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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1897-11-5, Page 22 A WILJ YAR TU ,$R1J'SSEIJ POST. Nov. 15, 1897 .uv,,,r,.•r,. � w+wrw.r�w+r,:Wuq„41N 4,Tq'VMl.atw WaIA„pau+,w r,rw„•W �,rv�..wgr�,�',KMMW.�Ap I� everything for him that skill and mei- once rendered possible, and all question oe apaoifie treatment had been at an enol for thirty-six hours or more. But he was still very 11I, and by no means •out of danger of the secondarY nom” "Tell us a snake -story, doctor. to the pies en rosy and a^h'uch-is as plications-tgiot eoldom fatal In them 7'1 e demand this e.'itliar farm I'aiw and as engrossing now as in the selves -which may follow a venomous 1 d mau was manifested. ! tal'lnning,--o a sear h soeom tarot an dote inucula_tioa-shock, gangrene, blood- nP mental refreshment I l ud ship a youngpa man certainly on lt]Lo right ltisnni tg' and other disastrous wnale by the fifth officer of the bu I y isright 1 q ees. Tha bitten 1 an Chittagong, then steaming northward side of tort unmarried and Pe arm . it t side of the chest, y, atll even ha a1 til wherewithal. to ensure tile timely wars terrible swollen, and the email- independ" tuLionnl symptoms savers, up the Reil Sea at a speed which evoke, the tepid ghost of a breeze out of the :,.ppearance of the dai4'y bread ent:iy of labor with bend( or •brain even stagnant stillness simmering over the in that ruinous part of the word, g S ,i native ,Braztheie Ind; a Portuenose, gulf, and sent Jebel Za*ar slipping w'ho atter sCtidying in the uuedical front bow to quarter in the brist inter- as." is �f Paris and Vienna, had left val between day and darkness. BOOS lag little oC a temperature which might embarrassed a salamander, we crowd- ed, seven or eight of is. like true fatu- ons Britons, into a cabin ten feet by eight and a half, the bedroom, sitting - room, library, study, surgery, mena- gerie, and general "den" of the ship's doctor, to whom the above invocation was addressed. "Snake -story 1" ejaou:nted the man of medui.ne in a tone oC cynical disgust, as ba sat swinging his legs over the lee -board of his bank, "What do you want a snake -story for? Isn't the story of a snake enough for Sou t1/° natural life -history of any one of. them? Why, you, might chop out a half-inch slice from this beast any- where you like 'twist stem and stern, and find more wonders and marvels in it, and real ones too, then you will get in all the penny -horrible snake -yarns ever invented. But thefaet is, people will swallow any amount of nonsense about snake -charming and fights with serpents forty yards long, when they wouldn't believe the extraordinary things that are sunp:y commonplace, everyday facts about them. For in- stance, take the abnorm•il • trihu tion of the internal organs, asymmetri- cal enough almost to shake one's faith in what is regarded as universally characteristic of the vertebrate, that lateral— There, don't howl ! I'mnot going to lecture! Don't light up till I've stowed these reptiles away, fox they can't stand smoke, and then I'll tell you one of the ,queerest things about serpents that ever came tomy knowledge -outside themselves, that is; queer enough to satisfy the fiver there, and true into the hargain.-flet off from the lid of the washstand for a moment, you two, while I chock these boxes off with my instruments -case, a.:l snug. Mind none of you come to me to have your teeth out after we leave the Canal; I don't want to find my snake -cage playing Isaac and Joss all over the cabin, if it comes on to blow in the Mediterranean, and she ro'!ls I" A silvery slender Cingalesa rat -snake, whin/ had been nervously twining its simuaus'length in and out between the speaker's accustomed hands end around his arms, was allowed to slide bark into its prison of mahogany-prote'ted glass and perforated zinc; while the occas- ional ccas ional hiss of a couple of sullen rock - pythons lying in an open box at Lis feet was smo.hered by the interposi- tion of the shutter which secured their traveling -quarters,. Possibly we all felt a little more comfortable when they were thus packed up and put to bad, tu spite of our confidence in the doctor's assurance that we were in no danger of attack by his weird pets, The medical officer of the Chittagong was, as he himself expressed it, a con- firmed ophiomaniac; tiff.'toted with a lunacy for all reptiles and creeping things, but hope.eSsly "gone" over snakes, which he caught or bought at every practicable opportunity, and fed and fondled till he reached home, where the surplus of his large private muse- um ashore went in the form of dona- tions or exchanges to every zoological collection in Europe. The serpents' cages being safely fix- ed between the shut -up washing -stand and the chest of drawers, and