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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1898-6-23, Page 6THE LAST VOYAGE OF MARTIN VALLLANCE A .$ EA STORY QF TOAPAY, 13Y JOHN ARTHUR. HARRY', Author of "Steve Brown', 8unylp," "let the Greet Deep," eta,. ;Although 1 ' ata glee, then another, and another, su acct to Intervals of egained beai'rdng 'something in: t'he'sound oft nature, them 1 o my ears of quick impatience an plea- and distress. the brig, Rapidly the smother thickened as, .L'hen, forgetting aught else. I pulled madly ing me towards the noise of the shots—all the d I lay guide I had, for the brig was by this et my time invisible; and but for those dull alk to- echoes out of the mist .I should have d word been quite bewildered—as libels as not of my making away from, in place of to, the was I. Hebe. And how I blessed the pees- er tithe epee of mind in my darling that had atter to induced her to think of the only aose gain I Elide mode of indicating her where- tatilo'n. albotrets ! Even; when aotrually, close nother alongside, almost hitting her, so thick at the was the fog, but for the report over- marry head I must have missed the vessel. vicar- As 1 ceembered ow, deck a dim figure Leing4 came swiftly towards me, making with ght of wide-open arms as if to embrace me; ve left, then all at once, with a quick ery, it was to seized both my hands, exclaiming: "Ob, toseek I thought I had lost you, and it near - barren e ly killed me!" Then, still holding my 'd leaseshands and laughing and sobbing lays- add e- terieally, she led me aft, and brought oa dn't food and drink to me, all the while, by out of turns, upbraiding herself for sending he old me on such an errand. and giving hy, the thanks to God for my safe return. And, and at secretly, it made me proud and happy to Fee such depths of emotion stirred Y cos- ! for my. sake in one usually so calm and self-possessed. Rut not until 1 Y, air found her, at last, soothed and teen - filled gull would I tell her the result 'of my Y new trip, and then not in full; although urin I think, I need not have feared, had I ,wise so wished, seeing that for a time all more I h&fuinesthings e for md y rescuowed e and in en ter it harmed presence beside her. less Mat what of the Antelope e What gnity awful misfortune could it be that had t my- overtaken her, to send that ghastly of boat -load of corpses to roam the sea ng „et' unburied?. Whatever it was, it must e and have been disaster, sudden and pitiless. Lee a moment it struck me as just pos- brooding sadness, the girl had r mulch of her eheery,• hopeful and uFed to keep nee sweet a sant company: whilst we sailed sometimes into the small hours when she went below, after giv a hand to swing the yards, an dove for a brief rest with Nan feet, I would go over all' our t gather, treasuring up every kin every deep and moving glance sweetheart's—for that such she more than hoped, although neith nor place served to put the m• the test. Of seeing the. Major bad Waite given up all expec ,Helen, as she told me, had not a relative in the world. Clearly, very first opportunity I must her, and take her home to the age. What sholo.ld we do for a 1 I never in this oonneotion thou anything the Major might ha Well, there was a farm that I have worked, had, I nott shaman; a livelihood instead on "these fields of wandering foam," Th would shortly be up, and I.cou Anne it for myself and Helen; would be hard 'indeed if 1 0 knock some kind of a support it without having to come to t peojple for bel p. W,h it, ! W cider alone from the big arch Birch Grove ought to keep us! ,And so I dreamed, building m ties in the air. fl 'mance ! .Z We and ocean in these days were with the glamour of it—and of in love '4'4 a were very much together d this time. How could it be othe 'And the 'noire I saw of her the discovered what a, fine charas was; what a noble soul and stain mina gave grace and light and di to the beautiful being that I fel self gradually gaining possession But always—although in talk' you of her I have called her "Het it was, between us, Miss Fortescu Mx, Vallance.Most punctilious' we keep up appearances; and eyes now and then spoke a tan unmistakable, they were quickly ered. Still, often, when her soft hands met mine as we pulled on together, and the breeze brush stray curl of hair across my c often', I say, did I feel the need o control merge into a very tortur refraining from taking that grac yielding form into my arms and and there