The Columbian., December 03, 1885, Image 1

THE COLUMBIAN.
Published Evekt Thcrsdat
AT
Colombia County, Oregon,
THE COLUMBIAN.
V
1
Published Every Thursday
AT-
v4 J
T. HELENS,
Columbia County, Orecon.
E. G. ADAMS, -
AB. ADAMS, - - -
- - - Editor
Associate Editor
E. G. AD A1IS,
1 Editor
- Associate Editor
VOL. VI.
ST. HELENS, COLUMBIA COUNTY, OREGON, DECEMBER 3, 1885.
NO. 13.
A. E ADAMS,
IE
JJJL2
LATE NEWS SUMMARY.
I'Hftnr t'ot. Kumtrrn atid Foreign.
Elizur. Wright, the noted Abolition
ist, is dead.
The casting of a 54-ton guu at Bos
ton, was $ failure.
Several cases of yellow fever are re
ported to exist at Galveston, Texas.
Less than 30J claims now remain
lefore the Court of Alabama Claims.
Farmers in the vicinity of Eureka,
Cal., are using salmonto fertilize their
land.
The Austrian Minister to the United
States has been retired by his Govern
ment. At Chieago, Samuel It. Smith shot
and killed his young wife. Cause,
jealousy.
Alfonso, King of Spain, is dead.
His successor to the throne " is his
daughter, aged rive years.
G. W. Stripe, of Sprague, W. T., fell
across the railroad track and was cut
in two by a passing train.
At New York city Mrs. Albert Fritz
killed her two children and herself
with evanide of potassium.
Thirteen persons were killed and fif
teen injured, by an explosion in a coal
mine at Kechitza, Hungary.
The cattle shipments of Montana for
1SS3 will amount to some 80,000 head,
worth in Chicago $4,000,000.
Vice-President Hendricks died sud
denly at his home in Indianapolis,
Ind., of paralysis of the brain.
A night watchman at Woodland,
Cal., lias been sent to jail for sixty
days for the theft of a turkey.
Ex-Mayor Bowman, of East St.
Louis, 111., was shot and killed at his
own door by an unknown assassin.
The use of natural gas in Pittsburg
as a substitute for coal, daily displaces
from 8,000 to 10,000 tons of that pro
duct. A new Emancipation act has been
introduced in the Brazilian Parliament
favoring an early liberation of the
slaves.
A man who drove a team sixty miles
near Selma, Or., without giving them
food or water, has been sent to jail for
140 days.
Three thousand workmen in the
slate works at Llanberris, a village in
Carnarvonshire. Wales. haVfi been
locked out.
In Lvon countv. Nev.. fislvtliat live
underground have been fomd which
have no eves and have asoft fur in
stead of scales.
A boat containing a whole family,
consisting of father, mother and son,
capsized in the St. Lawrence river and
all were drowned.
At Sparta, Ga., Amanda Dixon,
colored, was successful in her suit for
the propert v of the late David Dixon,
valued at $500,000.
The accidental upsetting of a kero
sine lamp in a tenement house at New
York, caused the death of a woman
and her two children.
L. Sommerfield shot and instantly
killed his wife and her paramour, Got
tleib Eisenbaum, in the latter's saloon
at Washington, D. C.
A highwayman named Charles Col
lins, attempted to rob' the moaey-box
of a street-car in Omaha, when the
driver shot him dead.
The West Shore Railroad was sold
under foreclosure to J. P. Morgan,
Cliauncey M. Depew and Ashbell
Green for $22,000,000.
At Vallejo, Cal., Michael Keefe, in
a tit of jealousy, shot his wife, killing
lior almost ins'tantly. He then shot
himself, but not fatally.
Dr. Wm. Frotheringham, one of the
iK'st-kuown physician in New York
City, committed suicide by shooting
himself th rough the head.
The citizen of Benton, M. T., have
offered a bonus of $100,000 to aid in
the construction of a branch of the Ca
nadian Pacific to that place.
S. C. Blake, a stationer of San Fran
cisco, committed suicide by cutting
his throat with a razor and jumping
from his room to the sidewalk.
Henry W. Sage has given $60,000
to endow a Professorship of Ethics and
Moral Philosophy in Cornell Univer
sity, in memory of his late wife.
An explosion occurred at the Phila
delphia Lubric Works. Thirteen men
were seriously burned. One man was
instantly killed and four others can
not recover.
Mrs. lihoda Howard died in Bath
county. Kentucky, aged 11G. She
smoked tobacco during the greater por-
i
tion of her life, and never toot a aose
of medicine.
At Truckee, Cal., recently, hundreds
of angle worms were seen crawling
about on top of the snow, seemingly
having been dropped from the sky
during a storm.