se form- ing an additional settee, which light- ened the cover of the former apparatus of one moiety of its disproportionate burden, ]Halt -a -dozen pipes contribut- ed their caloric to the already seeth- ing atmosphere, unrelieved by the ang- led scoop-shaped openlscuttlich e for any stray pulsation of th'e sultry night. Go.d-laced caps were tossed aside and braes buttons loosed as the smokers relaxed their huddled -up limbs as far as the narrow accommodation and scanty human anchorage would allow, while the doctor extended himself at full length high above uW on the grass mat which served him for bed-olothes. And in an endurance at heat and smoke which might have quellified for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade or earned the V1ctoria Cross, he spun' the follow- ing: You can't go m for out-of-the-way kind of "eritturs" like these all your life without meeting with some ad- ventures more or less strange in con- nection with them. I have run across a few in my time, as you know by the fang Marks end scars on my arms and neck ; Lnvt I don't think anything that has ever occurred within my experieuue at things snaky -and I was born and brought up amongst them and have been m pretty cfase companionship with them all my days -nothing, I say, that I have known of them in their casual relations with human beings has been mare replete with glamour end romance and mysticism than the even'. I am going to relate, Though I stuck to my original position for x11 thee, remember -that the ani- Iierope to Lake up lee abode in trop .ands in order to facilitate his special pursuit. Lacerda with his perman- ganate of potash theory had. not arisen in Rio at that time; 11o1foard's expert- ments with ammonia on the thana- tophidia of Australia, and those of Fayy��rer in India, were too remota)" 04- pen - in to impress a South American pub:Se ; and a taste for the collection et living serpents and an investigation of their manners andcustoms were apt to be regarded as a curious ihaeee of mental aberration in those di15 by the " Fihlminenses," as the'inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro joautlarly style them- selves. Perhaps it was a consciousness unless of this which led sus oplillog take h]mselff and his reptiles to uta, Pic- turesque nook on the island of 1 aq one of the largest of the three hundred and sixty-five which dot the albrime bay. Here he established his vivarium. and read, and wrote, analysed, and dis- sected; attended by his black servants, 10 very cool and comfortable quarters, 1104 varying the routine of his fife by snake -hunting excursions into the in- terior, or holidaying trips to the citY, fifteen miles off; for urs devotion to work by no means precluded bis en- joyment of social pleasures. \\'Liu i he entree into the best native and foreign s00Lety, he would run over at frequent interveles in his little steam -launch and put up for a week or so at the Estrangeiros or Carson's, while, be ed in the amusement of the gaiety- bying town. Let me say at once that 1 firmly believe him to have been en honest enthusiastic, student oC his sgjbect, an earnest laborer in the vineyard of science, and one who must have Left his name written in golden characters upon the history of re- search, Metier the tragedy in whish be and all that should have made his fame were host. It 1408 my great wish to meet him in person ; for our common craze hada.lready knit a bond ofunion and had led to correspondence between us; but I never saw Jahn, though 1 stood by his dishonored grave before the earth had lain many hours upon hint. Poor fellow! ' but there lyase certain ,appearances and pheno- mena in the case which 1 could not re- conelle with any past experience 1.of these matters, though the Brazilian doctors, not being specialists in this form of injury,. had perceived nothing anomalous in them, ,And so It came about that on my mentioning these dlis- erepanciies to the sufferer's charming wife and his father-in-law, the obvious sir of mystery and reserve which had manifested itself all tbrough their mg - (Outside in the glory of the sunshine stood the Portuguese, leaning against a olump of bamboo in the garden, dead, The splintered glass which her hand had mechanically retained had struck bine in the neck as she pushed luta aside from his lethal work, pene- trating his dartoid artery, and he had bled to death in a few mwnents. 