The East Huron Gazette, 1893-03-30, Page 6A Remarkable
Oriental Experience.
A THRILLING STORY OF CHINESE TREACHERY.
CHAPTER VII. , carter (a; type of the lowest caste of the
—Which of the two Chinese race) would be in any way useful
Tientsin, 10th July, as a prisoner. So it seems to me extremely
will arrive first—the Chinese guide, fur likely either that the man has been liber -
whose return I wait in Tientsin, or this
man Chin-chin-wa ? Everything seems to
conspire to hinder my progress. I am, in
reality, no nearer my goal than I was a
month ago, so far as I can see. I have ar-
rived at a stage of mind bordering upon de-
spair. Absurd as it may seem, I had come
to place my hopes in theacceptance of the
terms which Dicey is,by my wish, put
before the exile.
In a word, I have arrived at such a stage
of low spiritedness, owing to the delays
thrust upon me, that I seem to look to the
arrival of Chin -chin -we, in Tientsin as the
only light which breaks upon the darkness
of my thoughts. I can do nothing more ;
yet I regret that I did not *rite more
strongly to Shanghai, that I did not take
the matter more serionsly—that I did not
urge upon my friends that immediate action
only could satisfy me.
It is curious that but five days ago I look-
ed upon the news I had recently from',
Shanghai as unimportant, and now I feel as
though I had perhaps east aside what might
have been a chance.
Certainly I wrote to Dicey ; but I might
have done more—I might also have written
to Chin-chin-wa : and as it stands now, I
feel it would be absurd to do so, for the
question as to whether he will or not join
me or assist me will have been decided be-
fore my letters could now reach- Shanghai.
Frederick Dicey is not the sort of man to
have written me thus strongly` on the sub-
ject had he not been promptedto do so by
some very deep feeling.
Why should I not move on to Pekin
I struggle against the double reason that
now keeps me here, for my impatience
would hurry me on, notwithstanding that I
know it is right for me to stay.
Nothing has occurred, I dine out, or dine
quietly with my host. I spent some days
routing through the native city, and then I
return, vainly hoping and believing that
this guide will have conte during my short
absence from my temporary home.
Tientsin, 16th July.—My patience has
been rewarded, and yet not rewarded.
I am thoroughly sick of Tientsin. The
very quietness of the place clings around
me in monotony, and at last I am to break
away from it. I am writing these lines
preparatory to packing the volume I call
my diary. A singularly scrappy affair it
has always been.
The less there is to do and see in a place,
the more time I should have to record my
few doings ; but it is one thing to ponder
upon writing up a few days that have got
behind, and another to do so. 'ibis after-
noon I have resolutely determined to record
what has occurred, for some thing has act-
ually occurred at last. -
,the .guide who accompanied Norris to
Pekiu has returned. And this return serves
chiefly one object, that I am now free to pro-
ceed, knowing that nothing further is to be better of his assistance. I did not daily
gained by staying here. There is, indeed, Iwith the matter in hand at all. I told Chin -
the hope of a reply from the Diceys, but I
chin -we clearly the facts of the case. He
have quite made up my mind that I must agreed with me that it might be possible
face what seems to me now to be inevitable that Norris is confined in Imperial grounds ;
—the refusal of the ex -exile to mix himself theossible reasons for this he would not
up in the affair. Chiefly for this reason hazard to guess, and, indeed, expressed him -
have I come to this conclusion—that the self unwilling to give any opinion whatever
man who has been an exile once will in no until he sawou. He is much interested in
way risk becoming so a second time ! I the matter, nd, to my thinking, grasps, as
Besides, I do not yet know how far he I it were, at an opportunity of acting against
has the pardon of the Government, even the Chinese in the cause of justice. I
supposing he were willing to assist me. No! ' ,
he can not be free to such an extent that hemave ; dont fancy you will find him—whatever he
would be able to act for me quite independ- hearth aftereen—much his seventeen years anaman t
captiv-
ity.
"This letter will very likely be in your
hands after you have welcomed Chin-chin-
wa, for he is setting out immediately to
join you ; and if you have gone on to Pekin,
he will follow you, in which case you will
receive this letter by a special messenger.
"I am writing Bonsel to this effect, that
he may dispatch a courier at once to Pekin,
so that you may be advised of Chin-chin-
we'a arrival, for I believe it possible that he
may set out in the same steamer as that
which bears this letter.
ated by his captors, who still keep his
master in confinement, or that he has been
killed ; and as the carter would not be the
sort of creature to convey information to
any one as to what had happened some time
before, I conjecture that there is the prob-
ability that he may be still living some-
where in the interior of China—that is to
say, if he returned to his home.
But nay conjectures are but wild upon
this and other matters relative to my: search.
Only I think I am in the right in endeavor-
ing to trace this carter, who (even if I find
him), may still ,alas ! prove to have forgot-
ten all that has occurred.
I can not account for the man's disappear-
ance in toto except in the way I have al-
ready done—imprisonment for a season,
and then lfberted or killed ; which was it,
I wonder? The former I trust.
