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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1905)
VICTIMS OF SNAKES AND TIGERS Thousands of Human Beings Killed Annually in India—Poisonous Reptiles Literally Swarm in the Country. "W* More than 22,000 human beings were killed by snakes and tigers and wolves, but principally by snakes, in India last year. In the United States last year there is no record that any person was killed by a wild animal—plenty were killed by domestic animals, which is beside the point—and neither is there any record of a person dying as a result of the bite of a serpent. This comparison is set down merely because it was submitted to the writer by men deeply versed in animal and serpent lore who sought to demon strate thereby just how much more interesting (according to their point of view) was India than the United States. “In India,” said these men, “you will find conditions, particularly as regards animal life, that approximate the abo riginal. Cobras squeeze through the thatched sides of houses and kill peo ple in their bedrooms, or wriggle up drain pipes and strike their death blows while the victim is washing his hands, just as they always have done, while tiger? leap into villages and carry away the brightest and best and most toothsome with the same im punity as in ages gone. So you see it is an intensely attractive country for us.” The. annual death rate from snake bites in India is from 18,000 to 20,000. This represents a greater mortality than results from the epidemics of some deadly diseases there. The Brit ish government, duly aroused to the fact, now offers a bounty for the head of every cobra, in fact, of any deadly poisonous snake, of which there are forty species on the Indian continent. A dead tiger naturally has an intrinsic value of its own, and as a result there need be no incentive offered to stimu late efforts looking toward their anni hilation, even apart from considera tions of self-preservation. At the last compilation tigers aver aged an annual killing of 180 adults, while the man-eaters and the wolves between them made away with any number of children. There are tigers—and tigers. In fact there are three different sorts of tigers r the same as human beings—the men tal workings do not differ in kind, only in degree. Well, reasoning this, the tiger makes his spring, and finds the herder about the easiest thing that he has ever tackled. Knocking the herder down with one blow of his paw, he seizes him in his jaws, sinking his teeth into the chest on a level with the armpit. Then he trots away with him, as a fox would trot away with a chicken. Mr. Hornaday is a large man himself, with a good hefty chest, but he says that a tiger would crunch his jaws upon his chest and walk away with him for a mile or two as easy as not. “Once,” said Mr. Hornaday, “a gang of men were building a railway through the jungle along the Malay Peninsula. They worked inside a stockade seven feet high to protect them from tigers. While they were digging away at broad midday a great tiger suddenly leaped the stockade, grabbed a man, and before a move could be made, leaped over the stock ade again and made off with his prey. I know that this story is true.” con tinued Mr. Homaday, "for I got it while I was in India hunting tigers, from a scientist whose word is abso lutely unimpeachable. This will give you an idea of the strength and agil ity of the man-eater.” Once a man-eater, always a man eater. A man-eating tiger is almost invariably an old tiger whose teeth and claws are blunted and who feels his pristine agility departing. Even cattle-killing tires him, and as has been said, he tries his luck with man, and thenceforward he has rather an easy time of it until he is killed, as he always is, sooner or later. As time goes on he degenerates terribly, ac cording to animal men. He grows lean, his blood turns bad, and he is so mangy that his pelt is worthless from a commercial point of view. But the killing of a man-eater is no easy task, for the reason that he never kills twice in the same village. Instinct has taught him that after he has made a killing in a village It is Natives walking about in their bare legs are killed day after day, year in and year out. Perhaps the mortality would not be so great were the na tives not fatalists, but they are, and when they are bitten they argue that if their days are numbered, they will die whatever they do, and If their days are not numbered, then their lives will surely be saved in the pres ent instance, and all efforts looking to that end will be wasted. And so, being bitten, the majority of them do not bother about it for four or five hours, when perhaps the pain will drive them to a village doctor. Of course, it is