declaring my love. But I fiercely fought against such to tion and beat my heart back into jection, gaining the victory, lookin the last to my reward. About this time -it was, that bein calmed one evening, I sighted on starboard beam a boat about .t quarters of a mile away. The herself was motionless, or nearly but the boats :seemed, drifting as pretty quickly, probab'y in the set of some small current. In Helen's as she gazed, there was a perfect er of sympathy and pity. And I c see that she yearned as it were the sight, co the helpless, tos thing, and presently she spoke, alm to herself, but not so low as to vent me catching her exclamation: there should be any one sick and h less—nigh dead in her 1" And I kn by the sob she gave as she turned eyes away that she'was thinking her father. It was a mad thing for me to'do, but I could not stand idly by and wit- ness her distress, so I said: "If you will help me to lower the dingey, I'll pull over and see if there is anybody in her." In a ,moment she jumped to the dav- it -falls: in another four or five I was pulling across the calm water. And then it seemed to suddenly dawn on her what a fatally foolish action her siletat turging had. Ied' me into ; and I saw her wave her hat, and heard her voice coming to me in recall. But al- ready I was half -way ; and, determin- ed. to allow no room for after self-ac- cu.ings or regrets, I kept steadily on untie 1 was alongside the little dere- lict. Looking over into her, I saw some- thing that made me start back with fear and loathing; for there, prone in the bottom, lay foul• bodies, their fea- !tures ;unidlst+inguishable from decay,; and, worse than all, scattered about there were terrible signs that, befo their own deaths, they had been driv to the last dread resort of the cast , way, But for these ghastly, maul ed fragments, there was not a thin in the boat with the corpses save h oars. Two of the men lay under t midehip thwarts, nearly' doubled as if their, last momelntis had bee spasms of agony; a, third was right the bows, eyeless from attacks of se birds --a shocking and a heart-readin epectacle—with features run togeth and discoloured until the face seeme a bide:7lue putrid mask, mocking a semblance 'of leignanity. The fourth corpse lay right aft on the grating, i much similar ease to the other, only that in his hand he grasped a ba sherath-knife. ,Ail four, from thea,, clothes, were mens before the mast, There must, I cold too easily see, have been others. Ugh1 it was a gruesome sight ; and giving the boat a shove off, X had slipped my oars to return, when, clueing to my push, she came round, stern towards me, and, to my unutter- able horror, I read. on it the words, " A.nitel opo—London." I think, without using any extrava- gant figure of speech,(I may say that, as my eyes caught the above inscrip- tion, my very soul shook within me at•. the new and terrible interest raised by it. Bent what could. I do 2 There. was the. beat and its burden floating soft- ly away 1 If 1 had possessed au axe, or any tool whatever fitted for the work, I would have pursued it, and let 9those h ratting cole orpses sink h its mto . the riepth.i below rather than wander the ocean in such terrific guise, But I had nothing.; and the idea of groping for her plug beneath that festering mass ]repulsed my imagination to the verge cif retelling, ',And n!ow, dancing: to- wards the Hebe, 1 named, with a thrill of alarm, how distant she appear. ed to be, looming Indistinctly, a, pale ,'smudge, the very phantom of a ship, athwart a nest that was fast tieing oft the hot, oily orator. Even as I stared there mine to my care the faint report ee Y did sible that this very boat might have if been lowered for me when I fell over - nage board, and that the ship had failed to white . pick her up. But on going back and a rope thinking over the state of the weather ed aa at the time 1 saw it was well-nigh in - heed a credible such a thing could happen. f self And surely I must have seen some- thing of therm next day 1 No, I felt ef_eee, certain in my own mind that the An- telope had come to grief in some terrib- thenever ly complete manner -a foreboding, as m tar you will see. later, fully realized. p A day or two after this incident, sub- whilst at work in the galley, I heard g at Helen, at the wheel, cry out and point g be- away ou the port bow. elle Jumping on to the forecastle -head, h ee- I Saw a vessel which, like the Aurora, see- had altered her course eo speak us. Hebe • This one, however, had crept up our tern Ing the night, unperceived until now. tilde stilt kept our distress -signal flying eyes, I'not somuch with the hope of speak - t fes- i obtain oilers.informatborrowing on wwre �men ngasto the auto 1 long -boat. Truth to tell, I think we , to 8 sing ost pre-"Ifre- elp- ew her of re en a mettle er he uP, in, a-` g er a us. e Scanning the eastern horizon, I saw athwart the sky a faint stain of smoke, re evidently from a: steamer, but too far away to tell just yet in what direction she was travelling. .1"or the last couple of days we had been steering a south-west course, the wind allowing us to look up no high- er; and that morning, for the first time 1 had noticed suob a marked fall in the barometer as set me seriously.tbinking of obtaining help to pelta en extra reef or two in our topsails, and. also get.the dingey oe board,. foe we had let it tow astern ever since my mud trip after the,dere- lict boat. At the best ours was only higgledy-piggledy sort of navigation; and although fax frxam tired of it in each comtpcny as my beautiful ship- mate's, 1 would have been heartily pleased to see four or :Give strapping A.B.'s dumping down their round -bot- d round -bot- tomed bags in the Hebe's forecastle, swarming up hex ratlines, and putting all she could caray on her.. However, the vases" and. cargo 1 had by this time got to look ulpon as a kind of trust committed to my care fox Helen and myself, and 1 was determined to take no rlaks. Help, 1 argued, must corn ret last, if only by means of vessels, re.- porting me at their destination; and nxeanwhile T. would c10 the hest 1 could, without killing mmyself by uxaneeessary labour and 'worry, Truly, f. had seen enough of escapes awful work lately to melee itis easeful; and that last ext - ge garded the lkeeping ng a tla strict e careless lookout, especially after our espericnce with the Aurora. Evidently, to get the loan of men from any ordinary vessel was well-nigh hopeless; and, unaided,. I began to think that our chances of arriving at Capetown;. or anywhere else, were quite problematical, even• if the weather held as fair as it had done for so long, which was quite too much to expect, Within the last few days : we had, too, struck an easterly current, and the Hebe's drift o' nights was pretty considerable. Clipper as she was, the brig, under her present canvas was heavily handicapped. Not, even with ' Helen for a relief at the wheel, could .1 sail' her day and night. In fact., I ner- er seriously attempted to do so. .. From *left I could; now see the stranger plainly—a huge mass of can- vas that at first it rather puzzled me to define, so bizarre did It look. But: Inesently, as she swam more plainly into view, I made her out to be a four - masted barquentine, with enormously square fore -yards and towering main, mizzen, and jigger masts, clothed in great. stretches f fore and aft canvas, whilst from between them, and off her bowsprit and jib-hoppe, sprang regular flights of, staysails and ibs—on the wlhole a very remarkable figure of a ship. I had, however, seen the rig be- fore, mainly in timber -vessels hailing from Puget Sound or 'Vancouver, and had never felt any inclination to be shipmates with three forty -foot booms dpi a eraft that a jib might shake all the sticks out of at once. As I watched. her she luffed till all her widespread wings fluttered and shook like those of some monstrous sea -fowl preening it- self ; then jibbing, she hoisted British colors and headed straight for the Hebe, although on the other tack she. would have passed quite close enough to speak 11TH' EXETER Patience i Wane even still, o' nights,. awake wet with gold sweat, after dreaming that 1 eves in the dingey, lashed alongside the other boat, with her dxeedful, grew'some crew of dead. and rotting poen, whilst through the blaze, afar off came to me Helen's} voice crying faintly and mere faintly as we drifted, away from each other. CHAPTER Yin, As the barquentine drew otos let go the sheets of hex three fo aft topsails, letting them. hang erosstrees in great bunches of c Then, squaring her fore -yards and ing her tremendous boom amid she lay stationary, or nearly. s a hundred Yards away. Big and as she was, her; crew handled h a top. Of fully 1200 tons burde was down the water an, with. a in her from the elliptic stern to forward of the fore -rigging, ourvi a fine, free, gamecock headed, gr .row, which, added to her rime lofty, raking masts and spre breadths