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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron News-Record, 1894-05-23, Page 80 iTL NT O S'TNONUNOLDS ,A Fire in Bermuda Handled by an Admiral in Halifax. T>uo F oraressel Great Britain )Etas Built TJpon the American Coast, and the ll.tues of Cable Connect - Ing Them, "Here is the Trost suggestive letters I ever received," said a New Yorker, whose business takes him frequently into the British possessions in America, "There are half a dozen lines In it that any American Might ponder over for a week." This is what the letter said:— "The Ireland Island business is the only exciting thing we have had recently, and you may be sure that stirred us up while it lasted. We expected every minute that the powder magazine would go and wipe everything out. But the old man handled the business beautifully, and for a few hours we kept the. wires red hot. A novel method of managing a big fire, wasn't it. "That sounds commonplace enough," the New Yorker continued, "until you know the circumstances under which the letter was written. Ireland Island is in Bermuda, and 'the Ireland Island business' means the recent burning of several of the British navy yard buildings there. This letter was written in Halifax by a naval officer, and 'the old man' refers to the commander of the North American and West Indian squadron, .presumably the Admiral: The letter means that the min- ute the fire broke out in , THE BERMUDA DOCKYARD the Admiral in, Halifax 900 miles away sat down at .the end of a wire and directed every important movement that was made, for the preservation of the property. "I know dust how the business was done, for I have had experience with those West Indian cable lines, sometimes to my sorrow. The Government subsi- dizes them all, and reserves the right to take possession of them whenever occa- sion requires. When a Government despatch comes in all private business must stand aside. They will stop a pri- vate message in the middle of a word if necessary to send the official one. The minute that fire broke out on Ireland Island the Halifax and Bermuda cable was in the bands of the Admiral, and you could not have got a private message over it to save your life till he Field he was done with it. That gives some idea of the little kingdom the Britisb have set up right off our coast. "I do not think our people in 'general understand that the British have estab- lished a complete little kingdom extending all along the Atlantic coast, controlling not only the ccean but the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico as well. I do not know of a more for- midable line of defences in the world. It is made up of only four points—Halifax, Bermuda, Jamaica, and St. Lucia. Every- thing is concentrated upon them," "I will give you a little idea of what a business man sees in making the voyage along this LINE OF FORTIFICATIONS, TillRYt9lf4' SIM& CehhE s a commerote' enterpriap, and does not belong to the QoyernMent, sothere b Daly one explanation of this heavy reserve. In pass of trouble au enemy Might cut the cable; and, if this ahotild happon you would see a man-of.War go out in a hurry to repair it or lay a new cable. They can't afford to lose their telegraphic communication with the West Indies. "It ie not more than five or six years since the troops and warships in Bermuda were supplied with rain water stored in Lanka, There are immense tanks in St. George's for this purpose, and a great rooky hillside was smoothed to catch the rain as it fell. It was excellent water and there was always plenty of it. But the time might come when so many troops would be massed on the islands that there would not be water enough to supply them, so one of THE LARGEST SET OF CONDENSERS EVER MADE was put up at the dockyard for distill- ing sea water. With these condensers at work, the supply of fresh water can never fail. "The fortifications of Jamaica do not compare with those of Bermuda, but it is still a formidable place. The entrance to the harbor is so narrow that one or two ships could easily hold it against an enemy. The island is principally useful to the British as a coaling station and second- rate repair shop in time of peace. It is in telegraphic communicationwith Bermuda and St. Luota, and is so near the latter that help could reach it speedily. But if the British should wish for any reason to BLOCKADE THE GULF OF MEXICO, Jamaica would be an important point. You uuderetand there are only two en- trances to the Gulf, one between Cuba and Florida, about ninety miles wide, and the other between Cuba and Yucatan, of nearly the same width. A few ironclads in each of these passages would cut the Gulf completely off. "St. Lucia is less know* than Bermuda but at is looming up into one of the great- est British strongholds on this side of the Atlantic. It is only twelve miles from 'the French island of Martinique, and it is of little account except as a military and naval station: It is one of the best harbors in the West Indies, surrounded by high mountains, which are heavily fortified. About 400 men are constantly at work there makin z new fortifications and im- proving the harbor. Within the next five years it will be almost as strong as Ber- muda. It is already the military