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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1906-8-30, Page 3NOTES AND COMMENTS Some interesting "motor" cases have Leen attracting 'subtle attention in t�ng- lOnd. The court of appeal has In one of thorn taken Maslen to lay down "thy rule of the road" as it applies to the conditions of the present day, the day of the auto and the motor bus and the aniateue chauffeur. 11 seem that an autoist hnd run down and killed a cyclist while the latter wns crossing railway tracks and "looking and list ening" for trains. A jury awarded the cyclist's widow $7,500 in dunnages, not- withstanding evidence introduced by the !naturist that lie !tad tried to at- tract the cyclist's attention by looting and shouting. An appeal from the Ver - diet in the trial court was taken, and the claim of contributory negligence on the part of the cyclist was earnestly urged. The court of appeal sustained the ver - diet, end the lord clim e:011ov explained the decision by saying that failure l0 heed the motor horn does not necessar- ily indicate negligence. "Vella people" said the lord chancellor, "are driving motor cars or other vehicles on the public highway they have the duly to remember that deaf persons, blind per- . sons and decrepit ofd persons are just as much entitled to use the public high- way as they are, and if anybody thinks proper so to drive that there is a chance of serious consequences from a mistake of. judgment or miscalculation, and those consequences are not averted, he Evill have to pay for them in damages." And this irrespective of the question of the speed regulation of the particular locality. The duty of reasonable care and diligence is not removed by a speed ordinance. The motorist must bear in mind that a safe rate Of speed under some circumstances becomes a danger- ous rate under others. And he must fol- low the general redo of reasonableness at all times. Under that rule deaf and infirm men have rights that autoisto are bound to respect. The horn serves its purpose in most cases, but not in all. To Mecca, not with pilgrim's staff and scrip, but lolling in a palace car, is the program for the Mussulmnn of 1900. The pilgrim route properly begins at Da- mascus, where the holy Lent is kept, and the pilgrim caravan leaves Damas- cus with great ceremony once a year at a period varying according to the Mo- hammedan calendar, and proceeds for the twenty-seven days' journey to Me- dina end Mecca. The exact inventor Of the clever scheme 01 constructing a rail- way along the route is not known, but in Turkey commonly Is supposed to be the coin nande• of the faithful himself. This well may be the case, for the pre- sent sultan is one of the most wary and capable of crowned heads, especially in matters relating to his sovereignty. 11 is obvious that the railway can trans- port soldiers as well as sacred pilgrims; and when the entire project is completed it will save not only, the passenger of the Suez canal, which, as being under Anglo-Egyptian control, is not favored by the authorities at Constantinople, even for pilgrims, but also will enable troops and 'arms to be sent to central Arabia without any risk of their being stopped in Egypt. Within the next sea- son travellers are expected to be able to visit the wonderful nines of Petra by this new laedjaz railway. Dr. He Bjoren Inas looked into the crater of a volcano while its forces were still lhrautening and while its fires were still incandescent. lie scaled tine cone of Vesuvius on April 22 and peered into the depths of the new crater. From the throat of the crater iie writes that he heard a annstent roaring, and saw ' that white clouds of vapor filled the huge hollow, but dict not see any ejec- tions of stones or dust. The inner walls of the crater nearly were perpendicular, partly overhanging, and he saw pieces or the narrow crater edge breaking down, and in this way still enlarging the orifice. The bottom of the crater WS not visible, but the walls could be seen to a depth of about 1,000 feet. 'rho ascent from Torre Annunzinta demand- ed care to avoid avalanches of stones and ashes still rushing from the cone a1(1 spreading over the slopes. The eruption of 11100 resembles that of 70 which buried Herculaneum and Pooped, in the smell quantity 'of lava ejected and the immense amount of volcanic ash and lapilli. The last of the fish in the basin of • the fountain of the Leeds City Art !Gallery is dead, and it is charged agajiist tall chlldeen, whose delight iL 1, to recd a fishes, that they have kill- ed then by the excess of their gener- ally. An important conference on the Eng. nab 'anal system took place at Be'. mingeam last week, when it was ad- vocated that the trunk lines from Ila)i ti, Bristol and London to Liverpool