of canvas, gave her in measure, to my eye, in spite o red ensign, streaming from her of about tohpounce on e air of a he naked,eat l clef less Hebe. All at once, amidships on her de I caught sight of sore -tithing that nay heart jump half -way to my in The object was the stern of a with on it a large gilt rising su emblem the - memory of which not likely to forget. I said nothing to Helen, who, ha helped me to backs our main -to was now standing near me; bat ing the glasses, tried to make the t out more plainly. Yes, there wa doubt about the device; but than er boats besides the one might c such a mark. And, owing to the shadow cast by the main -boom Part of the sail, I could observe a portion of the stern ; the rest almost in darkness. The ba,i'quenti:ne was strongly nee, for fully five -and -twenty peered at us over her bulwarks. such faces were .they that, as I gla at them, l made up my mind at in this case at least, to forego my u application for assistance. There not a single white man amongst t ;American negroes, Kanakas, Mal —and half-castes of varying grade yellow, from that of a new saddle the deeper tint of a roasted coffee -be No, no, 1 wanted no such cattle those on board the Rebel • On a small monkey -poop, but which she was flush fore and aft, st a group of three men all whites, devoured the Bebe with their e staring aloft and around in a g that came always back and. settled: Helen and myself and Nan, who, eras' her custom now when anyth was to be seen, stood neer us, her ' fore -feet cocked up` on the brig's r and by the expaeesion of her know' face, criticising the stranger w., might and main. "Bello !" shouted one of the m response to my hail of ' Bargu. e, ahoy}. 1' "What's the matter wi brigt Where's your crowd got t nd what do• you want l" The speaker was a tall, sunburn t ill -looking man, with black mo the and whiskers, clad in a sack su gray tweed, wearing a Cape "srnas halt of soft felt, and puffing rely at a big cigar. He might h n an American or au' Englishm fro les speech; as a matter of fa was, as we learned later, an Afi. er—father and mother Dutch goa Bay. Very shortly Igave them the hea s of our story; asked the usu eslion about the boat; and expla that I'd be obliged for as much h would shove another reef in o opetils. 1 finished the man, without B nee any answer, turned, to the of • and the three conversed appa ly with scum little exeitemene t from their animated gesture n the tall one shouted: " No, They seen any boat like the one yo des ; but we'll keep a good look . Who did you say was in her whe went adrift ?" ow, 1 had not :mentioned that an at all wves in her. And, my ey wan ,n'hilstt he spoke, over Ch quentine, 1 noticed that the main had been quietly lowered unti sail completely hid the boat ; an rendered inc more than ever sus us that there was somethin ,g. However, 1 replied: that' it tea aerofitee that Amightor thavesbeen in long -boat. r , You ain't sure about the matter eh?" asked. the tall man, Fell, no," T said; " we can't be, sur: obody saw him, go overboard. Still e's every chance he del manage nck hex up and, get into her." this they had another confab, two hem apparently urging the speak - o do something that went against ',rain. As they spoke they pointed e brig repeatedly. It was all very us; and I would have given much clear view of her decks, beginning spect, as I raid, that they had the and were simply arguing as to advisableness; or otherwise, of ing to it. e vessels had by this drifted an - hundred yards away from each ; and I was keeping an eye to the P aft, when all at once astartled ,inatiorn from Helen drew my at - on to a ,souffle on the forepart of arquentine. 'Then in another mo- a saw a man, glad in a suit of t blue dungaree, shake himself of the crowd, knock a coePie of head over heels, and jumping on stranger's rail, plunge overboard wim for the Hebe. arum 1 Martin!" suddenly scream - Ion, grasping my arm with both , "it's my father!" a second I was thrown all aback disbelief, for, I had, not seen the face, so quickly had the occur taken place. And how Helen could sure of ,the lhi•ng bothered .me. he kept repeating, 'It's my fath- ofst- certaiintyfather �that there wwith a as no�re- g. Glancing at the head of the mer; bobbing up and down in the waved, my first notion was to for the .dingey'a painter, slip It into the boat, and scull to the assistance, But just then Inca the barquexttine lowering her r boat, and by the shouts and ands, plainly audible at that short co, I made out ghat, et •al" risks, caped one was to be captured rough, back again. So, pausing' at the taffrnil, I bent another Mose she re and to the anvas. haul ships,. 