then too late. Perhaps it was too late in the beginning, but the British government has lately adopted an antitoxin which is said sometimes to result beneficially when a cobra victim is treated in time. The poison of a cobra attacks the nerves, whereas the bite of an American viper attacks the blood, and in fact there is little to choose, although R. W. Ditmars, the snake curator at Bronx Park, told the writer that des pite the fact that the cobra is popu larly believed to be the most poison ous serpent in the world, he would rather be bitten by that species than by a rattler. In any event, ne said, the proper thing to do, being bitten, is to cut the wound out with a pen knife, and then tie a tourniquet above the wound and run for a doctor. Despite its reputation, the cobra has a rival snake in India that takes almost as many lives as the hooded reptile. This is Russel’s viper, the most venomously, viciously marked snake in the world, whose habits and bite bear out the deadliness suggest ed by the skin. There is another snake in India which also swells the mortality tables, the sea viper. This snake, as the name suggests, lives in the salt water, and makes a great specialty of nipping the legs of bath ers. As a rule, the bathers never live very long after reaching shore. While talking to Mr. Ditmars the writer saw a fierce battle between four hooded cobras. They struck at " » ITTDIAIT COBRA. C?TAR7*r£j?$ as regards habits. First there is the game-killer, a powerful, husky beast, as cunning as a fox, as lithe as a steel rod, and with teeth and claws that rip and cut like buzzsaws. Then there is the cattle-killer. He is a beast who has grown a trifle lazy. In the course of his experience he has found that a bullock may be killed with a great deal less' trouble than a deer or other sort of game, and he has also discovered that the flesh is just as good if not better. He begins with a calf, and finding that easy to kill, he works up through the various stages until he learns that the largest bullock or ox that walks is very easy prey. A tiger who becomes a “cattle-lifter” has started on the downward path. He does not know this, of course, but he has, nevertheless—he is on the sure road to the man-eating trade, and that in the end means degeneracy and cer tain death. The step is easy. The “cattle-lifter,” prowling about the herd, suddenly casts eyes upon the herder, a little brown man, who does not impress the tiger with a sense of respect. This froglike being seems much easier than a bullock to the tiger, and, moreover, the herder is of such a size as to warrant his being carried away to the lair before eating. This is exactly the way a tiger about to become a man-eater reasons, according to W. T. Hornaday, curator of the Bronx Zoo, to whom the writer is indebted for much of this information. Tigers, all ani mals, said Mr. Hornaday, reason just Getting the One to Blame. John Philip Sousa was condemning the voice of a comic opera comedian. “It is such a voice,” he said smiling, “as belonged to a young man whom I knew in my boyhood in Washington. “One night at a men's party this young man sang a solo. It was exe ecrable. In the midst of the hideous racket bluff old Squire Baer entered. “Squire Baer sat down and folded his hands on the knob of his stout stick. He waited patiently till the young man was finished. Then he said to him: “ ‘Well, boy, I don’t blame you. You did your best. But if I knew the man who asked you to sing I'd crack him over the head with this club.’ ’’ Canny Birthday Gift. Little Lucy’s birthday had always been celebrated by a “party,” and she associated the date with presents anc other good things. When she was nearing her eighth milestone there was sickness in the family, and she was afraid the daj would * ffr°° unobserved. After seri ous tMfpW Bhe declded on * Plan much more conducive to his health and longevity to move on to another village. And he does. The average range of a man-eater is twenty miles, and as all of his range lies in the jun gle, it is no easy matter to hunt him out. Yet he always is hunted out in time. For the advent of a man-killer in a village is a wonderfully exciting event, and every villager who has a gun is in arms, while those who have not constitute themselves into a corps of beaters, rushing through the jungle shouting and ringing bells and fright ening the beast out of cover. Mr. Hornaday said also that tigers do not eat or kill men just for the love of the killing. They have no more animosity against man than they have against any other animal, and when they do kill a man they do so only because they are hungry. He said, though, that they are liable to kill a man against their morrow’s meal, even though they have Just eat en, all of which argues