
most formless, and the fat quivered
like a jelly. Another specimen which
they killed, a bull elephant, measured
twenty-three .feet in length. These fel
lows, which alone are provided with a
proboscis, take charge of each, of a
large number of females, guarding them
from the approach of other bulls, and
prevent them from returning to the sea
before the jroung are old enough to do
so with safety. During the breeding
the bulls are very pugnacious, fighting
fiercely with each other, and even at
tacking the sealers themselves. Al
though seemingly so unwieldly, they get
over the beaches with surprising speed
advancing both flippers at a time and
using them like crutches. The beaches
of the Royal Sound are fringed by in
numerable wallows or cradle-shaped
pits, in which the animals lie'during
the breeding season, recalling the bul
falo wallows of our Western prairies.
Besides the sea elephantthe sea leop
ard often visits the island, as do several
species of seal. The leopard is hunted
for its oil, but is less valuable than the
elephant, being a much more active
animal, and therefore less heavily loaded
with KlnhVirr. The Li nr nfnriiin is said
to be its; favorite foo3, whTch speaks
well for the sea leopard's activity in
water, the penguin swimming rapidly
enough, of course, to catch the fish upon
which it feeds. The leopard is described
as pursuing and overtaking the penguin
under water, rising to the surface and
tossing it into the : ir, so as to catch it
more securely, crosswise, in its jaws.
It is also said that many species of
whale and porpoises abound in the
neighboring seas. . Jn, the early days of
whafingin the'TniF Ucanfhe Deso
lation Islands are said to have literally
swarmed with whales, for which the
numerous inlets and bays of the archi
pelago furnished secure . and sheltered
breeding places. Even now this region
is one of the best whale-fishing grounds
of the Antarctic Seas. N. Y. Observer.
The World's Great Bells.
Russia is in the lead in the line of
bells, some of her manufacture being
the most famous of the world. It is
said that in Moscow alone before the
great fire, there were no. fewer than
1,706 large bells. One called the giant.
which was cast in the sixteenth cen
tury, and broken by falling from its
support, and recast in 1654, was so large
that it required twenty-four men to ring
it; its weight was estimated at 288,000
pounds. It was suspended from an im
mense beam at the foot of a be. 1 tower,
but it again fell during the fire of June
19, 1707, and was a second time broken
to fragments, which were used with
different material in 1732 in casting the
King of Bells, still to be seen at Mos
cow. Some falling timber in the fire
of 1737 broke a piece from its side,
which has never been replaced. The
bell is estimated to weigh 443,732
pounds; it is 19 feet 3 inches high, and
measures round the margin 60 feet 9
inches. Its value iu metal alone is esti
mated to amount to upward of $400,
000. St. Ivan'3 also in Moscow, is 40
feet 9 inches in circumference, 16 feet
thick-, and weighs 127,830 pounds. The
bells of China rank next to those of
Russia in size. In Pekin there are seven
bells, each of which, according to
Father Le Compt, weighs 120,000
pounds. The weight of the leading
great bells of the world may be seen in
the following:
King- of Hells Moscow
St. 1 van's Moscow
Pekin :
...443,732
...127,830
.. 130,000
... 40,000
... 40,000
... 40,000
... 48,470
Vienna
Olmutz Bohemia
ltouen France
St. Paul's
llijr lien Westminster..
30,350
Montreal 28.5B0
8t. Peter'a-Rome 1,00
Boston Herald.
A Miserable Mao.
"Watch that trunk," said the driver
of a stage-coach to a negro passenger,
"and if it falls off, tell me."
"All right, sah."
The coach had gone quite a little dis
tance, when the driver, looking back,
asked:
"Is the trunk all right?"
"Doan' know, sah. It fell off."
"YVhat!"
"Fell off 'bout three miles back yan-
der."
"YY'hy in thunder didn't you tell me?"
"Didn't 'low datyer wuz iner hurry."
"I told you to tell me if it fell!"
