Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe East Huron Gazette, 1892-05-05, Page 6griesinielearageleeidefede SALLS-OrP ALASICA. _ fieme °eine Methods by Which a Remark ele-Vtindeistry is carried on. If the temperary agreement for protecting the seals of Alaska, known as the " modes vivencle" is not re,newedethe whole fleet of sealers will enter -Miring sea next July and make war .tipon the Priloylov herd. To make this crusade appreated1b isnecessary to ex- plain the astonishingly ecientific system of slaughter adopted by the pelagic sealers. Suppose that there,Were a, single genet herd of 1,000,000 valuable fur bearing beasts which traveled continually over a kite-shapedtrack many thousands of miles in circuit on the great plains of the west. Lna,gine that these aninetle detested eight months en every year to traveringthis route, never varying from it, so that their entire company was always sure to be at a given point on the road at a certain date, though halting to- gether in an isolated spot for four months annually to breed and rear their young. How long would it be before the greedy hunters would have wiped them all out? If the latter were permitted to surround them at their breeding place a single season would suffice for their extermination. The herd —there is only one—leaves the Pribylov islands about November 10 each year to spend the winter in warmer waters. Passing southward through the Aleutian chain and out of Bering sea the animals swim in a southeasterly direction toward Santa Barbara, about 400 miles south of San Francisco, on the Pacific coast. There they turn and go northward—nearly a milhou strong hugging the coast into Bering sea, reaching the Pribylov Islands again by July 10. Upon those lonely rocks they breed and nurse their young for four enonths, at the end of which time the pups are weaned and big enough to accompany the annual migration. The track they follow is never varied from and each week in the year fincis them at the same stage of their route„so that no difficulty in discovering the'herd, is experienced by the hunters who pursue the poor beasts identlessly month after month, killiegekilling, killing, until they get back intoBering sea again and are safe for a while. No present project for patting a stop to this is entertained. The "modus vivendi" and the seizures of vessels have merely relatedeo the exclusion of the pelagic sealers from Bering sea itself, where they are anxious to go and wipe ont the whole breeding herd while it is assembled on two small islands, thus making an end of the species at once and "for good." Before explaining in detail the remark- ably effective method by which this result would be accomplished some very interest- ingpoints may be mentioned respecting the extraordinary business of pelagic sealing. F tr the pursuit of this industry small hooners of from forty to sixty tons are mippea. Each such vessel starts out on a oyage with three or four months' provisions quantity of salt, a supply of repeating efies and fifteen: ortwenty men. Usually :he crew includes a few Indians from Van- #. len yes's Island and Neeala bay, Washington. Ile schooner sails out into the path of the herd of seals. She has no trouble in discov• ering when the right point is reached by the popping up on all sides in the water of the animals' heads. Then she lies to, miless the weather is too rough, and lowers into the aea a number of small dories. Each boat is occupied by two men. One ef them site in the bow, with a Winchester Ale or fowling piece loaded with buckshot across his lap, whilethe other rows. The effort is to exteed from the vessel a line of from seven to ten dories, whie,h shall be Withie hailrof P a ch other, so that they can tied their way back in case of a fog or storm. lIaving taken their positions, they wait for the chance of a seal's head popping up with - el range. The animals, while traveling, only appear on the surface at the intervals necessary ten'. hteatiiink," teke-e, quick and cautious look around and immediately dive again to swim and fish. They -do all their swimming and fishing under water. When the hunter sees a head pop up, if he is quick enough, he may have time to aini and fire beforetthe sealeas 'taken an instate taneons surveyof him and dived. Usually, - when the animai comes up close alongside • the boat, its fright is so great that it disap- pears to suddenly for a shot, but if it pops up et, a distance of fifty or one hundred yards perhaps it -may pause for two or three !seconds end afford an -opportunity to the marksman. At best the aim is necessarily very uncertain. Inasmuch as both boat and seel are tossing about in the lumpy water. "No matter whether it is hit or not the seal deiappears instantly. If killed out- right, it sinks, but if the marksman by keeping his eye on the spot where the car- less went under can so direct the boat as to get there quickly enough he may be able to see the body of the animal going down in the crystal-clear water. In that case he whips out hiagaffpoteend fishes it up. To ' sacceed in this however,. he must arrive in time at the exact point Where the game sank, since it is only from just above that- it will be visible through the choppy waves, which show not a bubble for a guide. A. dead seal will sink from six to ten feet while a skiff is rowed fifty yards. There is more skill in finding the prey after it is hit than in shooting it. Supposing