I forsee a very lengthy search and a pro-
longed stay in the city of Pekin.
My guide is to have all in readiness for a
start at daybreak. I travel in a mule -litter.
Tientsin, 16 -17th July (midnight).=It is
many hours since I ceased my writing,
somewhat abruptly, it is true.
I penned the last lines above in the after-
noon, and I am continuing at midnight, in
order to record the event which broke in
upon my dairy, and to those which succeed-
ed thereafter ; for it seems to me that I may
henceforth have considerable difficulty in
keeping my diary, so that I am anxious to
write up as far as possible, before I leave
Tientsin, in order that I may truthfully
record my first impressions upon meeting
with the man whom the Chinese call Chin-
chin-wa.
I was busy writing this afternoon when
my guide entered the room with, to my de-
light, a parcel of letters from Shanghai :
one from my banker there, another from
James Dicey, and a third from Frederick
Dicey.
It is only necessary to give an extract
concluding the last of the three, to this
effect : -
" To come to the point, Chin-chin-wa
agrees to join you. Whether it was or not
his intention to proceed to Pekin 1 did not
inquire. It was enough for me when he
conformal with my views. I spoke of re-
ward, and wish indeed that I had not men-
tioned this. The man appears to be ex-
tremely proud. If he is of service to you
I fancy the only thing in this way which
he will admit of, even if he goes so far, will
be to to allow you to pay his expenses ;
but at the first mention of such a thing
he gave me a look which spoke volumes.
He did not speak, but I felt some-
how indescribably small. It is well to
mention this to you, that you may know
the point is, a delicate one,and difficult of
approach.
"I am glad, indeed, to have secured this
man's services (perhaps services is scarcely
the word), for I feel sure you will be the
ently of other considerations, so I am per-
haps better without him after all-
-Any yet 1 would give much—very much
—to have this man as a free man really
working with me, and assisting me with his
advice,. as Frederick Dicey puts it—" as
sny ally."
I fancied I should have heard from Shang-
- now, butas yet there is no reply, so
xI am determined to go on to Pekin at dawn;
and, as there is no help for it, I shall go to
,. Bonsel's friend, Shanmin-yuen, when I reach
that city.
s. When I recognize my powerlessness and
utter ignorance of the ways and customs of
the Chinese. I come to see that the search
which I undertook is a very much more re-
sponsible matter than I had any idea of
when the swallow came to me months ago
in Brussels.
The guide, in the first place, has proved
'almost useless to me. This is his story as
nearly as I can relate it. Bonsel was pres-
ent at our conference to translate to rice
such pigeon -English as I could not quite
make out.
Norris came, according to the guide's re-
port, to Tientsin about a year ago, so far as
the man remembers. - Where did he stay?
*as my first inquiry ; for I have alread y
spent some useless hours trying to recall to
the people at the Globe Hotel the recollec-
tion of the visit which I then fancied must
have been a necessity.
The guide has partly cleared matters.
Norris came directly from the steamer
upon which he arrived. As far as I can
ether, he arrived in Tientsin at nightfall,
- tayed on board the steamer all night, and
deft at daybreak in carts with this guide,
who had been procured for him by the
Chinese steward of the ship. The guide
tired us with lengthy, roundabout details of
a trip which Norrismade to the Great Wall.
Bat the sum and substance of what we ex-
tracted from him lies in this—that on leav-
ing Pekin to return to Tientsin, the guide
^event on -in -front of Norris, for some reason
;IIaehi his. master in Pekin,:and that he
i ever heard of him nor could discoverany
''-zi lbe off him or` his --carter since that time.
As this guide statesthat hewould recognize
thteearter, bean instant, were he to see him,
I, have arranged to take him with me to
Pekin, in addition to the guide 1 brought
"You ask us about Bonsel's Chinese
friend. I delayed writing to you till now
chiefly for want of a steamer, and partly
because I hoped to be able to write you in
reply to yours, which I expected, regard-
ing Chin-chin-wa. I have heard of this
man, but never even knew his name, he oc-
cupies a good post in the Government, and
I think very likely might be of great use to
you, but indeed, I know so little what to
say that I can only suggest that you
be guided by Bonsel and Chin-chin-
wa as to whether you visit him
or not. Personally my feelings are
rather against than for the doing so; and I
will tell you why. -I asked Chin-chin-wa if
he knew the name. He at once said, ' Yes' ;
but when I told him that it was your idea
to go to him for assistance when you reach
Pekin, I fancy he was annoyed.
i
prolonged a quietness as had been in the WAR RUMORS AND FIGURES.
iays past, bad somewhat excited me, and
the immediate arrival of this strange man France and Russiaas/be Terrors of Europe.
added to the disturbed feelings which filled The continued increase of the war rumors
"All he remarked was ' It is well not to
trust too much to the Chinese ! Are you.