"YVall, ain't I dun tole yer? Yer
didn't sav ter tell yer when it fell.
Clar' ter goodness de common white
folks is er gettin' so cuis dat er 'tclligent
pusson kam' hardly un'erstan' Vm.
Oh, I'll get off ef yer say so," proceed
ing to climb down. "Hab er tine time
er findin' dat trunk, er haw, haw. For
gets de time dat yer 'fused ter len' me
er quarter. Jnow yer s got dat trunk
ter pay fur, Law, haw. Say, genner
man, addressing a passenger, "wush
yer'd ban' down my baggage. Dat
ain't de one. De udder ono is it. No
tain't, I don't belebe. Fore de Lawd,
dat wuz my trunk whut fell off! Did
anybody eber see sich er caper? Er
hones' man ain't got no show. Dribe
on yer miserable trapshun, an1 let dis
miserable man d ie in de shade." Ar
kansaw Traveler, . -
EELIGIOCS AND EDUCATIONAL.
The strength of the church Jies not
in the oratory of the pulpit, but in the
oratory of the closet. Spurgeon.
The number of students in attend
ance at Boston University has steadily
Increased the past four years, the sum
maries Mng as follows: 505, 555, 591
and 610. Boston Journal.
The Alabama Baptist says that
there are in that State 1,284 Baptist
churches and. 850 ordaTned rui'nisters:
but 360 are unemployed on account of
the once-a-month system which is so
much in vogue there.
It is, of all things, not essential
that a school-boy or girl shall know the
various. marks by which to distinguish
the "a" in fat, far, fall or flainc, and
over which golden. time is sure to be
wasted. Philadelphia Public Ledger.
The school savings banks of
France have been wonderfully success
ful. In, 1879, five yearj after their
foundation, there were 10,440 schools
provided with such banks, and 224,200
depositors. The numbers have now
risen to 21,484 schools and 412,021 de
positors, t .
Last vear the women of the United
States gave 600,000 toward Christian
izing the. heathen. Of this large sum
Presbyterian women gave nearly $200,
000; Baptist women, " $156,000; Con-
fregatiohal women, $130,000; Northern
lethodist women, $108,000, and South
ern Methodist women over $25,000.
Chicago Herald.
During the past eighteen years, ac
cording to the Irish World, the Irish
Roman Catholics have contributed for
various church purposes houses of
worship, convents, colleges, schools,
etc. about $30,000,000. This includes
$2,500,000 paid to the Pope The Irish
are a poor people, and have given this
large sum out of their poverty.
It is safe to say that not more than
one-half the school population in the
South received an education covering
the school age. But, in addition to the
children, there are -1,354.974 males
twenty-one years of age and lipward
who are illiterate.-. Adding these to the
children who attended no school, we
have a grand total of 4,040,690 in the
South who at present have no adequate
educational advantages. N. Y. Herald.
The largest single contribution
made last year to the "missionary work
of the Protestant Episcopal Church was
from a Chinaman, Mr. Charles Ping
Lee, t.f Shanghai, who gave $5,000 to
S Luke's Hospital in that city. The
gi.t was made in recognition of the
noble work accomplished by the hos
pital for the suffering and distressed
among the countrymen of the donor as
truly a Christian work as that of min
istering to their spiritual necessities.
N. Y. Examiner.
Cape Town Diamonds.
- - -
J. "C. Silberbauer, of Cape Town,
in a recent interview said: YY'hen peo
ple tell you that the supply of dia
monds down our way is exhausted you
just take them to one side and whisner
in their ears the solemn fact that they
don't know as much about our business
as .they did last summer. Sabe? Our
diamond fields are situated in the mid
dle of the Great Desert. Now, I am
going to tell you something that will
surprise you. The leading diamond
mine and the one that furnishes most
of the diamond wealth, is nothing more
nor less than what do you suppose ?
the crater of an extinct volcano. This
mine since 1870 has riven
to the world
at least $100,000,000 worth
of dia
monds, and is still yielding at least
15,o:X),000 worth yearly. iSow 1 will
tell you something about the plan of
work in this volcanic diamond mine.