that the seal is slightly -tor mortally wounded it dives or swims away, in most cases to perish later. If merely stunned, it flounders about on the surface end is easily teken ; but that seldom came. From ilis brief description some notion eau be formeded the enormous waste of life in this kind of hunting, which accor- ding to the testimony of the dealers them- selves, destroys fifteen animals for every one secured. - After a few days the herd thus intercept- ed by the schooner- will have passed by. This is discovered from the fact that no more heads of seals ere seen popping up in the water. Have the unfortunate beasts at length made their escape from this preda- tory vessel? By no means. She simply spreads her canvas to the breeze, sails 60 or 100 miles overhauls the animals and pro- ceeds as before. So it continues week after Week, month after month, until they have been pursued to Bering Sea, into which some told poachers follow them, lying off the Pribylov Idands in the Leg which hard- ly ever lifts and shooting --the breeding mcithers that venture out Into the ocean Itetl$86_there were sevenetessels engaged in • --theeealing industryon, thenorthwest coast. There weretwenty-two in 1e$7, thirty-three 18$9t forty-five in 1890,and one hundred • and tea last summer. This year there will •be about 125 schooners in the business. All °Meese craft and more. than 2,000 Canadian, American Japanase and Indian hunters are e devoted to the indiscriminate slaughter of this herdeif valuable creatures, which are to -date almost 90 pee eenn females. They are -at this -writing pinseing up the -coast= by Vanconeefe Islandnelattlease Weikel ate pow being kifled 80pereente are heavy with ma'am yonng- By July10 the entire herd will be on the two island e in Beteg sea, breeding and • - -nursing the young. The pupsare all born - by July 20, and up to November 10 the -mether MIS are coneeently going ont to the „gee. fishiest enek.e ear food. They' nurse th*effePring at intervals of from one to fonedays, and travel in search of fish 50 to 300 miles away from the islands. The fleet entering Bering sea in July, would draw a cordon around the islands, praetieally anni- hilate all the mothers before the helpless young are weaned in November, and leave the infant seals to starve by myriads on the rocks. ,While not literally exterrnining the specietethe result of this, it is argued, would be to destroy the sealing industry forever. True, the pelagic sealers would ruin their own business, but they belong to a class of people who care only for to -day and do not look forward, to the morrow. • The rndian hunters carried by the sailing vessels take an important part in the chase. They are turned loose on days when calm weather hen succeeded a storm. At such times the seals, which have been so tossed about in the water as to have had no sleep for a considerable period, indulge in the luxury of sound naps on the oceae billows, lying on their backs at the surface with only their noses and "heels" showing. Thus rocked in the cradle of the deep they peace- fully repose, doabtlessly enjoying pleasan dreams, while the savage in his canoe ap- proaches silently from the leeward. When DEEIIING AND HIS LAST VICTIM. Evidence that His Wife Mad` Decided to Leavollim BeforaShe Witi-filurdered. A despatch from Melbourne says that evi- dence has been discovered going to show that the murdered Mrs. Deeming, formerly Miss Mather, intended to leave her hus- band just before she was murdered and go back to England. Mr. MeHail, an owner of property in Melbourne, says that a week before Christmas a lady who had a gentle and refinedmanner applied to him for a furn- ished cottage, which she proposed to oc- cupy. She esplained that she was unable to give any references, as she had only ar- rived from England in the Kaiser Wilhelm II. a few days before, and wa.sa perfect stranger in 'the colony. Since her arrived she had quarrelled with her husband, and had determined to return to England, but she wished to take advantage of the oppor- tunity to see Melbourne, as she had saved enough monee to make a short stay and pay her passage home. Being very favorably impressed with the woman's manner and appearance, Mr. Mc - Hail agreed to dispense with references, and expressed his willingness to let the cottage. within striking distance the hunter drives The lady left, promising to write to him in a toggle -headed spear into the unconscious a day or two. But this she failed to do, and animal, drags the prey up to the boat and knocks it on -the head. This method of slaughter, though not less indiscriminate than that adopted by the white men, has the advantage that no seal that is struck is lost. The pelagic sealers have asserted that the breed of seals hunted off the Straits of Fuca and Vancouver's Island is not the same as that of the Pribylov Islands, and that the Alaskan seals fremaent more or less the, Russian seal islands on the other side of Bering sea, seals from the latter, known as the Commander Islands, sometimes joining - the Pribylov herd. As a matter ot tact, every seal which journeys through the eastern waters of the north Pacific was born and bred on the Pribylov Islands. Never within historic times have the animals composing the Pribylov herd "hauled out" to breed anywhere else then on these islands, which they doubtless selected be- cause they were uninhabited, not being discovered until 1786, while the