0, not heavy. er like n, she. sheer well ng to ace£ul nsely ading some f the. ha1 Prey ence- cks, made oath, boat, n—an I was wing psail, talk- hing, s no oth- arry deep and only lay man - aces faces And need onee, sual was hem ass, s of to an. as for ood wvho yes, : azo on as ing two ail:' ng ri.th en en- tob ed, un- it. h-. I in tin the A no to of ex su bee fr he kand Al live eu d as t A ing era ent judge The n't d out she one bar gaff the this pic'o wron just aw the then as n thee to p At of t er t his to th curio for a to su the stick Th other other groa centi the b meat brigh deer them to the nd ed hands Por with ramie settee be so But s ewes ave an et, .1.- d - al in- elp ur iv- h- r - 0 s., y e e 1 d g s e n e TIMES (4,044 SEA THE Fowl's OF SANTIAGO, • Which have been silenced by the United States Ships. line to the one already fastened to the Painter, and telling Helen to run be- low and bring up• the big express rifle, r let the dingey drift down towards the swimmer, who, could see, was go- ing well and: strong. And now that I wards me, I saW that it really was the old Major himself. The barquentinee gig woe. with three hands in her, pulling for the man, who had already covered half the distance between the vessel and. the Hebe's din - gee, but who, of course, stood. no show against such odds, and was being rap- idly overhauled. Asking Helen to tend the line, end keep veering it out, I caught up the rifle, aed. taking careful aim, 'so as to injure none of the men, f sent a bullet clean through the bot- tom of the pursuing boat, making the white chips fly where it struck. To Be Contineed. The railroad which. with its branch es, connects Cobombo, the capital of Ceylon, with the interior of the island, shorten in its construction, and for it is remarkable for the engineering skilsl prosperity. It makes an aseent of thirty-five hundred feet by a succes- sion of loops and curves, with hare and there a tunnel. The chief difficulty in running the railroad is due to the way in Nvhiela the rain Manes down. A recent book of travel, "A Run Round the Empire," describes what the rain tdaiidntsiodect. train crawling up the moun- On December 27, 3896, eleven and a half inches of rain fell in twenty-four hours. The, engineer of a train saw that beyond a certain tunnel the line was washed away. He stopped the train, and the passengers got out. One of them, seeing stones rolling down the eaountainside above them advised the en.gineer to push for the tunnel. Just as the train entered the tun- nel, down came a huge mass of rock, which carried away the enabanement, we,11 as the last car of the train—, a goods Veal fortunately. Close be- hind the tunnel the ends of the rail were leanging free over a preeipice, and a, similiar condition existed not far thesselager came down from a planter's bungalow above the tunnel to say that water was accunaulating iu the c,utting in front, and that if it broke through the debris which served as a dam, it would wash the, train out of the tunnel. The passengers hast- ened. to leave the cars, and in walking through the water in the cutting found. it up to their brea.sts. RAPID-FIRE GUNS. mot totemthotsbes mom Front the Mow. Fire CaDliOn. Rapid fire guns are just now /nude talked about, but most people have only a vague idea ef what they are. Pro- bably the general idea is based on the Getting gun. People who take the Galling gem as a type of "rapid fire," suppose that all guns called by that name are merely machines for show- ering rifle balls. But this is a com- plete mistake, There are rapid fire guns with a diameter ereeix inches that throw shells weighing 100 pounds. Mere size has nothing to do with the classification into rapid tire and slow - firing guns. The Engineering News explains the matter as follows: The essential difference is in the I method of loading. Instead of open- ,. bag the breech and ieserting the pro- jectile and the powder separatete, the .. a ter an a bunting bag , ammunition for rapid fire guns is letow prepared as for small arrese the ball, powder and tiriag primer are united, the powder in a metallic case attached to the shot, and the primer in the center of tee ba,se of this case. There are a num- ber of typos of ritee'd fire guns, differ- ing in the wa,y this fixed ammunition is ted to the gun and