American Volcanoes May
De Source q f Danger
The mo3t important scientific fact
proved by the St. Pierre and St. Vin
cent eruptions is the underground
connection between volcanoes.
This is also the most important fact
to be remembered by all who live near
these treacherous destroyers of life
and property.
Almost all volcanoes are like man
holes along a sewer. They are located
in rows above long cracks or Assures
in the earth's surface, so that when
one of the volcanoes in the row be
gins to throw out lava and fire the
others are very liable to follow suit
and become equally dangerous.
The recent explosion of naphtha at
Sheridan, Pa., by wnich 25 people
were instantly killed and over 200 se
verely burned, gives a very simple ex
planation of the method of explosion
along a volcanic fissure.
Thus, in the Caribbean Sea disas
ters. Mont Pelee of Martinique and
La Soufriere of St. Vincent are both
manholes in the same great fissure
that extends in a curved line for 500
miles or more. Martinique is located
almost In the exact center of this
"line of weakness.”
The island of Jamaica, 400 miles
from Mont Pelee, is located on the
"firing line,” and the latest dispatches
report that the sulphur pits in the
Jamaica mountains are beginning to
smoke and boil. The air around them
has also grown very hot.
The area of volcanic disturbance
has spread rapidly since the explosion
of Mont Pelee. A dozen or more is
lands have been more or less affected,
all being located along the great fis
sure or crack in the earth's surface
which is at the present time in a state
of eruption.
There are a number of these cracks
or fissures in the United States, most
of them running from north to south.
As Prof. U.
P. Whl t n e 1 d.
head curator of
geology at the
Muselm of Nat
ural History,
said when in
terviewed by a
New York Sun
day World re
porter:
“A lino of fissures runs from the
Aleutian Islands southward through
North and South America to Terra
del Fuego, and all along the course of
this gigantic crevice there may be an
earthquake at any time.”
According to the experts of the
United States Geological Survey there
is a fissure or “line of weakness"
which begins at Troy. N. Y., and runs
southward through Baltimore, Wash
ington and Richmond, Va.
The principal rivers of the Atlantic
coast have their source near this long
break in the earth's crust.
The chain of eruptions on each side
of Mont Pelee has shown the practical
importance of this discovery by the
United States Geological Survey. It
has made the fact known that Virgin
ia, Maryland, District of Columbia
and New York are in the same danger
I zone.
The same connection exists be
tween Troy. N. Y„ and Richmond as
that which has recently been shown
to exist between Martinique, St. Vin
cent and Jamaica.
A chain of mountains usually,
though not always, marks the course
of one of these fissures. In the Cats
kill and Adirondack mountains vol
canic action has ceased, -these two
ranges being the oldest on the Amer
ican continent.
Compared with the Adirondaclts,
the Rocky Mountains are but
of yesterday, as their sharply
defined peaks and jagged sides
show. Consequently, the whole
course of the Rocky Mountains,
and of the Andes as well, marks
out the longest “line of weak
ness" in the world, extending al
most from the north pole to the
south pole.
From Mount St. Elias, the
giant mountain of Alaska—18,
000 feet, to the volcanic region
of Terra del Fuego, there is a
“line of fissures" nearly 10,000
miles in length.
A series of short fissures runs
parallel with the great Rocky
Mountain fissures. The Cascade
Mountains mark a volcanic belt.
From Mount Hood to Lassen’s
Peak there is a line of extinct
volcanoes, several or wnicn nave nan
eruptions since the glacial epoch.
The Sierra Nevada and San Fran
cisco ranges are also located along a
"line of weakness” and have a num
ber of burned-out craters which were
in their day as dangerous as Mont Pe
leo and La Soufriere.
The famous Yellowstone Park rep
resents a tract of weakness rather
than a Assure. The whole region is
volcanic and in a constant state of
eruption.
A short "line of weakness” extends
through Colorado and New Mexico,
containinfg several extinct volcanoes.
And from Guatemala to Costa Rica is
a volcanic belt with cones from 8,000
to 10,000 feet high.
"It is quite certain that there is a
subterranean connection between that
string of islands in the Caribbean
Sea." said Sir Henry T. Wrenfordsley.
formerly chief justice of the Leeward
Islands. *
The fissures on which Mont Pelee
and La Soufriere are located may pos
sibly have branches that extend to
Central America, Mexico and the
United States.