mainland and theislands of the Aleutian chain were overrun very anciently by savage man. That no Russian seal was ever taken on the Pribylov Islands, or vice versa, is proved by the •records of 'market sales of the skins in London. The Russian pelts are readily distinguishable from the Alaskan, being much lighter in color. Presumably thewarmer water about the Commanier Islands, temperature being about ten de- grees higher, has made the difference in the course of generations. The Russian skins are only worth about half as much aeethe Alaskan. Theherd •which breeds upon the Com- mander Islands -is About as large numerically as the Pribylov herd at present, comprising somewhat less than 1,000,000 individuals. It spende the winter in the japan sea and in theneighborhood of the Kurile Islands. Thus far it has not been attacked to any ex- tent by pelagic sealers, simply because their attention has been centered upon the more valnable Alaskan animals. However, as soon as the Pribylov herd has been wiped out; the - Russian seals will be attacked. Russia claims no jurisdiction over Bering sea beyeed three miles from shore, and she can only save her seal% by joining the United States and Great Britain in the internation- al agreement which constitutes the only hope for the preservation of -these useful creatures. If a ten -mile or thirty -mile zone of protection can be established, there is no reason why a zone of 300 or 500 miles should not be maintained. Such an agree- ment once made, the seals would be saved. Some notion of the rapidity with which they are being exterminated can be got from the report of United States Commissioner Elliott, who in 1874 counted 3,000,000 seals on the Pribylov Islands. In 1890 he found there only 959,000 old and young. In 1874 there were 1,200,000 "bachelor seals "— males under six years old, which are not allowed by the bulls toeome upon the breed- ocksnA. -liberal:estimate in 1890 placed the number of baohelors at 100,000. Thmlife of a seal hunter is as dangerous and exposed a calling as human ingeauity has ever devised. In the north Pacific the skies are nearly always overcast and gales blow continually. Fogs settle down with- out a moment's warning, not to rise again, perhaps, for days or weeks. Yet from the deck of a schooner two men will launch a small dory, with only a keg of water and a bag of hard tack, and pull out to windward into the ocean waste, so as to be just in estht of the vessel or within hailing distance of a boat between themselves and the vessel, taking their chance of getting back safely. Very often they at e lost. Death in its most frightful form—from thirst is the fate always to be looked forward to as more than pos- sible by the pelagicsealer. - Tbe fog sudden- ly descends like a _curtain, damp and im- penetrable to the strained valise ; the an- swering hail comes not. It is 1be old story, so -oft repeated. Two human beings adrift in a skiff, lest in a desert of stormy waters. No hope that is worthmentioning exists for them. What use to row when all is blind- ness and there is no guide to steer by. Days of agony on short allowance of water, then madness and finally---.. But why pursue theehorror further. No one who has never sailedupon those wind- swept seas nor stared into those frightful fogs can realize the risks which are taken every day of their lives by these hunters or understand, in view of the small reward they receive, why they pursue such an oc- cupation. The gunner is paid for the skins he gets from $2.50 to $5 a piece, acsording to size and quality. The boat puller' is pain from 40 rents to $1 a skin, though sometimes he works for $30 amonth. Ten skins make a very big day's catch, and to get so many the hurtter will usually expend from 150 to 200 cartridges. That would signify about $40 for the hunter, whose labor is highly skilled, and $4 for the puller, The owner of the vessel provides ammunition. Indians have their own spears and canoes. They get the same prices for skins as the white mem but do not secure so many, When the skins have been fetched aboard they are rubbed with plenty of salt to pre- serve them. Enough of the fat is left upon theneto -hold theetialt. - This fat has an ex- traordinarily offensive odor. The smell is not only disagreeable, but it has a certain sickening quality which turns the stomach of any one who is not accustomed to it. When officers board a sailing schooner their first proceeding is Liernoet invariably • to go to the rail of the vessel and relinquish whatever they have eaten recently with an abandon which -appears to signify that they have no further use for it whatever.' Great excitement has been caused among the lower classes in Delhi by rumours circu- lated by religicms fanaties that the British Government had appointed secret agents to Isidna0even boys who are to be offered as a sacrifice to the water deity upon the site of the projected reservoir. The authorities are taking all precautions to prevent an out- break. shortly after Mr. McHail met her walking alone, and looking very downcast, in Swan- ton street, the street in which the mil is situated, and from which, no doubt, the prisoner took his latest alias. Mr. McHail stopped her and inquired whether she had decided to take the house. She replied in the affirmative, but while they were convers- ing a man wearing an angry scowl approach- ed and beckoned to the lady, who started nervously and went away