1 suppose some influence lit high places and a sufficiency of milreis notes ar- ranged what little was left between him and the concerns of the newtdi, Anyhow, be was huddled tato the ground the same night, and next dna' rho Jornal 110 Commerelo informed. Its readers that ho 1104 been 111110(1 by a curuoucu, Caro, 51(111(11 surgery, and (1 grand constitution pulled the patient out of e, perfectly as far as his general health wtheas firconcernedand,he ultimately recovered though lie never fully regained the us° of his band and arm• There could be no doubt as to what had happened; but I believe that no one but mimed anxiety was resolved, after a the eefe, her father, and myself e brief consultation between them, fly shared with the victim the true explan- their confiding to me the secret of this ation. The Brazilian doctors bad eat - hideous affair. No wonder that they orally accepted without cavil the state - were almost beside themselves with want that ,the hand which by the time grief and horror and the eansoious ne- the33' examined it bad undergone auc11 cessity of suppression and ooncealmentl disfiguration as to mask any original You have guessed, of course, who the fang -wounds, had beau bitten by a patient was -the newly -made Benedict. venomous serpent whieh had escaped As I have intimated the naturalist unidentified -for the little Philodryas had been received by them with open viridissimus, the lithe green whip- arms, for no suspicion of the emotion snake, had made good its exit in the entertained 11y him had crossed their confusion and, was seen no more. The minds.'Unaffectedly desirous tbeyehaJ description given of it, however, was the recent civilities at Tijuca, unmistakable, and could not possibly exerted themselves to the utmost to be confounded with that of any 1?ols- render his visit a pleasant and mem- 0nous snake; it is a species which lives orable one; indeed, so fervid 54115 the chiefly in trees and bushes, fending on warmth of their hospitality that they lizards and leaf -frogs, and is very (=- had even dons their best to procure mon in that region. 2 may add that live serpents for him. In this endeav- on more than one subsequent occasion or, however, they had been successful a similar specimen was recognized with - only to a very limited extent, since the out a moment's hesitation by all those slaves who were sent out to scour the who had, been brought in contact with forest -clothed hills for bixos brought the reptile in question -a creature ale - in but one specimen uninjured among solutely destitute of fangs or poison - many dead, and that one proved to b° lwgs, and possessing less power of in - of no great scientific interest, though flirting injury than a mouse. It may n pretty and harmless little creature, be that the whole train of events, seem - a bright grass -green whip -snake. Its ingly fortuitous, was the result of a recipient taking it,out of the glass jar baleful forethought, and, design on the in which its captors had imprisoned it, part of the unlhappy man. More pro - as coolly and quietly as though it had fifthly, as it appears to me, he was in- been a yard of inanimate ribbon, op- norent of tiny purpose until struck by tined its long arrow -shaped jaws to de- the diabolical idea that the harmless monatrate the absence of fangs in its scratch might be converted into a mouth, and then proposed that his host- death -dealing catastrophe by the means ass sbouldi herself retain it as n pet, which his pursuit of scientific investigar showing her how to handle it so as to tions had placed at, his disposal -an idea avoid exciting its anger. This she ne- perhaps actually engendered( by the coinplished-most women San manipul- fright and unreasoning fears of his ate a snake far better than a man -to dupe. But howsoever the horrible in - her half -terrified delight; and present- tent may have originated, it is certain ly her husband who had been abjectly that the matter contained in the tu- afraid of the reptile at first, growing bale was the venom of one of the great bolder by the contagion of her tenter- viperine serpents which abound. in the sty, tools it gingerly in his fingers- tropical parts of South America, most with the usual result. It bit hun with likely a rattlesnake. His collection at a sharp plunge -only a scratch is the Pagueta included a large number of angle between the forefinger and these crotalines, which I believe to be thumb, just enough to draw blood; alit the most virulent serpents on earth; he flung the poor whip -snake no the and that 11e stored the poison for ex - ground in fright and disgust, and be- perimental uses was proved by the air - gen to nurse his hand. cumstance that a considerable quantity "Do not be alarmed!" said the guest, of it was found amongst his drugs and with a smile; "it is perfectly harmless. chemicals, in dried scales and on blot - The snake's teeth cannot hurt you as ting paper and sugar, as well as in much as the beak of yonder love -bird!" glass tubes. I discovered. also a peculi- Suddenly he seized the bitten hand arly shaped spoon, and some shells cov- and bent: over it ns though to inspect Dred with vegetable parchment which it closely; hent