should be united, at a cost of about £0,000,000, and that the Rivers Thanes, Mersey, fiulOber, and Severn should be annealed, Sir Frederick Banbury has tntradtrc- oda bill le prohibit experiments upon dogs,e5either With 'or without anaosthe- 11, A SUMMER TRW TO ATLIN A CORNER OF THE NORTH. A CORNS NORTH, Dawson has its ehroniclars In history and lichen, but, except in mining re- ports, little has been said of AU1n. A two-weelcs' journey from the New York Grand Central' Station, the forth - faring traveler is Inclined to brag ot the arduous expedition to which the hand of the North is beckoning. Retuned, however, ono brags that it has been a fur easier task than to pay a call in Brooklyn, or to set foot in any mention- able corner of the borough of The Bronx, writes Marguerite Merington in Sunday Magazine. • Across a Summer -endued continent by modern train was a flight of pure enjoyment, with its wonderful panora- ma of cities, rose -clad prairies, snow• capped mountains. Vancouver, the Coastline point of dehntication, remind- ed one of Buffalo, or Toronto, with Its One water -line, well -gardened homes and splendid trees. An air of bustle pervaded it, marking it obviously as a point of arrival and departure. Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, was seven hours across the bay, and out of our way; but one must see Victoria, for 1,, Is a venerable city, measuring by the standards of the Pacific Coast. Ap- proaching, it seemed all harbour, so in- tricately did the sea curl about it, shores. Beacon 11111 was a brilliant patch of color with the bonny broom, udsod from seeds from the country that the colonist never ceases to call home. lu the distance the while peaks of the Olympic Mountains cut through fleecy clouds into a turquoise sky. Many French-Canadians and not a few Indian hal!-breeds are among the leading fam- ilia- of Victoria, nevertheless the city speaks In the English voice, with the provincial accent, and prides itself on its close kinship, socially, to the Mo- ther Country. Its naval harbor, Esqui- malt, is one of the gems of the West coast, BACK TO VANCOUVER. Lo embark for Slcagway; and then for three days we threaded a winding way up the Alaskan coast. Let those who yearly turn their faces to Europe—only and always to Europe—remember that a wonderful section of their own coun- try lies wafting to be explored. Dense woods covered the islands by which we gilded, so close that a stone's throw would reach some of the tali totem poles that marked the Indian villages upon the shore. Then the waters widened and we came upon glaciers that cast wonderful reflections as from mirrors to the sine\y king's palace, bedded be- tween white -capped, purple -shadowed mountains, while eagles screamed eerily overhead. Then up the Lynn Canal to Skagway. Over the White Pass Railway] What a great sense of height those words convey! We had thought ourselves on exulted ground when our trahn dencrd through the Sellcirks and nimbly climb- ed the Rockies; but here we were rid- ing on the ridge -pole of the world, where waterfalls and rivers had their source. A marvel of engineering, this road. We never lost our sense of security, no matter how dizzy the eminence from w111011 we gazed. Up, up, up, til we paused at Summit, whence one stream hurried with greeting to the United States, and from the sane spring an- other stream hurried with greeting to British North America, and the sister (lags and sister Customs buildings stood amicably side by side. A mounted policeman told us of a woman W110, coming out from, British territory, was so moved on seeing her own Stars and Stripes again that she wept for joy, and sang "America." while hugging the flngpole. On returning to the train, however, she discovered that 011e o1 Uncle Sam's then had confiscat- ed her sealskin Jacket for revenue, which so enraged her- that she turned right back died married the first miner who shoved a willing heart. Speaking -of willing hearts, at thin point we makeup first miler as fiction always pictures 11in1; the rough-and- ready soul in top boots and corduroys, who pulled forth a polce, a narrow chamois bag, FULL OF GOLD DUST AND NUGGETS, samples from his 0)8103s, and told our party with impartial levitation that he was"oohing for a wife. Mining ex - pats in the porty assured us that the samples shoved royal values; but we let the chance slip by, and went on to AL - tin. The live -hours' journey over the White Pass brought us to the steamer that was to take us on the all-night pas - sago across Lake Bennett. Discomfort here at last, you suggest? 