It may be also more than a coin
cidence that Mount Iona, 160 miles
from Omaha, Neb., is now showing
its first signs of activity for thirty
years.
Tired folks are quarrelsome.
After two centuries and more the
name and fame of Cavalier de La |
Salle has been honored by the erec- j
lion of a monument bearing a suitable |
tablet, on the site where in May, 1679,
he built the first boat known to have
sailed the great upper lakes. This
boat was named the Griffon.
It was on Nov. 18, 1678, that La
Motte, Hennepin and fourteen others
started from Fort Frontenac in a 10
ton brigantine for Niagara, and on
December 6, they rounded the point
now known as Fort Niagara, and their
craft crept into the mouth of the
Niagara river. They anchored there—
as they recorded it, “in the beautiful
River Niagara, which no bark had ever
yet entered." On December 11, 1678.
Hennepin said the first mass on this
point of land, and it has gone down
in history as being the first mass ever
said in this territory. La Salle ha l
left Fort Frontenac some time after
La Motte’s departure, intending to go
to the site of the fort he projected at
the mouth of the Niagara. However,
he narrowly escaped being shipwrecked
and landed at the mouth of the
Genesee river. He visited the chief
Seneca village, met the chiefs and ob
tained their consent to the building of
a vessel above the Niagara cataract,
and the establishment of a fortified
warehouse at the mouth of the river. '
He immediately set to work to build j
the vessel. All the tools, rope, etc., ,
were carried across the neck of land ;
between Lewiston, on the lower river, j
and the point selected by La Salle
above the falls. This spot has been !
well located on the Jackson Angevtnc \
farm, and there the monument to his !
memory and deeds has been erected.
La Salle remained with tl^e men until
he saw the keel laid, and then he led
•other men to the mouth of the river
to take advantage of the permit of the
Indians to erect a fortified warehouse.
Two blockades were built, and were
later destroyed by fire while La Salle
was absent at Fort Frontenac.
La Salle arrived at Niagara again in
August. 1679, only to find that his
creditors and enemies had well nigh
ruined him. However, his boat, the
Griffon, was ready to sail, and in the
proceeds of a trading voyage he sought
financial aid. In order not to delay
this enterprise he abandoned every
thing else, and it was under these con
ditions. this inspiration of his previous
reverses, that La Salle set sail up the
Niagara to I.ake Erie in the Griffon.
From that time the commerce of the
great chain of lakes has been ever on
the increase, until to-day it has at
tained a magnitude of vast commercial
importance. When the people of the
various cities on the lakes view the
commerce of their ports, it may be
interesting for them to know that on
the afternoon of May 24, the monu
ment to La Salle was unveiled in
the quiet country suburb of La Salle,
five miles eastward from the Cataract
of Niagara.
Tlie ‘‘North Star state,”
Minnesota has been designated the
Not th Star State, of which expres
sion two or three explanations have
been given, one on account of its geo
graphical position, another that the
north star appears in its coat of arms.
It has also been called the “Lake
State,” from the great number of small
lakes within its limits, and the “Goph
er State.” because the early settlers
found these animals In such abund
ance that they proved a serious nuis
ance. Even a careful rider passing
over a plain where gophers abounded
was in danger of being thrown by his
horse accidentally stepping in a
gopher hole.
Prominent on Kngllgh Tnrf.
(’apt. James Octavius Maehell, who
(lied a few days ago, was for years
England's foremost turfman. He did
not, perhaps, win so many of what are
called the “classic events” as some
others, but in the course of a racing
season his colors were so often to the
fore that his stable had a larger fol
lowing than any other in the United
Kingdom. He was a soldier at 16.
went in for regimental athletics, be
came champion amateur runner of
England, and was a dead shot. In
1864, after taking a leading place on
the turf, he retired from the army,
dying at the age of 65.
Pons Terra In Hluhoprlc.
Frederick Dan Huntington, bishop
of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of
central New York, now nearing his
eighty-fourth birthday, asks for at.
assistant to relieve him of part of his
duties. He has been bishop for thirty
three years
TURN MIGHTY STREAM
Sticks In Sand Sufficient to Change the Current of the
Swift Mississippi.