fire. The sixe pounder, 2.24 -inch caliber, repid fire gene of the Hotchkiss, Driggs-Schroe- types can discharge 100 shoes in 4 rain- utes 26 seconds, 4 minetes 351-2 sec- u,tes 561-2 seconds, respeetively, or twenty to twenty-five shoth per min - ate, with accuracy of ainr. Without attempt at accuracy ole aim the rate can be increased. to thirty to thi t f' shots per minute. With five -inch ra.pid fire guns, or fifty -pounders, thir- ty-six shots have been fired in five A PAIR OF INNOCEN'TS. Mamie, said the father, who looked as innocent as he coulee accidentally overheerd some of your conversation with that young man in the parlor last evening. Why didn't you sit right down on him when he said you could begin etonomizing by both using the same chair t did papa, and she also looked as in- nocent, as she eould. SINGULAR BEQUEST. An old man na,raed George Russel, who has died in Aberdeen,- has left pro- perty veined et 13,000. The interest is. to be distributed yea,rly among the policemen tiled scavengers of the city, in recogration of kindnese done by a er 50 years ago. INLAY AND OTJTLAY. 'What a beautiful specimen of in- laying ! exclaimed the guest. Yes, replied Mr. Cuterox, as he put his beaula behind and tiptoed emote - (lovely, but that isn't anything, You ought to latve seen the Outlay it re - Preset les. Do you want any young melting!! ask- ed the truek peddler at the door. No, haVe more in the house .now than we oatt nessiblY use, flat I'm eelling theni at 060 S, bunch, madam. Give me fifteen nunethes, GLADSTONE'S INTENSITY. whatever llo Ilndertook To Do He Did With AD 1101$ Early in life Mr. Gla,datone seems to have heeded the advice of a Hebrew preacher " Whatsoever thy hand find- tration of the gifted, boye intensity IS told by art English' wetter in an ae- coun't given by Dean Stanley of his ferst meeting Gladstone. The old Bishop of Norwicla, baying been pleased with some of his son's performances, said that as a :reward he would. take him extraordinary etheolboy who had ever They vent to the house where he wae, and Arthur Stanley had been sent out into the garden to make acquaint- ance wlith the prodigy, who was said. to be sitting in. a summer -house at the end of a walk. He went, and found Gladstone reading a book, As Stanley entered, Gladstone loolced up and said, with great vielternenee: reed Gray?' StaeleY, math, startled, faltered out that he had toe rea,d. Gray ; to which Gladotone, with increased. intensity of manner, replied, " Then you ratuit read Grey I" The same writer gives another Mee- tratiore of Ghteletone's deem. with all hie might whatever occupied hismind; "Brealefeete,r1. with II/r. Glarlstone. Huxley set next him, and was exoss- examined. all Um time about the horse, the itonLe and the donkey, which in their Homeric setting-, occupy the mind of the groat men very ninth at pees- talkiCIENT PRESERVED FLOWERS, Well-preserved flowers discovered at Dallsourh, in Egypte in tombs of the limes of. the Phareohe, have just been placed in the Ceire Mneetuti. The coin- moneet them) were the white or blue lotue, the red. Poppy, the leeves and flowers of the pomegranate, Of the en.f. Iron and Ot the brooms. ; INTERESTING ITEMS. neither read, nor write. Worth Read tug. Two-thirde of Spain's pOpUlatten cal) japauese bride gives ber wedding presents to; Itee parents as some Might recompense for their troulee in^rearing The wee bugle that sounded the charge tha,t seat the Light 'Brigade to destruction at Balaklava, was lately sold at auction in London for §3,93e. A sParrow-hawk caused. the death of two eartarthe in a cage at Poitland, utetoll :sill. rust its head between' the bars, seized the canaries, and, twist - Any Spa,niard over the age of nine- teen is liable to be called into military isoctfarrly,y51 ee0d0uip:eyrsetharse,e4111•0130a,l'sbelicYantheescpaaPyommenilt- Long hours of labor and snaall pay cauee emelt dissatisfaction. among the workmen of Persia. Ia the manufact- ories of that country a day's labor ex- tends from five A. M. until eight P. el, Prom youth to far beyond middle age, Humbolt seldoxn slept more than two 'ware day. From tee time Ire was seveoty until his death, at the age of ninety, he slept; four hours a day. To be Massed as a millionaire in the United States a matt must at least be heve five times as muele or 41,000,000; otrociited, States a man mu.st be worth at leash §1,000,000 ; in England he nalest Garahlers an the ocean steamers have been doing a profitable business. By means of