Engineers and firemen on the Rock
Tbmd rond renort seeinz apparitions
and hearing groans at the tunnel near
La Salle, where no less tlian iorty per
sons have lost their lives.
Mrs. L. M. Wilson, Superintendent
of Public Schools at Des Moines, Iowa,
has under her charge eight buildings,
eighty teachers and about 4,wJ pupus.
Her salary is $1,800 a year.
imrintr the recent ereat storm on
the Atlantic coast, the tide at New
York City rose three feet higher than
befnrft known. The first floor of
many buildings were Hooded.
At Damascus, Ohio, Col. Joseph
Bruff killed himself on the grave of
his son because of financial embarrass
ment. He was GO years of age, and
left a wife and grown-up lamiiy
A monument erected in honor of
Edward Kelly, the Irish leader sen
fenced to bantred. drawn and quar
tered in 1867, has been unveiled at
Mount Hope cemetery, Boston
THEN AND NOW.
XVe laujrhod to see the whirling snow
Aii'l hetir the rajr:n- temjest. blow;
We reeked not oi the icy blast.
Nor how ihe storm tune wild and fast
Our hearts had sunny weather;
Nor snow, nor hail, uor wild winds' moan,
Could chill the jrlow around them thrown.
For then we were together.
O, sweetest word together!
I tread. In golden summer hours,
A pathway through a land of flowers,
IW-neath tho blue of peaceful skies.
With weary feet and tear 1 mined eyes;
I -are no lon-rer whether
The Iavs be bright or dark, nor how
The louolv time goes by. for now
We walk no more together,
Ah, nwveruiorc together.
Amut K. Uowaer, in Current.
CLIMBING A VOLCANO.
One of tho Five Active Craters in
Costa Rica.
A Graphic Description of a Perilous Ad
venture A Crater Never Examined
by Sciential Iacitlctita' and
Accidents.
There arc five active volcanoes in
CosLa R'ca, according to the geography;
Irazu, which is 11, oil) feet h gh; Tnr
rialba, which is 10,350; Poas, DeBarba,
wd Mirrava'ee-?. wlfch have not Leon
measure 1. and several smaller, ones
whose craters have shown evidence of
former activity, but have emitted
nothing since the memory of man. To
be crms'dered active a volcano docs not
have to keep belching out lire and smoke
all the time, for they must have vaea
t ons I ke the rest of us; but an extinct
one is that whoso crater has been per
mitted to fill up with debris and never
shows s'gns of life.
Not having had the advantage of vol
canic acquaintance, and being ambi
tious to look into the crater's mouth, I
determined to explore Irazu. and in
company with Air. II. liemen Wh te
hoine. Secretary of the United Slates
Legation in Central America. I made
the ascent.
It was an experience which will never
be forgotten, but which one would not
care to repeat. You can not go to the
summit of Irazu in a ra 'I way car 1 ke
Vesuvius, and no one has ever taken
the trouble to build a carriage road,
therefore the journey is not recom
mended to ladies.- invalids, or tirn.d
men; and one such trip will do the most
ncrveful for a met. me.
We followed up a cart road, thick
with dust for a few miles, then entered
the cornfields and rode through them
for several hours, stopping at the cabin
of a native lo get corn for our horses
and a cup of coffee for ourselves.
This was the last house on the moun
tain, and leaving it we went through a
pasture and struck into a forest as dense
as a fotest -can.Jba-. There-- was a pood
moon and it lit up the tree tops with a
weird and fantastic light, while the
great festoons of moss wiiich hung from
the branches and almost obscured our
way were almost livid where the rays of
moonlight struck them. The trunks
and limbs of the trees were covered
with thick, yellow lichens, which were
as fine as ba r, and hung like the beard
of a patr'arch. The trees, too, were
loaded with orchids, that rare plant so
much prized by botanists, and sought
iiere by collectors from all over the
world. Dead trunks covered with moss
that seemed almost phosphorescent
atoe like phantoms in our way. Huge,
(horny cacti, like the candelabra of
giants, were on every s:de. while the
dense growth of underbrush made it
almost impossible for the horses to push
through.
Through th:s we kept climbing until
the horses were exhausted and the moon
went down. For some inscrutable
reason, but really for no reason
wi.a'evor, it is cons'dered best to
make the climb in the n:ght. but we
coildnt go any further, so a fire was
i)u'lt, the animals were unsaddled and
g ven their supper; we swung our ham
mocks in the trees and wrapping our
selves in blankets lay down to pleasant
di earns.