lower and lower, while had been: prepared to receive the bites a stifled silence fell on the group low- of the enraged reptiles, teased into er and longer till every heart throb- striking, and. so tocollect the fluid, s,- iled audibly in the pausing moments, ected. from their glands. And with this Then he slowly raised his bead and lift- deadly virus he was deliberately and ed up a white ghastly face, the face murderously infecting the lifeblood of of one changed by death, the man whose salt he had eaten, when " 01enhor," be gasped, with scarce art- the love for which his soulg was stain- iculats utterance, "I have bean deeciv- ed betrayed, him. ed! The serpent is venomous, and in Bless me, there goes six bells( Why an hour you will have succumbed to didn't some of you bring me up with its bite unless vigorous measures are a round: turn before? We shall have taken. I have the antidote, a counter- the quartermaster upon us presently poison proved by a hundred experim- to order the light out. -Fiver, it yon ants upon myself. Submit yourself to mean to keep the middle watch with 1110, and I will save you. Quick! there your eyes open, you'd better turn in is no time to be Iost. Though you feel for ail hour all standing, or you'll be nothing now, in a few minutes the pots- found ou the wheel -gratings aft dream - on will have taken possession of your ing of snake -bites. -I'm going 01) to system, and it will be too late. Lie sleep onl the hurricane -deck skylights. down on the floor of the veranda in- -Good-night, alit stantly-do what I tell you -cls moth- THE ing else I" He fell in love. How often those roar words preface the chapter which is the beginning of the end of this tale 1 lie fell ]n love, miserably, hopelesslY, yet hopeful against hope. Be met her dur- ing Carnival, whilst staying at the mountain hotel at Tijuca 1 They met at dinner, they met in the sola, they met by the Cascades; they went clown In the same diligence to Boa Vista, and thence by the same tram -car to wit- ness the satarnalia in the city far be- low. It's all told in a very few words. She was an English girl, just arrived with her father, an official high in the diplomatic service. Both eagerly and gratefully accepted the guidance and good offices of the courteous Portngu- e*0, elm spoke French fluently, and. whose knowledge of the country made him quite an old inhabitant by com- parison with themselves. With him that' visited the .Avenue of 'Palms u1 the Botanic Garden; with :aim they made the ascent of Santa Theresa and climbed the Corcovada; with him they wandered at daybreak round the gorges of the Chinese View. The steam -launch bore them over to Paqueta, where they shuddered at the snakes, and saw with marvel the tact and intrepidity with which their owner handled thele. Then a month later liar fiance, also in the service of the Government, mar out from Constantinople via Lisbon by the Royal Mail, and they were married at the Embassy. She with her husband and father, went to live at Petropolis; he returned. to his lonely quints. and vi- varium on the island. Ah mei the Bra- zilians have a proverb about the most dangerous snakes being cobras vestidas y pentiadas-the serpents that wear clothes and comb their hair; and they're not far wrong( SAVED HY A KING COBRA. Witil•Sintues Illaslug 51'Inmr1* the I*nnlrr ot' Jnmger ne;4lrangersNear. "Re's nn tuhp:eaeant fellow to fall i'nt with at 007 Lima, the king cobra, also (mown 11.9 tie tree-o1•nnbin'g (0 - bra," said Eugene Tyson, !who for twenty ye111-0 was a British civll offi- cer in India. "This shake is t.u•iee ns long as. the ground cobra, with a thickness of body in proportion, Isis markings are handsomer, and his dis- position more pugnacious. The king cobra does not ((540.(1 the attack of a person who coves near his retreat, but goes for him determinedly, nail being very fierce and venomous there are few igen who oars to stand their ground against (him. For my own part there are man(,' dangerous beasts and reptilbes that I would choose to meet rather than face a king aohra.'Yob one of these hateful serpents, thirty years ago, was the means of saving my life, "711e time was ten years after the Indian mutiny, when Thuggeo and da- ooity were still practised, though very' seeretiy, in. several of the Indium provinces. Many of the Thugs and dacoits released from prison by the mutineers were atilt at large, fero- ciously eager for human life andhooty though working with unusual craft and caution after their experience with the British courts. While these wretches, as a rale, did their killing and looting among the wealthy na- tives, it was known that they would not miss an easy chance to put a Euro- pean out of they way if he were worth the robbing. "On the day I speak of I was be- neath a teak tree in