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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1898-5-12, Page 6; 7 tine,et. TO3 LAST VOYAGE OF MARTIN VALLLANC A ,SUA STORY OF TO.OAY4 BY jOHN ARTHUR BARRY.* Author "nieve Brom:a J3caYirkR" "In the Great DOW ate. VANVWWW6'1,..MS1',.$$$WW4N,SMJ 01-11APTER I. On the extreme rim of the horizon, The words were soa.ree out of 11Ly bi be at sea eght years, As a t month when I felt something' "(sive" • boy, innete love of romenee and. Marry- i . at's novels had seat me there- Other- 1 tant, l ,, if1t&4P. .,, .„LY'liealis"bt)autiktivv.leelliY"ofinsnli.'ghes wise, there was no pantie -War aeceseity I arataittldat'ata for slide e. env, My father held the 1 .At, gasping and clicidn, I come to int1'ing of etnelittolaatn-Tor in S011th• I the eurface again, the ftret thought elevon„ and Willi:ran eaough to have Nthee flashed across my bruin was that given me a ehoiee of Prefessfona, 'tor ! the ship was still reeling oft her thir- all those eight yeartadid I (rata' °lit t teen knots, and that I, 'alartia Val - counter the romanne I had- r°1°1 I"' i la,nce, was no better than a dead 'man. eginect was the inevitalite lol oi the , swimming witb, aim band, I etometed seafater—teie romance of invilentathe . the brine out of my eyes with the deed, e mare humdrum., matter-of-ta„en ' " other, but so &teed and stunned. was ' liae voula fit);1,rooly be coneeidt te"a : I by the tweezing eaddennesa of the Its iaevitable reeturrence ot headwinds affair that I could see nothing, look - and fair gales and calms, I o ag passages. ing•, possibly, in. quite the wrong di - .and shert. etetually, so far as. my . rection. . There was a nasty, short, memory servesth me, throughout ose choppy sea on, too, and I found it eel rs t.he most exotting matter Llaat took nte ell not time to keep afloat, heppeneci was the carrying away ot an Then E raised my head and shouted, upper fore -topsail -yard. Still, if I 'whs but with poor heart. I knew so well uot altogether satisfied with the re- the rehnost utter uselessness of it. . teallat routine of the hard and 131°"t-0ut i Whetmerchaut seaman under like eut, profession t had so wilfully chosen, i conditions ever gets picked ap ? And X loved the sea itself layorut anything, t I. mentalty followed the coarse a and was never tired studying its my- events on board. The lookout --a lad. rind moods, and alleulating to inter- ; on his first voyage—afar a minute's prat the language of the many tongues eaeing riatonishreent, roars, "Alan with whieti it spoke to the wanderers '4.-ove''rboard.!" Tim watch on, deck, upon its mighty bcoast. ' skulking in snug corners, rnsh. sleepy- Althougli "a passed. master," 1 had eyed. to the rail anti etre. In my not ye.t been lucky enough to get a• case, as officer of the ye etch, it. was better billet then a itecond toato's• i worse then arty one else's. Most likely . Ships, comparatively, were few, and of- , the mate would have to he called before • ficers as plentiful as blackberries ixt ri . any measures were taken. Certainly good seasou; aad I was considered for- t , the fellow at the wheel might put it tunate when a berth as emend mate, bard over, bat that would do no good. at 45 per math was offered me on : And by this time the ship would be 144.rd the Aateope, a 1,0110 -ton elitea full three miles away. Probably, boum nd froLondon to Fm reantle ill e , ' after somtwenty minutes' hard work 'Western Ala:tram_ y iterate took tne with covers and gripes, a ltoat would same view of things, and had quite. , be lowered,' pull about aintles,sly for made up uty mind, as it a as rather late an bour, and then get aboard again.. in the. day for ehoosing itoother path ' in the motnin g the log -book would in life, to do ae so many others were • show any epitaph; "On such -and -such doing. and aehange into steam." a date, loagitude and latitude so-and- Five-ana-twenty ithilling•e per week, so, a gloom. was cast over the ship," alter eight years' servitu.de given to et,. the mastering or an arduous and. All this worked in my mind as, turn- fatign•ing professionand one in whkh ing• my back to wind and see, I swain the disparity between renumeration slowly and mechanioally along, think - and responsibility was so vastappeal- ed even to ray mind, to leave some- itilhgro);4%-..hetliii:erayr it mhaingclitsb nail obneeaes annadll gtoo thing to be desired. As for romance, down instead of lingetiug. But I was that had all been pretty well knocked young and strong; ;Ind, heavens! how oat. of me, aud. I had ceased to look„ for uessionately the lolve of life runs in or expect anything of the kind. Jane such a, body when there seems tq be ocean, elearly, ha,d catered, and been a. chance of losing it! And surely, I modernized to eta the times—bro,eght, there „, thought, ere must be a buoy or two SO to speak, sternly "up to date, and 'somewhere, So I kept on. :nortu- had, save for a few rare outbreaks, nately I had only light ehoes in place taught itself to recognize that fart, of sea -boots, but my pea -jacket felt as and behave as an every -day, common- if it were made of sheet -lead. The place piece of water should. This, at first sudden shook and surprise over, least, is