The blazing fire fr'ghtened the ani
mals of the forest, and all around us
we could hear the protests of the tiger,
whose crv is like that of a child. Now
and then the de-pcr tones of the moun
tain lion could be distinguished, but
they were more frightened than we, for
the lire was a terror to them, as it was
a comfort lo us, the altitude being some
thing more than 9,000 feet and tlie tem
perature forty Farenheit. The birds
chattered and" gossiped, being awak
ened by ti:e unusual light and disturb
ance in their solitude. There was little
-!eop for any of us, as the s'tuat'on was
weird. and the noises our advent
awakened so strange to our ears. At
. :',') we were to le called and cont'nue
ihe ascent so as to reach the top of the
m unta n by sunr s-i. We were all
awake long before the time, and
leaving the hammocks hanging, and
str'pping ourselves of every possible
eiifii nlrance except overcoat and
food, we were in the saddle
rom::tly and followed the guide as he
p'tinied into a darkless that could be
cut with a kn'fe. There is darkness
and darkness, but that we encountered
ri that tropical forest was double-dyed.
We might as well have beeu blindfolded
in a Voliin at the bottom of a grave.
There was a path, a trail among the
trees, bti! t!ie guide couldn't follow it
.) horseback, so he dismounted and
iVlt for it with his feet. They failed
and he crept a'ong on his hands and
knees, and that method of locomotion
eing rather unsatisfactory, he lit a
candle he had. in his pocket and plodded
along.
The path went zigzag up the moun
tain side. 1 kethe trail of a goat. It ran
a fe.v hundred feet on the bias at a
rra luof about forty-live degrees, and
lhe:i reversing ran up about the same
grad! and distance in the other direc
f o-j, presenting a series of acute angles
i ke an enormous rail-fence. Just as
lr. Whiiehouse was turning one of
these Co tiers, where the slope of the
moiifta'n side was almost perpendicu
lar, his horse stepped upon a rotten log,
which concluded to roll down the preci-
e, and he and It's horse went too.
Nobody saw this decidedly novel acro
bat' c adventure. It was too dark to see
.our hand before your face; we were
creeping along, feeling our way step by
t-tep, with arms outstretched to pre .-eat
contact between the trees and our
heads.
After making what may be called
cursorv examination of the surround-
ings. Mr. Whitehouse clambered up the
bank, where a council of war was held,
and it was determined to postpone fur
ther operations on that line unt 1 day
light. So we sat down around a fire
and discussed things until the I ght
began to filter through the forest. Then
the climb was resumed and we got out
of the woods just in time to see the sun
rise out of what looked like a world full
of soapsuds. The mountain rose like
an island in a shoreless sea of clouds,
great banks of foamy vapor rolling and
plunging in thewind that always rises
with the dawn as the surf does on the
shoals. It was a picture one does not
often see, and there are no words in my
vocabulary that will convey an adequate
idea of its appearance. If one could
fill the world with foam like that which
hovers over the foot of Niagara Falls it
would look something like it.
The wind was bitter cold, and . it
swept over the volcano with a fierceness
that penetrated our very bones, but the
sun's rays were hot and p'ercing. and
soon burned out the clouds, in which
the wind assisted, and the picture
turned into a scenic panorama which
has few equals in the world, Below us
was spread out all Costa lliea, and the
surf fringed shore of two oceans. Sky,
sea and lands were one vast rainbow,
nvngling tints of blue and green, and
and the most unpoetic eyes could not
behold it without awe and wonder.
Mountains seemed to hang in the air
as the clouds surrounded them, long
lines of unbroken forest stretched
away into a mirage which seemed to
show the earth inverted, the fields of
sugar-cane, a brilliant, livid green,
looked like strings of gigantic emeralds
on the earth's bosom, wliile the yellow
fields of corn, half harvested, resembled
sand hills, rolling and weltering under
the tropic sun. Here and there were
clusters of houses, with wlrte churches
rising in their midst, and streams link
ing them together like silver bands.
Far oft" on the horizon, which sur
rounded the picture like a circular
frame, it was difficult to tell where the
sky and the ocean met. their colors
blending imperceptibly. We would not
have known the two seas were there
had not the expectation of a view of both
the Atlantic and the Pacific from the
same point been one of tho objects of
the climb, this bein the only spot in
the world from which both oceans are
visible. The guide said ho could dis
tinguish the sky from the water, but I
could not, and only knew that the seas
were there because the lines where the
dark, green forests ended and the blue
began were broken and irregular.