that you must not stop to ask a tiger whether he has dined or not, should you meet him in the jungle. The deaths resulting from man eating tigers as compared to those resulting from snakes is like com paring the mortality from measles and from pneumonia. Poisonous snakes literally swarm in India; they are almost as bad as mosquitos in Staten Island. Cobras live in door yards, in cellars, in gardens and some times you will find a score in a field. She brought out her prettiest silk scraps and made a little workbag. On one side of it she outlined the date of her mother’s next birthday—still two months off—and on the other side the word “mama.” Then she ad dressed the following note, placing it with the bag in an envelope: “Dear Mama— hope you wil lik this pretty bag, i made it for you. i made it al by mysef this mornen. 1 made it For youre burthda. now i have made you hapy on youre burthda i hope you wil mak me hapy on my burthda. Youre lovin little Lucy.” — Lippin cott’s Magazine. A Serious Drawback. “■Why,” asked the wife of the great genius, “are you weeping?” “A discouraging thought has just come to me. How will the public ever be able to estimate my work at its real value, Bince it will be abso lutely impossible for anybody who knew me as a boy to come forward and say that I was the worst kid In school? Oh, why did I study Instead of making myself a terror in the com munity ?” and bit one another repeatedly, but they did not seem to mind, and in fact there was no reason why they should. They are immune from the poison of their own species. Mr. Ditmars gave as the reason for the absence of deaths from poison snakes in the United States, which of course abounds with them, that they live in out of the way places, where man does not usually go, and that as a rule American snakes are retiring and will flee, provided they are not stepped upon or forced into a corner.—New York Times. Historic Tree Near Baltimore. A gigantic chestnut tree with a girth of about twenty-five feet, and under whose branches in 1777 Wash ington and Lafayette held a council of war and ate their meals while camp ing on the place when the American army was marching from Baltimore to Philadelphia, is one of the many objects of Interest shown to visitors on the McCormick farm, near Balti more. This is not a tradition, but a well authenticated fact, as is abundantly attested by the archives of the Mc Cormick family. An Idea of Men. "Some men don't know much until they are 26,” remarked the Observer of Events and Things; “and then they often forget what little they did know.”—Yonkers Statesman. Soft Path at the Start. The two pedestrians were temporar ily stopped in their walk down a West Side street by the crowd of curious femininity that always gathers around the striped canopy which, with a carpet leading from the church to the curb, betokens a fashionable wed ding. “Silly affectation!” said the boorish bachelor. "The idea of putting up such an elaborate protection, with a soft velvet carpet, for a walk of about five yards.” “1 think it’s very proper,” comment ed the cynical codger. “They might as well give the couple a nice soft path at the start, for later on they’ll probably find the bridal path strewn with thorns, rocks and alimony!"— New York Press. Heavy Demand for Spruce Lumber. All the mills on the Penobscot and throughout Maine are sawing spruce lumber at top capacity, and the lum ber is being rushed away as fast aa vessels can be chartered to carry it There never was such a demand for lumber of this kind. Colored Egyptian Geeee. The Colored Egyptian geese are re garded as being the most beautiful of all the breeds of geese. They are not yet extensively bred in this country, and are found chiefly in the pens of the fanciers. They are known quite widely as the Nile Geese. The goose is tall Stad slender and has a better appearance than any other kind. The difficulty of breeding it in confinement s very great unless the males are kept separate. The males will fight each other to the death. It is thus necessary that each male have a sep arate pen. These geese have medium-sized heads, bills of medium length and small necks. The wings are long and have horny spurs in front. The color of the head is black and gray. The bill is purple or bluish red. The eyes are orange. The standard weight of the male is 15 pounds and of the female 12 pounds. Young ganders weigh 12 pounds and young geese 9 pounds. Washing Fowls. Recently I purchased a number of fowls that had been brought up on a city lot They were White Leghorns and had been kept in a locality where there was much smoke from soft coal. In addition they had been confined on a small area and had paddled the ground into mud. Their plumage was gray and black with smoke and the spattering from the rains to which they had been exposed. They had also become very dirty from the mud in which they had been compelled to walk. They were disposed of at a sale and presented such a lamentable appearance on the day of sale that no one wanted them. Every one seemed to think them scrubs of the scrubs. But I did not. I knew from their combs that they were pure-bred but that they had not been given a chance to make their toilets for some time. I bid a low price for them, about a meat price, and got them. I took them home and subjected them to washing. I used a strong lot of soap suds and worked the soap into and un der their feathers. 