Loup City Northwestern
J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher.
LOUP CITY, - - NEBRASKA.
King Peter is preparing for his cor
onation by taking a five-milo sprint
every day.
7
J. Pierpont Morgan is another suf
ferer from the malady known as mil
lionaire’^ stomach.
A woman is willing to take the bene
fit of the doubt and let man have the
doubt of the benefit.
Port Arthur seems to fall as easy
and as often as a man who is trying
to quit smoking cigarettes.
Millions have laughed at Mark
Twain’s quaint humor. Millions grieve
with him in his present sorrow.
There’s no use crying over spilt
milk. The better way is to seek the
nearest pump and repair the damage.
A new Galveston greets the eye of
the traveler. On the stepping stone of
its dead self it has risen to higher
things.
The war has, after all, its bright
Side. So far neither Rudyard Kipling
nor Alfred Austin has written a poem
about it
Oxford university is going to con
fer the degree of doctor of letters on
W. D. Howells. “Who reads an Ameri
cas book?”
No wonder the railway engineer
who saw his lifelong friend ground to
pieces under his locomotive has whol
ly lost his nerve.
Jack White has won the British
open golf championship. One of the
strange things about the case is that
he is an Englishman.
When that $2,500,000,000 ore trust
is formed it will be something more
than an airy joke to say that Mr.
Rockefeller owns the earth.
The four-leaf clover is a favorite de
sign with the younger ladies for em
broidering their silk hosiery. We learn
this from one of our exchanges.
He laughs best who laughs last. Ac
cording to this, the best laugher is the
man who has to be trepanned in order
to make him see the point of a joke.
A new York paper is offering a prize
for the best vacation suggestion. We
have heard that it is a good plan to
remain quietly at home and take a
rest.
King Peter of Servia announces
that he is going to have a coronation
in August. It will be a good thing for
innocent bystanders to stay away
from.
Czar Nicholas has begun to find in
feimal machines under his bed.
There's a boy who doesn’t need a mi
croscope when he goes hunting for
t rouble.
The New York Herald urges the es
tablishment of a school for writers of
fiction, but what is really needed is an
institution to teach people not to try
to write fiction.
An Iowa man after firing five shots
at his wife was shot at seventeen
times by policemen. Owing to the fact
that there were no innocent bystand
ers nobody was hurt.
The duke and duchess of Marl
borough are reported to be living
apart. Nobody can blame any mar
ried couple from doing everything in
their power to be happy.
The Boston Globe prints a roll of 89
G. A. R. veterans who are 80
or over, which demonstrates what
kind of constitution the boys of other
days were endowed with.
The arrival of Boozena Sokup, an
emigrant from the old world, was duly
recorded at New York the other day.
We venture to predict a bright politi
cal future in this country for Mr.
Sokup.
F. W. Giles is said to be the name
of the man who introduced the Eng
lish sparrow into the Misissippi val
ley.. The charitable supposition is
that Mr. Giles didn’t know what he
was doing.
The Chicago girl who tried to com
mit suicide by drowning and was
saved because her skirts floated her,
has good reason to be glad that she
never followed the example of Dr.
Mary Walker.
Even at savings bank interest of 3
per cent, compounded semi-annually,
money grows rapidly. Ten dollars a
month deposited in the bank will
amount to $647.70 in five years. Start
a bank account today.
The latest scientific information is
that hair and teeth have about served
their purpose and that the human
family is destined to become perfectly
toothless and bald. Which mdkes us
still gladder we’re alive right now.
Twenty-four people of the Harry
Lehr stamp are going to dine in a
monster wine barrel in Berlin. The
guests will enter through the bung
hole, which is Just large enough to
admit an average-sized person. The
question is can they get out after din
ner. __
The pastor and one of his elders in
a Pittsburg church treated the congre
gation to a few rounds with bare
Knuckles after the services. Comment
is withheld until it is learned whether
this was a ruse to make divine wor
ship more attractive to the male part
of the community.
According to the latest figures the
population of the world to-day Is 1,
603,300,000. About half of its inhabi
tants are feminine. And yet young
men continue to sing, “There’s only
one girl in the world for me."