with him. Mr. McHail was so struck with this inci- dent that he took particular notice of the new -comer, and observed especially that he had very cruel -looking eyes. When he saw Deeming's picture he at once declared that he had no difficulty in identifying it as that of the man in question. The deserip- tion of the lady which he has furnished to the police also corresponds with that of Mrs. Deeming. Mr. McHail never saw her again, but he saw the man on two subsequent oceasions—ence alone and once welkin with a, tall woman. A telegram from Halifax says :—Deeming was in Halifax a few years ago on alleged gold mining business. He showed a gentle- man whom he met here a letter he had re- ceived from Kate Edowes, one of the women who was subsequently murdered in White- chapel: The letter revealed a motive for the murder of the girl. Deeming went under two or more aliases in Canada, one of which was RaeL He impressed those he met as being a thoroughly conscienceless wretch, and some of the stories told by him showed that he was capable of perpetrating any deviltry. THE CROWN OP ENGLAND. frt Its value aid Weight and the JewnVi It The crown of tineleaeen of GA* Mfitain -and Ireland; -made in e83e; by: ; Bridge, has been estimitedtto beottlie value of £300,000. It weighs nearly two pounds, and Comprises more than 3,0i*Preciou,e stones, of which five sixth nt are diamonds. The lower part of the bandie a row 01 129 pearls, the upper part of 112 • - Between them, iir front, is ae large sap- phire. Behind is a smaller sapphire, with six others and eight emeralds. Between the two great sapphires are ornaments contain- ing 286 diamonds. Above the band are eight sapphires surmounted by eight dia- monds and eight festoons containing 160 diamonds. In the front of the crown is the ruby given to the -Black Prince by Pedro, King of Castile. This is set in a Maltese cross, and forming the cross are 75 large diamonds. Three other crosses, containing 386 dia- monds, are round the upper art of the crown. Between the four crosses are four ornaments with Our rubies in their center, and containing respectively 84, 85, 86, and 87 diamonds. Erten the Maltese ciosses rise four arches, compoeed Of ciak leaves and acorns, the leaves containing 728 dia- monds. The 32 acorns are each of a single pearl, and are set in cups made of 54 dia- monds, Above- the arches stands the mound containing 548 diamonds, and above the mound is the cross, containing a very large sapphire, four very large and 108 smaller diamonds. All the stones are genuine, and not, as in some other Eu- ropean crowns, colored glass, which hes re- placed the genuine stones. • re s The Smallest Human Being. The most remarkable atom of humanity that has ever attained his or her majority bore the poetic name of Lucia Zarate, and hailed from Mexico. She was born in the above named country January 2, 1863 • died January 28, 1890, at Truckee, Cal. When on exhibition in this country from 1883 to 1885 and again from 1887 to the time of her death, she weighed, according to the most reliable estimates between eight and nine pounds; generally advertised as weighing but four pounds and nine ounces. Lucia, like roost Mexican girls of good family, was betrothed while still in her cradle. As her affianced grew to be a strapping fellow of 180 pounds, Lucia's parents watched over their midget offspring, reluctantly admit- ting to each other that sooner or later the unequal match must be declared " off " for- ever. It is said by those in position to know that years after, when the big Mexi- can and the midget wonder had given up all hopes of ever being joined by the hymenial ties, the heroic lover corresponded with the little freek and helped to relieve the tediutn of many of the long hours when she was on the stage in a strange land. White on ex- hibition here in Philadelphia, Lucia thought she saw the face of her lover in the throng which daily crowded around her. This mistake caused her many days of sorrow. Her time off the stage for two weeks after the little episode was spent in bemoaning her fate and praying to be allowed the stature and avoirdupois of other girls of her age. After her tour of the principal American cities she returned to her home in Mexico, and for two years enjoyed the semi -oriental climate of her native city on a scale as grand as her abbreviated proportions would admit. Witnin a year and a half she returned to the United States to finish her harvest of dollars; caught cold while crossing the mountains from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific Coast. and died at Truckee, Cal., after a shortellness, aged:27 years and 26 days. Taken all in all she was the most wonderful specimen of humanity known since the dawn of history, Beware. Perhaps, although it does not always fol- low that because a young --couple are madly in love with each other that tbejt evill be happy in a cottage or on humble fare. Nevertheless, the story in view will illustrate the fact. Edward FIollinsworth, then only a young clerk, married a banker's daughter -against hereatherts wishes and took her home to the poor little" furnished rooms he was able to hire. For a thine everything seemed- to go bap- pily untie the husband received a small leg- acy, which was expended in furniture too elegant for their condition and in dresses too fine for a clerk's wife. They began to com- pete with much richer families, and the young wife little knew of tbe debts into which theywereplunging. One night the husband returned home to find his wife in tears. She said a crazy person had called that day and insisted that their pier glasses were not paid for, and when ordered out of the house became abusive. She asked to know what it all meant. • " That he was crazy, as you say, dearest." "Oh, I'm so glad," said foolish little Rosa, smiling. ".1 thought there might be something at the bottom of his talk ; and since it isn't so, you will give me that new garnet velvet dress.I spoke of, and 'a pearl spray for my hair -pearls become me so well. You'll let me have it to -morrow, Edward, in time for Mrs. Rusliland's dinner ?" "If I can, Rosa," said Edward; " but what would you say if I were to askeon. tt -wear your old dresses this winter ?" " What a joke ! 