not aware that yon did a very risky thing in
coming to me? Suppose I had gone to Pekin
and spread abroad the information that an
Englishman was seeking another who had
been made a captive, and who' was still
alive somewhere in the city. I think you
will agree that the chances of success would
be lessened.' And in a great degree he is
right ; for if this friend of Bonsel's sets
about inquiring injudiciously, or is not
utterly silent on the subject, the very
persons who may be interested in the
captivity may be apprised of the search you
are making, and, once apprised—well, it
is not difficult to imagine the rest. But, as
I have said, the man may very likely be the
very person to go to. You have Bonsel to
advise you on the one side, and Chin-chin-
eva on the other, and I am sure that you
with me from - ShanShai. The party in- will make a very much more judicious de-
creases as we go along. My greathope- cision in the matter than I could.
though it after all is a. very slender one --is "Chin-chin-wa's experiences I leave to
that the carter may be discoverable. his personal narration, are however interest -
I have found the guide ; why should I ing, they are too long for a letter ; and, be -
'not. go a step further and find the carter ? sides, -his story may sir ae to pass away the
And if I find the carter, surely that will weary hours of the journey between Tient-
mean that I shall find bis latemaster. sin and Pekin, if, as I hope, you are still
How far the guide has been to blame in awaiting my reply to your last.
-. the losing of his *neater I can not determine. "B gieve in our very_ deep interest in
There seems to have been a strange tissue your expedition, and our heartfelt wishes
of misfortunes- cast around Norris, for the fbritsnitimate success."
guide states that a eery thread was broken I had scarcely finished this letter when a
by which he might have traced the missingknock upon my door sent a wild . hope.
man. He may be right, but to ma there is through me that my future comrade had.
*ha thread still left. I may find the carter. actually arrived.
The guide -was of impression that, as the I was: seated behind my table, rounds theymay be confined; and this is
r _ a . ewpeered,e Y. d as lee has neve' facing the. door. My guide stood _ y
:I did not at. the way. we have filled up the blanks
m gruels >both'eritel had been `en the: threshold;".but s rescue us
e t , , . zIn.God s. name r ;
m Nv ewif cath tend to his words, for there wras :another a
with - kat y Lose no tic we are prisoners
me. -
I- rose instantly to welcome him, and ap-
proached him with outstretched hand, with
the single word, as I did so—
" Chin -chin -we ?"
He bowed in answer, and took my hand
a clasp, the firm warmth of which came
as a surprise to me ; for I did not at once
remember that he had been an exile for sev-
enteen years, and that before then he had
been a Chinaman, so that be had forgotten
the flimsy way in which we Englishmen
give, on a first acquaintance, palm to palm.
But it struck me then that the grasp
meant truth and firmness, and I can see
now it must the more have done so, in that
no emotion of the heart was concealed in the
hand -clasp of the man who had not given
hand to a fellow -man, for many, many
years. -
CHAPTER VIII.
I am myself moderately tall ; but Chin -
chin -we, still in the prime of his life, appear-
ed to tower above me, and his breadth indi-
cated a great strength which I have never
seen so clearly stamped upon the figure.
His face seemed to speak the same, but
to speak also of a strength that was as
great intellectually as it was bodily.
One _could have told instinctively that
his past had been a strange one, and that
he alone could have lived through it, by
reason of his mental and bodily power,
without having to succumb. I could under-
stand how Dicey had been carried away by
the enthusiasm of the Chinese crowd. I am no
hero-worsbipper, and neveriwas ; but I could
feel that, if one did wish to look upon a
hero, he had but to look upon Chin-chin-wa ;
and it is none the less strange that I should
have felt thus when it is remembered that,
to all appearance, the ' man is a Chinaman.
He wears the Chinese dress—somewhat
richer in its silks than any I have heretofore
seen—and his head is bare like a China -
man's, except for the pigtail which, inter-
woven with colored silk, almost trails upon
the ground. But there is still a dim some-
thir-g which, to an Englishman, would give
a suspicion of his nationality upon his face,
and it must not be forgotten that I looked
upon him as upon an Englishman from the
first moment we met.
Time has in a sense, almost perfected the
change of race to the outward eye his brown
features might well deceive the eye ; and,
in a word, he strikes me as being as like a
northern Chinese as any of the race.
But there is one noticeable thing, which
proves that his Chinese origin has been
some southern one, namely, his walk for
he walks on the ball of his foot, more or less
not leaning backwards so much as the north
erners do, and not treading so heavily upon
the heel. - -
I drew a seat forward for my guest, and
expressed to him, as briefly yet as fully as
was possible, my thanks for his haste in
joining me.
He waited un til I had concluded, which I
did speedily, being curious to hear his voice.
Then he answered me in a tone such as I
could have imagined to have grown habitual
to a man confined in solitude for a prolong-
ed period.
His English, marvelous as it may seem, was
perfect—as perfect as I believe his Chinese
to be—his voice low, and yet clear -sounding
and firm, a contrast in one wayto the man
who spoke, and yet seeming to be the only
voice which could have belonged to such a
one as he. " Do not thank me, Mr. Vans-
oombe, for as yet nothing has been done.