An Eden in Africa
" The secretary of the Uganda pro
tectorate, Mr. Cunningham, who has
just arrived from Uganda, has given
a representative of Reuster’s agency
the following interesting particulars
concerning the present condition of
the protectorate:
"The latest news that I give you of
Uganda/’ said Mr. Cunningham, "is
that there has been an extraordinary
development of tourist traffic on the
Uganda railway. When I was at Mom
bassa it had been found necessary to
duplicate all the trains from the coast
to Lake Victoria in order to carry tou
rists and intending settlers. I should
say 10,000 was a small estimate of the
number of tourists to be looked for
during the coming season.
"The scenery is unique and there is
about fifty miles of zoological gardens,
teeming with wild animals. On my
way down country at the Kapiti plains
we passed through a herd of fully 50,
000 zebras; we saw twenty ostriches,
some rhinoceroses and giraffes in the
distance and the plains simply swarm
ed with gazelles. The zebras, whose
stripes shone in the bright sun, were
massed on the railway line and mere
ly divided to let the train pass, a few
scampering away for one Lundred
yards or so. Nowhere else in the
world can such a sight be witnessed.
“And then to many people the na
tives are still more interesting than
the wild animals or the scenery. Here
in London you have the twentieth cen
tury, but in Kavirondo it is only the
day after the creation, with the differ
ence that the Adams and Eves of Kavi
rondo have not yet discovered that
they are naked, and instead of repos
ing in beatific leisure among apple
trees Adam and Eve may be seen hoe
ing gardens along the railway or car
rying baskets of grain to the market
at Port Florence, the majority of them
without an atom of clothing. But
there is nothing to affect the suscepti
bilities of the European visitor. It is
nature. You might as well object to a
sycamore jtree going without leaves as
object to a Kavirondo man or woman
going naked. At the railway stations,
alas! they are gradually getting Adam
into trousers; but, as a rule Eve still
moves in all her native charms, wear
ing at most a tassel suspended from
a girdle.
“The cruise around Lake Victoria
occupies about a wreek, the steamer
touching at all the German and Brit
ish stations. The scenery at Entebbe
and Munyonyo (the port of Kampala)
is very fine, and, as the course lies
among the most beautiful parts of the
Sose archipelago and the Buvuma
group, there is an unending feast for
the eye of pretty creeks, bold head
lands and banks of graceful palms,
fringing broad slopes of turf. As to
the Ripon falls, they defy description.
I think it may safely be said that the
tour to Uganda outrivals in interest
anything to be tound elsewhere in the
world.”—London News.
The Man of Habit
It happened in a Fulton street res
taurant that contains by actual count
seventy-two tables. At 3 o’clock last
Wednesday afternoon five of these ta
bles were occupied. That left sixty
seven for the accommodation of late
arrivals. At a few minutes past 3 a
man entered. He was thin, had short
gray hair, a stubby gray mustache
and stony, staring blue eyes. He
came in at the south end of the room,
walked stolidly past the sixty-seven
empty tables and the four that were
occupied by solitary diners and sat
down in the end chair of the seventy
second table, at which a man and a
woman were seated.
The couple were engaged in a con
versation which, to all appearances,
was tender as well as confidential.
They stopped talking when the man
sat down and looked at him and at the
empty tables suggestively. But the
man's mind was not in a receptive
state. Subtle hints were lost on him.
Caimly he studied the bill of fare,
from which he finally selected a meal
of clam cocktail, sirloin steak and
coffee. The woman in the case looked
desperate.
“Is there no remedy?’’ she said.
“None short of actual murder,” re
plied her companion.
“Under the circumstances we would
be justified in that,” said she. “Any
jury in the land would acquit us.”
“We might move,” she suggested a
moment later.
"No,” said the man; “let's hang on
and see what he does.”
“He” apparently had no intention
of moving. When his luncheon was
served he ate it slowly. Presently
the man and woman went away. Af
ter their departure curiosity got the
better of the man at an adjoining ta
ble who had watched the proceeding
throughout.
“I am going to find out,” he said,
“what that white-livered pelican
meant by freezing that couple out.”
In slightly modified terms he put
the question to the solemn diner.
“Why,” said the “pelican,” "I didn’t
mean anything by it. This is my ta
ble. t I’ve eaten luncheon at this ta
ble every weekday for the last fifteen
years. You don't suppose, do you,
that 1 am going to be thrown out of
gear at this late day by a pair of sen
timental lallygaggers?”
