Sole songster of the city street. Stundiug where clashing currents meet. With lungs of brsss and throat of mail, Our truly urban nightingale; How wags our world to-day? How runs your roundelay? (Horrible! Ex ;ry! Horrible!) Battle aud slaughter and death. Kings that are short of breath. Scandal nnd fire nnd flood, Ruin and wrack and blood! I Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) Piercing the city’s sullen din With vocal volleys, sharp nnd thin. (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) Before the milkman wakes the sun Your morning carol has begun, All day you’re racing with the clock. To thrill us with an hourly shock! 'Till even in our dreams We seem to hear your screams. (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) Bacon and coffee and crime. Ready at breakfast time. "Many lives lost” at lunch. Served as we madly munch. I Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) And when we dine at eventide. Double murder and suicide!” Horrible! Extry! Horrible'!” tramp. As we go up the ascent the fire seems larger, and our host and the guides say that there 1» some breaking out. Still we are in doubt; we are dis appointed aud tired. Aud »till 1 should uot go back uuless the most extraor dinary conflagration occurred. Ben Idea the undefined terror and spookiness of the thing, there is great boredom. There is nothing to take bold of, as it were — no center of tire aud terror -only in convenience and a faint fear of one thiug—but what? TRANSPORTING MUNITIONS OF WAR ON CHINA’S FRONTIER. Cotton-Growing Colony. Modern engineers suggested to the Egyptian government that if a dam were to be built a little way south of "airo, so as to provide a storage reser voir, then all the delta country of the Nile could rely upon Irrigation as cer tainly as it could upon the rising and letting of the sun. That work was un- lertakeu and experience has shown hat the engineers predicted with accu- j racy. . With storage reservoirs large enough to secure certain irrigation every year I for the enormous valley of the Nile, then that most fertile territory be- | ximes a certain ami a vast producer of ■ gricultural products, the command »f which will be of almost inestimable idvantage to Great Britain in the itruggle for commercial supremacy which is Just now beginning. Already Egypt raises one-tenth of the cotton supply of the world, and it is a kind of [cotton which has advantages recog nized by every manufacturer, especial ly of cotton thread, writes Holland in |(he Philadelphia Press. It is the long staple cotton, and excepting upon our sea islands we raise very little cotton of that character. With permanent ir rigation and with modern methods and modern agricultural Implements there seems to be no reason why Egypt should not in the near future raise a majority of the cotton which the Eng lish manufacturers need. Undoubted ly it is that which has Induced the British statesmen and financiers, with the earnest encouragement of the man ufacturers, to aid Egypt in financing these public works. England sees a colony practically as near to her as nre the cotton fields of the United States, providing for her a stnple article for which she has been In great measure dependent upon the United States. With a better quality of cotton, with the expectation that she can get It to the doors of her manufac tories at less cost than American cot ton, Great Britain sees In the develop ment of the Immense Nile valley by the cotton growers an opportunity to get the mastery of what Is to be one of the great features of the world's trade—the cotton-goods market. How Canyons Were Formed. The secret of the great denudation and of this wonderful achievement of tlie Colorado In carving out of rock a series of canyons about 5<JO mile« long and. in one place at least, more than a mile deep, with a multitude of tribu tary chasms and gorges, is very simple when you know It. The old lake l>ed slowly rose. At first the Colorado Riv er and its tributaries, or some name less monstrous ancestors of these, sweeping over the slowly rising sur faces, planed them down In most re lentless fashion, and then began wear ing out broad shalloxv stream beds. But then the country rose more rapid ly. and the water had to cut deeper channels In the rocks lu order to get out and away to sea. Owing in part to the wear of the water itself, but more to the ceaseless bombardment of the suspended sand which it bore from the up country, or picked up a» It went along, and to the thump of pebbles nnd bowlders which it »wept on In flood time, the river kept cutting down as the strata rose, until Anally, when what was left of our Inland sea bottom got thrust up so that, towering far above It» erstwhile rocky whores, It had to be called a plateau, the Colora do and it» auxiliarle» found themselves at the bottom of a serle» of colossal canyons aud gorges, where they to-day.