The interior of the extinct volcano is
filled with a sort of ashen substance
which is of the hardness of rock.
YY'ithin this the diamond are
imbedded. Thousands of crystals
exactly similar to diamonds are
embedded in the same snug quarters.
The mine is divided into hundreds of
claims and the crater has now . been
emptied to a depth of three hundred
feet. Experts have bored down to al
most endless depths, however, and re-
Kort the supply as practically inex
austible. As soon as this ashen sub
stance is loosened, hauled to the sur
face of the earth and exposed to the in
fluence of air or water it dissolves and
crumbles like sand, and the crystal and
precious stones lie in the grasp of the
speculator. To you, the crystals would
appear of equal value with the dia
monds, but an expert knows a great
deal better than that. He places stone
after stone between his lips, and the
precious treasure is easily selected and
carefully looked after. The secret of
the matter is not much of a secret when
you know that a diamond in its crude
state is velvety to the touch, while a
crystal is hard and unyielding. The
mouth of the diamond volcano is sur
rounded with mining machirery, mostly
of American manufacture. The work
men employed in the mines are entirely
naked, and their movements are
watched with iealous eye. The laws
have been made exceptionally severe
for the punishment of thieving miners
the penalty in most instances Deing long
years of service in the penal colonies but
this fact does not deter the poor devils
from taking their chances for winning
an immense fortune with a single stone.
Their hair is clipped to the scalp, they
are not allowed to wear beaids of any
sort, they are entirely naked, aro ex
amined critically upon leaving the
mine, and yet they steal millions.
How? I will tell you. They swallow
the shiners. You should see them gulp
i stone down in the face of the guards.
After recovering their plunder- the
thieves dispose of the stones to specu
lating Jews, who hang about the placo
like carrion crows. These receivers
also run a sreat risk from stringent
laws, but the great profit justiGes the
peril, lney generally buy a jpiu.uuu
stone for about $500. There are also
several mines in the desert beside the
crater mines, but they are small and
comparatively unimportant Our dia
monds all go to England in the rough,
but the United States buys more pure
diamonus of the first water te-day than
any other country upon earth. That's
news Tor you, my boys news. The j
Indies and Turkey are great markets
for off color stones. the nabobs setting
them in sword and dairsrer - hilts. Our
gold fields north of the Transvaal are
also assuming proportions of real com-
Tempered Glass.
Tt.5a nnt. tato lrmr inrp the discoverv
of M. Alfred de la Bastie filled all our
newspapers with paragraphs, more or
jews ridiculous, about the properties of
pis glass. Some claimed it was mane
able; others that it could not be bro
ken. In fact, tempered glass was to
supersede all other materials. The ex
citement being over, tempered glass;
may now take its rank among valuable
inventions, subject, however, to; many
defects in its present state. :
The process of tempering glass, as is
wen Known, consists in ueauug a p-iece
of glass, sav a window pane, to such a
degree as to approach malleabilty, but
not hot enough to lose its shape; the
glass in this state is instantly plunged
nto a bath composed of fatty and res
inous matter, which, is heated and main
tained liquid at a temperature ranging.
from three hundred to six nundred de
grees, according to the quality of the
glass, lhe dinerence oi temperature
between the malleable state, i about
1,400 degrees, and that of the bath conr
fetitutes the temper.