head- quarters for the West Indies. When a British admiral can sit in his house at Halifax and direct the manage» ment of a big fire in Bermuda and when war ships can go from one of these sta- tions to the next one in forty-four hours, the islands cannot be considered very far apart. It is not stretching a point, I think, to speak of the British kingdom ex- tending along our coast." as I 'do several times every ' year. The passenger steamers run from Halifax to Bermuda in four days, but they are slow coaches. Such a veesel as the Blake, with her 20,000 horse power, could make the run easily within forty-eight hours. That gives her an allowance for some delays at start and finish; the Admiralty schedule puts her down for forty-four hours tween the two points. Bermuda, as ever body knows, is an island surrounded by a network of coral reefs, through which there is only one channel by which large `; .: -- - -r.Tr-+..fir- ".+.. • ... ..... : - � ... - . t 'Milan regards. as ilia particular' foamy, } muiiT Cmx4, BE, wilool!TQUlli7 EI , LA7 EFWFQTUQPF• I could not be found Itis assefed at that ' A OAT AEQEaiYEB. WIT1-j< A AWAIT MEMORY FOR FACES. Agricultural Abstracts. In a week or two after farrowing the sow will develop an enormous appetite, and she should have all she can eat, but not food of a fattening character. Skim milk and fine wheat middlings make the best combination. This furnishes material for making a large amount of inilk; though 'it may not be the richest it will keep the pigs thrifty. If the pigs do not get enopgh it is better to feed them sparsely than to gi.ve richer food to the sow, weich will be likely to fatten her. On the right kind of diet a. young sow will make a considerable growth of frame while she is rearing her pigs. If.ahe does not it is evidence that she is not given enough food, or of the right quality. Didn't Know the Wotwlan Me Prom- - hied zo Marry war, Ws Own Wife-, The Wickedest Roy la Vienna... Eccentric Love making. A COUP D'ETAT EXPECTED IN BERViA. London, May 21,—The tranquillity of public affairs throughout almost the whole of Europe, in the past few days, gives prominence to a series of incidents in the experience of Individuals, here and there, so out of the ordinary that no novelist would dare use them. fbe most remark- able of these queer stories comes from St. Petersburg. It concerns Mtchael Yaltidze, his wife and an American young woman. More than 12 years ago Yaltidze, then a schoolboy, fell in love with the pretty girl of his own age in Hungary. They were married on short acquaintance. The parents of Yaltidze, when they learned of the match, sent him to America under an assumed name. He settled to Alabama, where the iron discoveries of the past few years enabled him to make a large fortune. Recently he fell in love with an American girl, told her as much of his story as he thought was good for her to know, and then undertook to escape from the early bond. The marriage could be dissolved only by the ecclesiastical court, which de- mands a cloud of witnesses to the alleged misconduct, and must have solid reasons in the shape of current coin for completing the investigation before the parties grow old and toothless. There are special lawyers who for a lump euro furnish advice, documents, willing witnesses, and a warrant that the spiritual court will do the rest. Yaltidze directed one of these to pre- pare his case, and soon after he started for Russia to see the matter through. He stopped at London, Paris, and finally Wiesbaden, where he made the acquaint- ance of a charming Russian lady, who is said to be an artist. She soon supplanted the American girl in his affections. He prolonged his visit for weeks, and so dis- regarded the conventionalities that scan- dal arose. He declared his passion and asked her to marry him as soon as be obtained a divorce from his American wife, which he said he was expecting by each mail. He was incautious enough to give the name and address of the American girl as those of his wife. Finally he hurried on to Russia to see how the case, against his real wife was progressing. The lawyer Wormed him that he had bad hard work to get the case in proper shape, but it was all right now. No perjury would be needed, as the mis- conduct of the wife was notorious. Ile then explained that the wife had been living for some time under a stage name at Wiesbaden, and for some weeks had been notoriously intimate with a wealthy American, giving his client his own Am- erican alins. The amazed Yaltidze demanded that he stop his silly joking. The lawyer declared that he was in earnest, and called in a detective to corroborate him. The latter entered. "What did you say," he asked, "was the name of -the gentleman who stayed with Mme. Y. in Wiesbaden, and is the co-respondent in the divorce case?" "His name is N. But that is the gentle- man himself there." "What do you mean, you scoundrel," shouted Yaltidze, and then fixing his eyes upon the witness, he said:— 'Why, you are the blackguard I threat- ened to thrash in Wiesbaden if 1 found you hanging about my lodgings any more." "Yes, sir. I was engaged to watch Mme. Y.'s movements in Wiesbaden. That's why I dogged her steps and yours. The lady is willing enough to geta divorce. She has a promise of marriage, she