—Harper’s Magazine. A SÍ 1 Im 1 Si * lSgMa-/S - H 'B Spends His Life In Prison. Our ears are shattered by your cries, We see red spots before our eyes! At night we dream of fearful things, With slimy tails and fiery wings! They perch upon our chests. Cold-fingered, clammy guests. (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) We wake and start in sudden fear, Catarrhal voices still we hear, Shrieking the tale of frenzied rage. That bleeds across the gory page. (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) Till haggard-eyed, with nerves shake, We start for Bedlam or the lake. (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) Is there no deed of nobler worth, No sweeter music left on earth? Arc there no sunbeams, birds, or tiowera? No quiet days, no hnppy hours? That you must tune your song To ruin, shame and wrong? (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) Is there no hero left to sing Whose story has a truer ring? Must the whole world be searched In vain To find a braver, clearer strain? (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) Is this the climax of the years. Of human interests, hopes and fears? (Horrible! Extry! Horrible!) ----- Chicago Tribune. XS5 EVERYTHING IS MAGNIFIED. Artist l.n Farae's Impressions of Un* wait’» Lake ot Fire. There Is now only vapor; sulphurous fumes that float up and obscure the distance and go up Into the »kies. But it» the txvllight begins fires come out nnd the space 1» edged with Are that sometimes colors the clouds of vapsr. At one side a small cone stands up that burns with an eye of red fire. From time to time this opening spits out to one side a little vicious blotch of fire. The clouds of vapor rise so as to blur the distance, but near by the rocks are clear enough, and either black, or far ther off where they are cliffs, are green ish yellow with sulphur. Mizes lieeome uncertain. I could swear that this lake wan a thousand feet long; but Awokl and the guide walking along reduce the lake to real proportions, writes John I.a Farge lu Scribner's. Then It Is only a small lake of some 100 or 200 feet, perhaps But the Impression still re mains all Is so thrown out of refer ence. The hole la so uncanny; the sky altove, purple In the yellow of the aft erglow and partly covered with the yellowish tone of the hellish vapor, looks high up above us. I sit (and sketch) on the absurd rocks, and theu we xvalt for something to happeu. It has tteconie night; we determine to give up hope of the breaking up of the lake aud we start. We have lanterns, but gradually these go out. and we have only one that has to I m * cherished and we scramble along By and by we halt, and looking back see greater lights, and the guide says that the lake has broken out. Still we are disin clined to return on the chance, for the vapors exaggerate everything, and aft er much scrambling we get back to the edge of the crater after a seven hours' Count Rocco Dlanovltch has made the getting Into prison the chief business of his life for thirty-four of the forty seven years he has lived, for a book he is anxious to write on the subject. At 13 he left his home and went Into Prus sia, where he was arrested for tres passing and sent to prison for three month», working at chair-making. From that time to this be has never TYROL IS TOURIST’S MECCA. been free from the desire to continue his prison explorations. Itold CritKs anti Sculptured Rocks Form From 13 till he was 20 he was in and Kolak Fiends' Paradise. out of more than twenty prisons in The Rocky Mountain range In South Belgium, Prussia, Poland and Russia. ern Tyrol is the Mecca of kodak fiends Ills first experience of Jail life in Eng among the tourists of Europe. Daily, land was in Liverpool, which was one In all sorts of weather, one may see of the worst be was ever In, tilled with parties of foreign visitors with their drunken sailors from all over the I photographic instruments making their world. He stayed there six days, when j way in the narrow valley between the he paid his tine and got out, the first | Laurensburg and the Rosengarten, time he failed to serve Ills sentence. which like two insurmountable, gigan Then he went to Ireland. France, Spain, tic, rugged walls rise heavenward on Italy, Greece and Turkey, theu to either side for miles, threatening to Egypt, where the Jails are the worst bury the daring intruder alive. In the world except Australia; next to | Enormous figures hundreds of feet In India and Japan, and then to America, length are hewn by nature on the sharp where he remained for more than a edge of these rocky walls. Some of year, spending most of his time In Jails these are old and historic, but new and penitentiaries. — Pittsburg Dls- ones are constantly discovered by the patch. amateur photographers, surprisingly true types of the great world of beings Fact and Fiction. Mr. Jenkin», on returning home in the of present and bygone days. Around evening, was pleased to find that the heavy snow which bail fallen during the day had been carefully shoveled from the front walk. AVho did It, Lucy?" he asked. “I was about to tell you.” replied Ills wife. “I never put In such a day In my life. I've been besieged by a whole army of men. all wanting to clean that walk. They drove me absolutely crazy. The snow was falling like great gun» all the time. too. As r < m > u as It quit, though. 1 gave the Job to a poor man who xvns a perfect living skeleton, There wasn’t a thiug of him but »kin aud bone—” "Lucy,” interrupted Mr. Jenklns, with a groan, “you're rending these po|>ulnr historical novels again!" "Why do you say that?" "Beenuse you've contracted the bls torleal novel disease. I can't tell where your fact leave« off and your fiction begins.'’ The tourist who has succeeded in as cending to the topmost positions here finds a solemn, almost oppressive, still ness and an excellent view of the sur rounding phenomena. From this spot a tine view is afforded of the I.ateinnr, which is crowned by a striking group representing a woman holding her child on her lap and a long-bearded sage in meditative atti tude. Besides these figures is that of a tall maiden, with face turned de voutly heavenward. These are called "Hie Gespenstige Familie” (the spook family) and "Has Selige Fraulein” (the blessed maiden) by the inhabitants. On tlie opposite side may be seen the group of the Rosengarten. already mentioned, of file Capudne monk and the penitent girl. To get a snapshot at these fig ures one must be an expert climber, for here the rock is almost perpendicu lar and it is difficult to secure a foot- An Artificial Man. A doctor lias calculated how much It would cost to make an artificial man. He estimates that a pair of arms cost $lki, or. with the hand» articulated, coat alsiut fl75; a pair of legs, also articulated, cost alsnit $140; a fill»« nos«* lu metal from $.*«> to $9». Por $130 h«» believe» that he could get a pair of ears Just like nature’s ha mil work, fitted with artificial ear drums and resonators. A complete net of teeth, with palate In platinum, costs from $40 to $90. nnd for a good pair of artificial eyes about $3tt would hav**| to be paid. Thus the actual cost of j restoring a battered veteran who has lost most of his separabl * parts would tie alsiut $<100. Why Pounds Are Sterling. Business men are always talking about so many pounds sterling; yet probably not 1 per cent of them are aware of the origin of the term. It dates track to the time of Richard Coeur de Lion, when money coined in the east part of Germany came Into special request in thia country ou ac count of Its purity, and was called Easterling money, twiute in those days all the inhabitants of those parts were called Easterlings In the course of time some of these Germans were brought -igU. to Ixmdon, and the pieces they mlnt- ed soon became known as sterling, from the word Easterling. - London Ex- press. ntstr«*slns. “How did you dune out at the cant party?” asked Miss Frocks of Miss Kit tisb. "Blanche and I cut for the first prise, and »he won It." "That was the «■kindest cut of alL" GYPT IS ENGLAND’S CHANCE. Lrritfation System Will Develop Great of this kind, but all children have a few words of such. Then comes the secret-language period. Although in a very few cases the learning of secret languages began about the sixth year, and in some Instances the period ran till after the eighteenth year, yet the vast majority of cases are covered by the period between the eighth and the fifteenth year, while the greatest use is between the tenth and the thirteenth year. There are many reasons why chil dren learn and use these languages. One lady confesses that she originated a language and introduced it into a mysterious set of ten, in order to write notes in school; and she truly adds that had their teachers discovered the key, they would have learned many truths. It can never be known whether these languages originated in the very first cases with children Tlie names would in many instances imply that children had to do with them, as they show things familiar to the child aud loved by him. So in the secret languages, we find animals playing an Important part in the naming. The hog, dog. goose, pigeyn, pig. fly, eat, aud other animals are attached to these lan- guages. The child In the old fashioned school. where all sat together, hear- Ing the (to him) senseless and un- known I.atin, would naturally attach the name to his language, and thus give birth to Hog Latin. Goose Latin, tec. Seeing or hearing a language, one letter may strike the child’s fancy, as in one the letter h is "hash.” and so Hash language is the result. In another "bub” (b) finds the funny spot In child nature, and so Bub talk comes forth. The child in former days, so frequently hearing of the a-b-c’s, would, upon the construction of an al phabet language, at once recur to such, and so name this the “A-Bub-Cin-Dud language. Novel Start in Life. STRIKING GROUP CROWNING TUE FAMOUS LATEMAR PEAK. these types were woven the saga of the nuelent Teutons. Mother» whisper even to-day to the children on their knee» the story of the dwarf King Laurin, who fought with the giants Dietrich and Wettleh for the possession of the beautiful Sltnllda, the sister of Dletlleb Von Steler. No wonder that the native children regard these ominous rocks with fear and trembling nnd hardly dart* to look up to them. The less superstitious American and British travelers do not hesitate to desecrate this region with their moderu contrivances and repro duce these manifold mythic statues which for centuries have awed the past generations. Luxurious hotels are now rising where once stood the enchanted palaces and gardens of tierman mythology. Small cabins hare been erected for the accommodation of the mountain climb er. where story writers located the realm of the dwarf kings. Two of