Glass in the plastic1 .state,, when
plunged into cold water, will ; fly to
pieces if dropped indiscriminately, but
ii a piece oi nuiu glass is anoweu u iau
into water in tne shape ot a tear or drop.
it will be perceived that the outside of
the glass cools at once, while the inside
remains partly fluid for some time, as
can be distinguished by the red color
Showing through the water, lhis cool
ing will continue until the mass is per
fectly solid. 1 his indicates that the
outside layer becomes at once con
densed bv cooliner, while the in
side remains , fluid and consequently
more distended. This cooling process
goes on, the outside laver compressing
the next adjoining, until the whole mass
is thoroughly cooled. tThis peculiar
form and state of glass is . known as
Prince Rupert's drops. - Though a hard
blow may be struck upon the thick part
of these drops, it has no perceptible ef
fect, but if the thin tail end is ruptured
the whole mass instantly flies to pieces.
The glass appears to be under a great
state of tension, and the least rupture of
the equilibrium, such as the breaking of
the slender thread terminating the drop,
is sufficient to destroy the mass.
Until thediscovery of tempered glass
by M. de la Bastie, it had always been
considered that unless a lamp chimney
or any other piece of glass was perfectly
annealed, differences of temperature
brought on suddenly would invariably
cause a breakage. The Bastie glass
would seeni to prove this view to be er
roneous, as the tempered glass can sus-
.tain sudden and extreme changes of
temperature without breaking. Molten
lead has been poured into a glass bowl
"or tumbler without producing a frac
ture. A piece of plate glass , tempered
by the Bastie process, having . been
heated among oals, was suddenly
plunged into cold water without pro
ducing any effect. This experiment,
repeated five times in succession, did
not seem to impair the qualities of the
glass, for on" dropping it from a
fifth story window it did not break. It
may be said, however, that if in the
heating the temperature should reach
. ' ' i - i . 1 1 i 1
ine. point at wnicn it wouiu ue an
nealed, the temper would be destroyed..
This action does not seeni to take place
when the period of reheating is not con
tinued too long. A plate of glass 6
by 4J inches and three-sixteenths
inch thick could only be broken under
the shock of a weight of seven 'ounces
falling thirteen feet, while an ordinary
piece of glass of the same dimensions
would break under half of that weight
falling about sixteen inches.
M. Siemens, of Dresden, says that
the strength of glass is increased fifty
times by being tempered. A bent plate
of glass laid upon the floor, the convex
side upward, is capable of resisting the
weight of an ordinary sized man with
out breaking. The glass while subjected
to the weight will flatten out, but as
soon as the pressure is removed it will
spring back to its original shape.
Hardened glass seems to be less dense
than ordinary glass; it is harder, how
ever, and is more difficult to cut by the
diamond and tempered tools; it also
possesses a much superior elasticity
over the ordinary glass. .
Since tempered glass, however, can
not be cut with the diamond without
flying to pieces, its use must necessarily
be limited to definite sizes not re-
auiring to be modified; this is quite a
rawback to its use. It would seem,
however, that some of the defects have
already been overcome, for at the Paris
Exposition quite a display of tem
pered goods was made by the Societe
Anonyme du Verre Trempe, of Paris.
Among other things was quite a display
of druggists' and chemical glassware,
mortars, pestles, beakers, ; covered
bowls, funnels; also a variety of plain
and cut glass tumblers, goblets, de
canters, globes and chimneys; opal
plates; a depolished bowl with cut
facets, colored glass, engraved, cut,
etc. It is said that the making of ar
ticles varying in thickness is hazardous,
as many of them are apt to fly to pieces
either in the making or cutting. Glass
ware reporter.
Prospecting. "
"Come in," said the fourth floor
lawyer as the boy rapped on the door.
"Say, mister!
"Well?"
"Are you going to burn coal this win
ter?" "I may."
"Thenou'll have to buy some."
"Perhaps."
"And you'll have to have it carried
up." !
"Shouldn't wonder."
"And I'd like the iob."
The lawyer locked his hands back of
his head and looked out of the window
for a long time without a word in reply.
The boy put in his time looking around
the room, and when the silence had be
come painful he said:
"Well, good-bye. If you get a case
this fall, and get any money, and buy
any coal, and don't want to carry it up
yourself after dark, I'd like the job.