Following the crest of a ridge of
pumice stone and ashes, which had
been thrown out in ages past, and were
as regularly piled as if the hands of men
had dumped them there, we looked
down, on one side Ipto a gorge three
thousand feet deep, to the foot of which
a stone would roll without meeting an
impediment; and on the other into a
basin formed by the mountain side, and
the heaps of ashes that lay in a regular
winrow around it a basin about live
hundred feet deep and quarter of a mile
across from the top of one bank to the
top of the other. The bottom was
honey-ombed with craters, where it
looked as f the earth had broken through
in irregular circles. There were seven
or eight of these craters, some of them
centuries old. the last and largest having
opened within the memory of living
men. The older ones were black and
half filled with ashes cast from those of
later origin, while "the new one'' a3 it
is called perhaps a quarter of a centu
ry old was bottomless as far as we
could see, and its walls were yellow with
sulphur and white with half-burned
limestone. It was dangerous to go near
the edge for the banks are concave,
and thin crusts of earth reach over
them; but we cast huge stones over and
heard them str.ke the sides of the crater
as tiiey went down into an abvss which
man has never measured, flow long
they were in reaching the bottom and
what they found when they got there
would be interesting to know, but this
volcano has never been scientifically ex
amined, and very few people have ever
been to the crater's edge.
We were glad we went while we were
dawn there, but were sorry when we
Tried to go back, for the walls at the
basin are loose ashes, light and flinty,
and our feet snnk into them almost to
the knees. It was fun com ng down,
sliding and leaping into the soft sub
stance but going up it was a task that
at times seemed to be beyond endur
ance. The ashes were fresh and er'sp,
and there was no sign of vegetation for
a distance of a thousand feet or more
down the outside bank, against which
the wind was constantly blowing,
and where one would think it would
lodge dust and seeds from the
forests: so near and so numerous. The
wall of ashes arose at least .100. and in
some places GOO feet, around the crater.
We not ced a very marked o lor of sul
phtir in the crater while we were there,
and our guide, who crawled close to
the edge, reported vapor com'ug from
the bottom, but the rest of us could not
perceive it. There were many evidences
of recent discharges, however, one of
the most pronounced being the pres
ence of flakes of sulphur on the ground,
which must have been deposited there
since the last rainfall.
It is the prevailing theory anion"
local amateur scientists that tlie five act
ive volcanoes of Costa R:ca are con
nected by underground passages, and
are all chimneys of the same terrestrial
furnace; that more than one is seldom
active, but that at least one is always in
a state of erupfon, as an escape for gas
and vapors from the subterranean fires,
that it is universally the rule for earth
quakes of great force to follow a sup
pression of activity in all of them, and a
sense of relief always prevails when the
discharges are heavy and frequent. Hut
while the interruption of activity is im
med ately succeeded by upheavals else
where, earthquakes are fietjuentlv felt,
though not in such force, while tlie vol
canoes are active. This is accounted
for by the fact that gas is not emitted as
fast as it accumulates, and that when it
gathers in quantities sufficient to reach
the sparks from the subterranean fires;
it explodes in the caverns and causes an
oscillation of the earth above. These
explanations are very plausible and gen
erally accepted as true, -although, as I
have said, the phenomenon has never
been stud:cd by men of scient lie. repu
tation, who m'ght find here an interest
ing and prolific field for research.
Curtis, in Chicago Inter Ocean.
VALUABLE INFORMATION.
MUscnt Let tern Can be Kemlled "Without
Additional Kxpensr.
Two men stood near a letter-box in
Broadway disputing about a sealed let
ter which one ot them held in his had.
The letter bad been posted at an ofliee.
in Virginia and a earner had delivered
it at an up-town address. In the mean
time the person to whom the letter was
addressed had left the city. The origi
nal address had beiu erased and one in
a distant town had been written below it.
"You will have to put another stamp
on it," said the stouter of the two men
to the one who held the letter.
"That's possible, but my wife told
me I only needed to drop it into a box.
She ought to know about such things,
because she re-ma:ls lots of letters that
come to the bouse."
"Why didn't she look after this one
then?"
Because she wanted it sent from
down town so that it would get out
quicker."
"Well, if you post it without another
stamp it will not go at all. Women
don't know about such things."
A letter-carrier approached the box
at that moment and an appeal was made
to him. He glanced at the envelope and
said: "That needs another stamp be
cause it is not a city letter. If it wen
going to another pJrt of the city the old
stamp would carry it."
"Do you mean io say that this letter
would be detained at the office for post
age?" "Well, perhaps they would send it
and charge the extra postage at tiu
other end of the line. You had better
see the station agent abo jt it."
"There." said the stout man after the
carrier had walked away, "you see how
much your wife knew about it."
"Come on to the station and if she is
wrong I will pay for two cigars."
They went to Station A and the lettei
was shown to the agent there. "That's
all right," was his curt comment.
"But a carrier has told me it would
ne-'d another stamp because- it was
going out of the city again."'
"The law nsed to be that way," the
agent sa'd, "but it has been changed.
andevcry carrier ought to know it. Now
a letter can be remailed as often a
necessary within the United States to gel
it to the owner without extra postage.
The only limit is the number of change
that can be made in addresses on tht
face of the envelope." Ar. Y. Tribune.
CUPPING.
An Old Art In a Modern Barber Shop
Seldom Kesorted to in This Conn try.