'cried Rosa. "But you told grandpa I should never want for any- thing. You can't be growing stingy, love?" "You shall have the money, Rosa," said Edward. His face had turned very white, but she did not see it. After awhile he rose and put on his coat. "I must go out awhile," be said. "1 have business to attend to." And she saw him Unconsciously take from his bosom the keys of his office desk. "Going to the office to -night?" she ask- ed. " No, no. Why should you think so?" he said, and turned fiery -red. Rose felt frightened. She could not tell why. She went to the door with her hus- band, and watched him down the street. Then she went back to the parlor and pick- ed up the daily paper. The first paragraph her eyes fell upon was the account of the arrest of a confidential clerk. "He was hones e untilextravagant women made him their prey." added the writer. "Extravagance is the road to ruin." The Beautiful Side of Lite. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that two-thirds of all that makes it "beautiful to be alive" consists -in cup -offerings of water. Not an hour of life's journey but is rendered easier by their freshening or harder by their absence. Why? Because - most of us are burden -bearers of one sort or :metier; because to most of us a large part of the journey is a dull and trivial trudge; because there is much dust upon the road, and not so many bad places as probably we think, yet many neenrion places; and it is load and dust and 13n -etches of the common place that make one thirsty. If the feeling on our shoulders were of wings instead of load; if on Mondays, "in some good cause not our own," we were marchieg singing to a battle, and on Saturdays were opining back victorious, then the greetings on the way would make less difference to us. But, as it is, we crave the roadside -recogni- tions which give praise for the good deed attempted, pity for the hard luck and the fall, a hand -lift now a,nd then to ease the burden's chafe, and now and theca, word of sympathy in the step -step -stepping that takes us through the dust. And this is aelehat most of us wait to give, for we, too, ale here on business. • You cannot step myjourney for the, cannot carry me on your ack, cannot do me great service; but it makes a world of differenceno me whether 1 do my part in the world With or without these little helpecriclifellowaravellers ex- change "I am 'busy, Johnnie, and can't help it," said the father, ',writing away, when the little fellow hurehis finger. "Yes, you could—you might have said "Oh !" sob- bed Johnnie. There's a Johnnie in tears in- side all of us upon occasions. The old Quaker WAS right: "I expect topass through this life but, Mite. If there htany kindness or any good thing I can do to my fellow -beings, let me 'do it now. I shall pass this way bet once." • _ No man has come to true greatness who has not felt in sotite degree that his life be- longs to his race'and that what God gives him he &ea him for mAnkind.--LPhillips Brooks. MOUNT ETNA. MISSISSTYPITIVIZO two: The Terror of the Ancients and the Modes or the Moderns. Mount Etna, the most remakable volcano of the earth, is an isolated elevation separa- ted from the surrounding heights partly by the rivers Alcantara and Simeto, and part- ly by the sea. The base of the mountain is nearly round, but somewhat longer from north to south than from east to west, and covers an area of more than 1,500 square kilometers. The highest point is nearly in the middle, and is 3,304 meters high, Etna has been celebrated throughout the whole historic period. The mariners of Phcenicia, Carthage, Greece, and Rome, recognized it as an important guide on tlieir voyages. It was the most imposing signal of antiquity, the light -house of the Mediterranean Sea, which the poets of the age surrounded with the nimbus of myth. THE GIANT FORCES of nature inspired them with awe fez the imaginary demons who directed teem. The mountain was the workshop of the smith Hephastos, the dwelling place of Cyclops, and of Polyphemus. Pinder and others heve delineated the mountain in graphic word -pictures and consecrated it in song. As a volcano it must early have attracted the attention of historians, as is evidenced by the numerous accounts of its eruptions which have been handed down to us. There are eighty historical accounts of eruptions, eleven of which occurred before the birth of Christ. The most terrible eruptions occur- red in 1169, 1284, 1537, and 1669. In this latter year, the lava flood rolled down to Catania, destroying a great part of the town and coming to a stand only at the walls of the old convent