whet I thought whilst I paced I my thoughts turned to, and worked the Antelope's deek as she went roar- t collectedly enough, even to the extent ing down the Channel with a fair wind 01 arguing, pro and con, whether or behind her. her Plimsoll merle just l not it was woreb. while to go to the awash, and three lower topgallant- t trouble of, taking my coat off, as I , sails standing out against the clear { could have done, for I was at tione''t sky like centavos of soulptured marble. , in the water- Presently, standing up, About the ship and my shipmates there I strained my ages in Another long was nothing more particularly notice- look around. But I could hear no - able than there had been in half-a-doz- thing except the moaning of the wind, en similar ships and ships' companies see nothing except the white tops of I had sailed with. Of course. in detail, the short waves as they came snarl. - they varied; but, take them f al 1 and in and hissing around me ; these, and by, •skipper, officers, crew, routine, overhead, the vast concavity of rag - rig, and provisions, there was the usual d darkness, lit here and. •there b y a family like ne ts. Merchant -captains few stars. I stared ia the direction commanding vessels like the Antelope I now knew the ship should be. - But are as ofien as not, itt these aioriern there was no sign. A man's lumen in times, gentlemen. Captain Craigie a, tumble of a sea has not time to set - was one; and the chief mate. Mr. tle itself to reaole very far. Still, Thomas, was another. Both were scientific: and skilful navigators. and both offieers in the. Royal Naval Reserve. The ship herself was a flying clipper: steel -built; froni pare exhaustion, I heard some - crew mixed.; provisions fairly good; thing come down on the wind like the every prospect of the usual du, 11 and,, ,,ry 0 E a, child— "Ma -ma -ma -a -al" eventless vpytege to "Down Under 1 changing into a long queruious bleat and back again. It was my last at that seemed ve,ry familiar. Staring any rate, and it has given me quite intently in the dire,otion, etter a while enough to talk about for the rest of I made oat some dark object, 'now any life, and especially when any one teeming xis big as a boat on the crest teepees to remark in mine or my of a wave, now hidden altogether in a wife's hearing that there is no romance water -valley. A few minutes more in the sea nowa,days. and 1 was alongside it, clutching the I am not going to say anything more wet and slippery sides, whilst from its about the Antelope just now, because interior prooeeded a volley of plain - this story doesn't concern her very tive callings. I recognized the tbing now; and as I caught hotel of one of its stumpy legs and dragged myself cal top, and lay at full length, pant- ing and nearly spent, I blessed the etaitore33.an who had made such good use of his opportunity. ' Whilst in Capetown the captain, who was ailing, had been Prescribed a diet of g,oat's railk an,l.. rem or, at Wetualit't aelleve hew grateful tiutt touch wee tea toy elittled and sodden body; ay, and bew teaafentiengt, alSO, LO MY heart, jut new so utterly dee void cif hope, wee the ameee of that (Wien cempentonShip. And though I anew that, bearing something very like t Miracle, my hours were num- bered; alit, compared with my condi- tion (to lately, here was, et lost, tre- Peeve. I have elready said that the Antelope, in piece of stretehine away to the steetinverd for a westerly wind, ae meat veeeels would have done, had kept well en) loaned the lndian Neale Making, in feet, 4 newly etratallt line for her pert. This was in one way a, gain for me, in another a Una loss—the former by aseuring me of warm and most likely fairly fine weather; the letter by takiag me quite oat of the track of outward oe ward bound ehip ing. fled 1 gene overboard aniougst the huge, me-ccad etombers of the Smith Atlantie in forty- five degrees or thereabout, I ehould have been food for the fiehes long ere now. All these matters I turned over in zuy miud as Play at fun length, with room to spare, and gave Nanny a hand to esuek, an(1 longed heartily for daylight, As the night slowly passed, the jump, of a sea that had Wen shelling the seal out of me went down pre- ceptibly ; the wind, too, blew wanner and more lightly. Of seeing the .Antet lope any more I had no hopes. By the stars ( °mita tell I was drifting to the northwards, and quite away. trom. her oourse. Still the captain, ought stand. by through the night, ana with a look- out at the royal mast -head, they might possibly sight me. A, forlorn olutneel And, indeed, when at last the sun rose gorgeous out of a great bank of opal and purple, anct balateing myself Like a circus -man, 1 stood up encl took in the hoeizon, and the sea that rau to it, foot by foot with my smarting eyes, I could. see nothing. Nanny and T were alone on the wide and empty ocean, and evidently traveliing in the set of some current, And. it was owing to Ibis, probably, that I was not sight- ed in the morning; for the ship had &enmity shortened sail and stood by Ilia whole night through, tacking at intervals, so as to keep as near the spot as possible.. So they told me af- terwards. ,,It was more than many a captain