1 native you not aboard an Atlantic line' is one more gently berthed or more' palatably (0(1. Morning found us at a portage, which we crossed in en open car hitched to a sparky and slcitlish locomotive, std then we were aboard a small steamer crossing Lake Attm. A'wide expanse, this inland sea, coldly blue, as are all glacier -fed streams, walled 033 the west I;y n stupendous pile of natural masonry. And smiling at us from 'the low, mice shore opposite, a pretty little port of entry to the gold -fields anmtg the hills beyond, was Attire Good roads, eharaeteristic of the Do- minion .Government, whoa loamy earth is mixed with building chips, divide the township into squares. Here and fico a poplar or spruce has been spared the axe to tell from what primeval begin- nings the camp has sorting. Inclostmes about the tents .and cabins there aro none, but willow bushes form a slight screen that enables you while doing your' waiting it the open to appear un- conscious of your neighbor eleaning his teeth at his back deer. Yes, you will have to do you' own washing, if, With a light purse, the tastes of effete re -elevation 51111 ening lo yoa. Ono modest dozen at the laundry oust mC four dollars and eighty-flve cells -;to' 11 .must be re1ellbered that Chinese end leponese cheep. Whet' le forbidden the precincts, that ell service commands five dollars a day, red that the married Weiner' who come into camp corny to wash for their own men, and the single women to And nh011 of their own to wash for. Water, more- over, has to be hauled up from the lake, or paid for at the rate of five cents the pull, when the waterrnan brings it by deg -learn to your door. Dog -teams form as picturesque a tea - lure of the life as they are an essential one, A waiter at the hotel in Victoria said to me: "You've been fetched up to think that dogs hadn't oughter do manual labor; but you'll soon get over that." And get over it I did, the mo- ment of our arrival, on seeing a fat child in a soap -box on wheels leaching a fat "husky" hots to drawl Descendants of northern wolves, these valuable mem- bers of a Klondike household have lost all trace of THEIR SAVAGE ANCESTRY. Two thousand foot above sea -level, only sixty degrees north latitude, yet there is a "crack o' doom" appearance In the fiery sunsets, a glacial brilliancy about the moon, an intensity of color in the Northern Lights, giving one a sense of being In the workshop of the world. The Celestial phenomena have justified the journey a hundredfold. The climate reminds me of that of the coast of Maine exaggerated. From June through September 1 slept between fur robes, but under mosquito -netting to es- cape the northern pest, which attacks with songless sling. The days are warm, but with a hint of chill, as if the sunlight had passed through icy cor- ridors. Living was primitive, but expensive. A five -cent lanp-chinney cost fifty cents, the dealer unblushingly slating that the extra charge was for freight. A small loaf of bread sold for ten cents. A well-intentioned dinner, mostly of canned things, could be obtained at a popular restaurant for half a dollar. Its style was lis allraction, for it boasted paper napkins, also every table stood in is own "cabinet parllculier," screened from its neighbors by curtains of blue- oheckee gingham. Vegetables grew readily; but few had time to spare Isom gold -hunting to grow Ihen. One thrifty German pined a deserved vogue for his lunch -counter by adding a lettuce leaf, or a radish, to every plate of bacon and eggs. And one Hover -lover found time to surround his cabin with a riot of poppies, sweet peas, nasltrtpms, that in their bloom- ing isolation reminded one of Celia Thaxter's garden on the Isle of Shoals. Balls, concerts, Ohurch-going, theatri- cals, all were here as elsewhere; but daily conversation was likely to turn on samples, values, claims, silver, "boa- nito"; but above all, gold, gold, gold! The men down on the creeks with !heir primitive gold -pans any cradles, the Huge monitors day and night storming Nature's earthworks at the hydraulic stands, iho huge stamp -mills, crushing and pounding—all were gold -seekers. THE SI -10W NUGGET OF ATLIN, found on Boulder Creek, was put into our hands. It was as big as one's two fists put together. Every man's undeveloped prospect is, of course, the finest thing thnt ever was; the only dilfleully is to fled a financial backer to believe in it. Companies are formed daily (in conversation); financed !heavily (in conversation) hy Eastern cap- italists who would laugh to !near how blithely their frames aro used to float these conversational enterprises. \Vhen it was rumored that a quint 1000 look- ing about hill, apparently at Lhe scen- ery, was a representative of Clerk, 01 Montana, Arlin boomed itself ferocious- ly. The impecunious man who had been stalled in the camp front its in- ception went out nlagniflcently (in con- versation) "to keep Christmas in God's country with the folks at home." Even the dreamt t whose