You can remember I'm the boy who
snoke to you. I've got red hair and two
boils on my leg, and I feel awful sorry
for poor folks. Detroit Free Press.
Geological examination reveals
that in the delta of - the Mississippi,
a!ong the distance of three hundred
miles, ten distinct forests are buried.
Tltc Mechanic.
A man who is thorough master - of a
trade carries his capital in his head.
He is independent, and should be self-reliant.-
as his services will always be in
requisition, unless, . perchance; he has
drifted into seme section of the world
where trade and manufacture are in a
state of decadence. It may be air ex
cellent thing to endow a youth with a
splendid education, but often We find
such young men failures in a business
way. But th.?re is no" excuse for a first
class mechanic or engineer ever being
found in such an unfortunate plight.
The man possessing a good scientific or.
mechanical education who can not
make his way successfully-through life
must be composed of very poor materi
al. The good mechanic needs no gold
en ladder to aid him in rising to success,
nor is there occasion for his reliance- xu
social standing, or on the good offices
of influential friends to open a path to
fortune.' Indeed, instead of seeking for
fr'ends they will seek him. An expert
galvanizer a few weeks since was thrown
out of employment, and scarcely had
the doors of his mill been " closed ere
there came. a telegram from a mill 1,000
m les away urgently requesting his serv
ices there. A representative of an
extensive manufactory, in speaking of
good mechanics recently, said: "YVe
still have dificulty in obtaining all the
export help' we need. This matter
sometimes assumes a serious aspect, and
we fear often that we can not run our
works to their best advantage for lack of
the proper assistance.' -
YY'e here speak of the higher grade of
workmen of men who are proficient
and who have mastered their "calling;
but mechanics who have not risen to
eminence, but havo acquired a good
reputation,, are in most favorable posi
tions, far better than the horde of ill
paid clerks, salesmen and collectors,
who have chosen a calling that will
save them from begriming their hands
with dirt and permitting them to wear
good clothes. The Boston Commercial
jiulletin,in speaking of the importance
of the position of the mechanic, very
forcibly remarks:'
"Each ensuing day makes more
.prominent the fact that, we have come
upon, the time when the mechanic is
master. YY'e have -crowded professions
and ill-filled trades. "A chance to fill
the position of sub-assistant clerk in a
wholesale house is eagerly grasped at
by a hundred applicants, though the
wages received be scarcely more than
a chance to learn the business. Let
a master workman try to obtain an ap
prentice at three times the salary offered
the clerk, and his applicants will be
poor alike in quantity and quality. -A
skilled workman in any trade need
never want for hire; he is eagerly sought
after by a hundred employers; he is inde
pendent of the condition of the market;
the skill and cunning of -his hand and
eye are too valuable to lose, and must
be paid whether the products are slow
ly or rapidly consumed. If business
ceases, the master hand is eagerly seized
by some rival house, which Knows and
values the product of his skill. He who
would crush down the obstacles to suc
cess in our own days must have as
well as the wit to see the crevice, the
strength to deal the blow. This is an
ago of the steam-engine, s,nd it is the
engineer, not the conductor, who is
master."
The m?n who can do a piece of exact
mechanical work, or who can invent a
successful working machine or plan its
erection, is a valuable member of society.
He is a producer, and the world is both
richer and better for his presence. His.
calling demands a fine development of
intellectual thought, and, although the
mental conception requisite to do a fine
Pit of mechanical work may not be of
the same high order as that required of
a sculptor or painter, vet it is of a high
degree of merit, and may equal, in
special circumstances, the efforts of the
best artist in any of the various schools.
It is a narrow-minded man who , de
spises the mechanic because of the sur
roundings of his labor. Those who
look down on him are generally men of
inferior intelligence, who possess a poor
conception of what is worthy of admi
ration, and whose esteem, would be of
little credit to any one. Jewelers Jour
nal. According to the annual police re
port of England, recently issued, 12,411
children under ten years of age were
lost in that country last year. Only six
were recovered.