would, have done, goat or no goat. Ancl I -was the better pleased on a certain very momentous occasion, of which you will hear in due course, to be able to make my acknowledg- ments to my old captain and thank him for •his humanity; also to help him a little, in his own time of need, in a different freshion. However, this last an affair that concerns not the ato Of Nan, previously,. I had never tak- en much notice. Now, as I looked down, I saw that she was a great strapping lump of an animal, in fine condition, with a well-bred, good-temperect head, bearing a short, sharp pair of horns; ant" a queer squab of a tail that she carrietl in a jaunty sort of curve over her backbone. She was mostly .blaok in colour, with a big white patch here arid there, and she kept her legs serad.- died to the huge of the Sealike an old sailor, and stared up at me with a, pair of big, black, bewildered eyes as who should say: "Wleren my child? And N'hat's become of the steward? And what's this row all about ?" And, sad and. sore as I was, I couldn't for the life of me help grinning as l looked at my shipmate. All at once, underneath her, I caught sight of three, circular brown objects; and suddenly I felt hungry. All day long the skipper used to stuff Nan with white cabin bread, lumps of sugar, fancy biscuits, and such -like, for she'd eat anything. And at times, the men, perhaps by way of contrast, -would throw her it bad bis- cuit oat of their own barge. At the present moment there were three of these under Nan' s feet. I stretched an arm down, but could not reach them by a full six inches. Nor could I open the door, forming as it did hale of the front of the pen, without the risk of Nan jumping out. At last, after many vain efforts to finger them, taking the kerchief off my neck, I tore in into strips, joined them, and bending my knife to- the end, managed to harpoon one. It was sot and sodden with sea- water, and full of dead weevils; but it tasted delicious. T offered a bit to the goat, but. she only smelled at it and stamped her foot, snorting indig- nantly. 'Alt right, my lady," 1 said; "per- haps your stomach won't be so proud as Lime passes!" And t secured the others in the same fashion, and slowed them carefully away in my pocket. It was a real ea:retort to breve some- thing to talk to, although it could, on- ly answer nee with impatient coughings and eryinge as it scuttled to and fro, standing up now and a,gairt to nibble anci pnll at my elothes through the bars. Even that took away the die - mal sense of loneliness and 'desolation inauced. ay tha look of an emptyt ocean all around running to an empty sky. I thought; I might have seen a light had they shown one. As I turned, with a short prayer on my lips, de- termined to swim till I should sink much, and after I left her so sudden- ly, Captain Craigie and three of her anen were the only recogniseble men- bers I ever again saw of the ship's company. And now, having cleared the way a little, I will heave ahead with ray yarn, by reatlin.g which you will see that, even in the present prosaic age, earn ous things msy happen to those who least, frequent doses of the mixture. do business in great waters; and may The rune We had plenty of atoaed; and the skipper soon got a fine goat, new- ly kidded, from one of the farms round about. He also bought from en riedia,n romantic seenes, and tncidents grates- trader, then in harbor, a four -legged que and tragic and mysterious. ina,ssive animal -pen, iron -barred, strong. • * as a horse, and almost big enough for We had called at. Capetown, after 0 0180 . •_ • a fairly quiok run from the Lizard, to land a few passen,gers and take in a little cargo; and, in place of keeping away to the southward, the captain stood along the 20th parallel. In do- ing this be ran a risk of tneeting with light and toefevorable winds. But that was merely his business. We were just now in that sort of No Man's Water between the Indian and South Atlantic Ocean shunned by sailors, and used only by a few steamers. Our positional noon bad been 45 deg. 15 min. east longitude, 36 deg. 13 min, south latitude, or about 1300 maize trom Capetown. The night was dark and squally when I came. on deck to keep the middle welch, and as I stump- ed the poop, listening to the wind, thee seemed every now and thee to shrill with deeper note in the roar of it aloft emonget the canvas, there eame a cry of "Light on the lee bow, stood on the break of the forecastle, head, an ordinary 885018:1. 