a, small mirror beld in the palm of the left hand, they are able to note the cards dealt to their unsuspect- Lug adversaries. The greatest freit-growing state is Missouri. Tee value of its fruit crop ee:eeeds that of California, by $2,500,000. The apple crop alone is valued at 4)1%- 000,000, while the entire fruit erop worth taboue $19,500,000. The streets of Pekin, China, are u.: lighted save by two gaslights and three kerosene' lamps, Me first two are before the Russian embassy, and the lcerosene lamps II/Janina te the fioni of the Russo -Chinese Bank, VI, quarrel between EXank Tretter and his wife, at Sandusky, Ohio, made lira so tired, of life that he resolved to end it. Ile placed a stick of dynamite on his breast as he lay oa the floor, ignit. ed the fuse, and was blown into atoms. Fresh! meat) easily absorbs nicotin.e from tobacco smoke, and. soon becomes tainted. Aware of this fact, the pro: prietors of some of the New York hot- tbe kitchens or storerooms. first-class battle -ship is from a 13 -inch gun, and, weighs 1,150 pounds. The Gat - ling guns throw bullets weighing about three -tenths oft an ounce. A shower from the Getting 'guns soon clears the deck of an enemy's vessel. ee new cork has been contrived. It is intended for medicine bottles, and en- ables a person to measuxe a, liquid drop by drop. Tbe distinguishing features of this novelty are an air inlet and a liquid outlet, with a bulb over the air inlet to control the air vacuum in the bottle. A young widow in St. Louis has swung out her shingle as a barber, and is dotng a profitable business. Her sign reads: "Miss Boyd, Barber," because she is of the opinion that men prefer tot be shaved. by a lady who bas no hus- band to make himself disagreeable in the presence of her patrons. A near-sighted old gentlema,n in Con shohocken, Pa., has a beard about tan inches in length, and he is very fond of it. The other day, while repairing a pie,ket Ream he unintentionally nailed his beard between the crossbar and the railing. When about to move off, he found. himself fast, like a chained dog. •A valuable gold mine in the Sierra Madre Meientabas, Chihuahua, Meeieo, was worked eighty years ago by a par- ty 'of Spaniards. The Apaches drove them away and since that time all trace of it Was lost. A short time ago it was accidentally discovered by J. Newtoel Fowler, of Brooklyn, N. Y., while pursuing a wounded deer. Rich. epecimens of gold were consplcueusly evident in every part of it. A PLEA FOR LESS STUDY. rellieleti French Scientist Says That ran Should NOVO TIVIee as Duch. Play. M. Berthelot, the famous French sci- entist says thet children in school should have twiee as much play as they character of their studies. In a.n uddreee before a scientific body in Parte M. Berthelot mad millions of. frame were waisted every year in pour- ing learning into sieves. . "According to the edueational meth- od in vogue" teed Berthelot "most of the education goes in et one ear and out at, the °titer without leeving any ether impression than mental disgust for fat -thee educatioe. What educatore neediodo is to eget aside at onoe that iniquitous iestitution 4:a lied weekly examinetIon," 'wheel compels the pupil system of interesting eaoh pupil's mind in pa,rticaler studiee by pointing out to hien how he individually ba,s a perm- anent, interest in pursuing them, and. then give the ;mpil plenty of leisere subjects of stue•y, ehorten the bouts, gt)iowstiliirt: :ler whet lete been told hin.t. then], be es brief and 0.$3 tar apart, as conclueion. "Broduee the number of and 1.1 lee are to have examinations lei, The man who inie never been in dan. New 004'3 fief, Tee father of the neW baby take; the child. in a way that entitles Idea almost to be Called the new father. He ness. "I am ueitble, quite unable," he eaid, in an interview, "to treat tile new That IS why I hate to have anybody dandle, shake, or tickle it. It slieme to be the desire of relatives and fa:Leda to go through some violent contortion in order to extore some violent emotion in the baby. They treet the ').,utby, in a special way, and that opecieleeke... Is an extraveigant way, but th‘re no reason why the baby should not be treated seberly, like anybody elle% interested, in the baby as they ate ite theraselves. They seek to attract the baby's attention, to ecitablish relations between themselves and. the baby. That, is not the way to take the baby seri- ously; it is selfish end superficial. I ara SO itineh interested. in the baby