1 found they had some body lice on them and suspected that they might be harboring mites. So I worked in the soap good and hard. It took a long time to wash each fowl, but when I had washed them you should have seen them. They fairly shone, and when I turned them out onto our green lawn they were a pretty sight. They showed by every movement that they appreciated the cleaning up. I find in washing fowls one should be careful and do a thor ough job, especially if the birds have had lice. Every louse can be disposed of if the washing is thorough enough. For some reason or other lice do not like soap.—Sophia Belknap, Allen Co., Ind., in Farmers’ Review. One of Many Breeds. The man that wants to gain a repu tation for purity of stock will find it to his advantage to breed but a single breed of birds. The man that pays three or five dollars for a sitting of eggs wants to know that his eggs are pure and he does not feel certain of this If all kinds of birds are running over the farm. Hired help is not al ways interested and if the birds hap pen to get together through the care lessness of the hired man he is not likely to report the matter to his em ployer. If he did, the owner could not afford to put a whole flock of birds out of service because they had accident ally been running together for a few hours. The buyer knows this and pre- • fers to deal with the man that has but one good breed and that the only one kept on the farm. The farmer that is interested in fowls from an educa tional or experimental standpoint may keep as many as he likes, for he is not posing as a producer of eggs strictly true to name. Send for Orders Early. People that are thinking about buy ing eggs for hatching in the latter part of -winter should get their orders In as soon as possible in the fall. Or ders that are sent into the poultry men late in the winter are frequently too (ate to be attended to. The earlier the orders are given the surer are they to be filled. It also enables the poultry raisers to figure on how many eggs they will have to provide to meet the demands made upon them. Most poul trymen like to know in advance how many eggs they will be able to sell in the winter and spring. If they have a large number of orders they can buy a few good breeders if necessary or can at least notify the would-be buy ers that they cannot supply the eggs wanted. Women as Poultry Exhibitors. Some of the most successful exhib itors of poultry that we know anything about are women. At nearly all of the leading poultry shows women are among the exhibitors, and we have oft en found them more attentive, both to their birds and to their customers, than are the men. This is of great im portance to the visiting public, who generally find it very difficult to get information concerning the poultry on exhibition. Women are naturally very successful raisers of poultry, and when they prepare them for a show room they spare no pains to make their birds put on the best possible appearance. The increase of the num ber of women exhibitors is to be en couraged. When & disease has existed among the hogs on the place the premises should be disinfected and the penj should be whitewashed. Success in Stock Breeding. •A young farmer who has fallen heir to a handsome sum of money asks us to advise him whether It would be profitable for him to engage In the breeding of pedigreed cattle and wants to know how certain men have achieved such eminent success in the business while others have failed. These are serious considerations and are well worthy of thought and study before embarking in the stock breed ing business as a life’s work. The men who have made a marked suo cess of the business would doubtless have done equally well in almost any other mercantile branch. Those who have failed would probably have failed as speedily and as badly In most other vocations. It is not so much the business as the man that decides success or failure. Before entering into the business of breed ing cattle or any other kind of farm stock the man should know that he loves animals, is content and satis fied to live upon a farm