“Good Lord,” said the inquisitive
man. “were you never mushy your
self? Couldn’t you tell? Couldn’t
you see?”
‘I saw nothing,” was the reply. “I
reiterate, this is my table and I am
a man of habit.”
“May Heaven deliver me,” groaned
the inquisitive man, “from people who
have ‘habits’!”—New York Press.
Work of Sixty Years
The Electrical World and Engineer,
in an article on "Sixty Years of the
Telegraph,” says: “The past'^week
has witnessed the sixtieth anniver
sary of the electromagnetic telegraph,
it being May 1, 1844, wrhen Prof. Morse
was able to demonstrate the use of
his invention in reporting at Washing
ton the proceedings of the Whig con
vention at Baltimore. Since that time
the history of the telegraph in this
country and elsewhere has been one of
universal benefit. It is certainly a
moot question whether of late years
the telegraph has advanced as rapidly
as it might have done, and whether it
has not become more or less crystal
ized and fossilized in its apparatus and
methods. Yet even this statement
must be made guardedly, for, while
the great telegraph systems the world
over appear to look askance on auto
matic and machine methods, the wire
less telegraph inventions have been
generally taken Tip and pushed with
great success; and if there is anything
more wonderful and more stimulating
in the domain of electrical advance at
the present time than the wireless, we'
do not know what it is. The amount
of service rendered to the public by
the telegraph sixty years after its
practical inception may be gauged
from the fact that in only four or five
of the leading countries 400.000,000 or
500,000,000 authentic messages are dis
patched annually, exclusive of those
handled by leased private wires, jin
this country the record is now prob
ably about 100,000,000 a year, while
Great Britain does not fall very far
behind that. Germany and France
together are good for another 100,000,
000, while Russia, Italy, Austria and
Spain will probably account for an
other batch of equal magnitude. The
telephone to-day has asserted for itseli
the function of knitting closely to
gether the various communities iD
which it is used, but it is still the
proud boast of the telegraph and the
submarine cable that they have been
the great instrumentality in annihi
lating distance, promoting intercourse
and commerce and bringing the na
tions together.”
The Soul's One Hour
All day 1 have tolled in that busy mill
Where souls are ground and money is
made:
All day.' till my temples throb and thrill
With the whirring grind of the wheels
of trade.
All day I have gripped the trenchant
steel
And grappled with columns black and
grim;
Till to-night I am faint and my senses
reel.
And the glory of God seems far and
dim.
And so I have come to this quiet room
To sit in the dark and touch the keys—
To wake the ghost and the lost perfume
Of the soul’s dead flowers with my har
monies.
And here, alone, for a single hour •
I can dream and idle and drift away;
I can touch the ghost of a passion
flower—
I can catch the gleam of a vanished
day.
I can gather the lilies of long ago
That bloomed by the path where a baby
trod;
And love's first roses, as white as snow.
That are blossoming now at the feet ol
God.
Oh, stainless lilies, and roses white!
Oh, passion-flower, with your petals
red!
You are mine once more for an hour, to
night.
Tho’ the heart be dumb and the years
be dead.
Oh, scented summer of long ago!
Oh, vanished day with your gleam of
gold!
Oh. blood-red lips and bosom of snow!
You are mine once more as in days of
old.
Just for to-night, for at early dawn
I am back to the grovel of greedy lust;
Where the wheels of traffic go whirring
on,
And souls are ground into golden dust.
—Albei^ Bigelow Paine in Ladies’ Home
Joi*.ial.
Jest Saves a Leg.
It is seldom that a hospital surgeon
is placed at a loss to answer patients
but one of the best known operators
in this city was completely taken
aback recently.
The patient, with a leg so badly
hurt that amputation had been decid
ed on, had excited the interest of the
surgeon because of the peculiarity of
the complaint. He brought a couple
o- surgical friends into the ward to
see the case, and, as he approached
the cot, remarked:
“Well, how are you to-day?”
Like a flash the patient answered:
“Oh, I’m sick abed,” and the sur
geon vowed that the knife should not
be used the next day, as intended.
r3est of all, he saved the merry ffoung
man's leg.—Philadelphia Press.