that I do uot feel that there are an'y re - haloes between it and Me. With °the ere with grawn people, I feel that I both give and, receive ; X have to do with them because I wish to establish a reciprocaa relation. Bat I take the baby absolutely. I never think of its feelings or relation to me, but seedy, of its good and its future, and, there. fere, I let it alone as much as I can. I know that the nurse, in spite of all that I can do, talks and laughs to it too much, and' so.I keep away from it as much as possible. Sometimes when it is lying alone in its crib and I pass the open door, it yells to met with all the force of its be:I:tenths-old lungs, and wants me to come in ; but do not, although I love nothing more in the world than tto look at it -without speaking as it lies quietly in its crib. eanorw that others excite it so much that it is nay bueiness not to add to its future weakness and hysteria. "When I do go to see it I look at ill with anxiety, sweet anxiety, but yet anxiety rather than delight, for I al. ways think- then of its future. And when I am. alone, too, after my work, I think of its future, how its life would habepafpefnee,,t,ed lay casualties which anktght "I was told the other day," said the: visitor, "that the doctor had said: thet it was neoessery to shake the baby oc- casionally for the sake of its digestiont and that tcansequ.ently, you had in- formed the nurse that she might agi- tate it gently new and then, but nev- er to do so when the baby wanted it, and always to stop when the baby be- gan to show pleasure, for then the---, nervous excitexnent would. be too arTerariather smiled a patient, beatific smile. "Of course," he said, "people will burlesque and parody anything they can.° Parody is easy. I often indulge in parody myself, but -never do in matters in which I a,na profoundly interested or which are very important. What I really said to the nurse was that she shateld not make the doctor's demand ell excuse for illegitimate ex- citement of the baby.; that she should, not use the plea of the baby's' diger', tion as an excuse for satisfying her ex. plasive tenderness toward the helpless little creature. "The present nurse loves the. baby, That, in itself, is no fault, but it Irma to a lot of senseless babble and. harm- ful gesticulations. I have to watch her( carefully, but she is preferable to tee last nurse, who took no interest oil any kind in the baby. The last nurse ' seemed really rather inhunaan about it. She seemed. to see no more in thl/ baby than she would have seen in a piece of clay, and su.ch points to too small a, soul to have a baby intrusted to. "We must," continued the fathere turning to the grandmother, "get a larger crib for the new baby. ln the' morning when it wakes up and finde itself sonarrowly'cabin'd, cribbed, con- fined' that it can't dart its strengtbene bag little neck from, side to side with - 'oat bumping its blooming head, it is peouliarly inclined to protest." "Yes," answered the grandmother, "and when I take it out of the crib and put it on the bed it rolls 'over in physical glee and howls with freedonat and delight. Oh! Oh! the dear little thing And the doctor said it ought to! be rushed upend clown the hall for its digestion's sake. And the poor little thing does look so pathetic the morning with that bandage around its head to keep its ears down I", The visitor emboldened by the telind of the grandmother's remarks, maid te the father: "How do you prevent the new baby frem. enjoying itself t 1 arelgive,s vent to deep and changing tones, indicaitive of interest in the de- velopment of its throat ; that it laughs wanhdlosmiislesnotwhbeiancekvej it sees anything The father didn't feel that it was necessary to °newer whet seemed to him a frivolous question, but a littlts later he confided to the visitor the deep aaenittioguare;ing horeor be felt for ind, duals who could not take eerions things "Apropos of your recent questioa, I may sey that it is not remarkable that the baby takes delight in its0f, for Thie reinark of the father might seem to indicate that he himself felt that his wen method in training n new baby had 'elements of sombernees. Bat be '• every deep and eerleus religion—and eomber element. MEANT ALIAS. Mre, Hank, looking up from Cho coune the swindler they've got in jail in town line two named t 'the paper calls him en one plaee, Bill jolinson, and, in another, Welber St. Elmo, " reamer Henk--Oh, jolineon is his real name; tbie other is his Ananias.