ambition had nar- rowed down to the desire of possessing a pair of pink -silk pajamas, wart about (in converealfon] thus adorned. Here as elswhe'e the men who make n living aro those who work steadily, whether for wages or in independent venture, on assured ground. The men who lose ttrc those who dream oe drink end don't work. The large prizes that seem the result ot 0001(1 1, out that demand faith and Imagination as well as experience, go to those who dream and work. But atasl progress has been woefully retarded by litigation. When court is in session (he whole population crowds into Government Building, with griev- ances involving ditch, flume or dredg- ing rights, your tailings on my chin," and the Bice. An agreeable neighbor called on un every evening that he was lel out of jail on parole, or by mistake, Technically, lits offence consisted in having 'jumped a ditch." We rejoiced when he finally was nequitled, as all along he tearfully protested his Spot- less innocence. A difference in nnlionallty up there seems to be a bond of brotherhood. Dominion Davy and independence Day aro kept, In beaUlifUl paradox, on the. same date, the slslor flags lovingly in. 1 rrtwined, It was tile September. The wild roses were dead; the yellow sago -bins - sone withered on the bough; the hills no longer knee forget-me-not and cohun» bine. On the dark evergreen slopes Were mustard -color patches where beech and birch had tuned. There are no more long twilights. When the sun fell behind the mountains, shortening the daily path by enormous strides, a derknees 1050 like the tide, Though the stars were radiant overhead it wns Im- possible le distinguish the trail on which one's fent were eel. One well(od neck. high in is Erebt . Vo had to go. Soon the boats \engirt be lad by, and all the communication With the outer world cut off till the laces were hard -Pozen enntrgrh nor sled Wattle, Then \va should have to "[flush It." The ehecchako coveted the experi- enes; but our party had prourlseul to convey the AUin exhibit to the esposl- lion In tie held at Vieloria in honor of the Pr1n00 and Princess of Wales. We glider,! 0v01' the lake. Tawny with Au• Winn, AUin lay like a spirt( of geld - dust (hy miners called ''0 color") On the receding shore. A prospector standing by followed my farewell gloom. "Aye;" he remarked, charueler'lsti,rally, "you bet yam. hoots. she's 011 FUrrletivl, lit- tle proposition!" and then with a smile caught from the last rays of the sun, Atlin vanished behind 1101 mountains, WHAT THE MAGNET DOES 1'1' IS VERY USEFUL COMMERCIALLY AND MEDICALLY. 'The !Deny Remarkable Uses to Which It is Put and Which Work POl'dectly. Every schoolboy knows the mag;lo lit- tle piece of bent steel --pointed red ex- cept at the ends—to which other pieces of steel or iron will attach themselves as though aided by glue or some other slle..y substance, and which cal 1111 - part its own wonderful attractive pow- er to other pieces of steel, such as the blade of a knife, apparently without any diminution m uUon of its own strength. This force which delights the school- boy, is utilized by the engineer in ninny wonderful ways. Tho results he attains we see in the electric light, the electric bell; in the telephone and telegraph, as well as In the motor -car and mariner s compass. But the magnet is used in many o111et' interesting ways that are not so gener- ally known. Ton or fifteen years ago all boxes were made by hard, a skilled workman turning out from two to three dozen In an hour. Nov, by the aid of a wonderful machine, a girl can produce as many gross in the same thee. The working of the machine is sim- plicity itself, but nevertheless it is a mar• vel of Ingenuity. Nails are fed into it, and find tired' way Into a slot. A mag- net seizes them one by one, and holds fhem In place till the hammer drives then home. NO MORE DAMAGED THUMBS. From up-to-date stoops a magnetic tack hummer may be purchased, and a very ingenious little tool it is. A trap opens in the handle, and through this a !handful of tacks is poured. They find their way into a tiny slut, as in the box -making machine, and one adheres, point downwards, to the head of the hemmer, which is magnetic. When the blow is struck, 111e tack enters the floor, the hammer is raised, and, to there is another tack ready. What a boon this must be to 1110 thrifty housekeepers who possess IL1 What a saving in patience and bruised thumbs! It is not generally known that a com- bination of electro -magnets is used in Ibe handling of heavy metals in large engineering works in connection with smelling furnaces, and in forges where very heavy bars of iron or steel have to be moved about. They usually/work in connection with travelling cranes, weights up to a ton being thus hand- led. In engineering workshops, trolleys