In this region, too, the river Is bor
lered with busy cities—Dubuque. Keo
tck, Quincy, Davenport, Rock Island,
dt.JIne—thriving railway towns, full
I >f factories, colleges, fine residences.
! ind all the evidences of energy and
culture. Most of them are built upon
lllls, and all on high ground. Seen
’rom the river they present the finest
.dews of themselves, something the
titles of the flat country farther down
sever do.
It is a swift water that rushes past
,hese cities. At low water, which Is
tsually in summer and fall, the cur
rent drops to three inches an hour or
ess. But at high water, when It
stands thirty or forty feet higher on
ts banks, it sweeps along at nine
miles am hour with irresistible im
petus.
Imagine what that means in a big
river—nine miles an hour. We are
?o used to railroad trains that run
sixty or seventy miles an hour that it
loes not seem an overwhelming
speed. But consider that when a rail
road train is once checked its power
s gone. Interfere with the progress
jf the Mississippi and the river piles
ip against the obstruction, sweeps
iround it, over it, under it, and mo
mentarily grows stronger about it.
rhe power waxes until it sweeps away
he fret.
Yet such is the contrariety of this
mighty stream that while It will over
throw the strongest obstacle to Its
course that can be built, it will yield
to tbe slightest. One could hardly find
a more striking illustration of the
power of slight things than the sharp
contrast between the behavior of the
river against a powerful check and
against a slight one. For years the
government engineers struggled to
direct the river with massive stone
dikes. When the river- could not
overthrow one of these it dug under
it, and so wrecked it. Money without
end was spent on dikes. There was a
mighty one below Gold Dust landing
in Tennessee. .It stood longer than
most of them, but a flood in the river
at last conquered and swept it away.
How, then, can the river be direct
ed? Simply by a few sticks set in
the sand. A row if piling, sometimes
with a few brush hurdles, accomplish
es it. The river sweeps through, ed
dies behind it, dropping sand and
building up a bar. Nowadays, travel
ing down the river through stretches
that once were broad and shallow, one
finds them narrow’ and deep, with
sandy sides, over the tops of which
can be seen just the tips of the piles
that accomplished the mignty change.
—Ainstee's Magazine.
The beadle of the parish is always of
the vicar’s opinion.
WRITERS WELL PAID
Modern Authors Munificently Rewarded, as Compared with Their
Predecessors.
a A A ▲ AAAAAAAV. AAAAAAAAAAAA
Early American writers were poorly
rewarded. Washington Irving was
the first who made any notable suc
cess in literature. His Sketch Book
brought him $000. During the forty
subsequent years of his life his writ
ings from sales and copyrights
brought him. it is estimated. $205,383.
Bryant received no compensation
whatever for his Thanatopsis and ev
en at the age of 83 he could not buy a
modest home with all he ever received
from his poems.
No single production of Edgar Allan
Poe brought him over $100 and only
two seem to have reached that figure.
He sold The Raven for $15, The Bells
for the same, though he afterward re
ceived $10 for a lengthened and re
vised copy.
Longfellow’s executors estimated
that the plates and copyrights of all
his work were worth $30,000. The
Hanging of the Crane brought the
poet $3,000, of which he gave $1,000
to the friend who negotiated the sale,
certainly a liberal commission. Kera
mos brought him $1,000, and these
two were the culminating prices for
his single productions, though he was
an industrious worker for more than
fifty years.
While Hawthorne was hoarding the
$1,800 he received for The Scarlet
Letter, Mrs. Stowe was counting het
thousands from Uncle Tom's Cabin,
which brought her $10,000 in the first
four months after its publication in
book form. For the serial rights she
received $000.
Emerson, at 74, found his last vol
ume the only one that approached a
remunerative sale.
There is a vast difference, in the
matter of compensation, between the
authors of the old days and modern
writers. The latter are well paid for
their labors and unfortunately it does
not seem that their work is anything
the better on that account.
Tragedies Due to Dreams
Medical Science Has Long Record of Such Cases.