of St. Nicolo, where it sol- idified without injuring the walls of the conveut. The years 1693, 1818, and 1832, were equally sad pages in the history of Etna. A very interesting account of the out- breaks of 1818 and 1832 has been left ue by Signor Gamellaro. The outbreak of October 31, 1832, was especially remarkable. The volcano opened in two places, the one was at the foot of the cone towards the south - at an elevation of 3,050 metiers. The lava stream of 1787 constituted a dam against the melted lava and diverted its course. Far more terrible was the other eruption near Mt. Lepre, westward from the crater and approximately 2,000 meters above the sea -level. Here the mountain belched forth its glowing masses of lava, and The paper fell from Rosa's fingers. Sud- denly a flood of light seemed to illuminate the darkness of her life. " I am an extravagant woman," she said. "1 am driving my dear husband to ruin. To -night he tnay do something to supply my foolish wants that will cover him with infamy and part us forever. I will follow him." A great waterproof cloak with a hood lay upon a chair near by. Rosa seized it and wrapped it about her and flew into the street. She turned her steps as by instinct to- wardsherhusband's placeof business. Itwas a laree building, and the janitor stood at the door. "My husband is in his office is he not I" she asked. "I'm to meet him here." "Yes. Walk up, ma'am," said the old man, and Rosa flew upstairs. She opened the door. The gas had been lit, and its rays fell over the head of her husband as he sat at his desk. She crept up behind him and peeped over his shoulder. An eitipty check lay before him, and opposite stood a paper bearing the signature of his employer, which he with careful Strokes was copying letter by letter. "Edward!" shrieked Rosa and her white hand descended upon the paper. "Ed- ward!" The man started to his feet. "God led me here, Edward," sobbed his wife. "Oh! Edward, is this the Arst time?" "The very first, Rosa," said the man. "It is my fault," said Rosa. "My extra- vagance had maddened you. Burn that paper and come away." In a moment more the check was a little heap of ashes and Rosa sat upon her hus- band's knee, hiding her head on his shoul- der. "We will sell all the furniture —all that we own. The rest we will give back. My jewels shall go. I will wear calico. We will be honest and forget our vanity," she said, "and 1 will be a true helpmeet to eyolet in- stead of being your bane andeeureleeas I -= have beens." . Then they event home togethere Neither ever forget that evening..eetend though people pitied -the banker" ghter for her humble surroundings, she was hap- pier than shelled ever been in her life. t. There is, noehieglikehpinning faith, to a lirting idea ill d being seatched by the pin. There is nothing so small but that we may honor God by asking His guidance o it, or insult Him by taking it into our own hands, and what is true of the deity is equally true of His revelation.—elenkim = We sometimes meet an original gentle- man who, if manners had not existed, would have invented them. The Tombigbee River Zeootaes Tuu -Mee More Than a Hundred Negroes Drowned —Great Destruction of Live Stork—The Total Loss Estimated at $2,840,000. A Jackson, Miss. desnatch says :—The thce____ first through train of the lin4' Central for a week passed here to -day. 1 the Wreaks are represented to have been repaired. Northeastern Mississippi is in a terrible condition. So great is the devesta,tion that citizens have appealed to Congressman Allen for aid from the general Government. Hun- dreds of negroes are homeless and without anything to eat. Along the river baton] all the work they have done toward putting in a crop has been swept away, together with fences and much stock. Seventv-five negroes are known to have been drovened, and manyemore will be found dead when the waters subside. The greatest loss of life and injury to property is along the line of the Tombigbee River. It is not large enough in the dry season tc float a small steamboat but to -day it is ten miles wide. Later advices from the lowlands just south of Columbus indicate that more than 100 negroes have been drowned in this coam ty. It will be weeks before anything like a correce estimate of the loss of cattle can be obtained. The bodies of horses, mules, and cows are constantly floating down the Tombigbee. For miles on both sides of the river there remain nothing but poverty and desolation. Dr. J. D. Hutcherson, one of the largest planters in this State, has just returned from one of his plantations in the northern portion of the country, and reports great destitution from the overflow of the Butahatchie. He lost seventy-five head of cattle and one of his laborers. A. K. Keith living a few miles south, saved his mules and cattle by putting them in the dining room and parlor, where the water was only two feet deep. His family and fifty negroee were in the same seory of th t residence, The waters have receded about seven feet and continued to fall slowly last night, Most of the county bridges have been swept away, and it will be weeks before ordinary traffic will be regularly resumed. el cold rain has fallen almost constantly since Sun- day night. No mail has been received here since Thursday. Only one body has been recovered. The loss of life across the Mississippi State line grows more appalling and the death list is constantly increasing. Water