13i11, peer as I might, t cetad see no light, 50, descending the poop -ladder, 1 evalkeel" along the main -deck, and jumped. en to the rail. jast before the fore-rige also realize that Mother Ocean has lost nothing of her old-time power, when she chooses to exert it, of staging st.ructare, its supports "razeed" by our carpenter, and at first placed aft, was presently, beca.u.se of Nanny's leanings when, every night, her kid was taken from her, shifted forward and lashed on the pig -pens close to the door of the top- gallant forecastle, in which the sail- ers lived. Now whet annoyed as aft annoyed Tack forward juet as much, and there were consequently growls, deep and long, from. the vvatcb below. And I sew what had happened as clanly as if I had been there. Ire the rush and hurry consequent upon my tumble things had been thrown over- boarci at random; and a saline, seeing hie ohance, slashed through .the. lash- ings of Nan's pen, waited for a vverttb.er roll, end with a push, gave it e free passage. Elena with the rail, aa 11 was, its own weight: almost, would have taken itover. Thus in one aot did the gh1t. lose an officer from aft acid a nuisance from forward. And even tvlalet lying across the bars that, •form- ed the front of the Page or pen, drip- piag like a web eweb cm to Nan, wh,o, ellett now, was trying to nibble my loon1 coiled well pioture the skipper's 0a ging, and leaned out -board in order' tante when he =awed his goat, to get a better view. The seaman stood on fee break of the forecastle a dark figure rising and falling wita Ike Vesselee head agebeet the patchy sky. "Where away, my lad?" 1 ask- ed. "There, air," answered he, point. I was hotding on, ca.relearily ermagh, to sortie of the running gear—jib-hen yards probably, rind aot to the stand Ing rigging, as 1 ehould have done. I stared, an leaned over farther still. "A star, reit neatton-head r" 1 exelalia, eat as my nye ortualtt what he Wee efter—the t:tellette- glint of Antares, jegit eenree he weuld be sorry for me too; We bad always been good friends. flat then I could be teplaced at once, theee were in the Aettelope at least three metes before the 'mast, the goat nr4 0 PIL tinokily for Nan and myself, too, the nen bed fallen on its back, and rode aerie to the ske, so high and dry, exe Cleat for a, swish of spray tow ane Agate, that I had no* need to loose tbe, csanvee ewe:tate which were Made to teetee over the bars he bad weather T.)ittting tall hand doWea 1 felt bee nal* through the Wet hair, ett4 CHAPTER, II. A.nd now the weather took a thor- oughly settled sort of look—blue ilea, blue sky, and. the sun just hoe enotegh to be grateful. A light but steady breeze blew from ate south-west; and In place of the short, choppy waves of the previou.s night, was a long, oily, unbroken swell, over which we rode fairly dry, and showing two feet of a side., with, clear of the surface, a couple of stumpy outriggers, where the carpenter had out dawn the tall legs of the pen when it came on board the Antelope. Tbe two lover ones were of course, under water. Since meetleg with Nanny I had felt Quite hopeful, almost clicerful, indeed. Twenty-four, strong as a young horse, sound as a new bell, with eye of a gull and digestion of an ostrich, doeent stop in the clumps very • lorig u.nder any elecumstances ; • a,nd T. sat it the sun, and stared round. the hoeizen, ena talked to Nan, whilst our ttrigainly orrtft tubbed about, yawing, and slu- ing, and lolloping over the vegular seas. Still, the salt bisonit, had made me thirsty, and my throat was like an twerholled potato, when, towardmid- dey, eltnede begen to rise in the west, Slowly at first, then with such rapid- ity that alt -the sky in that entarter $.400n became ma black 5 50 ihk-pot. 1 had jest taken a dip Overboard, and wits meitehing a finger's-breadth of atsoult to still the iirword griedieg, when, as TWilts-U.1.y at the huge darkness the,t Was 6re6prog gradeally ever all, thick and dense, as if ittmeant to blot out sea and sky for evermore, tiey riee tia.tigat e teliteente, on the edge cea the etbeinedurtain, Of, sentiething aliondlig \via° againet • th ghlanlaY baelegrettnet, Standing ate 1 saw it more ahltiran. . It leaked like le ehitee rental Or a beat* sett. That la was ata Welter, of seaebirdts wing or brealting oreee of c wane, J. was eeldnia; althonatbe Ween 44 1. tela myself se, it W4t4 gono ---enKaifed in that profound latioltneee, beginaing now to enfold me ani Spread to the fertile'. liortzon, evhilet streaks ok vivid, lightning auci low mutterings of thunder letrelded the approaohing entree. Tbe whet had died 011tiroly wenn', and the gloom nets so tenon I could hardly see to oast adrift the curtains of the Pen and fix them smugly over ,be bars, Sat tor these thing—made Ip proteot Nen frOm the apray on the Antelope tti heavy werttlier—we shoula bane been done: for 1 was eertitin tbat eaetigh wat tee WaS going to fall in the next few minutes to sink the cage. As it was, T felt nervous about tint result, I had thought, there was no wind in the storm. But I was wrong, for present- ly a low, white. mound,, showed itself advancing from the edge of the hor- izon, quite discernible with the play of the lightning upon it, and, travel- ling swiftly totre,rcls me, roaring with a mighty noise of wind and water it carne. Thunder pealed and erashed as if tbe foundationof the ocean were beaking up, whilst the heavens glowed with such conlintoue flames of elec- trieity as made the eye wither toe look ueon. T had • never in all my exper- •ience seen anything like this. And 1 Pretty well gave myself up for lost --feeling in tbat moment neither Min - gee tier tairst—as the nea1 of wind- swept water roared upon as and took the pen up arid threw it in the air, and whirled it round and round, and hither aad thither in a cloud of spume and hissing, pelting foa-m, till, as Ilay, DaY hands gripping the legs of the pen, and my •toes stuck through