You may find my power but small "; there
was a touch of bitterness in the words. "I
anot what by right I should have been."
I did not answer, and he continued in a
few moments
"Mr. Dicey has - given me certain par-
ticulars of your search. I shall accompany
you!
" Pardon me," I said, somewhat per-
haps moved by curiosity, "have you calcu-
lated what you risk ? It would be wrong
indeed for me - to ask you to join
me in the search of a man whose life may
be already taken, if this search in any way
endangers your future, I came to China to
do this thing alone. Whether I shall ever
succeed or not I cannot tell. But I do not
know what position you stand in to the
Government, and I must point out to you at
the outset that my actions may, for all I
know, go directly counter to the -interests
or laws of the Chinese powers ; for it is
best that you should know exactly that I
have come to look upon this search as a
sacred thing, and as . a mission which I
have to fulfill ; and I am prepared to for-
feit my life in the attempt ! "
in Europe gives room for the consideration
of a few facts and figures. Although the
North German Gazette declares that "in the
judgment of high official circles there is no
cause for alas', at least for the present, "
the concentration of troops in Alsace and
Lorraine is daily reported, and appeals in all
shapes and forms pointing out the dangers
which threaten the Fatherland and the
necessity for the passage of the new army
bill, are found in Ger-many journals, pamph-
lets, and reviews, and often signed by men
of high standing in the empire. One of
these appeals comes from lien. Vender
Goltz, a well-known writer of military af-
fairs. In the_Deutsche Rundschan he says
that France, with hee thirty-eight millions
of inhabitants against Germany's forty-nine
millions, possesses in men, officers, artillery,
and horses an army considerably stronger
than that of Germany. Every year under
the new military laws she has been adding
42,000 men to that army, and in a very
short time she will be able to put into the
field half a million of trained soldiers more
than Germany can boast of to -day. - He
takes a rather gloomy view of the future of
his country, dwelling upon the fact that
the French army in 1889 was, exactly five
times as strong as her army of 1870, and
that it must soon ' :come seven times as
strong.
In addition to the increase of the forces in
Alsace-Lorraine, we are told that Mayence
is to be converted into an entrenched camp.
The Mayence-Strasburg line of fortifications
is to be extended towards Bale, with the
view of covering the numerous railway
bridges across the Rhine. These bridges
wero built expressly for the purpose
of facilitating the rapid transport of troops
from southern Germany into Upper Alsace.
Moreover, Mayence forms the principal
'basis of supplies for the German armies on
the left of the Rhine, and, notwishstanding
its enormous strength, it is now decided to
make it still stronger, in view of the extra-
ordinary growth of the French forces.
According to the most careful estimates
so far made, Russia on the outbreak of hos.
tilities could put in line 25 army corps,
which, added to the French forces, make all
told 47 army corps. The army corps of the
Triple Alliance are as follows : Germany,
20 ; Austria, 13 ; Italy, 10 ; total 43. Con-
sequently France and Russia have four
army corps more than the Triple Alliance.
Even under the new military law and the
applicatian of the two years' service in all
its force, the Triplice would still be numeri-
cally inferior to France and Russia. To he
sure, it may be that the German troops and
the German Generals and officers are vastly
superior to the French and Russians ; but
nobody can say that for a certainty, and
Gen. Von der Goltz expresses grave doubts
upon ths subject. Unfortunately the thing
remains to be tested. But the most serious
thing of all in the present military situation
of Europe is that in case of war this spring
or summer—and the possibility of it seems
by no means remote—the bulk of the forty-
seven French and Russian army corps could
be hurled against the twenty German corps,
and the first and most teriffic blows of the
contest squarely delivered before the Ital-
ians or Austrians could come to the assist-
ance of their principal ally. Indeed, the
first great shocks of war might be decisive ;
and, should the Germans be defeated in the
beginning, it is feared that the Italians and
the Austrians might, after all, be disposed to
leave her in the lurch. However, if the Ger-
man troops should be fortunate enough to
be commanded by a great General and the
French and Russians sufficiently unlucky
to be without one, the advantage of numeri-
cal superiority would be consid erably di-
minished,
"Proceed," said Chin-chin-wa.
" Have I not put the matter plainly ? I
understand you have been an exile for many
years. I am willing to face death : do you
not hesitate to face a thing worse than
death—the renewal of that exile?"
" Hesitate? " was tha answer, with a
touch of scorn. " You forget," he added
proudly, " I am Chin-chin-wa 1 "
Within an hour I had placed before
him all that has occurred up till now.
We sent for Norris's guide at the expira-
tion of that time. A lengthy exam.
ination ensued, Chin-chin•wa . speaking in
what has long ago become his native tongue
and although little further' has been gained
by the examination, it has given me the
feeling that I come in all cases very much
nearer to the. exact truth through the
medium of my ally, Chin-chin-wa, who is
able to speak, as his mother tongue, the
language of the Chinese, • than I should do
through the use of the pigeon English,
which is, as yet, only partly intelligible to
me, though Bonsel speaks it freely.