says, from au American millionaire." When Mme. Yaltidze heard her hus• band's story from his own lips she wrote a sweet letter to her husband's alleged wife in the United States, introducing her- self as that lady's successor, and asked to be informed of the result of the divorce case.Tben she instructed a lawyer to sue her husband for alimony on a high scale, and to assert' that she knew all along that her paramour was her lord and master. Yaltidze has disappeared. The brother of the American girl is prepared to shoot him at sight, Johann Meyer, 11 years old, one of the wickedest boys in Vienna, had been spank- ed many times for running away. Finally, to enable him to gratify his desire to escape, late at night he stole the big door key, sawed the handle through, filed the ends as sharp as a needle point, drew them through the akin of his waist, and then hammered them to- gether, and the key hung from his body like a ring from the nose of a savage. He was thus enabled, by standing on a chair, to open the door and leave the house when- ever he liked. This went on for weeks until he got in a fight with other bad boys, and was bit a heavy blow where the key was. He was taken senseless to a hospital, and the doctors were unable to remove the key till tbey sawed it in two. The boy's life was in danger for several days, but now it is expected that he will live to be spanked many times more. Thomas Barnes, a young man described as holding a good position is a suburb of London, bas been paying court to Miss Frances Mitchell. Love did not agree with him. He got tbin,and could not sleep nights. Instead of consulting a doctor, Barn es went to the gypsies, from whom he ob- tained a prescription. Then he invited Miss Mitchell to take a walk in the gloam- ing. Arriving at a secluded spot he pricked the astonished young woman sev- eral times in the arm, smote Her a violent blow in the face, and fled. The prescrip- tion, it seemed, was to be used vicariously upon Miss Mitchell, who had her eccentric lover taken to jail. Barnes informed the police magistrate that the gypsies told him that it was neces- sary to bruise the skin and draw blood from the lady of his choice, both of which he did effectively. The magistrate was in- clined to give Barnes a taste of hard labor, but, yielding to the entreaties of Miss Mitchell, whose love was not estranged by the eccentricity of the young idiot, he was merely bound over to keep the peace. Servia is the only feverish spot in Eur- ope now. Everybody expects sine sort of a sensational outcome of the crisis in Belgrade within a few days, if not hours. The event generally anticipated is a second coup d'etat by the youug King, with the aid of bis father and Prime Minister Nikolaievitch. The aim is to put an end to the power of the 'Radicals, whom Milan regards as personal enemies. The King will probably suspend the constitu- tion and establish an absolute Gov- ernment with the aid of the army. The first steps were taken on last Tburs- day, under pretext of the discovery of a conspiracy in favor of the Karageor- gevitch dynasty. All suspected of being supporters of the rival house were arrest- ed. The chief culprit, Pasiteh, who has been Serviaa Ambassador at St. Peters- burg up to the present, and whom King A New Zealand farmer tried sowing brim- stone on a patch of Canada thistles, ar.d he reports that it completely destroyed them. lie sowed it thickly enough to destroy all vegetable life for two years, but after that the soil was as productive as ever and he had rid the land of thistles. There are other much less expensive ways to destroy Canada thistles than this. Letting them get into blossom and then plowing under deeply, so as to cover the growth of tdps, with little breaking of the roots, will destroy them. If any appear from roots that are not attached to_ the stalks, cul- tivation during the summer, so that none are vessels can approach. It is as thoroughly altot of them.dabove the surface, will make a finish guarded by nature as any island in the world. The ship channel opens at the east end of the island and runs elose by the shore for ten or twelve miles, and any enemy would be exposed to a destructive fire throughout that distance. "Bermuda is much ,like Halifax in the fact that FEW FORTIFICATONS ARE VISIBLE to the visitor. Two forts can be seen at kit. Georges, at the east end, but they are old-fashioned stone constructions that do not look formidable. You can drive all over the island and not see more than these forte. And you can stay there for six months, small as the place is, and see no more signs of military occupation than you see in New York. But the fortifications are there, as can be readily learned by sail- ing around the islands in a small boat or going up into the Gibbs ;Hill Lighthouse. "The north side is so well protected by coral reefs that 110 forts are needed' there beyond two or three that might be neces- sary to destroy a vessel that attemped the channel. It is on the south side of . Bermuda that forts are needed, because the reefs there are not so wild. An enemy might come up within three miles of shore. You can drive all aldng the south shore, within two or three hundred feet of the beach, and not see a sign of a fort; but take a boat and sail along the beach