A Plausible Excuse.
Russell Sage was talking the other
day about a dishonest but plausible
broker.
“I have caught this man,” he said,
“in a dozen shady transactions. He
has always, though, been ready to ex
cuse himself.”
Mr. Sage smiled. Then he resumed:
‘He reminds me of a chap who
brojce a plate glass window one day.
As soon as he had broken the window
he hurried off as fast as he could go.
But the shopkeeper had seen. him. The
shopkeeper came after him and grab
bed him by the collar.
“ ‘Aha, you broke my window, didn’t
you, eh?’ he said.
“ ‘Yes, and didn’t you see me run
ning home for the money to pay for
it?’ said the other.”
WITH HIE WORLD’S |
^7 BEST WRITERS
WE ARE THE PEOPLE!
We of the United States are Ameri
cans. We are the people. But are
not the Canadians and Mexicans also
Americans? Are they not also the
people?
Europeans have long said “Yes.”
We of the United States have long
said “No.”
Now comes Archibald R. Colqu
houn in his “Greater America" to for
tify us in our answer. He writes of
the United States of America and its
dependencies alone, and he speaks of
them as “America” without qualifica
tion.
“There is no other country,” he
! says, “which could be spoken of as
America.”
And that is true. There are Mexi
cans, Canadians, Brazilians, Chilians,
etc., but these are Americans only in
the geographical sense. In the politi
cal and national sense only the peo
ple of the United States are Ameri
cans.
The name is ours, and ours alone
by right of prior use and example to
the rest of the Western world. But
for us the names of the other Ameri
can republics would have no national
meaning at all—would be mere geo
graphical expressions.
We made the Western hemisphere
politically different, nationally differ
ent from Europe. We made it distinct
in fact.
For those who have followed us we
have every respect, but at present
there is only one American people—
only one American nation—and we
are that people.—Chicago Inter
Ocean.
SPIRIT OF RECKLESSNESS.
Many, probably most of the acci
dents on American railways of all
kinds are due to recklessness. The
same is true of accidents from other
vehicles. Manifestations of this dis
position are to be seen on every side.
Coachmen exhibit it by driving heavy
carriages at full speed around the
most busy and crowded corners of
large cities. Messenger boys show
it by propelling their bicycles like
mad whenever they get where there
seems a good chance to run anybody
down. The automobile chauffeur acts
as if it was no part of his business
to look out for people ahead of him.
and apparently thinks that the man
or woman whom he runs down re
ceives only his or her deserts for get
ting in the way. Everybody who oper
ates any sort of a vehicle, from the
locomotive engineer to the laborer
or clerk hurrying to his work on a
motorcycle, seems to have become
possessed with the idea that it is his
business to go as fast as he can, but
no part of his business to take care
that he doesn't kill anybody. This
combination of speed madness with
recklessness is causing more casu
alties in the United States than all
other causes together.—Kansas City
Journal.
NEED OF THE FARMER.
The farmer must learn to place a
cash value upon his own time and
labor and know where they are ex
pended and what results they pro
duce. He must learn to think of the
dairy cow as a machine for manufac
turing clover, etc., into milk—a ma
chine that will do its best work when
kindly treated, sheltered from storms
and fed a balanced ration. The small
plots of idle ground should be made
to produce something that will sell in
the market or supply the family tabie.
The waste products of orchard, gar
den or grain field should be turned
into pork, mutton or poultry, while
everything that can serve no better
purpose should, if possible, add fer
tility to the soil. Rotation of crops
should make summer fallowing un
necessary and $10 worth of apples
should not be lost for the want of $1
worth of spray.—Portland Oregonian.
TREATMENT OF CONVICTS.
One of the curious phenomena of
the present day is the agitation which
is being conducted by life-term con
victs for the virtual abolition of life
imprisonment, by providing that
those so sentenced shall be liberated
after a fixed number of years of good
conduct. There are doubtless some
life prisoners who are proper subjects
of clemency, but there is another
class whose members cannot be out
of prison a wreek without committing
crime. The public safety demands
more and not less severity to habitual
criminals, and there is grave reason
to doubt that the discretion of our
prison authorities in permitting and
apparently assisting in this appeal to
maudlin sentiment in favor of a gen
eral jail delivery.—San Francisco
Chronicle.