the can- vas cover, 1 grew sick and. dizzy with the motion and turmoil, and expected each minute, to feel the cage capsize, Lill, and go down. But with that first greet wave the worst was over, and Nan and I were still right -side up. And now, at last, down came the rain, not in drops, but in such solid sheeta es fairly bore inc flat, beating thet breath out of nee as I stretched taco downwards end listened to the water pouring off me like a catareot. But I was gaid, for 1 knew the fall would quiet that venomously hissing sea.; that seethed and rateect so close to my smile ed and battered body. As the first weight passed I opened a corner of the tarpaulin and peered. at Nan. She was crouching in one corner, and there was Lar more -water washing about than f fancied the look of, considering that I had nothing 1 could use. as a bailer. Also, the pen had sunk appreciably tin- der the added weight- of fresh water and) salt. (Ter be Continu.ed.) THE WORLD'S MAIL. some Faeas, Aboitt the Postal Business or the World. rnwontliiiids of all the letters which pass through he post -offices of the world areewritten by and sent to peo- ple who speak English. There are sub- stantially 500,000,000 persons speaking colloquially one or another of the ten or twelve ebiaf modern languages, and of these abeul ewenty-five per cent. of 125,000,000 persons, speak English. A.b-out 90,000,000 speak Russian, 75,000,- 000 German, 55,000,000 French, 45,000,- 000 Spanish, 35,000,000 Italian and 12,- 000,000 Portuguese, and tbe balance Hungarian, Dutch, Polish, Flemish, Bohemian, Gaelic, Roumanian, Swed- ish, nimaish, Danish and Norwegian. Thus, while only one-quarter of those wlio employ the facilitiea of the postal departments of civilized governments speak, as thele native tongue, English, two-thirds of those who correspond do so in the English language. This situation arises from the fact that so large a share of the commer- cial business of the worla is done in English, even among those who do not speak English as ,their native 'en- gage. There are, for instance, more than 20,000 post offices in tinlia, ,the business of which in letters and pa- pers aggregates melte than 300,000,060 parcels a year; and the business of, these offices is done chiefly be English, though of India's total population, which is meirly 300,000,000, fewer than 300,000 persons either speak or under- stand English. Though 90,000,000 speak or under- stand Russian, the business of the Rus- sian post department; is relatively SMall, Ihe number of letters sent throughout the Czar's empire anaount- in.g to leas than one tenth the ntnnber mailed in Great Britain alone, though the population of Great Britain is con- siderably Jess then one-half of the pop- ulation of BUSSin in Europe. The Southern and Central. American countries in whieh either Spanish or Portuguese is spoken do comparative- ly little post office business, the total number of letters posted and eoilect- ed •in a year in all the nourieries of South and Centra) America and the West linlies being less than in Aus- tralia. Chili and Argentina, are, in feet, the only two South American oountries in which any important pos- tal business is done, and most of the letters received from or sent to foreign countries are not in Spanish, but ill English, French, German or :Italian 'Wheeler—One great thing about the bicyole is -that it pats you in touehwith the world, Clientetitoil—nnis, but 1 dislike to be towelling it eareeet exclusively with the top ot my head. • TIME PRtZE ItCONOMIST. Old Soadds, across the way, is the stingiest Mell on earth. , Hew can you. prove it? He litres on gruel, stiaply to avoid Wearing ottit the gold filling in hit teeth. NO11 TO COOY. Customer—'5u know that preecrip- tam you. filled for me yestexday--1 want a oopy of Dreeggiet--feit afraid you'll have to p111 teem the doctor. I never cottid read hie handwzating, 8.11AIN 1141111, TO FIGHT, WILL MAKE TlIg STRUGGLE watt • AmERI04 A FIERCE ONE, The miniiniers et Its etevei-enteete No Thee- Jtle thv rood and Coati Geeet pongee tito Saaaslas attairenea • .l2nrhisuategveoeetIlliin etimi. elaaondlol)ieato vie)etionof4the sp the 0(11001)18 01' the war witle the Unite ed Stain's, there oan be no &mat, both noverament and people will make a supremo effort to wendee the tatik of 01 possible, sayssclifatmadr ietlite, cosily'iaieethterdb. loody •s • 11, will not do for the United States to act on any other assumption. The neat Problem wateh the government confronts is riot so much the loss of Cuba as the possibility that the Peo- ple at large will (-gime to think the government unworthy of confidence and sweep it and the dynasty away together. One does not need to :trey - el far in Spain in these days to learn that. ' Every intelligent Spaniard recogniz- es that the Spanish syatem of govern- ment is vioioua in the extreme—cor- rupt, bureaucratic, dilatory and vain. rlie better educated make no attempt to conceal their contempt for the whole systein. when talking to a foreigner tvbe can get their c,onfid.enCe. They are olannisle and suspicious , of ordi- nary outsiders, nod they look with deep distrust on the •representatives of foreign newspapers. But if one is able to persuede