and you will see that it is almost a continuous fortification. One fort follows another so fast there is hardly room for grass to grow between them. And they are all connected by sunken passage ways, as can be seen from the top of the lighthouse. "If the British had made Bermuda they could not have designed an island better suited to their purposes. The very things that • make it invaluable to them would make it almost useless to this country. We are in no need of a coaling station and re- pair shop within '700 miles of our own coast, and that is precisely what Bermuda Is to the British. In time of war Bermuda would be 'THE GREAT COALING STATION In times of great scarcity of potatoes it is possible to get good crops by removing the outside skin, cutting pretty deeply where the growing germs are set, and planting these, while using the middle of the potato as food. But it needs rich soil and well-prepared seed bed to do this. The substance of the potato in connection with the germ furnishes the first sustenance for the young plant un- til its roots got hold of the soil. It is difficult to get the right kind of plant food for the potato set where it can be used so easily as in the setting Refill. Economy of seed should only extend to care not to plant too many eyes or buds in a hill. 'rhe larger the piece of potato attached to each of these the better it will grow. It is, perhaps, a sign that wool and wheat growing at present low prices are not paying the Australians as they used to do, that they are beginning the manufacture of cheese.For a product that has to go half around the world to find a market, cheese is better than either wheat or wool, provided its quality is first- class. Cheese, and indeed all dairy products, have been less depressed in price than most other products of the farm. A shipment of 1,400 cases of Australian cheese from the colony of Victoria has been sold in London and brought prices fully equal to the best Canadian and American. As the Australian summer is our winter, it is possible for this cheese to be shipped so as to come in market when American cheese is scarce. We doubt whether American cheese makers will have their market taken from them if they continue to send only cheese of the best quality. on this side of the Atlantic. "- It is as a machine shop that Bermuda isi of the greatest importance. They, can handle there the largest ships afloat and make any repairs that can be made anywhere. I do not wonder that they were alarmed when the fire broke out, for there is enough powder stored on Ireland Island to supply the navies of the world. As to projectiles, they are piled there in mountains. The warehouses are full of naval provisions, and 9 disabled man -of war can find their. duplicates of almost any part that may be damaged, from a shaft or a propeller to a new bowsprit. And Wall Why, there is enough coal stored in the Bermuda deekyards to carry on a naval war. "One thing I noticed in the naval etude, both in Halifax and Bermuda, that sur- prised me till I'came to understand it. In ,Halifax they keep at least a thousand miles of ocean cable coiled up ready for nee, and in Bermuda there is nearly twice eta hunch, , ponapiraoy, iaa,wh1ch Pasttch is deeply dna, piloted, Wee discovered for getting rid of the boy ,ing Alexander and the whole Obrenovitch dynasty, and placing a Kew ageorgevitch, supported by Buasia, upon the throne. Paslteb was forewarned and instead ofreturning borne from Russia went to a foreign country. The resort to 1110 -!sanded measures again in this little kingdom may easily develop intq a seri- ous menace to European peace, Steamship men and others posted on the Atlantic summer travel have been estimat- ing the number of American visitors to Europe during the coming summer. The average makes the number of first-class passengers eastward about 31,000. NOVELTIES IN DENTISTRY. Shown and Discussed in the Recent Convention of Dental Surgeons. The talk of the Convention of Dental Surgeons, held in Washington last week, gave a nietiou of the revolution in den- tistry that has taken place withtn the past few years. By the use of an electric light in connection with the little mirror in- troduced into the mouth the teeth and alveolar processes are brilliantly illu- minated and rendered translucent. Thus, anything wrong about the teeth may be. quickly discovered. Perhaps the dead tooth may be hidden in the jaw, never having been erupted, and may have been the obscure cause of trouble for years. The light reveals it at once. Facial neuralgia, by the way, is nearly always due to a dead tooth. Electricity is most valuable as a motive power for toothboring tools, which, strange to say, cause less pain the faster they go, Most people now grown up can recall the excruciating pain caused by the excavating instrument which the dentist of a generation ago slowly revolved between his fingers. The "burrs" now made for such work are much finer thin they were half a dozen years ago, being capable of cutting through steel bars. Furthermore, the laborious method of turning them out There is no kind of fertilizer that is so liable to become insoluble and useless for plants as phosphate. This is especially true on soils which contain much lime and comparatively little vegetable matter. It