COLORED CLOTHES AND HEALTH.
The health value of colored clothes
is infinitely superior to that of sable
fabrics. You will find more microbes
to the square inch on dark than on
light garments. Black arrests the
health-giving rays of the sun. It is
strange that Mme. la Mode should
turn out to be only the High Priest
ess of Health in disguise, and that
the microbes oi Mayfair and the bac
cili of Belgrava should be more afraid
of a butterfly of fashion than of a
sable-coated doctor of medicine.—
Chic.
A CHILD'S DISPOSITION.
How often do we speak of a child
as obstinate and pig-headed when he
is merely determined! We fail to see
that what we take to be obstinacy to
give up some pet project is really a
courage and tenacity of purpose which
will prove a successful shield in
years to come when fighting the bat
tle of life. What a terrible mistake
we make when we try to subdue the
child and, as we say, “break his
spirit!”—Philadelphia Inquirer.
THE Y. M. C. A.
There is no longer any disposition
to scoff at the Yopng Men’s Christian
Association and among intelligent
citizens everywhere its potency as an
instrument of personal and civic mo
rality is gratefully recognized. Dr.
Mabie has not exaggerated its claims
to respect in saying:
“Whatever may have been the de
fects. either in quality or in manage
ment of the association in the past,
it has become a model of high and
effective organization. It is an ex
pression of the religious life which
fits the temper and the need of the
day and it is therefore fundamentally
the right expression of that life. It
is a religion of action, contrasted
sometimes too sharply with the re
ligion of meditation, but pre-eminent
ly. in spite of its occasional over
emphasis on action, the religion
which the modern world needs and
which can do the most for the re
demption of the modern world. It
stands for the broad conception of
life into which the young man of to
day is born. It demands the health of
the body as well * as the health of
the spirit, sanity in out-of-door life
as wTell as integrity in social and busi
ness life.”
The word “sanity” is well applied
to the activities of the association.
It makes no appeal to mawkish senti
ment, and takes no part in the culti
vation of a merely emotional religion.
Its business is to foster clean and
wholesome living, to encourage a de
sire for moral and mental growth
among its members and to put with
in their reach such means of rational
enjoyment as most of them would
otherwise lack. It is an admirable in
stitution. managed on sound prin
ciples and productive of great results.
—New York Tribune.
EDWARD’S FOOT DOWN.
The English legation in the Servian
capital has been broken up. The house
has been vacated and the stafl
dispersed to other capitals and the
British Minister, Sir George Bonham,
will go elsewhere. King Edward VII.
informed the Servian government that
Great Britain did not consider the pro
motion of the officers personally con
cerned in the assassination of King
Alexander and Queen Draga from
their posts at court to higher offices
in the army and in the state, as a sat
isfaction for the outrage perpetrated
last summer. After a long suspen
sion diplomatic relations are now per
manently closed. This is an example
which other powers of Europe may
have to follow. The awful murder
and the protection of the murderers
by the man who was the beneficiary
of the assassination is too much for
civilization. King Edward will be re
spected in all sections where decent
people thrive, for delivering this re
buke. There have been kings of En
gland who have been bloody and re
vengeful, but they were long before
the days of Edward VII.. and very lit
tle of their blood runs in his veins. Ed
ward -is a modern king. The longer
other rulers postpone action as to
Sorvia the harder will it be for them
to wipe out the disgrace which is aJ
ready sticking to them.—Chicago Rec
ord-Herald.
PROGRESS OF HUMANITY.
The ethical millennium is certainly
far away. The progress of humanity
is rhythmical, not steadily continu
ous. and it may be that we are in the
trough of the sea. It may be tha1
thought has been turned to material
things, or maybe only to new con
cepts of religion, to the dismay ol
those who tend neglected altars. But
certainly humanity has not lost its
inspiration. No wrong appears but
that there are hands ready to right
it, no suffering but that there is zeal
for self-sacrifice in its relief, no prob
lem of humanity but that unselfish
souls are at work for its solution. If
there is a recession, then, we may be
sure that the flood will come again.
And. whether there is or not, no bet
ter standard of ethics will be com
mended to favor by telling society
that it is more material than ever be
fore. when, after realizing all its
faults, it perfectly well knows that it
is not.—New York Tribune.