A novel - sight iww' presented., in a
bathroom "at Phil. Baizer's yesterday
afternoon, and was exhibited to a num
ber of interested customers of the shop.
An old German barber who keeps a
chair in the south end was "cupping" a
patient. The process had, of course,
been often heard of, but never seen by
any present. The man upon whom the
art was being practiced was sitting in a
bathtub, and attached to his kin were
no less than twenty-eight small glass
cups, which had been applied to all
parts of his body by the doctor barber.
The skin had been cut or scarified un
der each, and the blood was slowly
ooz'ng out into the cups. The applica
tions were made by expelling the air
from the cups by means of heat, ami
quickly pressing them upon the man's
person. The flesh was drawn up in'o
the cup by the pressure of the a:r. and
the blood extracted by a sort of sue
tion.
"Cupping" was formerly part of the
profession of every barber in Germany,
and from it came the s;gn of the red, blue
and wh'te pole, the colors being sup
posed to represent arterial and veinous
Llood, and pure health. respect:vely. It
was approved by reputable physic ans,
though not when done to such an ex
tent as in the case of yesterday. It was
used mostly for local' troubles, and not
for wholesale blood letting. It is now
seldom done in th's country, though
English doctors sometimes prescribe it.
Columbus (O.) State Journal.
The Invention of Paper.
How, when, or by whom paper was
first invented will never be known.
According to Hallam, documents on
paper are found as early as the tenth
century, and it came into use not long
after this era, and completely sapplant
ed all other materials which were
formerly employed for the purposes for
wh'ch it is now used. It will be observed
that tho invent'on of paper of some
kind was an absolute necessity before
there could be printing, as parchment
was far to expensive to use for the pur
pose, even were it otherwise perfectly
adapted to this use. The use of paper
in Western Europe dates from the
time mentioned, but it was known to the
Chinese long before the Christian era.
and it is believed that they used the
bark of various trees, the soft part of
the bamboo stems, cotton and several
other kinds of vegetable fibers. From
the Chinese it is supposed to have spread
to India, thence to Arabia, and the manu
facture was introduced into Europe by
the Moors of Spain, but. about this there
is no certa'nty. The rice paper "of the
Chinese is made in the same general
way as the papyrus of the ancient
Egy ptians, by placing in proper order
layers of fibers and ceriientmg them
with sizing or glue. The first patent
for paper making was taken out in
England in 1665, but it was "for making
blue paper, such as is used by bakers.
The next, for making writing papers,
was in 1675. and covered writing and
printing papers. St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The building in. which the postoffice
is located at Bristol. Pa., was an even
hundred years old recently. The
timbers were all bewu out of oak in
Penn's Manor, Bucks County, and
rafted down the Delaware. IHttsburgh
Three-fourths of the children born
in Calaveras County, CoL, in the pas
two years are girls. t ,
PARASITICA!-.
Xlie Poison Which Is Fn'ent in Ma iter
of Human Health.
It is a singular thing to those of our
number who think knowledge beginn
with us to find that the germ theory, as
it is styled, was propounded and dis
cussed more than. two hundred years
ago as one of the hypotheses accounting
for the plague, that otherwise unac
countable visitation, and that in the eo
sumg century Reaumur, Linnccus, and
other scientific people quite fully ac
cepted it, so far as its progress was then
apparent.
The existence of microscopic life Ij
something that wa revealed to us in the
first days of the microscope's" fit and
proper use, and it is not impossible that:
discovery will yet go very much farther
in that direction. When we find that
minute organisms, hardly more than
infinitesimal bright points under the
strongest lens, exist in the centre of a
lump of chalk rent from the very mid
dle of some great mass, full of vitality,
and capable of producing important
fermentative changes in substances with,
which they come in contact, we can
form some approach to a conception of
the universality of Jife, and of the diffi
culty, if not the impossibility, of escap
ing irs most disastrous forms. That
much of this life is serviceable and ben
eficial is apparent, and that much is also
injurious and poisonous is equally ap
parent. It seems almost like an asser
tion of positive malevolent force in the
world, this poisonous microscopic life,
when viewed with reference to its pos
sibilities, in the multitude of deathly
diseases thus created, and in the fact
that just before death, and not just after,
the putrefactive poison is often found to
have begun its malignant work; but as
nobody seriously doubts that good is to
overcome evil in the whole cosmos, so
the extermination of these poisonous
powers is something to be looked for,
and to be worked for, by the doctrine
of exclusion, by the elision of favorable
circumstances of development, tho
elimination of the malevolent germ
from among created things by the de
struction of the conditions which nur
ture it and favor its continuance and
propagation, till the disease-prod uciug
germ shall one day become as extinct as
the dodo.