them' of a willingness to regard existing trotebles witb any- thing like impartiality they will talk frensely. iticli circumstances the truth comes out, and it is by ne means flat- tering to tee cabinet. QUEEN 'REGENT POPULAR.. The queen regent, except possibly among an unimportant section ot the poorer classes, who refer to her dis- dainfully as "that Austrian," is popu- lar and respected.: She is sharply die- tingeished from her advisers, wheth- er conservative or liberal. Apart from the Cellists and the re- publicana, the former hostile to her. family and the latter, opposed, of course, to the monarchicaltsystem, her position excites keen syin.pa.thy in ali 'part a of the kingdom. , Indeed, her personality is the chief rallying force among the Spanish people to -day, apart froni the.' hypersensitiveness of the nation on the soore of Its great traditions and rectal pride. In welt -informed quarters,however, there is a slowly forming fear that a coloesia blunder has been made, which, wilt tend to bring the war to -a prema- ture, ignominious ending. This has to do with the question of supplies -- food and coal. It is the coal problem thet causes the greatest; anxiety. The Spanish habit of procrastination, the disposition to expect the best until the worst has happened, the fatal -belief that the powers and. the Pope would soraehow be able to hold the United States in check—coupled ,with lack of fundfor immediate cash payments -- led the government of Azcarraga and its successor, the Sa,gasta governaient, to delay the collection of supplies and coal at available .ports until the fear is now that the opportunity of doing so has passed. ; CURSES FOR THE CABINET. One hears the suspicion expressed frequently, with a muttered expletive, and sometimes the remark, "In any other country somebody would be shot for this." • The consciousness of the situation, as thus affected, has greatly degrees - ed the queen regent and • filled the WeyIerites and the more dignified sec- tion of the military party with a wrath that bodes 111 for the future of offi- cials responsilole for such. criminal neghleca It war which will be chiefly a question of fleets and where the small.- er power mast, fight thousands of miles from home and depend. absolutely on one or two bases of supplies, always threatened by the enemy, the coal, %elicit is the sine qua note is Possibly not That there shoulijl lie any doubt whatever is of the highest importance. The Spanish educated classes under- stand the full significance of "it, Right in Iinet with thia is the equally aston- ishing discovery that the government appears to have _neglected to inquire of the powers what attitude they woulct take on the question of making coal cis°nnelairaiberianndd attic! rAgyi'lhisatfotrbl,BhcilloigniabitraY, Spain, even with the financial. re- soarces •necessary, is confronted witth the dimming fact that her coal su.oply is likely to be woefuely inadequate, SAGASTA'S FALSE HOPES. Segasta took of fice pledged to the paeification of Cube, and the main- tenance of good relations vvitb Airier"- sa. No doubt lie believed both ends would be secured,. The. dominating elernent in, his cabinet is Senor Moret, the ,brilliant but too optimistic min- ister of the cotonies. Sagaeta has been largely ender t.heinfluence of. Moret. The latter is cm.ltivated, a linguist, e born °renal., a model of Spanish court- liness dna, in tiraee e1 peace, a man who could be of great; aerviee to his country. Ite be not a, ma.n of War and %venal neglect to take the preeautione suggested by the natitery instiect.. Senor Gallon, the foreign ministexe delights in diplomacy and excels in it. Bet lee is diffident and delicate. There i‘t 'nothing militant in his composi- tion. • He is a mot judge, and fair and candid in leis eetimates, but he relies an the shield ;and not oft the He 'leeks eggreesiveeees and. , Thele men Ada Sagaeta,, with slightly differing iewe as oireanietances have inoclified "tbern, ' have brought the Spanish government to the presend pase without adequate preparatioei along several important lines. LACKS roPmArc colorprivot. Sagasta's declarritien to his "stipe nortere the dray beCient the opening of eanliaineet had the rmig of high eour- age, lent it was the utteramete DE an ncQi7,,ceaet,:to:ee,x:isri.4t00,1110,sti:retsa,181:41:14,:ttz,e tton'i it to lead •a nation effectively hi lauth ite hour, ill beNpredtoauilnitedtheillxibpowcr e ofvoeienotuieinmtcw ot lean but were Spain to Surffer a seri- oue petal. reverse as the rasult of a leek of coal or of some snob. Material precaution as would be easily trusted by the people at lerg,e to a leek of Minis- ttreraittitoliltioresiglit, the natioa wonla in - east upon AM abrupt change of ailmins- "In that event General Dointueuez might be carried to the holmor, for •that matter, Marshal Campos., In any eveut tile new ealanet would be a tie- tiouta cabinet, without regard to Party lines, tfut, the. question is, Corue si di s a_he vert 1 icarto \even/ th" e highest in- t e • GERMANY ON THE SEA, naiad Advantiv male br German Steam" ship Compapies in neeent reale, The German Government has issu.ed an official returie the object of which is to meke known the rapid wartime made