*
UNCLE SAM’S BIG POCKET.
Your Uncle Sam is very well to do.
He puts his hand in one pocket and
coin to the amount of fifty millions
is scattered in insurance to rebuild
Baltimore and Rochester. He puts
his hand in another pocket and out
comes forty millions for the Panama
canal, and he stands these demands
without even the tremor of a lip oi;
the quiver of a whisker.—Kansas City
World.
AS A WAR PREVENTIVE.
•
We do not agree with those who
think that arbitration will succeed in
putting an end to war—at least not in
the near future. But its triumphs
have been so signal and so frequent
that we must believe that it can pre
vent many wars. Arbitration, coupled
with the deadly efficiency of modern
weapons, the fearful cost of war and
the burdens which great armies and
navies impose on the people, who are
beginning to weary of the burden
will certainly circumscribe war and
will keep nations from rushing head
long into it.—Indianapolis News.
A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS.
This is ray advice to young men
seeking for success: Fix your eye on
England, fix it on Alaska, fix it on the
moon, collect beetles, desire tram
tickets, demand lost boot laces, die fox
dead cats—do any of these things and
you may have your will. But do not
fix your dreams upon success, for the
bones of those dreamers are wrecks
along the shore.—G. K. Chesterton, in
London News.
RAILROAD FROM CAPE TO CAIRO
Pet Project of the Late Cecil Rhodes Rapidly
Nearing a Reality—Tourist Tickets on
Line Now Being Issued
Writing in 1900 to Ewart 8. Gro
gan, a plucky young traveler who
hail just completed a journey from
the Cape to Cairo, Cecil Rhodes said:
“Every one supposes that the rail
way is being built with the only ob
ject that a human being may be able
to get in at Cairo and get out at Cape
Town. That is, of course, ridiculous.
The object is to cut Africa through
the center, and the railway will pick
up trade all along the route. The
junctions to the East and West
coasts which will occur in the future
will be outlets for the traffic obtained
along the route of the line as it
passes through the center of Africa.
At any rate, up to Buluwayo, where
I am now, it has been a payable
undertaking, and I still think it will
continue to be so as we advance into
the far interior. We propose now to
go on and cross the Zambesi just be
low the Victoria Falls. I should like
to have the spray of the water over
the carriages.”
If Cecil Rhodes were still alive he
would see this last wish realized, for
the railway from the south has been
carried from Buluwayo through the
Wankie coal fields to the edge of
those wonderful falls, which are
twice the height and more than dou
ble the width of the Falls of Niagara,
while a bridge consisting of a single
span of 500 feet is now being con
structed over the gorge below the
falls, and will be completed by the
end of the year.
The bridge will have the distinction
of being the highest in the world, the
rail level being 420 feet above the
ducement to choose the western
route, and accordingly the line north
ward from Buluwayo was begun in
May, 1901. Last year it reached Wan
kie, a distance of 200 miles, and the
additional seventy-five miles to the
falls have been constructed in less
than a twelvemonth. Tourist tickets
to the Victoria Falls are being issued
and among the visitors next year will
be 250 members of the British Asso
ciation, who have accepted the invita
tion of the British South African com
pany to pay a visit to Niagara's rival.
Starting from the south, the rail
way is now completed from Cape
Town to Victoria Falls, a distance of
1.635 miles, and a further stretch of
350 miles in a northeasterly directi' n
to Broken Hill Mine, 1(H) mil*-- be
yond the Kafue river,will be begun at
an early date, the contract having al
ready been let. This section, which :s
to be completed by the end of March
1905, will tap a.district rich in cop
per, lead and zinc deposits, beyond
which is a region with vast supplies
of rubber. There will then remain
only a section of 450 miles to com
plete the connection with Kituta. at
the southern end of Lake Tangan
yika. where the Chartered Company s
sway terminates. Survey work here
is now in progress, and there is no
doubt that within a few years this
link will be made.
From this point onward, however,
Rhodes’ scheme has had to be modi
fied as the nature of the country
around the chain of lakes stretching
from the Zambesi to the Nine came
to be known. As Grogan pointed out.