Every physician knows that bacteria
are to be found swimming along their
fatal way in the veins of patients in ty
phoid, scarlet, puerperal and other fe
vers, to say nothing of small-pox, diph
theria, measles, septicaemia, and the
rest, that they are of material substance,
and that they propagate each after its
kind and not after another, showing ac
tive force and individual existence.
This individual existence and continu
ing active force, in fact, is seen to exit
in the earliest and most minute form of
life, in the initial atom of bioplasm, as
one may say. "The old distich in rela
tion to the great fleas that have little
fleas "to worry and to bite 'em. while
little fleas have lesser fleas, and so id
infinitum" if possibly vulgar, is cer
tainly true, and shows that tke idea of
the animal parasite is not at dl a novel
one. Even the little fly has its parasiie,
that may be observed when he dies on
the window-pane, and hangs glued there
in a tiny, fuzzy mould.
The capabilty for eyil, not alone in
matters of human health, but even in
the financial affairs of the world, whu-'a
these infinitesimal atoms of life exert, 's
to be understood from the circumstances
that the muscadine, the parasite of the
silk-worm, has cut down production of
silk in France from an annual amount
of a hundred and thirty million francs
to thirty' millions only. The oidium
meanwhile some time since as good as
exterminated the vine in Maderia, many
of the vineyards there having been re
planted with the supposably yet unin
fected vines of California; and the smut
in wheat and the rust in cotton are para
oitical concerns that every year do their
own damage.
Parasitical growth must needs always
be an unhealthy growth, since it is d-fli-cult
to believe that any croated thing
has more life than it needs for its own
uses, and consequently has none to givo
away and supply the wants and u?es of
the parasite. To avoid this parasitical
growth, or to destroy it, then, demands
our best efforts, let us find it where we
may; and regarding it as a malevolent
and malignant enemy, it is something
curious to see that the cleanliness which
is next to goodliness is its only extermi
nator. Plenty of water, then plenty of
sunshine, plenty of air the great cleans
ing processes of nature will be our
safeguards against our general enemies,
the especial enemy needing still more
especial measures. People who see par
ticular visitations of an angry Provi
dence in the mortal diseases that rob
their homes of their chiefest treasures
should look to it first, and make sure
that they themselves are not the angry
providence, with choked drains, foul
closets, decaying vegetable heaps in un
used and unaired cellar, or with un
cleansed refrigerators, the gathered
moisture on whose interior walls par
takes of the nature of slime and poisons
the milk the children drink. If we can
not escape tho cruel enemy altogether,
we can yet by vigorous concerted effort
make his approaches so difficult as to
thin his numbers for want of food, and
secure perhaps some portion of indem
nity for the future, if not for our mote
immediate selves, for those that are yet
to come. JIat pet's Bazar.
The golden number is so called be
cause it was formerly written on the
calendar in letters of gold. It is the
number reckoned from one to nineteen,
showing what year in the lunar or me
tonie cycle any given year is. The
epact is the excess of the solar above
the lunar year, the former consisting of
365 days and the latter 354. The epact
of any year is the number of days from
the last new moon of the old year
to the first day of the following Janu
ary. The dominical letters are those
which denote the Sundays, or dies
domit.ico. Chicago Herald.
A sight to be seen in Uncle Sam's
museutn at Washington is the blue
uniforir, worn by General Jackson when
he thr ished Pakenham and his red
coats at New Orleans. The uniform is
ia a case of glass,, but the dust on the
tLoulders makes golden straps io the
yushine. Washington Pcitj
EARTHQUAKES.
A Distinguished Scientist's Opinion of the
Cawe of Subterranean Activities. .
It has been asked of late whether the
hurricanes which followed the Spanish
earthquakes were not followed by those
subterranean disturbances, and all-explaining
electricity has been called upon
to explain how earth-throes m?ght have
caused atmospheric disturbances. I
know of no way in wh'ch such conse
quences could have followed from a dis
placement of the earth's crust. To me
it seems far more natural to conclude
that the hurricanes and earthquakes
were alike produced (the hurricanes
chiefly, the earthquakes partially) by
the atmosperic compression which pre
ceded the subterranean disturbances.
This compression indicated a heaping of
air over the disturbed region; the earth's
crust yielded under this increase of
pressure, combined with the action of
other forces, and earthquakes followed;
thi compressed air swept away to re
gicjns of less pressure and the rarefac
tion following led in the usual way to
the indraught which precedes a cyclonic
disturbance in the air.