To Chin-chin-wa, upon showing him the
fragment of .the swallow's message, the
same thought occurred as had done so in the
first place to myself and then to Dicey,
namely, that the writer, William Norris,
spoke of more than himself as being impris-
oned, since he used the word " us."
I put before him at some length the rea-
sons which led to my thinking -otherwise ;
but he disagreed with me, for, as he says
with regard to the point that I makeof the
absence of the room for the nielusion of the
letter "s " at the end of the word " prison-
ers," the writer can not be look d upon as
able to exercise extreme care ; the last let-
ters of the word may have been crushed,
and this is reasonable . to "suppose. Again,
the word "in" would correctly filI up, the
space left after the word "us"and Chin-
chin-wa concludes, from the fact of the dis-
appearance of the carter, that this word
"us" refers to. William Norris and his
carter. But how, then, was my argument,
do we have room to insert the name—a de-
scription of where the two men are ? He fell
back upon my idea that itis in the Imperial
aw
atbot?s lnraY indeed havebeeu -behind him whom I kne5v instantly ,to be In the. Palace. Seek ior us is
.: -wa. 1 do: not think T
st hut* carter; x relies': tiirin&iir. Chm ehii, Pekin, By -the Chinese Tenth' Swallow.
weeks rinontkg- , have-ever=fit my heart •Meat so ,,wildly at Se temlrer 18-=
af>h be P ; € -ty visas it did now-- I _` William Norris, p ,
F ip E ag -, , ms not a- :Vous rt an. y ny m's .s, b�utI, May God help us 1
eat►'--the-yEng it,:' . essthat the arriv� 'of tie mail 1' 'rao - .(To BE cONTrxunn.�)
seer- likely- thatri. the
SOOURING THE OOASTS FOR MEN -
The Congo Railroad Has Found it Very
Hard to Get a Force of Workmen.
The Congo Railroad Company, in its last
report, throws light upon the great difficul-
ties it has met in securing workmen. The
company has scoured most of the coast re-
gions of Africa for native labor. Thee ongo
natives engage in the porterage service,
but they are not valuable as yet for rail-
road making, and very few of them consent
to do that sort of work. So the company
early in its operations Sent labor agents to
Sierra Leone, the term coast, Accra Lagos,
Whydaht and a half dozen other well-known
poi is along the west coast. Efforts were
also made to ae:ere workmen on the east
coast, but only an inconsiderable number of
Zanzibaris were obtained. In spite of every
effort the enrollment of men was still insuf-
ficient. Small reinforcements were obtained
from the West Indies and Barbadoes, and
finally, a couple of months ago, a force of
several hundred Chinese were landed on the
lower Congo, where they are nos% at work
on the railroad.
Many causes have interfered with the
success of the labor recruiting agents. The
most potent has been that the colonial au-
thorities through Africa have tried to pre-
vent men from engaging with the railroad
because they desired to retain all labor at
home. Then all through :he first year of
the work the black personnel was terribly
decimated by disease. It was many mouths
before the comrany could supply the com-
mon comforts. There was almost complete
lack of fresh food. Medical aid was inade-
quate. The work on the railroad was enor-
mously difficult. The workmen were en-
gaged for months in the Mposo Valley and
the Leopold ravine, both particularly un-
healthy places. The mortality was, there-
fore, excessive. From the beginning of 1890
until March, 1892, the company employed
4,500 black workmen, of whom 900 died.
Many others were sent home in poor health
to recuperate, and many more deserted. So
the company lost fully half of all the black
workmen it engaged, and the news did not
encourage other workmen to enlist.
Not a few workmen in their eagerness to
return home asked the company to retain all
the wages they had earned, and give them
only passage tickets home. In Decemer 1891.
there was a riot among the natives of Sierra
Leone, 300 in number, who suddenly threw
down their implements, and with sticks and
stones as weapons started for Matadi, with
the avowed intention of embarking forcibly
upon a steamer which was to leave on the
following morning.
The company considers that it has now
fairly emerged from this trying period. For
the past half year the healthfullness of the
whites and blacks has left little to be desired.
Some of the workmen recently imported from
the Barbadoes have died, but there has been
scarcely any mortality among the laborers
recruited on the west coast. The work has
new been carried up to the plateau above
the deadly atmosphere of the valleys, and
under the changed conditions the company
finds it not difficult to retain its black
laborers. -
A TERRIBLE TOBOGGAN RIDE.-
A Young Lady From Windsor Killed at
• Montreal.
A Montreal dispatch says :—A terrible
toboggan accident occurred near this city
Saturday night by which Miss Jane Craw-
ford, a young lady 16 years of age, from
Windsor, Ont., was instantly killed.