The recent remarkable case of Hen
ry C. Krause, who strangled his moth
er, has served to recall other instances
on record in the history of medical
jurisprudence where crimes have been
connected with dreams and hallucina
tions.
One of the oldest cases of the kind
is that of the English gamekeeper who
was killed by his son. Both were
guarding from poachers the preserves
on which they were employed, when
the son, wearied with the long vigil,
fell asleep. Upon being suddenly
awakened he seized his fowling piece
and slew his father, evidently, in his
half-awake condition, acting under the
delusion that he was attacking a
poacher. He was tried and convicted,
but later was pardoned on the ground
that, because he did not know what he
was doing, there was no criminal in
tent to the action.
Marc, the noted English alienist,
tells of the famous case of a peddler
who fell asleep on the highway, hav
ing by his side a sword cane which he
carried as a protection against rob
bers. A traveler in passing stooped to
arouse him, thinking he might he
either ill or intoxicated. The peddler
sprang up and stabbed him to death
with the sword cane. He was con
victed at his trial, although he pleaded
that he did not know what he was
about when he committed the act
Another case cited by Marc is tha
of Bernard Sehedmaizeg. Attacked by
a phantom in a dream he struc at it
with a hatchet and awoke to find that
he had murdered his wife, who was
the reality of the phantom with which
he had struggled. He was acquitted
of the charge of murder, the jury in
this case accepting the plea that he
had done it unconsciously.
From Cleveland, O., comes an ac
count of a well authenticated case
that of a prominent resident of that
city. Out hunting and camping with
a party of friends, he was suddenly
awakened from sleepone morning and
shot a member of the party in the
back, inflicting a wound which caused
paralysis.
In 1878 Simon Frazer, a Scotchman,
dreamed that he was attacked by a
wild beast, which he killed in his vi
sion. When he awoke he found that
he had dashed out his child's brains
against the bedpost. — New York
Press.
TRULY A VALUABLE TYPEWRITER
Witty Reply or no Author*** Who L‘**rt
• Pen.
A New York bachelor author, who
writes on a machine, wrote a note re
cently to a spinster authoress, who
still works by hand, and incidentally
called her attention to the fact that if
she wished him to do so he would se
cure a machine for her at $5 per
month, guaranteed to write poetry,
ible articles, fiction, etc. A day or so
later he received a reply written in
i beautifully clear, round hand to this
effect: •
‘ My Dear Mr.-: This is my type
writing machine. Isn't it nice? It is
called the Blank typewriter. It is
sound, kind, in good repair, warranted
to travel well in single harness and
if you do not say It is the nicest ma
chine you ever knew 1 shall refuse to
oelieve that you were born when
knighthood was in flower. It Is war
ranted, like yours, to write able ar
ticles, poetry and fiction with equal fa
cility, but, unlike yours, it is not for
sale at $5 a month. Its original cost
was large and 1 have put so many im
provements on it since that I cannot
iispose of it save at a considerable
advance—and even then should be un
willing to part with it except to a re
sponsible person warranted to treat if.
with care.’'
At present, says the Detroit Free
Press, the author is striving strenu
ously to become a millionaire, so that
he may secure the services of this in
imitable typewriter.
Mad* a Queer Family.
The son of ex-Alderman Griner has
started a small but Interesting menag
erie at his home on North Franklin
street. It consists of a cat, her twc
kittens, and two groundhogs. Tht
groundhogs were caught in the timbei
northwest of the city by the boy when
they were quite small, and put with the
cat. who had two tiny kittens. The
mother cat adopted the groundhogs
into her family, and she distributes hei
affections between the four little ones
j as evenly as possible.
The family is probably the happiest
j in the city; at least ex-Alderman Grl
' ner thinks so, and he has watched tht
interesting group for some days with
considerable interest.—Danville (111.)
New3.
Three State* Out of Debt.
There are three states which have
no debt—Iowa. Net-aska and Illinois.
There are three states which have al
most no debt—California, Montana
and Nevada.
A tombstone marks tht dividing line
between here and thertt.
SOME ILLS OF LIFE „
□ UR MODERN CIVILIZATION HAS ITS
BAD FEATURES.
¥et the Men and Women of the Pres*
ent Day Are Physically Superior td
Their Ancestor* — Evils In the Itacd
for Superfluous Wealth.