The Southern darkey has a belief
that anointing the eyes of a shying
horse with water in which a chameleon
ha? been boiled, will cure the horse of
the bad .habit. Louisville Courier
Journal.
.w'ome of the cleverest detectives in
New York are women. They are ql
the di erent types of beauty and mind
calculated to gain this or that man's
conlldence and learn his secrets. N. Y.
Herald.
Two little boys planted a third,
standing, in the sand on the beach at
Long Branch so effectually that when
the tide came up they couldn't get him
out. and but for timely aid he would
have drowned. -.N. Y. Sun.
The bonnet of the day is described
as a handful of beads and the business
end of a feather. This is a better bon
net than that of last season, which re
sembled an embroidered dishrag.
Chicago Inter Ocean.
"It was amicably arranged, re
plied the Texas gentleman to the Coro
ner. "I called him a liar, and he de
manded an apology with a six-shooter.'
"And did you make one?" asked the
Coroner, "I did, sir." "YVas it ac
cepted?" "Yes, sir.' "How was it
then that you shot him?" "I bad to do
so to make him understand my apol
ogy. Texas Sittings.
L. H. Lardner, Secretary of the
New Orleans YY'ater Works Company,
claims to have clarified a great reser
voir of Mississippi River water con
taining 12,750,000 gallons in twelve
hou rs, at a cost of one cent, per 100
gallons, by continuously pouring into
tne stream oi water running into tne
reservoir a solution oi iron. is. v.
2'imcs. j
--Farieon, the novelist, might have
made a sequel to his "Bread and Cheese
and Kisses 'out of the Dayton romance
where a young married man kept his
bride in a cage and fed her with bread,
bologna sausage and kisse3. The revolt
of the wife took all the romance out of
the story, but that would not - spoil it
for an expert novelist. Cleveland
Herald.'
Dwarfs of Olden Times.
The most famous dwarf of olden times
was.. Philetas, who lived in Egypt
three hundred vears before Christ.'
lYVhen a grown man he was so small and
light that he dared not go out of door9
' , . i i i . : u : .
wiinoui naving leau weiguis iu
pockets lest he should be blown away.
An4 vof hawua ti orront rmet. anrl BOWISft
TWV ..X . ' JP v jv, - -
And learned anil trustworthy that ho
was chosen by the King, Ptolemy fcoter,
to direct the studies of his son Pbiladcl
phus, the heir to the throne. How
qneer it must have seemed to the yeung
Prince to have such a mite for a teacher!
.' Writers of that long-ago time say that
there was once a whole tribe of dwarfs
living in India; and that they rode about
on sheep and goats, and cut down the
corn with axes as if the corn-field were
a . jrreat forest Every . winter whole
Hocks of cranes those tall birds with,
long beaks used to fly to India from
colder lands, and the dwarfs .were fond
of picking up the birds' feathers, and
whatwas worse, of stealing their eggs.
This made the cranes very angry, so
that they attacked the robbers, and as
the dwarfs would not run away, there
was a terrible battle, where, Addison
says,
Hijrb in the midst, the chieftain dwaif was
sen:
Full twenty inches tall he strode along1.
But he was killed, and so were all his
little soldiers, and that was the end of
the dwarf nation.
This sounds rather like a fairy-tale,
and perhaps it is not all true, but at
the same time it is not impossible that a
very small race of people lived long
ago, indeed their bones have been found
buried in the ground in many different
countries.
YVhole acres of land in the State, of
Tennessee are thought to have been the
burying grounds of a pigmy race that
must have lived before the red Indian.
