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
*