the jungle at the foot of the Gbekan Ghauts in the province of Sude. I was one of a HUNTING PARTY I'm not going to indulge In any psy- chological speculations as to his mental and moral struggles, his battles and doubts and resolves. That such a mind as his would suffer acutely, and that it might be torn and tossed in a fear- ful conflict, there can be no doubt. But whether he formed any deliberate plan of action, or whether he simply allowed himself to become the prey of circum- stances in what followed, none can know. All that is certain is that a short time after the wedding -a few weeks or months, I don't know how long -he set out on a snakingexpedi- ton among the Organ Mountains, put in an appearance at Petropolis, and was greeted with effusive welcome by his late acquaintances in their new home. About this period I came round from the Pacific coast in a steamer which was a day or so overdue when we got into Rio, having been detained by a pamporo which blew heavily north of the Plate. The pratique boat brought me a letter dated two days previously, beseeching me to come immediately to Petropolis to See a gentleman suffer- ing from snake -bite; so, without wait- ing to ponder over a certain mystifica- tion about the summons and its details, T at once embarked in the Mississippi. river -boat sort of craft then just start- ing on the first stage of the journey, deferring my long -looked -for visit to ?equate -where I could see the very house as the steamer glided by -till my return. d had furnished myself with the newspapers to while away the time; and sitting down in the saloon after a couple of hours' sleep draught 01 the never -sal' b ti f .L b the ;lag eau es o o ay, mals themselves are much more ex- first paragraph which caught my eye traordinary in their structure and as I unfolded the Jornal (10 Commerce habits than the theatrical accessories was a brief announcement of the death af. anydrama of mare human interest I of the savant whom I so desired to wherein they have been unwilling act. I meet, He had been bitten, so the ac- tors or paesive properties. Just count stated., by a curueucu, one of the think of the rsm.arkeb:e mechanism of worst of Brazilian serpents, two days their lower jaw, for example, and, their. 1 before, and had died in less than an facial bones, undergoing at each meal hour, on the very date which the letter they, make a spontaneous dislocation in my pocket bore, and at the' very by virtue of the lease ligamentous at -'spot for whieh I waa then bound.' As soon as 7: reached Petropolis, I was conducted without delay, by a messeng- er who had been sent, to meet me, to the bedside of the patient, an I'inglish- man, evidently of good position, but personally unknown to me. Tits friends, it seemed, had became aware that I was expeeted to roma to Rio at the time when the accident happened, end --misled ler sundry current fables OS to my knowledge of miraculous cures for serpent -bites --bad instantly de- spatched the urgent appeal which 7 had receivel on my tardy arrival. 1t is needless to say that the primary issue of the mans life or death was long since decided; the native physicians at- tached to the imperial court had dune tachment- Aid right, all right•; _ won't, if you don't wish it 1 Vulgar sensation:Wein carries the day versus the magic and mystery of Nature; so here's your snake -story. 1. phtyod but a very subordinate part in it, little more than that 0f a spectator; trait, as in the scene whence all our troubles date, the 'leading dramatis pers0noo were a woman and a serpant. Nearly twenty years ago there lived for a time be the ne1ghlenhood of Rio de Janeiro a certain natnreliat, whose, avowed apeeieldty was ophiology, more partinuluriythe study of venomous species, ttR wthee most futile and fasd:lnetieg quest which has exercised the mind of man from prehistoric ages His speech cleared, and the 'blood flushed back to his lips again as the words poured forth in a mad torrent, and he rushed into the house where his preparations had been -deposited. The cictim, hall incredulous, yet scared out of his senses, placed himself in a frame- work chair and lay back on its fold of jaguar -skim. His wife, with despe- rate salmi took a fink of Italia from the sideboard and poured its contents into a tall Venetian glass, for she had a dazed remembrance of having read or heard that large quantities of spirit were gevenl to keep up the circulation ot people serpent -bitten. She was just on the point of bolding the vessel to her husband's lips, when their guest sped back into the veranda with two small boxes in his hand. In a perfect furyof excitement he dashed the glass aside with such violence that it was shatter- ed in her grasp. 