with magnets attached are often used to collect the filings and cuttings that have got mixed with dust and other rubbish on the floor. A SAVING OF WASTE. These ere the waste materials trait the turning lathes and fitting benches, and are valuable as scrap to be melted down and utilized for castings, Here again, the magnet used is an electro -magnet. That is to say, the mag- netism is induced by an electric current. When it has gathered up as much as it can conveniently carry, It is swung with lis burden over the trolley, tine current i, braken or reversed, and, the mag- netic force ceasing to operate, the load 13 discharged into the truck, when the operation is repeated until the trolley is full. In 1800, the year of the great eyele. craze, in the city of Rochester, N. Y.,. ar bicycle track was constructed,- the top dressing being fine ashes. When t10 track wns opened, a groat number of complaints ware received from its patrons because their tyres were con- stantly being punctured. The puncture was just a tiny round holo, but often es many as five or six would be found in one tyre after it had been over the track; nor 30118 any ex- planation .fortheoming xplahation.fortheoming until full inquir- ies had been instituted. At last, bow - ever, the phenomenon was accounted for. FOR OPERATIONS ON TILE EYi;, Rochester is the greatest boot and shoe manufacturing centro In the world, and from some of its great ffClories the ashes used on the track had come. Large quenUUes of tools and shoes had been destroyed by fire in one of these fooleries, and it was my nails front these that ihnd been doing the nischief to the machines. But bow to get rid of the nuisance? The authorities were at a loss until an engineer suggested magnets. The ashes were loosened with rakes, and several magnets 30010 passed repeatedly over the track, which wns ever afterwards considered one of the best in Now York State, In such workshops as wo have rest Honed abev°, it le 130 U110o1m11on act dent fora workman to get tiny particles of slrel or iron, causing very painfte irritation in the rye. The most effec- live instrument in such eases, 1s a small magnet, which, if the aye be held open, and the magnet held close, will quickly relieve 1110 suftr•er, Some tiny years ago a German seiat- tist and philosopher-13nrorl Von Retch- onbach--eslabllshod the feet, by many cxpet']tnonls with 5111.11131 persons,cthrti there erhmnntes free) =gene a Taint ltunhiosily, and t0 prove that these peo- ple weans' sow what they (108011bod Ito mode !hent Ont 030011010 hidden in c)arlconod morns; llelehrnbsOh oalled tiese entannliols nine !'e'ee," old de - swelled them as a fluid,•--l'earsol's Weekly. MOST AMAZJNG ROMANCE LAKE OF Gl'ATA'i'1'I'A SAiD 7'0 CON- TAIN VAST WEAL'1'3I. Capitalists Interested in an Mewl t0 Recover $500,000,O4 From lite "Gilded elan." In a 5101111 lily melee sealed in Len. cion, England, MAYS 1S allxinti$ly await - id 11.110 a nran who Is .flung nn Ilse edge id a mountain lnke in r.nbaulrn, Central America, waiting for rein. 11,533 rain may mean for him, and for elm'o in the city ofiloe In London the recov- ery of treasure worth, so experts say, at least 8500,000,000, The hero of the vigil is 11. Knowles, rnanaging director In Bogota of Contractors,' Limited. The story of the company is one of lite most urnazillg romances of Ireasltre- seeking in history. The Lake of On tin - vita, in Colombia, lies in Ilan 1t115]0 form- ed by the cone of an extinct velnalo. It Is Stine to ten thousand feet above the sea level, and it Is but a few mites from the thriving little coal city of fin QM. Many centuries ago it was the Sacred Lake of the Chlheln-s, n .nee witch at the time of the Spanish conquest num- bered over 1,000,0011 individuals, The Chibchas wiretapped the "Gilded Men," find devoutly believed that their deity made his home at tin talion: of the Lnhce of tuntavila. Periodically they are deol,red In have made pllgriutagee te the lake, when they cast every im- aginable kind of treasure, gold, envie, and jewels into the wafers with the ob- ject of propitiating the "Gilded Man,' who through his array of priests threat- ened all kinds of pains and penalties un- less the treasure were offered in sufRci- ent quuntilles. Tia story of the Chi- bchas has maty times been investigat- ed by travellers, and all agree in be- lieving that the lake contains untold treasures. itumboldt, the famous trav- eler and historian, wns ens of those who estimated its value at $500,000,000. A PROSAIC BRiTI,SII SYNDICATE. Qnesado, the Spanish conqueror of the Chibchas, was told the story of the treasure, and succeeded in reducing the water of the lake, then 214 feet deep, to fifteen feet. Then the sides In in and all his labor was wasted. Further at- tempts were abandoned, and the