and possessed of an intimate knowledge of animals and farming. Like every other business that of stock raising requires study and some natural bent or adaptability. Most of the requisite knowledge as to breeding, feeding and management can be acquired from study at an ag ricultural college, from attendance at fairs and from reading of books as well as observation of the book of nature, but when all of these requis ite things have been acquired there still remains a something that can not be bought, borrowed, stolen or learned. We refer to hard-headed business sense and acumen, which some men Inherit and others do not possess. To the degree to which this faculty Is present in a man depends the degree of success he will attain in business, other requisites being present. Lack of any one requisite, and especially honesty or integrity, will of course offset business acumen, but possession of honesty and integ rity with all of the other requisites will not make up for the lack of busi ness ability such as we have men tioned. Nevertheless there Is a better chance of making a fair amount of money and a fairly good success in the business of stock breeding than in almost any other line of work that has to be done in the city instead of upon the farm. The average breeder who sticks to the business through fair days and foul generally wins out fairly well and at least makes a com fortable living, for his farm insures that, with energy and perseverance devoted to the work. Speculation in stock breeding as in other lines of business is risky, and to this cause we may most often attribute disaster in both city and farm business. Spe culation however usually is back of success in the accumulation of large fortunes, and this is partially true of fortunes made in live stock. To speculate is required the particular and peculiar business acumen re ferred to, and lacking it comes fail ure. Without it the stock breeder or business man may be able to make a comfortable living, but the other fel low will make the big hits and the large fortune. Given a fair degree of business abil ity, the necessary capital, proper training and a suitable farm and love for the work our young friend will however be perfectly safe in em barking in the stock breeding busi ness, and, if he sticks to it and is for tunate in procuring efficient help, we see no reason why he should not be able to make it pay a safe and legiti mate interest upon the amount of capital invested. To succeed it will be necessary to build up a reputation for good animals and business integ rity. To obtain a reputation it will be necessary to exhibit stock at the county and state fairs and also to ad vertise in the best agricultural and live stock papers. Success at the fairs brings notoriety and such suc cess wisely advertised brings trade which lasts and augments if handled honestly and promptly. We would ad vise our correspondent to engage in the business of pedigreed cattle breeding if he is strongly inclined that way for love of the business rather, than mere speculation. We would advise him to keep out of it if he has no special liking for animals and country life, or if he merely thicks of engaging in it as a specula tion.—-A. S. Alexander in Farmers' Re view. The Age of the Profitable Feeding Steer. It requires about one-half as much grain to produce a hundred pounds of gain on calves as on two-year-olds. The work of the Missouri Agricultural College has definitely demonstrated that the most profitable age to fatten cattle is while they are still young. The older the animal the more food Is required to produce a given gain. Other stations have also investigated thfs question and have arrived at the same result. The Central Experiment Station Farm at Ottawa, Canada, found by comparing one thousand pounds live weight in the case of calves, yearlings, two and three-year olds, that the profit for each one thous and pounds was: Calves, $31.00; yearlings, $27.00; two-year-olds, $19.10; three-year-olds, $12.80. When all of the cattle of all ages were pur chased at 4c a pound and sold fat at 5c a pound, the profit on $1,000 Invest ed in feeding cattle was: Calves, $557.50; yearlings, $284.00; two-year olds, $198.75; three-year-olds, $177.50. Nine-tenths of all the cattle fed in the Middle West are two-year-olds at the beginning of the feeding period. When these cattle are in thin condition at the beginning of the experiment they are often fed with profit; but starting with calves in the same condition it is unquestionably true that the calves return more profit for each thousand dollars invested than the older cattle. —F. B. Mumford. North of Illinois it pays to cover the strawberry vines in the fall, but • this covering should not be done till 1 the ground is