'Drink, and you are a deed man i" he shrieked vehemently. "I say, do no- thing but what I commend, or I am powerless for your rescue. On the floor -quick, quick on the floor, or you are lost l" Like one possessed be caught the Eng - Rahman in bis arms and threw him out oC the cbair upon the boards, while the poor girl, frozen with terror, stood by motionless as a statue, with the broken glass still in her unconscious bend, and her dress stained and splash- ed by the spirit, ®own he knelt by the recumbent form, and drawing forth a lancet from a case of surgical instruments, he lightly scarified the Skin of the band in the neighbourhood of the scarce -visible bite. Then from the other box he took a tiny glass tub- ule, fine almost as a hair, but contain- ing a glistening streak of fluid,. Steadying himself by a fierce repressive effort, and evincing a quietude and de- liberation as unnatural as his previous frenzy he gently blew the minute drop of glui;nnous liquid out of the tube on to the point of the knife and rubbed it into the bleeding seratelhes. A. mom- ent later bis patient uttered a cryet agony, and the operator glanced swift- ly upwards for one moment. In that one moment she learned a11. By the lurid flash of that one swift involuntary glance_ she read revealed in the figure kneeling at her feet her lover and her hushand's murderer. Without a Nord, without a thought, impelled only' by a blind protective in- stinct, she stooped and, with a wild thrust, pushed his head away as he hung over the poisoned hand.. Never (heeding him further as he reeled to his feet and clasping his throat with both hands, s�;aggered, out into the air, she caught up the rapidly 'discolouring limb and, sifted the wound in despera- tion to drain the veins of the death al- ready creeping through them. 'That terrible cry had beouglht some of the slaves Int( the veranda, and by tibia time her father had reached her side. Medical aid was summoned(, and stimu- lants were poured down the sufferer's throat, pending the arrival of the phy- sicians. 'Snake -bite 1" resounded on every side, and was enough to account for END SLING ON FEMININE LIPS, There is a fashion in slang, as to everything else and that used by the youth of to -day is not the same as that employed by their parents when they were young writes a correspondent. But, although slang may change, it never goes out of fashion. 'And I think I may safely state that among young people it Ives never more deplor- ably popular than it is now, Itis argu- ed that there is no harm in it; and when used only occasionally, among a select few who know one another well, this may be true, But the harmful thing about it all is that the habit of slangy speech is easily contracted, and that it vitiates the epeech all uncon- sciously to the speaker. I have lumina a young girl, bright and well, educated, who told me that in a circle of intim- ate friends she used slang so constant- ly that when she was with people to whom she wished to talk well and flu- ently she was obliged all the while to be on her guard lest some slangy idiom escape her. She was at a dinner, and for the first half-hour she managed to avoid all rocks and rears or Stang. Then she grew more confident as she became interested in the conversation of the man next her -a brilliant litterateur. He was telling• her of a young girl, rich already, to whom had been left a legacy which she was to spend upon just what she most desired for berself. Here he named the sum to be used for the purpose. Our would-be careful heroine forgot her caution in her amazement. "Imagine having tel that cash to blow in 1" she exclaimed. And then she remembered, and re- membering flushed scarlet, and was overcome with confusion. She told me of it with tears of mor- tification in her eyes. " Jost when I wanted to appear at my best!" she lamented. " But I have learned, my lesson, and shall stop us- tug slang, If .l Have to he dumb to do it. Never. 08511 ill the heart of 1ny own bonne, will I allow myself to use the hateful thing 1" It is a pity that more girls have not learned the same lessen. .A little slang used judo -lonely may be expressive. It is never elegant, and should only be utilized in speech as red pepper is em- ployed. m- pvh d rin t cooking- ery tightly, and g IVI RQELLOUS INV,EN.TIONL' 'NUR RAILRQAD TICKET PRINTED WHILE YOUWAIT, ,11) l,l),enllnls J1111011 hie for Ike (letter Pro. Notion el' Jtnit0llr'rrcaslrles ^ Mona. facua'es, Petals 1)1131 ('11)3, *110 '17rldet, 111111 largl:sl Ors P111011/ rt' 111' Tweet, IPesenn) (011 0011 *'I'Iee. (for a• long time the railroad com- panies Lave been endeavoring Le Lind ea monument, accurate and practical register, A most iegenious maohine bas just been invented, which' manufao- tures, prints and outs the ticket aut- omatically on one sidle, while on the other side It registers the number of the ticket, its