needs a good deal of moisture to keep the phosphate in condition to be used. Water in the soil has always more or less carbonic acid gas, which is one of the best solvents of phosphate. Soils to which yearly dressings of phosphate are applied with benefit will often show large amounts of phosphate when analyzed. If the crops could reach it there would be enough. Nor do the crops in all cases use what is yearly applied as speeial fertilizer for the grain. If a dry Beason follows its application most of it reverts or becomes insoluble. Such soils are often benefited by an application of salt in light dressings. The salt in the soil is a good solvent of phosphate and will enable crops to get more of it than they could without it. It is much better when preparing the corn ground to do all the deep cultivation that 18 required to mix the manure with the soil than to put it off, thinking it can be done by culti- vating after the corn is aboveground. It is possible that for the first few ays after corn is up the deep cultivation between the rows may do good rather than harm. But it would be better, even then, if this work were done earlier. After corn is planted it is impossible to pulverize lumps under the hills. If the cultivation before planting has been thorough, all the later tillage should be shallow, merely enough to destroy weeds as they germinate and, leave a mulch of two or three inches of fine soil on the surface. Any one who leaves growing corn a single week in July with only shad - low culture will be astonished at the mass of fine corn rootlets that will be found just under the depth that the shallow cultivation has reached. These roots cannot bo out into with- out injuring the crop, and if dry weather fol- lows eep cultivation of cern the Drop ie near- ly ruined. The plow long ago went out of use among Dorn with Northern farmers. We are learning that very deep cultivation is often nearly as injurious S1gpr of i71West `that Cauie Marl* in Ragland. The Mowing is the London, einectator'e article 011 a possible uprising la India, which created such a sensation two weeks ago in England, The Spectator is a recog- nized authority in regard to Oriental mat- tere, and especially concerning Indiau questions., It will beseen that the Specta- tor was apprehensive lest the expected mutiny might break out on the 10t1a, the anniversary of the first day of the firat mutiny of 1857, which is now past. The Spectator thinks trouble may come any time in May. It says :-.- by hand has been superseded recently by a machine which produces them at a cost of 19 cents apiece. Electricity is employed also for pulling teeth. To the battery are attached three wires. Two of them have handles at the the end, wbile the tuird is attached to the forceps. The patient grasps the handles tbe electricity is turned on suddenly, and the dentist simultaneously applies his forceps to the tooth. The instant the tooth is touched, it, as well as the sur- rounding parts, become insensible to pain. A jerk, and it is out. One dentist at the convention remarked that there is not one tooth lost now where there used to be 100. If only the root is lett, a new upper part of porcelain or gold, called a "crown," is fastened upon it so as to be quite serviceable. Supposing that not even the root is left, a gap in the mouth is filled in with one or more "dum- mies," securely fastened by a gold "bridge" or otherwise to the sound teeth. Complete sets of false teeth are rare nowadays, The demand for "tooth crowns" comes largely from base ball players, football athletes and bicycle riders, who are very apt to have their teeth broken oft short. But the last and most ingenious resort of the dental surgeon is "Implantation"—i.e., the setting of new teeth into the jaw, For this purpose real teeth are employed and not artificial ones. Cocaine having been first appli:d for producing local anastha;sia a hole is drilled in the jsw bone, and into this socket a good tooth, newly drawn from somebody's jaw, is set. If the patient is young and vigorous, the osse- ous structure soon closes around it, and by the time the guns is healed the tooth is ready for use. It should last for from three to ten years. In the case of an elderly or feeble person it may be fastened in place by silver wires passing around the jawbone. One of the most important improve- ments in modern dental practice is on the point of becoming accomplished. It will consist in the substitution of porcelain for gold in the filling of teeth, especially in pieces where repairs are likely to sbow. For this purpose a piece of thin platinum foil is introduced into the "cavity," and so manipulated as to take the exact form of the hole, as if it were intended as a lin- ing. 