now covers the land for seventy miles south of here. Scores of houses, bodies of men, women, and children, together with those of dumb beasts, are floating on the muddy waters. More than 1,200 people are home- less. The flood is caused by the sudden rising of sixteen rivers, which torm a net- work over north Mississippi Rafts, small ' boats and canoes were built by the score and stocked with provisions. Rescuers have started out to carry aid to the suffer- ers. Sixty-one bodies have been recovered so far., The flood is beginning to recede slowly. It is estimated that the damage will amount to more than $2,000,000. CLOUDS OF ASHES from five throats, which, on the I lth of November were united into one. From the highest opening rose a pillar of flame to a height of forty meters, which, arching over, formed a second pillar in its descent. Not less active were the four other throats. The most voluminous and dangerous lava stream flowed from the lowest of them, advancing at the rate of upwards of a mile a day. It first threatened the Maletta forest and then wheeled round towards Bronte, covering 20 milesin 16 days. Large areas of cultivated land were rendered waste, and, at length, the inhabitantsnef Bronte saw the advancing lava stream within fifteen hundred yards of the town and waited for its destruction with characteristic Oriental fatalism. The -ma- jority fled, a few, however, more intelligent than their fellows, remained behind and hastily threw up a stone dam to divert the flow of lava from the town. But at that point the lava came to a stand, the eruption was over on the 21st of November, and the town spared. The surface of Etna is broken by no rid- ges; it has no plateaus nor terraces, and in• deed,no valleys or streams. In its qniet per- iods it is a much admired and much frequent- ed spot, offering numerous attractions to the tourist, and oommanding a prospect equaled only by the Peaks of Teneriffe and of Klut- schevskaja Sopka on the peninsula of Kam- schatka and a few other extra -European sites. Tourists generally start from Catania. From there to Nicolosi, the way lies through beautiful gardens and PROSPEROUS -LOOKING VILLAGES; reaching Nicolosi, guides and mules are en- gaged. The scenery of the cultivated tirdle is charming; wheat and barley and cotton fields, alternating with vineyards and olive and almond and orange groves, render it a very paradise. The night is usually spent in Nicedosi or the adjo:ning cloister at an elevation of about 2,500 feet. Leaving Nicolosi behind, the road passes through the forest belt which extends to an elevation of about 6,500 feet. Rye is still cultivated by the villagers who are mostly woodcutters and herdsmen. As one ascends the forest vegetation changes, oaks and chestnuts gradually give way to beech, and these in turn to birch and fir trees; cultivation dis- appears the villages are remote from each other, but swine and goats are herded up to and beyond the confines of the forest. tee- • yond this the lava rock lies bare ; there is no sign of the rich flora of Alpine regions else- where; there is no soil for its support. Eight miles below the crater, lies the grotto of Casteslluccio. Thence the ascent becomes more difficult. Two miles below the Bicorn, as the highest crater is called, is the Casa Inglesa,' Where the mules are generally left behind, the ascent being finished on foot. Arrived at the summit, and perhaps many times in the aseent, the traveler turns to take in the glorious prospect which, from the highest peaks, is so magnificent and beautiful as to baffle all description in THE CLEAR ATMOSPHERE of this cloudless region, the eye wanders uninterrupted over Southern Italy and the greater part ef Sicily, and away over the Lipariaae Isles, lying like a handful of gems on the Me waters. Toward the East the Adriatic looks likeea narrow strait; and, on the opposite side, the eye wanders over the mountain peaks of Calabria to the ocean beyond. _In very dear weather, even the coasts of Africa are visible. Here the lover of nature revels in the grandeur and magnificence of the scene. In the secret rumbling of the subterranean thunder, he hears the voices which appealed to the imagination of an earlier race, and whieleawaken a responsive echo in his own breast, touching a chord which will ever- more vibrate at memory's call. A Snake Story. The wife of a settler near Melbourne was recently bitten on the finger by a snake. To prevent the poison entering her system she placed the finger on a block and asked her huelitand.to cat it off, which he did with an axe: He then drove his wife 17 miles to the nearest -town.' On arrival she was in a state eteollapse but the strychnine remedy was appliedwith success, and the woman is new ont-of danger. Cheering Words. If any little word of mine Ce..atina,ke some life the brighter, If &Witt% Song of mine May make some heart the lighter, God help me speak that little word, And take the song I'm singing And bear it to some lonely dale To set the echoes ringing ; Echoes that 'thrill in joyous tone, To some one comfort bringimg. A Wonderful Time -Piece. A wonderful piece of mechanism, consist- ing of a watch dial of unique construction, has been finished and put on exhibition by one of the deft -fingered artists belonging to one of the large watch factories at Wal- tham, Mass. It contains, instead of the usual numerals, twelve small but distinct silhouette figures, beginning