Miss Crawford, accompanied by her elder
sister, Miss Mary Crawford, and escorted
by a young gentleman friend, James Mont-
gomery of Montreal, visited the Park tobog-
gan slide behind the mountain, where they
spent the evening tobogganing. On their
way home they agreed to go down the Cote
Des Neiges Hill, a very steep public thor-
oughfare leading from the mountain into
the city. Young Montgomery, who was
steering, lost control of the toboggan, which
was going with lightning rapidity, and at a
turn in the road the toboggan ran into a
telegraph pole.
Miss Jane Crawford, who was sitting in
front of the toboggan,' was dashed head
foremost against the telegraph pole and in-
stantly killed. Her skull was terribly
fractured.
Her two companions escaped unhurt. The
young woman's body was removed to her
mother's apartments. Miss Crawford with
her mother and sister came from Windsor
Ont., last fall to pass the winter in Montreal.
One of her brothers is proprietor of the
Crawford House at Windsor, Ont.
Ostrich -Farming.
It is best to draw the feathers at molting
-time as then less pain is given to the birds.
In South Africa it was originally the cus-
tom of the keeper to coax the ostrich to
come toward him by throwing to it some
corn and then when the bird had its head
down, the keeper would catch it by the
neck. At the same moment several men
would take hold of it by the feet and legs
and compel it to squat down. Then its tail
and wing feathers would be plucked. An-
other practice was to give the ostrich some
dainties and while it was engaged in eating
them, the keeper with a sharp knife would
cut the feathers close to the skin.
Subsequently in Algiers a box was devis-
ed with inovable:sides into which the ostrich
was driven and the feathers then extracted.
The directions given were that the feathers
must be caught as near the skin as possible
and pressed gently as. if to stick them
farther into the flesh, then twisted half
way around. This movement removes the
feather from its socket easily and without
wounding the ostrich.
A still later improvement is the plucking
box now used in Cape Colony. It is a very
solid wooden box, in -which, though there is
just room for one ostrich to stand, he cannot
possibly turn around, nor can he kick, as the
sides of the box are too high. At each end
of the box there is a stout door, the one open-
ing inside and the other outside the inclos•
ure. The birds are dragged up in succes-
sion to the first door, and, after more or less
of a scuffle, pushed in and the door shut.
There the two operators standing one on
each side of the box have the ostrich com-
pletely in their power ; and with a few rapid
snips of the shears remove the long white
plumes from his wings.
Measure not men bySundays, without
regarding what they dall the week after.
THE MIDDLE CAR IS SAFEST.
How a Commercial Traveler Secures a
Minimum of Risk.
A certain commercial traveler says that
he is very particular as tothe car -he. selects.
" I travel thousands of miles a year," he
says, " and have made it a rule to observe
in the accounts of railroad accidents which
cars of the trains are most often demolished.
The result of my experience—for I have
been in a dozen smash -ups --and observation
is that the middle cars are the safest. I
never under any circumstances ride in the
rear car. I avoid the car next to the baggage
car, though this is selected by many as the
safest. The greatest danger at present in
railroad traveling is telescoping. When a
man has been in a wreck and afterward seen
the engine of the colliding train halfway
inside of the rear car, cr rather what's left
of it, it impresses him most forcibly. The
baggage car is usually heavily loaded, and
in the collision its weight, together with
the ponderous engine, generally smashes
the next car to splinters, while the central
cars are comparatively uninjured. When
i the train is derailed the baggage car and
next coach, as a rule, go over. The road-
beds of our great transcontinental lines are
so solid, each section is so carefully ex-
amined, the rolling stock is so much im-
proved, that a broken rail, broken wl eel or
axle and like mishaps are reduced to a
minimum.
Mr. Gladstone at'Home•
When relieved from the affairs of state,
Mr. Gladstone finds no pleasure so great as
his home life at Hawarden. There his
family are gathered together, and the great
man romps and plays with his grandchil-
dren as though he never knew what it was to
be blamed for everything that went wrong
in all Great Britain and her colonies: Mr.
Gladstone is a wonderful scholar, a busy
writer and speaker, but the little Gladstone
children know him best as a good, kind
grandfather who is fond of fun. He, too,
would prefer to enjoy their company rather
than to be surrounded by England's great
men at an all-night session of Parliament.
His other recreations are walking, and—
this is really very funny—chopping down
trees. Mr. Gladstone, is an expert wood-
man, and though he doesn't -destroy valu-
able cherry -trees, he goes out with -his axe
and takes the keenest pleasure in felling
trees in Hawarden Park. A visitor to the
castle one day noticed an axe behind the
door in the great hall, where it had been
left by.the statesman after one of his chop
ping expeditions. A curious ornament for
such a place, it seems. It may be out of
compliment to the boy George Washington
and his hatchet, that the as Grand Old Man"
prefers to use an American axe.—[Harper's
Young People.
Antlers and Their Growth.