But while tho action of atmospheric
pressure in helping to excite subterran
ean activit'es must not be overlooked,
the varying pressure exerted by seas and
oceans is a more potent disturbing fac
tor. Atmospheric pressure :s distribu
ted in such a way that though the weight
of air on any given area is continually
changing, there are no sharply defined
lines, at any time, which separate re
gons of less pressure from regions of
greater pressure. It is otherwise with
the sea along a shore line. Here we
have- the sea acting with constantly
varying intens'ty, as its level changes,
on the seaward side of the shore line,
while on tlie landward side there are no
such variations of pressure. Let us con
soler what this means. Take a tolera
bly straight shore line 500 miles in
length, and suppose that along this
shore line a region of ocean 100 miles
broad rises through a height of three
feet under the combined action of sun
and moon ra'sing a tidal wave, and
favoring strong winds urging the water
shoreward.. Then we have 50,000 square
miles of sea-water, three feet deep, ad
ded as so much dead-weight t5 that part
of the earth's crust which underlies
the seas along that shore. Each
sqnare mile contains in round num
bers 3,000,003 square vards, or 27,
000,000 square feet, "the addition
al weight corresponds, then (as the
added layer is three feet deep,) to 50.
000 times 81,000.000 cubic feet of water,
each weighing 64 pounds, or to 116,
000.000,000 tons. It is clear that the
addition of so enormous a weight as
this to the submerged part of the earth's
crust, outside the shore line, may well
produce strains too great to be resisted.
It must be remembered that the very
existence of a precipitous shore lin (as
distinguished from one where the land
above water and the . parts submerged
form one great slope) indicates the com
parative weakness of the crust along
that coast. It has yielded on one side
to pressure thrusting it upward above
the sea-level, and on tho other side to
the pressure of the water forcing it
down. It is true, the actual line of
yielding may not coincide with the
existent shore line. For the action of
the sea waves may (and generally must)
have altered the position of the coast
from that which it occupied when first,
formed. But it may be taken for granted
that not far from .every precipitous
shore line lies a line of weakness, where
J,he crust has given way in the past, and
may give way again. In this considera
tion undoubtedly we find a part of the
explanation of the observed fact that
almost all the great regions of subter
ranean activity on the earth lie near the
sea-shore.
But while tho changes of atmospheric
and oceanic pressure are potent factors
in the production of earthquakes, and
are probably in the great number of
cases their direct occasion, it is, of
course, to the subterranean regions
themselves that we must look for the
forces at work in upheaving the crust
of the earth. The forces acting from
the outside are as the pull on the
trigger; the imprisoned gases and
vapors generated by internal heat are as
the powder by whose explosion the
missile is ejected.
Yet even in considering the earth's
subterranean activities we still have to
look outs'de for a part at least of the
causes of disturbance. The a:r perhaps
may in this respect be neglected, but
the water is all-important. It has been
said, indeed, and probably with a nearer
approach to truth than usual in .the
case of generalizations of the sort.
"Without water there can be no vol
cano," and a similar rule (not quite so
general) applies to earthquakes. Few
probably occur, possibly none, save
through tho action of water in some
way or other. All active volcanoes ex
cept one (in mid-Asia) are by the sea
shore. Neatly all the great earthquake
recorded by history have taken place,
and have apparently had their center of
d:sturbance, near the sea.
There can be very little doubt, in
deed, that the direct cause of every
great subterranean disturbance is water
in the form of steam steam sujer
heated, under groat pressure, and there
fore possessing much greater expansive
p-)wer than steam at ordinary tempera
tures. Richard A. Proctor, in Harper's
Magazine.
Great Improvement.
Captain Jasman, who owed a bill in
a neighboring town, was drawn on
through the bank.
"What's this?" he asked of the col
lector. "It's a draft for fifty dollars."
"The first one I ever saw. Now, they
get 'em up in good shape, don't they?
Well, sir, there has been a big improve
tnent in such things since I could first
remember. When I was a boy, circus
bills were mere daubs of red ink, but
now look at 'em."
' "Are you going to pay th's draft?"
"O. 1 don't want it. Tell that feller
that I am much obliged for the kind at
tention he has shown me, but that I can
not a Ford to pay so largo a price for
vuch a small piece or paper. Good
day." Arkansaw Traveler. " '
m m
The throne of Louis XIV. was sold
by public auction in Paris a few days
ago for 6,500 francs.
"Maria and II Had Sot and Sot."
4rYou see." she was explaining to a lawyer,
after beating his counsel fee down to $3, "I
have a daughter Maria."
"Yes'm."
"Maria ha ; a beau."
"Exactly."
Has been waitin' on her for six years."
'Isee."
"And I've been waitin' on him for the
same length of time waitin' tor him to
marry her."
"Just so, ma'am."
"How long should a couple spark?"
"WelL that depends. It takes some folks a
long time to make up their minds."
"Isn't three years long enough ft
"I should think so."
"And I gave him six. Tve been getting.
madder and madder for the last three months,
and finally last night I couldn't hold in any
longer. I went Into the parlor end there be
was, giggling and winking and loving around
tame as five years ago. There was Maria,
simpering and cackling and acting like tb
same fool she alius was. Don't talk to me I
A gal can bring a beau to time inside of two
years if she's got - any marry in her. You
didn't fool away six yearsF'
"No'm."