frozen. ALL OUT OF SIGHT WORK OF TATTOOER HIDDEN FROM PRYING EYES. Fashionable English Men and Women Have Craze for Design* Punctured by Artists on Various Portions of Their Bodies. A few weeks ago a certain lady member of the royal family had a small butterfly tattooed on her shoul der by the well-known society tattoo artist, Mr. Tom Riley. The little inci dent was to be kept a profound secret and this would seem to be the reason why it has been so quickly noised abroad. The result of her royal high ness’s trivial weakness may be guess ed. The tattooing craze is once again claiming the attention of the fashion The Burning Heart, Tattooed Over the Heart of Many a Love-sick Swain. able world. Blue-blooded dames are besieging the tattooist’s studio, and they do not come as single spies, but in battalions. The butterfly is naturally the most fashionable design, and, on the testi mony of Mr. Tom Riley, there are sev eral titled ladies who are nothing more or less than perambulating picture galleries of butte-flies. But you can not see any of the little insects—nay. not even when the fair ones are in evening dress. Dame Fashion de mands that the pretty design be tat toed where it will be hidden from the eyes of the mob. In strict accordance with this demand, some of the butter flies are hovering over beds of poppies and pansies high on the shoulder, some are poised on outspread wings over the dimpled surface of seagreen pools low down on the bust, some are playing “ring-a-ring o’roses" round the. ankles and just above and below the knee, and some are fluttering amid gorgeous blooms on the calf of the leg. Riley has a good many good stories to tell at the expense of some of his old patients. A baker, he said, lov ing a pretty country maiden called Adele, had the fair one's name tat tooed on his arm. But after a time Adele cruelly jilted her lover, and then the unexpected happened. The baker came to have the name eradi cated. This, of course, could not be done; but the letters were most clev erly converted into a representation of Napoleon’s cocked hat. Again, a lover whose heart was once melted away in a soft, sweet, passion ate love, paid the artist a heavy fee to tattoo over the region of his heart j a single heart of charming and deli- 1 cate outline, with the name of his loved one stamped thereon. Three | Tattooed by Hand. years afterward the young gentleman returned. He was but a shadow of his past self. He sank heavily into a chair, and, placing his hand over his heart, mumbled the significant words, “Deceived, deceived!” Riley understood what was required of him. Under the heart aid the cruel maid en's name, he tattooed in large let ters, “Deceived, deceived!” and the young man went away looking more himself. In conclusion it may be mentioned that a sailor, a captain in the mercan tile service, once came to Burchett, another clever and well known tattoo ist, in great distress. He had been married only a few days, but the demon of discord had already broken loose between him and his wife. The reason was not far to seek. Throwing off his upper garments. Jack displayed a broad chest decorated with the names of all the damsels whom he had ever made love to. “My wife,” he said, "don't mind so much about these little Janes and Annies and Marys, but these big Hannahs and Dorothys and Agathas are driving her mad.” With a touch or two of his magic needle, Burchett sent two Janes spin ning away into a large blue apd green frog with blood-red eyes; two Annies Into a ferocious dragon in hot pursuit af a nigger baby; three Marys into a black and red bull, goring and tossing an old man; a great big Agatha into J i stupendous blue and green rattle- j make: an “Old Rose Forever” into a fat Berkshire hog, and a big "I Love Did Rose” into a duck and drake; while the rest of the names he cov ered with a portrait of the sailor’s wife.—London Telegraph. Novel Restaurant. A novel restaurant has recently Deen opened in New York by a stu ient of dietetics. This man believes :hat there is more harm done by in ;emperance in eating than by indulg ng in alcoholic drinks. His motto is ‘Fresh air, pure water and simple 'ood,” and this rule he expects to :arry out in his new venture. He serves but one dish each day, and a iifferent one each day for two weeks, rhe bill of fare is of the simplest. He relieves that in this way he can help its customers to live to a good old tge, probably a hundred years or nore. SATCHEL AS BABY CARRIAGE. Gypsy Mother Astonishes Patrons of1 a Chicago Restaurant. Into a little Chicago restaurant strolled a gypsy woman one morning recently. She was dressed in garments of many colors and she carried a. small satchel that seemed to contain a heavy burden. Walking up to the woman who keeps the eating