lake regnined to a very large extent its for- me' depth. \\lien the Spanish great administrator failed, hovever, Con tree - tors, Liniibri1, a prosaic British syndi• cute, formed just over six years ago, has determined to succeed. The syndi- cate was formed for the purpose of ex- ploiting a concession 011151ned from the Colombian Government to drain the lake and recover for their own use the tree. sure believed to be hidden by its waters. Among its directors are R. J. Price, M. P. for the eastern division of Nor- folk, chairman, and C. J. de Marietta. Its capital was originally $150,000, and was incre used to $170,000 in 1903, After six years of laird work, how- ever, some of those connected with the comnnny fire hnginnning to believe that the "Gilded Man" Is still at the bottom of the lake guarding his treasure. En- couraging finds of isolated gold and sil- ver gods, and jewelled goddesses have from tine to time supported the tradi- tion of the treasure, but so far the dreams of untold health have not ma- terialized. First the lake was drained. IL \vos not an easy task, for it is some nine miles 111 length, and unforeseen dirculties were continually confronting the workers. The most harassing of these was the constant rain, which, win- ter and summer, hardly ever ceased. At last, however, towards the end of 1901 the welcome news reached Lon- don that Mr. Knowles and his staff of engineers and workmen had suocededin cutting through the basin of the lake, a1(1 lila water had been drained oft suc- cessfully. Thee was a great jubilation, and preparations were made for the largo consignments of gold. silver a1d jewels which Wright be expected to ar- rive by the next beefs. Unfortunately, however, tine water is not the only bar- rier on which the "Gilded Man" has to rely for the selekeeping of his treasure. The jebila1ion in London was summar- ily ended by a cablegram stating that twenty-five feet of solid mud, or some 3e,000,000 cubic feet in all, still lay be- tween the treasure seekers and their quest. A new engineering feat was de- cided on—the construction of a great dao across the hole made in the side of lite basin terminating in a shaft through which the mud should be wnsih- ed. and carefully precipitated, so as to secure the gold and silver treasures as they were distributed from their hiding place of centuries. The dam was eon- struated, and with it the cleansing shaft, but while the work was in progress a strange thing had happened. WAITING FOR TIIC RAIN NOW. The "Gilded Man" was evidently at Work again. For over three years the engineers had worked in the rain, in such a downpour, indeed, 135 was un- precedented in Central America. As the water ran from the lake, however, the rain had stopped, and a drought equally without a parallel in 1110 history of the country set in. For more than two mid a half years 110E a drop of rain has 1511011 at the scene of the operations and when the engineers had completed the Construction of the dant it was only lo find that the sun had baked the 80,- 000,000 cubic feet of mud into the con- steteney of hard rock. Then, metaphor- ically speaking, the engineers sat down and wept, The rock -like substance still lies as en .ilnpetelrn.ble bomb -proof ild over lire 'golden gods and the silver dish- es and arnam031t1, bo soy nothing 0f the jewelled goddesses aul arch' giilte•hhe handlrlaidons, Tha few 111111 )5 In iho region, remnants of the greet race of Chibchas, occasionally visit the scene, find smile choei+fully at the downcast. Englishmen, "It rs all the work of the 'Gilded Man,' who is watching over his hren5ure mountain," they say, and they plainly hint that when the rain comes - 11 ever it does eeme-to soften the mud, some other obstacle win defeat 1110 de, sire of the teensure-seekers. Lettter nttor letter from •Ah, Knowles to the little office in London dejedly reteee I (110 determined opens! .i utcteon Nahlre has plead in his 33'113'. "f regret to say la111 ahsnlutely retu5es to fell here," he wrote in erne of ]nletters, The Gilded Man Is Caking care 01 his owr7, QUEEREST OF HOBBIES A REMARKABLE' COLLECTION OF WISI1.1IONI1S, Man Who flus Many Boxes CottalnJn Hundreds of Mementoes of Dead Birds. JAPAN GROWS ARROGANT MUST CUI'ICIC F41151GN TBAR61, TI1E]' DEG( A. 0 Wishes to Capture the Sea Garr 110 Trade in the Waters East of Suez. Perhaps the most extraordinary hub- by of any living 11mn to 111(11 of Mr. Joseph Harkins, of Cineinnali, who fur upwards of iwenly-five years 1111s been colliding wish -bones. I low many he 13030 bas in his possession he himself would J1ahnhly find it difficult to say, but that the number runs into several tboas+and+ is rerlain. The writer wee shown four large hazes containing many hundreds of wish -bones, all care- fully wrapped in soft blue tissue -paper, and 1110 collector acknowledged that lie had several more boxes in storage. all filled with the 001115 remarkable me- mentoes of dead and gorge birds. "Plow f carne to take up the hobhy of cullecting wish -bones," Mr. 1borkins said to the interviewer, "is rather an interesting little story, and one 1 flat- ter myself, which is not altogether with- out a touch of romance. Twenty -due years ego—to he excite. on the 241h of Mach, 1881—I was invited to attend a reunion dinner•paely, and it was my good fortune to be introduced to a Miss Mary 'J'haylhe, a very pretty girl of nut more than eighteen. During the Inter- val before dinner the CHATTED ON VARIOUS TOPICS, and I soon found that site was as Sen- sible as she was beautiful, and when our hostess asked me to take her in to dinner and look after her I thought I was pretty lucky. "Well, it happened that one of the courses provided for our consideration was boiled 'squab,' and, as luck would have it, Miss Thayne got the wish -bone. She ]aid it on the side of her plate, and when the course was finished she trans- ferred it to her serviette, declaring that schen dinner was over 1 must pull it with her. She was full of 0113 and good spirits, .and before the ladies left the labie we pulled tee wish -hone be- tween us, and I secured the lion's share. What 1 wished you may easily guess, for I was already head over ears In love with my pretty charge, and long before 1 said good-bye to her that night 1 had determined that if she were wil- ling she only should be my wife. Well, 1 need only add that a year later I rea- lized my wish, for the young Indy said it would be a pity to spoil my faith in wish -bones by refusing my request. "That was the foundation of my hob- by for collecting wish -bones. The one that bad played so important a part in my Me I took home with me, and, be- ing very sentimental at 111e time, 1 Thal the two fragments joined together with gold bands, and"—going to a small cab- inet near the window, and carefully opening it—"here it is." The wish -bone was A VERY TINY ONE, but it had been big with fate, and I did not wonder that i11r. Harkins prized it above all the. rest. "Since we broke that first wish -bone,' continued the collector, gazing at the little memento with real affection, "I have always taken a sperdal interest in that part of a bird's anatomy, and whenever 1 Or my wife got the wish- bone of any fowl we kept it, polished it, and lied a label to it, giving 1011 par- ticulars of the circumstances under which we obtained ft. Soon our friends learned of our hobby, and we began to get wish -bones from all parts of the country. \Ve considered it a joke at first, but when they began to arrive with the mat interesting labels apach- es we commenced to take the greatest interest in our collection and to watch it grow with real pleasure. "I believe my collection now includes wish -bones of almost every kind of known bird, from the biggest to the smallest, and some of them are extreme- ly rare and valuable. I suppose the biggest wish -bolas 1 possess are those of a couple of ostriches, which were sent to me from South Africa some years ago. The emu wishbones run then pretty close, but they are not quite so lung. 'file wish -bones of domestic lowls, such as turkeys, ducks, squabs, geese, pheasants, partridges, quail, snipe, etc., which 1 possess are, of course, interesting on account of the circumstances connected with them RATHER THAN THEIR RARITY. "I have 5113111 tt'ielr-bones from almost every important public banquet which has taken place In America during the last twenty years, each bone being lab- elled with the dale of the function, the notabilities that were present, and other particulars of interest. From my wish- bones 1 believe 1 could write a complete history of the banquets which have been given in the States since 1685. The 81110110st wish -bone I have in my eel ]cellon is that 0f a South African honey bird, which is so minute that it would take several irurl(lreds of titer! to weigh an ounce. "This collection of wish -bones has not been without its educational side ei- ther, for it has led me to take an inter- est in ornithology, especially ifs ana- tomical 1)010011, and 1 feel confident that If you Were la select any wish -bone from 017 'collection Mat you chose 1 could give you is half-hour leQcture on the habits of the bird to wl11cTn it once belonged." BANQUET IN A COAL -,MINE. Lord Northcote, Governor -Conant of Australia, 3115 enlnrteineilto a hanged in a coal -mine at Newcastle, Nov South Wales. The banquettng.1hall was 800 feet below the surface. It is reported that the King 30111 pay a shot visit to Christinia in the autumn, A man has been fined :010 at Bradford for driving n motor-bieycle at seventy mites an hour, The Sunderland tinily