"Nor L either. "WelL I stood It as long as
I could, and when I went into the room says
I to William, says I: 'William, you've sot and
sot, and it's my duty as a mother to know if
you intend to marry Maria.' Maria she give
a screech, and William he turned fiery re l
Bat says I: 'If you love, why don't you marry f
If you are hanging around here to pass away
tune you'd better skipT
"WelL William coutrhed and gasped and
stuttered around, and said be wanted to
write to his ma in Iowa.' 'Your ma in
IowaT says I, feeling my dander climbing
up. 'Mobbe you ain't weaned yet I
"Then he says he couldn't be bulldozed,
and that one objection to marrying Maria
was having me for a mother-in law. Then
the cyclone broke loose. Also the whirlwind. .
Then the cyclone broke toose.
Also two or three earthquakes. Inside of
four minutes Maria had fainted, William was
a wreck and we had upset the stove and
broke threj chairs. He came to and slipped
out while I was holding camphor tu Maria's
nose, and I've heard to-day that he is after a
warrant to; me for assault with intent to kill.
Can he get one!"
"Yes'm."
"Can he do anythlngr
"Well, you want a Jury r
"Kartto-rsartin." "I'll go before a jury and
tell 'em how he and Maria have sot and sot
for 1,700 nights how I've had to be soft 011 -him
how I've poked up Maria to bring him
to time how I stood it and stood it until
Eunthin' had to break how it ha cost mo
$200 for fuel and oil how but that's all.
If they are men they can't find no verdict
ag'in me."
"No'm."
"Well, 111 go home and wait. Maria lies
there sighing and weeping, and there's the
stove to put up and the chairs to mend, and
if Wjlliam gets the warrant Til let you
know. His ma in Iowa I I'll let him know
that somebody's ma in Detroit is -ive and
kicking and alius on deck I"
Hainan Nature tire Same fa Kniwla.
Pittsburg Chronicle.
Akonlina was stirring the sat&U as Sa-sha
PetrovitcLi entered and tapped her gently
under the chin.
"Oh, 'tis you, Sasha Petrovitchl"
"Yes, Ykonlina. I come to bid you adieu."
"Adieu, Baohaf To the wart My heart
will break 1
"No, my spring bird ; no, no, my cherry
redberry. You will be true to mef
"I will, Sasha, Forever f
A month has elapsed, during which Fasha
is stopping bullets at Herat. Akonlina is
baking kala'.cbi, when Filka Orion enters
and tickles her gently right where Basha
Fetrovitch left oil.
"Akonlina, I have no one to bake me ka
latchi." "I love Sasha."
"I have no one to Mght my samovar."
"I love Sasha."
"You shall be a lady."
"I love ti- sha."
"Your hands shall not touch water."
"I love Sasha."
"I'll buy you a pair of roller skates!"
"Swear it!"
"Akonlina, I swear I"
"Then I'll write and tell Sasha Fetrovitch '
that it is Orion."
Amenities of the Wlsconaiu LogUlatura
Madison Journal
"Mr. Speaker," said the gentleman from
Rock (Mr. Norcross), "I would rggest that
the attention of the sergeantat-a-nu be called
to the fact that it is oppressively warm here."
The speaker called the sergeant's attention,
as suggested, to the warmth of the chamber,
and the latter had a window on tho north
side lowered.
"Mr. Speaker," said the gentleman from
Kewaunee (Mr. Darbellay), who occupies a
seat on the. north side, "that window will -have
to be raised again, or I'll have to leave
my seat, for a heavy draught is blowing in
here on me."
"The speaker is in doubt what to do. Ono
member calls for a window down and another
for a window up," observed the presiding
officer, whereupon the gentleman from Wood
(Mr. Nash) arose, and, in the drawling ton
characteristic of him, said :
"Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that a chunk
of ice be given to the gentleman from Pock,
upon which to sit."
"Mr. Speaker," retorted the .gentleman
from Rock quickly, "I would suggest that a
chunk of ice bo applied to the he ... of the
gentleman from Wood."
Information for Parents.
Boston Globe.
For the information of parents, we beg to
announce that the baseball season has begun.
If a boy comes home late and refuses to get
In the family wood on the plea of sickness,
his side lost. If he lts his supper and saj j
he must go and see a friend who is ill, hi
will stand watching. His side has won, aid
he dreams of the wealth and glory he will
win on a grand professional tour. '
Texas Sittings: Did a woman ever clena
up a rented house when she moved out of it F
and did she ever fail io "pressing lier opinion,
ranging from mild vituperation to emphatio
condemnation, of the horrid condition in
which her predecessor had left the premii4
into which &he zr