'Then it is carefully withdrawn, so as not to disturb its shape. Thus is obtained a mould, from which a porcelain cast may be made to fill the cavity exactly. This is secured in place by cement. Tho trouble is that no cement as yet invented is proof against the dissolving power of the fluids an the mouth. The human jaw, while receding and losing its brute -tike character, has been steadily growing narrower. This tatter change is going on even now, so that most people have not room enough in their mouths for the equipment of teeth with which., nature has provided them. Many persons are obliged to have two or four teeth drawn to make room for the rest. The "wisdoms" being superfluous for lack of space, nature is making them of poorer material in every generation. So these "third molars," as dentists term them, begin to decay usually and have to be filled or pulled as soon as they up. near. Inasmuch as real teeth are so easily lost, it is a comfort to know that artificial ones cost only 15 to 18 cents each at the manu- facturer's. One maker In New York sells 8,000,000 teeth every year. They are porcelain, composed chiefly of kaolin. The enamel it put on with metallic oxides, the process being so delicate that no two teeth are exactly alike in coloring. After being finished thousands of them are taken together and matched in shades. There are fifty different shades, corresponding to variations in the coloring of natural teeth. Defects are often made in false teeth so as to render them more deceptive to the eye. The beat plates are of rubber, Celluloid is the prettiest material for the purpose, but it does not resist the acids of the mouth. A tooth is a living structure. Inside of each tooth is a cavity tilled with pulp which gives it life. Nerves and bioou vessels connect this pulp with the general system and eirci;lation of the body. The ivory surrounding the pulp is covered over by a surface of enamel. 'both ivory and enamel are harder than any other bones, because they contain a greater quantity of bone earth. Enamel on the tops of the tenth is one -sixteenth of en inch thick. It consists of little etx-sided prisms placed side by side, and held to- gether by an exquisitely fine cement. The pulp of the tooth becomes diseased and toothache follows. Tartar is a secretion made by three glands in the mouth, full of small living oraanisme which assimi- late matter in the saliva and deposit it on the teeth in the shape of phosphate of lime. that discontent In, it no, MOV014e0 lOttnr. tug, only angry grumbling, leading at chic utmost tP rioip.; PO if a. movement i. at hand, this is nota bad tune for.fts•pro,• mottos to appeal to the) population, at ; large, WRERII I8 THE tNPiAll FORCE ? But their force, where ie 11 ? Who knows ? Asea matter of fact, we dgu $ if Indians, onee determined on melon, Dare; very much about counting forces, they . act rather on the idea that the mayy, by'` rising, earn supernatural protection. wreatt• officers noticed in 1847 as a dangerous symptom that many regiments rose when rising was hopeless, when they were over- matched and knew it; or when, as in the Chittagong mutiny, they had to m hundreds of miles across provinces sw ing with their enemies, The force, h ever, at the disposal of rebels is not so small as men at home imagine. There are plenty of rifles, though the big guns must be few and of inferior quality. Counting the military police. and the na- tive armies, there must be more than tbree hundred thousand drilled native soldiers in India; tbere are nearly as many armed boys who intend to replace those soldiers ; and there are, at the loweat computation, five millions of grown men whose natural trade is fighting, who are sick to death of the Pax Britannica, and who may throw up—although they failed to do so in 1857—a Hyder Ali or Runjeet Singh. It is not eo easy for an Indian, brave as our owu people, and much quicker on his feet, aware as he is of the number of the fight- . ing tribes, to feel clear that, in the pres- ence of sixty thousand Englishmen, he is' hopelessly overmatched. He has been beaten, it is true, for ono hundred years; but what are one hundred years in the countless ages of Indian life ? And his view of our campaigns is very different from ours—he attributes much more to fortune, and much more to treachery. The Afghans drove -us out, and why, say In- dians, should our expulsion by races who have beaten the Afghans be so impossible? Of course, as a matter of fact, if the mis- take of 1857 is repeated, and the insurgents meet us in the field, they will be crushed like snails under a roller, intelligence—if Radicals will allow us to say so—being in war, worth more than numbers; but if they do not repeat it, if instead of huddling to- gether in armies, they fight us province by province, zillah by ziaiah, the expenditure of life, of treasure, and of energy iu defeating them, will be of the most exhausting kind. We shall con- quer, we do not doubt, but the conquest will make government more dif- ficult, will redouble the Impediments in the way of our necessity, which is to in- duce s ,me one tribe to accept us loyally-, and will leave us as before, seated in the air, with no genuine foothold outside our own cautouments. An insurrection in In- dia, with a Ilyder Ali at its head ordering tbat the white soldiers are to be harassed but never fought, would be a scene from which the more experienced a soldier is the more be would recoil; for what cogid he do but march on over that immense continent, slaughtering and slaughtering, but never reaping the reward of a true victory ? It would not be war, but the suppression of armed rioting upon a colos- sal scale. We quite admit the adoption of such a policy is most improbable, because the Indian mind has confidence, as Xerxes had, in innumerable hosts, bur the later Emperors