destination and the price. A simple addition of the mini - bars lined on this band gives the total of the amounts which the receiver bas registered during the day. Every 'one knows that the tickets de- livered t0 the station masters are of different colors, according to. their class and their destination and whether they sere full fare, half rate or excursion. All the tickets are most carefully manu- factured as they represent: important sums of money. From the manufacturer they are delwered to the main office, and from there distributed over the whole territory covered by the rail- road company. It can easily be seen that the slightest mistake in their manufacture would cause endless con- fusion. As each station is the object of a special fabrication, as the name, the number and the point ot departure are) always printed upon it, it may be realized that an immense number of pieces of oardboard are prepared. THE MANUFACTURE and the registering of such an enor- mous stock of small pieces of carclRoar1 axe( so complicated that the eompanies really do not know just where they stand all the time, (Mistakes and frauds are daily committed, notwith- standing all the precautions ;taken. which had separated in the morning, and now at noon I had sent my eyes back to the came) to tell them there that I had found good water in a mullah, and that they should move the tents up to where I was than atter- :mon. J eft alone in the jungle, I had. strolled to an 013511 space on a b111 - side leading up to the ghauts and seat- ed myself on the ground in theshado of the teak tree. It would be three hours at best before the syce could re- turn; Lb was too hot to beat about in the jungle so, having eaten the lunch- eon that 1 had brought 1 stretched myself on my back in a position where by opening my eyes I could see my horse feeding on the slope below ane, and dropped off to sleep. It was not ni prudent thing to do alone in a jun- gle where a tiger or leopard might give the sleeper an ugly awakening, but I had meet with no disaster in five years' ]hinting anti w510 overcon- fident, and besides I relied on my Horse to give warning by his behavior of any danger that might threaten from wild bents. I hed slept perhaps a half (tour when i sons awakened by a sound that I recognized with dread - the angry hiss of a cobra erose at hand, Without moving 1 opened( my eyes. It was an immense king mime that bad hissed, and from his coil between ono and the tree be had an the instant in, which I belied him, struck his fangs deep into the neck of a turbaned native, Tulle, crouching with tulwar in hand, had started to- ward. nis from, the other side of the tree trunk "Behind( this native was a second ane holding with both hands ti strong silken cord With the snake banging by the, fangs to his neck the foremost native staggered to his feet, struck out wildly with his tulwar, dropped the weapon to tear the snake from his neck with his hands, then, with his dark face sooty and ghastly with fear, turned and ren after his companion, who had fted. I knew by the looks of the. amen that they were criminals, and tate manner of their coming, upon me WOO proof sufficient of their bad in- tentions. IL head at the first sight of the, mea I,IVEI) 100 LONG. Great Publisher -Very sorry, sir, but your ltiantiseri t wird not do. Old, Tina, a Novelist -Eh? What is the natter with it? Great Publisher --it seams to have a plat, , . 1 1 GRASPED MY RIFLE and jumped to my feet, I stepped to one side, safely away from the snake, and. sant two ballets alter the fore- most native. The second bullet broke his le beloev the knee and he The machine has been invented with the Ldea of preventing any mistakes or fraud, and of eorreetly registering ev- ery day the exact number oa tickets sold and the amounts received for them. The! apparatus is quadrangular in form. At the bottom of the box is a small electric motor which sets a nickel placed wheel in motion, this wheel being placed on a level with the handlo on the left side of the apparat- us. Tho long cardboard bands are rolled around three or as many wheels as are needed, situated above the mot- or and below the composing cylinder. Ell is this cylinder and its wheels and its teeth located Ln the upper part of the machine, which constitute the ftme- tional secret of the latter. In con- junction with the large exteriors wheel, which revolves against the outside wall on. the right of the apparatus, the me- chanism works secretly in the interi- or. On thisl urge. wbeel are inscribed the nates of the different stations and the prices of the various trips. \When; a ticket is desired for a given point the large wheel is set in motion until the name of the station asked fur comes opposite A SMALL IR:ONIPOINT. One of the buttons corresponding to the three