by German steconship companies during reeel# years, says the London Daily nail. •' The document moles no reference to the Goverament subsidies that have contributed, much toward this result, nor, indeed, does itt lessen the signifi— cance of the figures. The Hamburg - American line, says Lite report, has a greater tonnage than any other cotie- -any in the world, its sixty-nine 'v es - sets representing 286,945 tons gross. The English P. & 0. Company is, given second place, with sixty vessels of 283,140 toris, so that the average size of each vessel is larger. Sixty-seven vessels, with a gross tonnage of 256,613 tons, place the North German Lloyd. line third, on the list; but Ibis total, notwithstanding the big subsidies re- ceived, is only 4,200 tons over tbe ag- gregate credited to the British India ninety- seven vesel PanYaosf2 t 01 251,429 ot. ninety - Coming next is the Freneh Messy,- geries Maritimes, another line strong- ly nurtured With subsidies, the num- ber of its ships being sixty-three, and the gross tonnage 229,837 toee. These five are the only companies whose to- tal exceeds 200,000 tons. The next is the 'Italian General Nav- igation Company, with ninety-six ves- sels of 171,041 tons followed by the French Transatlantic tine, with sixty- four vessels cif 106,701 tons and then tne Japanese Nippon Yusen, which is represented as having sixty-eight ves- sels of 161,698 tons, built or under con- struction. The Wilson Line, of Hull occupies the next place., or the third on the British list, with eighty-two vessels of 1E9,793 tons; the Aestrieu Lloyd coming :next in. order, • with seventy-two vessels of 146,560 tons, and the Spanish Transatlantic., Company with thirty-six vessels of 121,161 tons. Then follow the Pacific Company, •the Cunard and the White Star, all Eng- lish, of course. Tbe lines en this list, consisting; over 100,000 ,tons tonnage, comprise three German, six British, two French, and one each flying the flag of Italy; Aus- tria-Hungary, Spain and Japan. FAKE KLONDIKE GOLD CLAIMS. mow OVA Will lie S11111411- :41 They The Gold Commissioner in the Can- adian Yukon, writing, from. • Dawson City to the Minister of the Interior, calls attention to the indiscriminate staking of gold elainis in the Klondike region, whether'- the conditions wax - rant such staking or not. He says: "Another matter which I wil,1 bring to youx attention is the manner which exists for staking every stream and gulch in the country whetherthere is any prospect; or nee.' Men think nothing of perjuring themselves by taking the oeth that they heve found gold on the claim which they. have staked . when: the thermometer was 50 deg.. below zero. Streams are staked for several miles in the space of • •few hors. • The definition of a mining division which allows a clahn on every separate streaxu which flows into the Yukon, like every other gu:lation 'which •allows any latitude, hanbeen abused by the people staking on the different small. streams more claims ,by fur than they could possibly represent. Of course many of these creeks will never be worked; it would cost more to meke u survey of these sinalt streams than all the revenue which may be expected from them, Hundreds of these worthless claims will be advertised for sale on the mark- ets in the outside world at ,prices far in excess of their velem. Capitalists willenot 13e likely to purchase without inveetigietiege the properties they may tvish to acquire' through their agents, bat the smell investors will suffer, as the money paid by 'them will, be as good as thrown away: THE Ealltral'S ; CLOUD -BELT. A welter in 'Knowledge makes &vivid. piotare of the great bolt of clouds, some three hundeecl miles in breadth, wheal surrounds the earth ft little north oa the equator, \tilt:hit this belt ramie almost ineessently fall, some- times in sheets, and the whet seldom stir. Before the invention of steani- shipe, vessels lacalmed in the " clown belt,' 'sometimes •drifted helpless for weeke, Even now the crossing oE thie helt, where everything is siert:barged with moisture, is a disagreectine exper- 103188 for voyagere aoing trom the North' to the South Atlantie Ocean, or vice yenta The belt can be traced, aerose 64t-eat:oriel. Africa and amass the Araerioati istannu.s: and the great riv- ers, Amazon, Orieonot Niger, Nite ;fed ,Congb, arise in the raireeoctleed gions, which are tike exhaustless re- servoirs. • The cattee Of the equatorial cloudnalt 18 cenneoted with the trade - winds, and 111 the. 00iltet of a year it oscillates north Etna south (wet h twee equal to about three times its. oWn.breadtb,„ • Life of the French Girl. Among the better elesece /188 French bootl. FrenOil Children ais a. rule are girl emergee front diSagreeable much indulged a.,tid spoiled, aud very Kite frankness existe betweeu them and their parents, or those who heve the care of them- 1 have lead nianY 00- casions for persoloa observetlon in variouis parts of Franee, and loge found them to be untruthful axid,mucli ! re:lined to 'Itypoterley and selfishness. see8 a, writer. The half-grown glad is full of airs, fond of dress, and, often has tbe all- nearanee a a minialuxe woman, at- tired in the latest fashion -She is for-- ,1 \Yard and