It is said that about fifty years ago some
one accidentally discovered there hun
dreds ' of little skeletons under the
ground, the largest not more than nine
teen inches loDg, and people knew by
the shape of the teeth that these were
ai i i t ri.
me sKeieiOus oi grown-up persons, x no
coffins were made of four rough, flat
stones, and were all placed in regular
rows, about two feet down in the earth,
the little people lying on their backs,
their arms crossed on their breasts, and
each one holding a sort of small stone
iug; one of these skeletons wore a neck
lace made of ninety-four pearl beads.
and at a short distance from the burial
place were found the ruins of what
eemed to have been a very old town.
YVhether this account is authentic, I
cannot say. Dwarf-graves have also
been found in Central America, and
in some parts of Europe and Asia; and
on an island near Scotland, called the
Isle of Pigmies, is an old mined chapel.
In whose small vault a ptf'nr folk is found.
Whose bones the delver Vun his spade up
throws. ......
In the time of the Roman Empire it
was the custom for rich people to buy
dwarfs and keep them for pets. Julia,
the niece of Ciesar Augustus, had a lit
tle favorite named Conopas, and a hand
maiden, Andromeda, each of whom was
only "two feet and a hand breadth high."
Augustus himself was .very fond of
dwarfs, and used to send to all parts of
the world for them; but he would not
have - any excepting those who. wero
well-shaped, handsome and lively. He
and his little pets used to play together
in the palace; while listening to their
pretty prattling the great Emperor for
got his worldly cares. The Romans had
a cruel practice of making dwarfs by
keeping young babies in wooden boxes
to prevent their growing; and by the
time the poor little creatures were a
few years old they were worth a great
deal of money."
In Egvpt and Persia and Turkey, pet
dwarfs Lad been kept from the. very
earliest times, and from those countries
the fashion spread to Europe. In the!
city of Mantua, in Italy, there is in thqj
Duke's palace a suite of six very small
rooms with ceilings so low that a tall
man cannot stand up under them; two
tiny staircases led to these rooms, which
are said to have been built for the
Duke's dwarfs to live in. YYrilliam.
Duke of Normandy, the conqueror of
England, had dwarf-pages, and it was
the fashion among his nobles to have as
many of these little creatures as they
could get to wait on them and lead
their horses in grand processions.
Wide Awake.
The Dance of the Onondaga.
At nine o'clock a tocsin was sounded,
and ten minutes latef the redskins were
assembled in the Council House. Fires
were lighted on the hearths, and boil
ers of green corn and beans wero set
steaming. Chief YY'cbster, with un
coveredTiead, addressed the people. Ha
said: "Driven from his native hunting-
grounds by the white man, yet the' In
ian has his freedom and plenty of
beans, corn, and squash. When we
'eat these to-day, we should thank the
Great Spirit for them, and reniembec
the brave deeds of our forefathers.
Every true red man will remember the
traditions of our forefathers, and take
part in these ceremonies. YY'hilo we
give thanks for a full harvest, we must
not forget the kindness of the Great
Spirit the last year, but bo better In
dians than ever before. Love your tra
ditions, be brave like your miglitv fore
fathers, and you will be good Indians. "
Then followed the green-corn dance.
The dance continued for an hourjtnd
the perspiration stood in great drops on
the brows of the dancers. A song was
then chanted, and after an intermission
of ten minutes the dancing was resumed.
The Indians, frem the oldest to the
youngest, indulged, in this ancient cus
tom, and shouted and jumped in glee.
The gay. and fantastic costumes, the
weirtt strains of the music, and the
varied and grotesque figures of tho
dance reminded one forcibly that a dis
tinct civilization is in our midst. At
noon the big mess of maize and beans
was distributed among the Indians, who
had brought pails for that purpose, and
they took it home for private feasts. A
harvest dance, iastlng lour days, win
be held at the reservation when the corn
is cut and gathered. Syracuse Courier.
It is a mistake that Santa Anna
left Mexico a poor man. . If o f arried
into rxile in th Yrst Indian rrm f
fortune, spent thousands co k fight nr
1 1 .1,4... , .
anu gaiuDiing, arm ieii, n-g widow rich.
.fi lianapolis Journa'. , '