of Delhi were fought like that, and if a great leader should arise, so may we be. A FATAL alariefftsMa. Our readers will, we think, acquit the "Spectator" of publishing sensational arta. cies, but we have something to say this week which must be said, and which may expose us fairly to that disagreeable im- putation, We may be, as we acknow- ledge from the first, utterly wrong, but the Indian telegram of the "Times," pub- lished on Monday, the second on the same subject, has excited in our minds a grave apprehension. It is, at all events, within the limits of possibility that within the next few days all the questions which now interest the country may be swallowed up by intelligence that we have, for the sec- ond time in the last half century, India to reconquer. Thursday is the thirty-seventh anniversary of the fatal May 10, 1857, the first day of the great mutiny, that marvelous insurrection led, and only led by the Sepoys, which so nearly extinguished British authority throughout Northern and Central India, perhaps throughout India as a whole, for, had we been beaten on one pitched field, the Mahommedans of the south, with the fourteen thousand Arabs of the Deccan as their spearhead would have sprung to arms. The annit*ersary has never been forgotten. May is the time for insurrec- tions, the people believing that heat pros- trates white men, and if a rising has been arranged, it is in this month that it would burst out all over Northern India. Just at this time we appear to be receiving one of those strange warnings which have fre- quently preceded disturbances, even under the Mogul dynasty, and which in 1857 took the form of a distribution of chappaties— little unleavened cakes—throueh Behar and part of the north-west. They were distributed by unknown hands, received in silence as by men who understood what they meant, and passed on to meet every- where with the same reception. This time it takes the shape of a patch of plaster mixed with hair, with which the trees of the endless mango groves have been secretly bedaubed, as it would seem, throughout Behar and the provinces to the east and west. As in 1857, no one knows how this is done, or by wham, though the number of persons involved must tie very great; the police, if they know anything, reveal nothing; and the people remain lest in that apparently unobservant silence, which throughout Ada, when a dangerous incident occurs, • means mischief. That stlenc, implies and proves that if anything serious is intended, ilindoos and Mussul» mans, as in 1857, are both in it, for they both understand the national ways equally well. The meaning of the chapatti as a signal escaped the Government officials in 1857, as the meaning of the distribution of the n'aster—which, if we can remember rightly, after more than thirty years' ab- seuce, is the old 'trade -mark' of the jogis or wandering fanatics of Hindooism—es- capes it now; but we venture to believe, at the risk of seeming presumptuous, that the problem was nee insoluble. Our theory is, and at all events it fits the facts, that when the promoters of an Indian move- ment hold that the time is ripe they order something unusual to be done, be it to light bonfires on the hills as ,the early Mahrattas used to do—at least, Meadows Taylor ease so—or to circulate a cake, or leave a mark on the mango trees, which every villager knows at once that neither he nor his comrades have made or have ex- pected, The object 19 to say, 'Wait and be ready,'in a way inaudiule to the governing power. It is an alerts which is sound- ed, and which is thoroughly under- stood as the signal that something against the common secular enemy, the intruding white man, is about to be attempted. The signal seen, every man waits, sharpening his sword or not, as be is or is not a fighting man, and looks to the result of the first rising, and till that is known be, whether Hiodoo or Mussulman, official or peasant, remains silent as death. He may even in his mind have chosen tbe white man's side as the probable favorite of the destinies, but he will say nothing, either for fear or bribe or friendship, until the hour has arrived and passed. After that he may speak; but till then the secret known to tens of thousands, or, as in 1857, to a whole population, is kept, as in Sicily are kept the darker secrets of the Mafia, which a whole population knows and the Government cannot guess. A QUESTION ANSWERED: But, we shall be asked, why should such an outbreak, even if possible, occur just now when all sensible Indians must be aware that the army is very- strong, that tbere is no special grievance to complain of, and that England is not at war? We can only reply that we do not know, nor does any body else not familiar with tbe ideas current in temple and mosque as to 'the fortunate hour,' which depends on conjunctions of the stars, old prophecies, new declarations by leaders claiming inspiration, a thousand things of whims no European understands one word, though here and there one of the de- tested race may be conscious of a restlessness, a dangerous stir, a look as of expectation all around him. What we do know is that something is stirring among the priests of Nepaul, for the po- ice admit that much; indeed, it is tbo cur- rent explanation of the plaster that