By the time a' deer is five years old he
should have what are called his " rights,"
that is the brow antler, which is nearest the
base of the horn or burr, the bez or bay, an
inch or two higher up the beam or upright
(main shaft of the horn), the tray or tres
above that, and finally two on top, or two
points on one of hisantlera- This constitutes
a stag of light points—a runnable or war-
rantable deer, who will, in another year, have
two on top on both sides and become a stag
of ten points. In Scotland when there are
three on top on both sides the head is termed
a Royal one, but I never heard' the term used
in the West. Most of these words are de-
rived from oldNorman-French hunting terms
but the deer themselves are called bynames
which sound -unmistakably English. In his
first year, for instance, a young uta 0 deer is
a calf, at two Years he is a" knobber, "knob-
bier" or " broche t," from his budding antlers,
a hind at the same age being called a " hearat"
In the third year he is a "spire" or "pricket"
the upright beam having formed, after which
he becomes a " staggart," attaining to his
full title and dignities at the age of five.
PRAIRIE HUNTING OONTE$1'S.
Winter Sport in vogue in Western Neigh
bt�rhoods.
Remote though the d stellere es the West-
ern prairie may be from the headquarters
'of culture, they are not withote pleasure.
Grand opera, fancy dress balls, and recep-
tions there are none, but of the hearty,
cheerful, out-of-door sport that makes the
pulses throb faster and the cheeks glow with
ruddier hue there is abundance. Winter is
a time for jollity and good cheer in the prai-
rie settlements, and it brings in its train a
long line of unique amusements as attractive
in their essential features as they are healthy
and gleeful.
Chief among these winter sports are the
neighborhood hunting cont eats, where whole
communities join in a generous rivalry, and
enjoy the keen sport of bagging the diverse
species of game with which the West
abounds.
• Two of the mightiest nimrods of the set-
tlement " choose sides," selecting the men
and boys of the neighborhood alternately
until all are enlisted in one .army or the
other. Then a scale of points is agreed upon
and given over to a committee. On the
printed programme of a hunt, in which 250
membera of a western Kansas community
took part a few days ago, the scale was :
Quail, 2 points; rabbits, f ; lack rabbits, 10;
squirrels, 15; prairie chkken, 25; partridge,
30 ; duck, 40 ; gray squirrels, 50 ; coyotes,
75 ; wolves, 100 ; antelope, 250 ; hawks,
30 ; wild geese, 60 ; and prairie dogs, 40.
At early daylight on the appointed date
helter skelter over plain and ravine the
rival parties go, singly, by twos, threes,
and quartets, banging away desperately at
whatever may come within the range of
their guns. All is grist for their hunting
mill, and excitement grows as the day's end
approaches. Sometimes, one party will sur-
round a few hundred acres of land that
premises rich game rewards, and, in the
manner of " whipping" the preserves of old
English estates proceed to drive In the
small game of the section, slaughtering the
creatures rapidly as the circle closes.
As night draws near the hunters come
straggling into the settlement, weary and
hungry, bringing their harvest with them.
There has been no stopping for dinner, as
something better is to come later.
The game heaped in two great piles at-
test the prowess of the opposing forces. At
the hunt referred to above there were
twenty coyotes, three antelope, fifty pair of
chickens, quail, squirrels, rabbits, and
clucks almost beyond counting. The abund-
ance of game made the hunters fairly beam
with satisfaction. The committee gravely
figured 3,000 on the other.
Then com.es the reward. In the largest
hall of the settlement cooks have been busy
all day, and when the result is announc-
ed, amid cheering and jollity, the contest-
ants sit down to a steaming hot dinner, upon
the bill of fare of which appears some of the
choicer varieties of game first brought in.
Venison, duck, prairie chickep, squirrel, all
make the meal one to remember, and with
the bright-eyed wives and daughters of the
hunters to serve, it becomes the nearest ap-
proach to a state banquet that many neigh-
borhoods ever enjoy.
And after the banquet the dance, a real
Western fandango, with its fiddlers perch-
ed on }voxes, its earnest and energetic
swains in broad collared shirts and panta-
loons in high boot tops, its gay calicoed and
bright cheeked lassies, and the peculiar tread
of the dancers. Western dancers move the
shoulders more than they do the feet, and
the result is a swaying motion, - rhythmical
and attractive.
The Rag-Piokers of Paris.
The wealth of Paris is so boundless that
the rubbish and refuse of the city are worth
millions. There are more than fifty thou-
sand persons who earn a living by picking up
what others throw away.
Twenty thousand women and children
exist by sifting and sorting the gatherings
of the pickers, who collect every day in the
year about 1,200 tons of merchandise, which
they sell to the wholesale rag dealers for
some 70,000 francs.
At night you see men with baskets strap-
ped on their backs, a lantern in one hand,
and in the other a stick with an iron hook
on the end.
They walk along rapidly, their eyes fixed
or the ground, over which the lantern
fiingsge sheet of light, and whatever , they
find ii. the way of paper, rags, bones, grease,
metal, &c., they stow away in their bask-
ets.
In the morning, in front of each house,
you see men, women, and children sifting
the dust -hies before they are emptied into
the scavengers' carts.