house, she besought her to have her fortune told. Her plea did not avail and she tried each of the late breakfasters in turn. Failing to drum up any busi ness, she produced an infant’s milk bottle from a capacious pocket and desired to have it filled. When it was handed back to her full of milk she paid for it and turned to go out. The occupants of the little dining room were astonished at this point to hear a smothered wailing. It seemed to proceed from the satchel and the young gypsy woman, hearing it, hes itated and looked around. Then, step ping to a table near at hand, she placed the satchel on a chair beside it and opened it. Impelled by curiosity they could not resist, those at the tables, the wait resses and the matronly proprietor crowded around. There, stuffed into the satchel was a baby. It was clean, but the tears were streaming down Its face and it was bawling lustily. The mother thrust the milk bottle into its little 'hands, it stopped crying at once and opening its large brown eyes, started to feed itself. The mother then closed the satchel carefully, with Carried Baby in a Satchel. the baby and bottle inside and with a shy look at the spectators started for the door. Umbrella in Use 49 Years. G. B. Clark of Aiken street, this city, has an umbrella which was bought by his brother-in-law. John Nairn, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1856, and traveled with him all over Eurr pe and America. The umbrella came into the possession of Mr. Clark in 1874 and has been used by him up to the present time. It has ten ribs, the covering is of a wine color and is the original. The stick is of maple and the handle buck horn. While attending the world’s fair at Chicago Mr. Clark sat on the handle of the umbrella and cracked it. When he went to his hotel he had the umbrella placed in a safe. The um brella is in very good condition after its forty-nine years of service. It is needless to say that the ribs are rat tan, as steel ribs for umbrellas or parasols were not used as long ago as this one was made. The covering was made in tbose days when goods were made to wear, and the house that wove it, probably could not do busi ness that way at the present time.— Utica Observer. A Tree Duck. The first specimen of the fulvous tree duck ever killed north of British, French and Dutch Guiana was shot a few days ago by Phil Locke, of Aber deen, near Grays Harbor, says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The bird has been stuffed and is now in the possession of the hunter who killed it, and is prized as a rare trophy by him. The creature is much like the Amer ican wood duck, ■ recognized as one Df the most beautiful of birds. In color it is light brown on the breast and a beautiful mottled brown on the back. In shapes it is much the same as the American wood duck, but 13 considerably more leggy. The bird is believed to have been driven north from South America by some storm which it encountered while out at sea. The bird was prob ably carried out of its bearings by the gale and finally landed near Grays Harbor, where it was killed by Locke. Woman’s Vision Aided Justice. There has seldom been a more mys erious crime than the murder of Mr. Stockden, a London victualer, a great many years ago, and the mystery would have remained unsolved to this lay had it not been for the interven tion of a Mrs. Greenwood, who came forward with the statement that the murdered man had appeared to her in i dream and had conducted her to a rouse in Thames street, where one of lis assassins was to be found; while n another dream Stockden appeared ind showed her the likeness of the nan. On the strength of this dream :lue the man Indicated was arrested, ind not only confessed his guilt, but >etrayed his accomplices—three crlmi lals being brought to the scaffold a3 he result of these visions of the light. Cromwell’s Autograph. 0&uic. £igmnl This page from a parish register hows the great protector wrote more sgibly than most of his contempor ries. Murder Strangely Revealed. Some years ago an aged woman was turdered near Carlisle in Scotland Dr the sake of the little sum of money 1 her possession. There was no clew eyond a footprint marked in a pool f congealed blood. The notable feat re of this print took the form of two eculiar indentations near the toe. lews of the clew got abroad, and fhen the police pounced upon an en ine driver whom they suspected, iey found that there had been with rawn from the toe of one of his boots wo nails, the positions of which cor esponded with the marks left in the npression. They searched until ley found those two nails, hidden oe eath newly turned earth. And upon lose two nails was woven a chain of vidence which hanged the man, who onfessed that the sentence was Just.