Nepaul is the last retreat of unwatched and inde- pendent Hindooism; that the shibboleth of Hindooism, the criminality of killing cows, has been again asserted in many un- connected places, with the sword; that Behar, the most discontented of the old provinces—its population dislike all this enforced quiet—is seething with irritation because of a cadastral survey, which owners interpret as an inquisition into old property rights; that the expectation of new taxes is general, and that the whole North, including special- ly the Punjab, is sulky and wor. reed about the land -tax which the Gov. ernment is trying silently to raise by in- creased assessments, in order to meet the losses caused by the failure of the rupee. The fighting races are not in a good temper, and the religious exeltement has not ended quite rightly for us, for while the Iltndoos are curious at our impartial repression, the Mtiesulmans think we ought to have struck harder for their clear right to eat beef if they please. We should not wonder, either, if the Opium Commission had bred an unexpected amount of suspic- ion, Ilindoos and Mussnlmans alike dread- ing and detesting interference with any- thing willeh goes into the mouth, and con- sidering that the morality of opium -eating, betel•oheeving or hemp•ewal1owing ie matter for their own pundits and moolahs, and not lobe derided by any Christiana, Alt TIIE WAY TO MEET REBELLION. Are there any means of prevention ? There are none whatever, except to gar- rison Allahabad carefully as the key to India, to see that armed vessels command the presidency towns, so that communica- tion with Europe be not checked, and to call back any troops who may be encamp- ed beyond the Himalaya or in Burman, and these precautions, the second perhaps excepted, will not be taken. The Gov- ernment of India does not defend itself against general insurrection, and In tis neglect, is perhaps grandly wise. It has no white troops to scatter, it, has no na- tive or mercenary force which it can ab- solutely trust, and it can never tell, even vaguely, whence the blow to be delivered may come or what is the line of defence it may be most useful to adopt. It watts, therefore, listening always, and if the hour strikes, it may be relied on to act with savage energy. ' That it will .be called on so to act at some period, unless, indeed, it can win absolutely to its side some one of the fightiag peoples of India, seems to us past question; but the necessity may arise next week, or in 1906, when seven times seven years 'will have elapsed since the last great effort, or at some period more distant yet. The only thing certain is that Asia is not reconciled, and never will be, to European domination, and tbat Asia has hitherto throughout her long history suc- ceeded in spitting Europeans out. We tbink a great deal of our soldiers, and doubtless they have seldom known defeat; but are they as much superior to Sikhs and Goorkas and Rajpoots as Richard's mail - clad warriors were to the cavalry of Saladin? It was Saladin, nevertheless, who stopped in Jerusalem. The chinch bug has been the means of do- stroying millions of dollars in crops of corn and wheat, and seriousis this loss has been, it was made still grater by the fact that wherever ono of these crops was grown it necessarily precluded the other. The crop of wheat furnished early feed fur the first set of bugs which propagated, and were then ready to fall upon the corn. Or if corn was grown one year it left a brood of chinch ling eggs in the fall, ready to be hatched out and destroy the wheat crop the following spring. The State Experimental Stations of Nebraska and Kansas now provide better ways of keeping the chinch bug in check. This is by propagat- ing a disease among them. There are three separate and distinct diseases, but the one moat fatal is a fungous mould which attacks the bugs, and in a week's time converts them into a white, cottony substance. The more numerous the chinch bugs the better does this remedy work. It is not likely that hay,wheat and corn crops will ever again suffer from this enemy as they have done. After it is once well disseminated, some of the disease germs will be likely to live through the winter in each locality, and check the increase of the chinch bug from the beginning. Our experience with feeding oats to hens is that they are too light to be made a main part of the feed. The fowls will not eat them at the same time with other grain. But we never saw young chicks grow better than on a diet of oat meal sifted so as to remove most of the hulls, and then mixed till nearly solid and dry with sour curd cheese. This combination contains just what is needed to make rapid growth. There are a few days at the beginning of the chickens' life when whole grains of wheat ars too large for them- We find, however, t hat after they are ten days old there is no diffi- culty from whole wheat, though it is better to give cracked grain some time longer, as itre- quires longer time to eat a given quantity, Soft food does not tax the digestive organa sufficiently to insure their vigor. It is the cause of more deaths of young chicks than anything else, excepting lice. • One million dollars gold has been en-, gaged for shipment on Tuesday's steamers from blew -Fork. -- -