Some features of civilized life are
not wholesome. It does not insure a
perfect digestion, which is the basis of
good health. It is not healthful to
areathe sewer gas in houses the
plumbing of which has been passed
ay an inspector who receives Christ
mas gifts from the plumber. There
ire many other conditions which are
not favorable to the best physical
health. However, in spite of other
drawbacks and disadvantages, there is
every warrant to affirm that never has
the standard of health, strength and
agility been as high as it is to-day.
Though an indoor life is vicious in its
influence, the men and women of to
day—and especially the women—are
capable of a greater physical endur
ance than has ever been known be
fore. The first and best proof of this
is that at the age when our graud
sires and their dames took their
places in the chimney corner as capa
ble only of vegetable existence, the
men and women of to-day are at their
best, and, as Dr. Stevenson complains,
the grandmoiners are demanding the
right to run for public office, instead
of being content to knit stockings. A
believer in the physical superiority of
the savage brought out the great
grandson of a famous Indian sprinter
to pit him against the white runners
of the colleges. Even after a syste
matic training he was beaten by ama
teurs. His celebrated ancestor had
defeated every white runner here and
in England, but his record has been
surpassed long since.
Life in the open air is necessary to
the best health, but there is no reason
why the modern conveniences should
be abandoned. On every hand arc
proofs of the physical superiority of
the men and women of to-day over the
people of any other known period. The
rules of wnolesome living are better
understood and are more generally ob
served. It needs only for men to re
frain from business excesses, from dis
sipating their energies in the pursuit
of wealth, in order that they may find
life well worth living. The too fre
quent suicide of successful business
men may be traced to their long and
absolute absorption in the work of
money-getting and the discovery that
it is profitless and unsatisfactory. The
realization of the fact that wealth
alone does not bring happiness comes
only after it is too late to effect a
change. The delusion that there is
no more satisfying purpose than the
accumulation of money is the chief ob
stacle in the way of man’s happiness.
THE ORIGINAL HABITAT OF MAN
I’rof, Dyche Advance* Theory That the
Flrtt Men Lived In the Arctic Potion*.
Prof. Dyche of the University of
Kansas, recently gave an informal lec
ture at the University club at Kansas
City. His subject was “The Original
Habitat of Man,” and he advanced the
theory that the first men inhabited
the northern part of Greenland and
the territory surrounding the poles.
In his trip to the northern part of
Greenland Prof. Dyche found fossils
of the sequoia, or California redwood
tree. As an illustration of the fight
of animals against advancing incle
ment nature Prof. Dyche cited the
case of the mammoth, which was at
first a heat loving animal. Those
which refused to leave their northern
home gradually grow hair as a pro
tection. When the environment be
came too severe the species perished.
Prof, uycho drew conclusions from
the Might of birds. He believes that
birds migrate north to breed, because
of an instinct acquired by centuries of
returning to the original breeding
grounds in the north.
Walls Halit Downward.
The monster building now being
erected on the flatiron block below
Madison Square is the most striking
example of modern office construction
which people whose business and
pleasure keep them above Canal
street have had the opportunity to
watch in daily growth.
One thing about it that impresses
those unfamiliar with present archi
tectural methods is the fact that parts
of the outer walls are being built
downward from the twelfth or thir
teenth story to the fourth. Below
the latter there is not yet any exterior
wall.
It makes a strange sight for those
unaccustomed to the curiosities to be
seen in far down town Manhattan,
! and the fact that it is novel to many
is apparent from the comments
which one who passes among the
Madison Square throngs cannot help
| overhearing.—New York Sun.
Kn*e*De«p In Kanum.
Mr. Eugene K Ware, the new com
missioner of pensions, who over the
name of ‘ Ironquill” long ago estab
lished his reputation as a wit and
writer of verse, has been much inter
ested for years in the condition of
roads in his adopted state of Kansas
Recently Mr. R. W. Richardson'
secretary of the National Good Roads
Association, who is preparing to take
a Good Roads Construction train
across the continent, said to Mr
Ware:
‘ HKow do the farmers ln Kansas
stand on the road question?”
• Up to their knees,” was the replv
-Philadelphia Saturday Evening