At various hours of the day you may re-
mark isolated rag -pickers, who seem to
work with less method than the others and
with a more independent air.
The night pickers are generally novices ;
men who have been thrown out of work, are
obliged to hunt for their living like the
wild beasts.
The morning pickers are experienced and
regular workers, who pay for the privilege
of sifting the dust -bins of a certain number
of houses, and of trading with the results.
The rest, the majority, are the courears,
the runners, who exercise their profession
freely and without control, working when
they please and loafing when they please.
They are the philosophers and adventur-
ers of the profession, and their chief object
is to enjoy life and meditate upon its
problems.
Salisbury on English Colonial Rule.
A London despatch says:—Lord Salisbury
opened the Liverpool Electric Railway to.
day. He first visited the general station and"
started the engines. Accompanied by the
Earl of Latham and Lord Kevin, the Mayor
of Liverpool and the Directors of the rail-
road, Lord Salisbury entered a train and
passed along the line. The train ran south-
erly at the rate of twenty-two miles an hour.
Afterward, at the Liverpool Town Hall in
replying to an address from the Chamber of
Commerce, Lord Salisbury referred to the
increased differences with which the British
merchants had to contend . iu • the way of
foreign competition. Lord Salisbury said
that a tariff a as absolutely outside of the
dreams of any politician. He questioned
both the morality and excellency of the use
of tariffs as a weapon against other nations
and he mentioned as instances in illustration
of his argument the fiscal wars between
Germany and Italy, France and Switzerland r:
f�
1
1.141.
C
Eoonomi
A t, a recent pub
h., Professor
uiversity of Per
he truths of roa
no tax so great
enerally acceete
t -rue. The hot
horgh they mann
age cost of keepin
the road surdas
y metaling it, tl
work of two, and
one is saved. It
that in the mere s
their roads to sue
horses can do the
been an economy
nually. In the S tai
that the cost of hz
least'15,000,000
the roads were it
improvement wet
the value of the fi
that properties of
sold, while thosea
increased in value
from $50 to $500
Will it pay? I
the precedents o
answer. If it will
land, France, Ger
way, Sweden a.
countries, buildin
in the face of diffl
be appalling. T
reads through gor
which would see
must have cost ov
What will roads
be guarded by the
metal, soils, grade
prices for turnpi
$10,000 per mile.
favorable conditi.
$3 000, and whe
drainage are requi,
000, but I should
graphy, varied soi
should not exceed
my opinion, to bu
subscription than
chises to joint s+
that case the con
dependent upon t
party, while the co
in tolls to provide
the road, and the
to the stockholder-
ing out the taxes b
and throwing the
should be called w
makes the road sof
the rains and trave
back and clogged u
permanent result i•
The farmer hauls
tate roads, and it is
more for his transp
else because of the
by sandy or muddy
,a
Sheep
Keep pigs of the
pen.
Good young she:
market.
Salt the sheep reg
large doses.
Fifty sheep make
gethet-.
Do not abandon '-
upon it.
Generally _ood
mutton sheep.
Sheep kept on wo
shaped hoofs.
A crop of early 'at
very profitable.
Before you go into
consider your marks
Shropshires are n
tthey are very pr
Every lamb that ca
before April will pa -
In buying for bree.
the future as well as
In breeding sheep t
tive now to use only
Wheat used for It
soaked, as ted dry it
'With good shelter a
der sheep will need v
ter.
It costs no more to
no more to shear a go
one.
Profit comes from
young stock and es
Spring pig.
Sheep fatten more
kept quiet and warm,
Winter.
The sheep that will
should be sold ; such
farm.
When ewes are bred
care should be taken t
dition.
If working back in
out for good wetiiers
try a combination.
It is quite an item
troughs so that the
them when feeding.
A flock of well cared
able to the same nu
thoroughbreds.
Do not expect to
your hogs, and then
pigs for your breeding
Theodore Lewis, w.
says he has never hear
successfully fed to hog:
Hogs that are fed f
food, supplied with p
warm, dry shelter, wi
ease.
One decided advan
shelter is that the she
greater return in sheep
feed.
, A ewe that raises t
l tushes in addition and
'j will pay 200 per cent.
ed.
1 eep an eye on the c.
If not comfortable the
`ducing wool nor mut
good.
NNlow that the flock is
as producing disaster to allconcerned. Lord --tile %'Pinter, every ind
Salisbury defended the colonial extension : etarefuuy leaked over fo
of English rule,. The whole world, he said, ii, or other tr
was benefited by British colonization. -`, , eatment must be give
Shouldother nations obtain the coioniesthe fella:
might not use them in the same - y z ,` to prevent con
g $enet�ous 'both for 'he Merino crossed
manner as the English, but mightfence_ tem tr: a superb alI-per,
ool a,
around with a wall of brass against ritsh '
commerce. r , --
e . action of mu
1
ie- It cal he
Zvax beef or pork, b
Abe cost of
Impertinence, silly talk, loo&
and vaincuriosity are'closeie 111
are childrer Ina family.---[For-