openings is then pressed, and this sets the interior machinery in mo- tion' and in less time than by the old. fashioned way of stamping, de., the ticket comes out ready to he used. If more than one ticket for the same place is desired, continue to press the button as many times as there are tickets need- ed. While the machine is delivering the tickets asked for the same are being mysteriously registered, in the interior of the apparatus. An endless band un- rolls from the top of the apparatus and registers simultaneously with the de- livery of the ticket its ntamber, its se- ries, its destination and. price. By means of this new machine an inspector need only present himself at the ticket office, unroll the registering band and say to the ticket seller, "You should( hews so and so in hand." Tha railroad companies of the north and west In France have adopted the new apparatus, and gradually all the roads running out of Paris are using them. fel. TPhe other man, who bn.d been struck by the snake, tumbled. a. sec- ant!. eaand. later end lay struggling, unable to rise. "The soaks was Ivrithtng in two pieces, his body having been nut en- tirely through, a third of the way back from. the heed, by a blow of the tulwar, The part with, the heac1., its hood. fell spread was snapping vicious- ly now in the direction in which 1 stood. 1 ended the Life of that pert of the snake with a long Week that ehaneecl, to lie at hand, and then, hav- ing rehaaded. Lair rifle, went to where the wounded nattve was trying to creep away through the undergrowth, He surrendered and at my command crawled beck to the tree. The native whom the cobra had struck was dying QS we passed him, and he was dead when rely friends came to me in the course of an hour after. , The great quantity of poison from 50 large a snake, sent into so vital n point as the ateok had killed him almost as sucldeal.y as a dose of prussic acid would have done. "My prisoner and the dead native, as I had suspected, proved to be Thugs, and both had been set free from prison by the mutineers at the time of Sepoy rebellion. The prisoner con- fessed that they had stolen up under cover of the tree trunk to strike me in my sleep and then strangle ane with the cord +after the fashion en- joined, by their murderous religion. It was the 1855en00 of the king cobra that saved me. What had drawn the serpent to the place is more than I can axplicin-bat there is little doubt that a. slight movement cin my part at 14113 timer before 11 was Ionic - enact by the hiss would have brought on me the foto of the Thu tlhet was bitten." SOCIETY INV ES'TMENTS. Pa, wljat is a tin wedding! Well, it is. a festive ooaasion :when a married. Man treats ell his friends to one hundred dohlars worth of ice cream and cake and tapes in three dollars worth of milk -skimmers and leaky tin cup5„ i f . I . I;a r.oLi I i a' FLUSH YOUR PIPES. a wall 00 Water 'thrown Into the now* Ls A11 'J'1uu Is Necessary. Wasted waters running into drains and sewers is of very little account in ' removing deposits of solid matter which accumulate in them. This is proved by the fact that in many large cities where the consumption is great- est it is necessary at frequent inter- vals during the year to flush the sew- ers for the purpose of ijemoving the de- posits which gather there. It is weight and volume of water that is required, and the same rule will apply in the clearing out of a drain or, waste pipe, Iu the ordinary closet a stream of water pours through the valve into the arm of !the bowl, then encircles the bowl, feebly drops into the trunk of the closet, then into the trap and down the soil pipe. The internal cironmfer- ence of the soil pipe is a little over twelve inches. The stream of water flattened. out will not exceed four in- ches; consequently, but one --third the Inside circmnfereneo of the soil piffle is aver washed, by the water. A pad of water, thrown into the bowl of a water closet, an operation taking only a rely seconds of time end a few gallons of water, will have a flushing effect more complete than if the closet valve were kept open for a whole day. A DAY'S VARIANO I IN WEIGHT. Have you ever tried this experiment of weighing, youaself in the morning and again in the evening? IL is one of the 'hest ways, so (looters say, of finding whether your health is good or not. 11 you are thoroughly well there should not boa difference of more Gran two or three ounces either way in the 12 hours, If you lose or gain as much as eight ounces you should immediately consuls 0: doctor, while the gain or loss of a pound indio'ates you are on the verge of serious illness. This, of course, does not apply to one just recovering from illness, for con- valcseents who have been much reduc- ed, eduo-ed, m^171 sometimes gain 15 to 20 ounces a day,' ,