selt-assertive.She is 'usually FiPhilyifLec, efi:dnalei iyo 4, 5e gl Yolvlf)ielta:issliniftio;:nawee :),:auri:tvatrr.ivu.shaetnili as a natural consequence such strict stieveillance and lack of confidence de- vejoys very unfortunate traits of char, a,cter. The girl in the been classes in Eranice is often left in a cenvent, where if too math restrainb is put over her stlelea stautindieschonowsoisefinetimousay seulupeclie.vtisheion.g•eottf- the nuns. Like all her continental sisters, the Frenoh, girl realizes at an early age that her obief object/ in, life" is marry, ling, and she is well aware thet noth- leg can happen to her about which she will be so little consulted, She is nev- er permitted to form any acquaintance or friendship with young men. It vvould be considered very indecorous Tor her to know or receive ante man unless he were ,the guest of her parents. She never goes into the street without a chaperon, and there only for enough exercise to insure health. Then her wits ere at work to deceive her.com- te)yitensioanx.a. busy with glances, while her ' She has no real intimacies among lier own sex. Her family life is considered ample scope for her confidences • and °Minions. lier home is a dull place foe her, for though French domestic), life is kind it is not interesting to the young daughter. Her education is not thorongh nor is her testis intellectual Her talents are not much cultivated: andgsamhn. e games. texe bet little into sports d Wheh her parents are ready or the opportunity comes a council is held, by the family with reference to a suit- able husbancl for her, twat usually the arrangements are all made between her family and that of theproposed lover • before the question is broached: to her. Jet It &rely occurs to her to oppose the f sch.eme. She is generally only too wig- ''' er to main her freedom and feat her supreme tient-respect and superiority by making a.n early matriage. Sometimes sb.e is wholly unacquainted with the young or old man who is presented to h,er as her suitor—approved be the parents on both sides—for no man in . France of any age is apt to marry' ytiottleeeurt. the consent of his father, west mother. Freech families take, great pains in selecting a, husband or wife for their children. They study their interests in a worldly sense. A girl mtuett have her "dot," or portion toward the fu- ture income and new /home. This "dot" is saved in small sums, usually from the earliest years. The French girl of the better elates has no beaux, no flir- tations and no love affairs. Marriage alone opens tbe way to these experiences. As a rule her 'ac- quirements are very mediocre. She tisually.spealts charmingly and. correct - but rarely writes °it composea vvell. She occesientaly excels he vocal music), but has not any marked inelination toward the fine arts. She has no apti- tu.cle for houeekeeping nor the eminom- les of life, because Fra,nee is supplied. with perfectly trained servants Whose duty 'and privilege is to save and man - her own language sounds all over the age. Site is never a linguist, taeause world. Needlework is not her forte, because the "song of the shirt" is piteously sung by the •half -starve& "couturiere," and there is no object in. plain sewing whole it in done sumer- veleusly cheap. 110018 decorations by the needle are not usual in France, so Ibis same French girl is not an experb in "fancier work." IA many of the large towns, aerator - ed all over Franee, there is a pathetia class of fat:tory girls. They teed the hardest, eru.elist lives. They tvorlr in Unventilated places and rooms that are worse than "sweating boxes," The sewage is poisonotts. There is me good. •evater and their food is insuafieient. They are faithfia, "cheerful; tumoral- plaining workers. The cemeteries of the interior towns in France znaelt graves of nany young people, especially young girls. • nave encountered, too :the class of young girls wbo live oh farms in France, They lead very laborious et. lives--caerying and lilting' heavy bur- 111, dens. • One hours inuch of the roman- ce of being, ti French Tangent, in Nor- mandy or Brittany, leue 11 18 better in eat:eating and in print' than it is in re - alt ty. The farmhouses have stone floors and are absolutely emnaortless, and the beautiful provinciat costumes ca,nnot make amends for scantiness of food, These girls have no reereation, Many of the petterent girls live in ex- tremely small towns with no means of livelihood and in handets wherd there 15 310 means of &Leppert for them; •yet they move heaven end Barth to etteare a pretty 'eastern:le of their particular provinee. It iresta them for years, end their caps are ete prized they are nev- er seen without them. • The happleet, 'cless of -working girls I -save in FreaCe• were the fisher girls in the, south af 13rittany, There was steady' oecupation with ell the cheer , of active trade. The people live on the bank and shores of the salt Water aria have a, merry open life, packing fish and tta,nning tirdirtes. Theewildest excithient wad pica911r k itt tbe ttr- rwai of the fishes, and! Ma* Of • the girls have never been, away frote their native Wein rnostgotaysIVIATOILP,S, A pound of phosphorus •twat's 1,000.- 000 matobec