Lake Tanganyika is hemmed in by
a
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river, or fifty-five feet higher than
the dome of St. Paul's. While the
construction of the great span is in
progress the rails for the extension
northward will be conveyed across by
aerial gear to avoid delay.
It was originally intended to carry
the line from Buluwayo due nqrth
through the Mafungabusi coal dis
trict, crossing the Zambesi at the
Kariba Gorge. It was found, how
ever. that the country north of the
Zambesi at this point offers immense
difficulties for railway construction,
and that the value of the coal depos
its is not to be compared with that of
the Wankie coal fields.
The certainty of a large tourist
traffic if the line were carried to the
Victoria Falls tormed a further in
steep mountains offering well-nigh
insurmountable difficulties to railway
construction, but on the other hand,
the lake itself offers a magnificent
waterway of 400 miles on the direct
line between the Cape and Cairo. It
may be taken as granted, therefore,
that this part of the journey will be
made by water, and that passengers
will be carried by steamboat from
Kituta to Usambara. at the north end
of the lake. From here to Lake Kivu
is 90 miles, offering no serious ob
stacle to a railway beyond a rise in
level of 2.000 feet. Lake Kivu is
sixty miles in length, and this shett
of water also is surrounded by high
and precipitous mountains, so that an
other break in the line will have to be
made and the waterway utilized.
Bribery.
Russell Sage was in early life an
errand boy in a Troy grocery store.
At a certain directors’ meeting, re
verting to his boyhood days in Troy,
Mr. Sage said:
“I remember well a frequent visit
or to our Troy grocery, a rich young
farmer from Schaghticoke. He had
fallen in love with a New York girl
who had spent the summer in Schagh
ticoke, and in the autumn he called on
her in the city and proposed mar
riage.
The story goes that, as soon as she
refused him, the young man put on
his hat and stalked out of the house.
Once outside, though, an idea struck
him, and, returning, he said:
“ ‘Would the tower of Europe be
any inducement?’ ”
Singular Lapse of Memory.
Winston Churchill’s recent break
down in a speech in parliament re
calls to the English press a similar
lapse of memory on the part of a
member named Shell in the house at
commons. Shell was commencing a
carefully prepared sentence with the
word “necessity.” when his memory
deserted him. He repeated “neces
sity” three times, and then Sir Rob
ert Peel mischievously added: “is
not always the mother of invention.”
Wiped Out Black Snakes.
W. D. Cushman, while working in a
cemetery at Tolland, Mass., noticed
a number of black snakes together in
the grass on a sunny slope. Rushing
among them he kiled ten, the last two
being found in a tree in which they
had taken retuge. The snakes varied
in length from three and a half to six
feet. _
Armenian Archbishop.
The most Rev. Horsed Saradjah,
archbishop and head of the Armenian
church in this country, will preside at
the convention of Armenians to be
held in Boston.
Once Famous Town in Decay.
Secretary Gantt of the state of
South Carolina has just finished rt
claiming a considerable portion of the
once famous town of Hamburg, S. C.
Some few of the old houses still re
main standing, having been patched
up from time to time, but Hamburg
is now principally a lot of little hov
els occupied by negro laborers who
work in Augusta.
The total business activity of the
old town consists now in a little stand
about 18x20 feet just at the foot of
the bridge, and what pretends to be
a grocery store, located where the
center of the city used to be. the en
tire stock of goods of which could be
packed into a dry goods box.—New
York World.
A Country of Linguists.
Almost every native of Iceland, even
the peasants and fishermen, can speak
at least one foreign language besides
his local Danish dialect. Some years
ago it became a fad to study lan
guages, and now a person speaking
only one tongue is looked down upon
as extremely ignoranf. English leads
then come German and French. Pa
pers in these three languages are read
extensively in Iceland, and may be
found in all the village reading rooms
Leoncavallo’s New Opera.
Leoncavallo has arrived in Berlin
with the manuscript of the opera “Ro
land of Berlin,” which Emperor Wil
liam commissioned him to compose
some years ago. The subject ig a
controversy between the mayor of
Berlin and one of the Brandenburg
princes several centuries ago, in
which the mayor was forced to sub
mit to the prince.
Tecumseh’s Tomahawk
The tomahawk that Tecumseh the
famous Indian chief, carried wh«*n he
was killed is exhibited In the Ken
tucky building at the world’s flUr