the most bizarre figures of the Rosengarten are the Riesenflngcrs (gtant fingers) and the "cleft man." The former Is an Immense monolith rts* Ing from the rocky wall as straight as a candle, resembling the fingers of a Titan, the latter like a mighty pyramid through which the elements have bored a large aperture. These are among the most loft/ figures of th« dolomites. Hundreds of other specimens of freaks and whims of nature are met with here. There Is the figure of the Indian on the Rosengarten In striking ly faithful Oriental dress, of the good shepherd on the Laurensburg, and of Satan, the ruler of Hades, in infernal regal dress. Though many linger in the valley be tween these awe-inspiring figures In daytime, none, even of the enlightened tourists who claim not to be in tLe least superstitious, venture In these parts after nightfall SECRET LANGUAGE. The Jargon that Children Make Up to Convex Their Momentous Secret». Oscar Chrisman has a novel article in the Century on "The Secret lan guage of Childhood." In the course of which he gives many w himsical exam ples. Mr. Chrisman says; The secret language period is a thing of child uature. There are three dis tinct periods In language-learning by the child. The first is the acquiring of the mother-tongue. The second period comes shortly after the time of begin ning to learn the mot her-tongue, and is a language made up by children who. perhaps. And themselves unable to master the mother-tongue. Very few children have a complete language Of all the curious starts In life of which self-made men are apt to boast the most extraordinary one is that which furnished the itasis for a busi ness from which a stationer in this city derives a comfortable Income. He does not tell the story hitnself. but it comes from an old acquaintance, whose ve racity is beyond question. The success ful business man of to-day was once a collector for a mercantile house, and made as high as thirty or forty calls per day on delinquent customer». He always lx>rrowed a lead pencil from each one, and never returned It unless asked to do so. Of course, no suspicion attached to him, for forget fulness In regard to lead jiencils is rec ognized as a human falling. One of every three he secured was long enough to pass muster as a new pen cil. and after he collected 1.000 in this way be secured a contract for furnish ing lead pencils to a country school. One of the advantages of his bid was that he offered to supply pencils al ready sharpened. He now maintains a commodious stationery store, and his contract department flourishes.—Phila delphia Record. A woman who once kept boarders fa a very valuable member of society, ow ing to her ability to estimate bow many chickens It will require to make sandwiches for a given number of hun gry women. -< PAIR OF COLLEGE ELOPERS, Miss Bessye Bond, a Kentucky girl, ran away from her studies at Muskin gum College. New Concord. Ohio, with James Kennedy and became his wife. When they returned to their classes the Indignant college professor suspended them. The pupils revolted, saying that If a girl hasn’t the right to get married when slie wants to “What are we living for?” As the couple had completed their course, reinstatement is not vital. —Cincinnati Post. The Rulers of Europe. There are now twenty-seven royal families in Europe. Of these eighteen are Germans, namely, the Ilohenzol- lern, Wittelsbach. Wettin, Wurtem- burg, Zabringen, Hessen, Mecklen- berg, Holstein, Anhalt, Schwarzburg, Hapsburg • Lorraine, Weif, Reuss. Schaumburg, Lippe, Waldeck. Nassau and Leiehteusteln; »lx are Romanic or Latin, namely, Bourbon, Savoyen, Savoyen. Bra- ganza. Monaco. Bonaparte and Berna- dotte; two are Slav, namely, Obreno- wftsch and Njenosh, nnd one is Turk ish, the Osman. Of the forty-one thrones in Europe, thirty-three are oc cupied by German princes, among which are the rulers of Austria. Bel gium, Bulgaria. Denmark, England. Greece. Holland. Portugal. Roumania and Russia. The once powerful house of Bourbon has now but one crowned representative—the boy king of Spain. The so-called Hapsburg house is really extinct since 1740. The present royal family of Austria belongs to the Lor raine line. The Pope's Record. I.co XIII. was 91 recently, and Is be lieved, therefore, to have surpassed till records of Roman Pontiffs since St. Peter. As a matter of fact, tie has in all probability Ix-sten all records what soever of the Papal Chair, for the Aldie Mafstre has shown that St. Peter < mid not have been more than 73 a.id was most likely only 72, when lie was martyred. The records which give St. Agathon 107 years. Gregory ! X ! • and Celestin III. 92 are almost certain- ly spurious. Heat Holidays. In the public schools of Switzerland heat holidays have been established by law. Recognizing the well-known fact that the brain cannot work properly when the beat Is excessive, the children are dismissed from their tasks when ever the thermometer goes above a cer- tain point. Chill Shops. In the towns of Chill most shops are Some women think that they show themselves True Friends to those In open till midnight, and during the hot trouble by sitting beside them and afternoons, when everybody takes a siesta, they are locked up. holding their hands. W *