Post and Her- ald, old, iho oldest o er 011 Wearside, leas Ceased-pnbliCatioh'i. The Nippon-Yusen-Kaisha is the great mercantile shipping company that 13 heavily subsidized by the Japanese Government, and 1s under agreement to provide transports in case of war. 11 was fist called to perform that service on the occasion of the u..iue-Japan War, and later, during the Russo- Japanese War. Its managing director is the nominee of the Imperial Govern- ment and his utterances may therefore be taken to indicate the policy Of the country, especially his official elate - meets. The foreign comntunttfes In the Far East, but principally the British, as controlling alone more shipping in three waters than all the rest of the world combined, have been startled by, a published statement of Mr. Iwanaga, the managing director of the. Nippon' Yusen-Kaistla to check the arrogance of foreign steamers to the east of Suez. BLOW AIMED AT BRITAIN. Considering that Great Britain Owns an Asiatic empire in the waters indi- caled, with More than seven times the population of Japan, the proposition sounds arrogant enough, However, by, itself the statement would be serious, but the Japanese Steamship Conmemy has started in, on the heavy subsidies received from the Government, to cut rates between all Eastern ports to a nominal figure, of which they are tak- ing full advantage to export Japanese. manufactures to China, and particular- ly to supply the whole trade of. Man- churia, which Is still a Japanese pre- serve. Foreign merchants complain bitterly that the "open door" is a fic- tion, as the Japanese authorities, which control the Customs and railways in Manchuria, are discriminating in favor of their own people to such an extent that the prospect of ever recovering the limp trade that existed before the war is most gloomy indeed. REACHING OUT F011 TRADE. The Nippon-Yusen-Katsha secured some time ago an important English line of steamers that traded on the Yangtse, the great commercial artery If Middle China, on which are situated` large and populous cities, and lately they have acquired tb.e Pacific Mail Company trading to San Francisco, so that with their European, Indian, Aus- tralian. American and other lines, there is likelihood of very hard times ahead tor the non -subsidized companies. nnost of which aro British. The subsidies paid by the Japanese Government are so enormous that they are outiieient to pay running expenses and a dividend even if the freight earnings are reduced to zero. Before the war with Russia broke out a Japanese syndicate ap- proached some United Slates capitalists with a proposal to open a line from Japan to South America, and demon- strated that the subsidies the Govern - melt was willing to pay would yield a good dividend, though lnht little freight could be got between the two marlcets. The war, however, put an end to the negotiations, but the fact that they were opened will indicate lire trend of Japan- ese ambitions. SALTED `BALE. Some Say 1t Is Better Than Poor Salted Beef—South America Cries for ft. The preservation and exportation of whale meat is becoming a big Industry in parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; For some time past the fishermen of Gaspe have been in the inabit of ,salt- ing down portions of the moat of the whale for their ovn use when short of other food, but now it Is 'found that the article is eagerly consumed by some of the South American peoples and conse- quently it is becoming quite an article of commerce. One company has established a large plant on an island In the region known es Seven Islands, in the north of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and maintains a regular whaling steamer to kill and tow in the whales to the factory, Two spe- cies of whales are taken, the lumped back and Ilse sulphur bottom. They are so plentiful that there is no d!fii• malty in killing and towing to the fac- tory one a day, which is all that the present capacity of the factory can ac- comuodate. Each whale is valued at about $2,000, so that the business Is a very lucrative one. Formerly all the flesh went into guano which is worth $30 to $35 a ton,Now, however, the prince meat is all salted down for food, and excellent eating it makes, too, for those who like it, many contending that it is superior 10 the coarser grades of beef salted in barrels, especially when used in stews and hashes, or served up as corned beef. China is sad to offer an excellent market for the meat, but at present the initial company in the St. Lawrence, 31111011 is likely to be soon followed by several. others, has it demand for all that it can ship to South America, Itl7'ING 'WELL. First Fishermafl—Getting any biles, Second Fisherman --Yes. First Fisherman—Perch? Second Flshernlat,-,No; Inesqultoe9.