with a woman with a very small child in her arms. At 1 o'clock the little mother and her miniature baby are clearly depicted, the infant being in "long clothes." At 2 o'clock the same figure appears, but the child has percept - ably grown. At 3 o'clock the little mother is still the same, but the baby is in "short clothes." _ At 4 the child again appears, and so on up to 8 o'clock when he goes to school for the first time. At 9 he is seen in college gown, standing beside the now elderly mother. At 10 o'clock the death- bed is brought to view, the young man tak- ing leave of his loved parent. At 11 o'clock he is aged with the snows of many Winters. At 12 he makes his final appea.rance, an old and decrepit specimen of humanity, pray- ing for the end. During the next 12 hours the same scenes are again enacted. The little machine is a wonder all around. Modes of Burial in all Countries. The Mohammedans always, whether in their own country or in one of adoption, bury without coffin or casket of any kind. Daring the time of the Old Roman Em- pire the dead bodies of all except suicides were burned. The Greeks sometimes buried their dead in the ground, but more generally cremated them in imitation of the Romans. In India up till within the last few years, the wife, either according to her wishee or otherwise, was cremated on the same fin neral pyre that converted her dead hue - band's remains into ashes. When a child dies in Greenlee.' the natives bury a dog with it, the dog to be used by the child as a guide to the other world. When ques- tioned in reeard to this peculiar supersti- tion they will only -answer: "A dog can find his way anywhere." The natives of Australia tie the hands of their .dead together, and pall out their nails; this for fear that the corpse may scratch its way out of the grave and be- come a vampire. The primitive Russians place a certificate of characters in the dead person's hands, which is to be given to St. Peter at the> gates of Heaven. A Superfluous Son. Mrs. Portly Pompous (to daughter, in presence of visiter)—Do we know the Hoggs,. Clara? "Really I don't think we do." Billy Pompous (who has a good memory) —Oh, ma, what a fib. Didn't papa say he owed Mr. Hogg $5,000 and he didn't know where in the world the money to pay him was to come from._ He Wanted Quince Pie. A 'longshoreman entered a coffee and: - cake saloon in Barclay street on Friday, and, after eating a, plate of fish cakes, cal. led for "a cup of coffee an' paee tw Vett kind of by?" asked the German at- tendant. " Quinz poi." " eiinz?" "No, quinz, ye thick-headed Dutchman, Do I look like a man that 'ud ate mate on. Friday? Re Had Been Tried. A Texas gentleman applied to a friend for inforrnation in regard to a certain man, whom he wished to employ on btis ranch. "Is he honest and reliable re "1 should ayso. Hs is triee and trusty._ He has been tried four timet for stealing horses and he got clear avertr. ith,10.- was, the reply. V ad e Warnt_ tweinfri5 People in che San -Firm:wise° E ly fat. years in 4 any 'moment a p of Egypt might whiaows and A peegue eireeelkee! There is an e Bash street, wl; monsters are cot The farm is one the other being times 50,000, 1 about, over and. stantly searchin that chance ma nish a feast for The leeches broke away the the neighboring time. -Hundrec walls and tr,ed But a minority sleeping -rooms, but es -en that - black, creepy occupants almi the eager sucti find themselvem products of ihe The first to a she was not lon and arousing house, only to for ro om-corn pa dreds of the lee Brooms were ner and under e clothing was sh Leech bites wer, plications, and ity the househ rest. • Next niornin mises and thai when the leech cret was out, as The worms where about PK, of black, light fiercest sort mu fairly laeaves N season of the y and then one o may be seen. Old horses, cc are driven into covered with fasten to lips, tender part, a the life blood d wretched hors and falls to su leech morass. When leeche York or San F poverty compe The men walk of the leech Ss covered with before tbey can the men with t they are count and boxes of ti whice they a distance. The large lee which reach te common use, n such as the sale The thick, fat, Sicily, and Fra tioners who us countries that plied. Tbe S formed by plac the Bordeaux e for the purpos c,overs. The I muck until wa counted out, w to bite any liv they are swoll ordinary size. dormant Ullal finished and h Pea Gov. Hoerd food for butter muscles of the mated that one six pounds of lel Canada pea sov bushels of seed ty bash els of pe equal parts of grind them to purpose of hol use one bushel pecks of bark drills than to peas are harve hogs are turn those which r and they thriv There is an as med milk or eel weaning pigs o are taken, and are ?nixed with and fatten rap when they w' pounds, and a weight the por cent per pou heavier, and if :milk and mea atherwese vrhol there are ma rents a pound There are th ence they have for the skimme the cows again Ls very easily are used, and ni claim that it k and the milk is trouble of keep who do not like has the merits 4shouid be a p tests are needed - lank. If milkmen milk pnt up in bottle it, but it -cooled before t - well hancl'.ed in -cream on the to bottom, the . -quickly than World. Rel "1 got even 'lb vengeance." "Why, the I my fellow and. n inade love to Was a widower, :you see, Pin my 4see if I don't me Prince Bismatl -ed his seventy -s( iroe" and