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About The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1894)
UNDER THE MISTLETOE. Grandmamma, in your frame on the wall. Beautiful maid of the long ago. Stately and slender, blond and tall, • With the pinched In waist and the foot so small. Prithee tell—for I fain would know— What did you on that Chrlstmastide When great-great-grandpapa made you bride? Handsome and courtly and debonair, Wi.h his powdered cue and his Roman nose, As richly dark as his bride is fair. He rests a hand on your straight backed chair To whisper to you, I suppose— To whisper again as in long ago When he kissed you under the mistletoe. 8ay, beautiful bride in the antique dress; Say, beautiful bride in your bridal white. Hid you let him gaze on your loveliness Till lifted eyes did your heart confess As you led the dance on your wedding uight? Did he press your hand as he bent to say Sweet words- as the lovers do today? Ah I courtly groom of the vanished years. Beautiful bride of the days long fled. Dust, but dust are your hopes and fears, Oold your kisses and dried your tears: But I hang here, over your head, A sprig of such Christmas mistletoe As you kissed beneath in the long ago. —Mary Clarke Huntington in Good House keeping. Hollow Spars. The nee of hollow spars for boats de signed to attain great speed has intro duced a new and novel industry requir ing workmanship of the finest charac ter. The stick for this purpose is re quired to be of exceptionally fine and straight grain, and after being roughly shaped is split longitudinally from end to end; the center of each of the halves is then hollowed out, and a greater or less amount is removed, according to the intended location of the spar, the upper spars being much the lighter. These hollows run nearly the length of the spar, great care being essential to have them follow the taper of the out side of the spar exactly, to insure uni form thickness at every point—ot coarse when this has been done and the two halves of the spar replaced in their original position, a circular hole is left in the center of the spar, running near ly the whole length, and following its taper from end to end. After this the two halves are fastened in place again by means of wooden dowels, which fas ten the split together, being placed al ternately on either side of the central hollow, and both dowels and split are carefully glued. These dowels vary in Bize with the size of the spar, but are usually as long as they can he made withont piercing its outside surface. They are placed slightly nearer the cen ter hollow than the outside, in order to give them all the length possible. In small spars the glue and the dowels suffice, hut in large ones metal hands on the outside are added.—New York Sun. As to Giants. There has been no subject concerning which more lies have been told than about giants. Until it was found that modern men could not be squeezed into the armor at the Tower, it was taken for granted that we had degenerated in size. This is not only not the case, but in the matter of giants we have the advantage of our predecessors. The Em peror Maximinian indeed was said to have been 8>£ feet high, but ancient mensuration, especially in the case of an emperor, is not to be trusted; in deed, from its not having made him taller, it is certain that there was no one else nearly so tall. Orestes, it is true, we are told, was 10 feet long—aft er death, but he was not thought so highly of when alive; we may reasona bly take 8 feet as his ultimatum.—Lon don News. On the Free List. Poor Hankinson, who had come to make an evening call, paused at the doorway of the parlor. Young Fergu son was there ahead of him. “I can hardly hope for any inter change of ideas this evening, Miss Ka jones,” he said, with a ghastly attempt to be facetious, * * on the basis of unre stricted reciprocity. You seem to be fully protected.” “Protected?” exclaimed Miss Ka joces, with a ravishing smile. “Not at all, Mr. Hankinson. Raw material is on the free list here. Walk in.”—Chi cago Tribune. Spanish Etiquette. There is a curious story of how the Duke d’Aoste, when king of Spain, told a muleteer to whom he was talking to cover himself, the sun being hot, for getting that by so doing he made him a grandee. Marshal Prim, to prevent this catastrophe, knocked the man’s hat out of his hand, and according to some the muleteer had something to do with the assassination that followed a few days afterward.—London Spectator. An Office Secret. Junior Partner—Our traveler ought to be discharged. He told one of our customers that I am an ignorant fool. Senior Partner—I shall speak to him and insist that no more office secrets be divulged.—Boston Gazette. In front of his early home, in Swe den, stands a monument with this in scription, ‘‘John Ericsson was born here.” It is a large granite monument and was built by the miners of his na tive region wholly at their own charges. Conductor James McEnteeof the Un ion Pacific railroad claims to have las soed a deer with a bellcord, an experi ence that is vouched tor by the train hands. The train was going at full speed near Echo, U. T., at the time. This is a progressive age. The king of Corea has purchased an electric light plant in this country, which will have 2,000 incandescent lamps and will illu minate the king’s palace and grounds. One of the largest retail dry goods houses in Boston has a standing con tract with a daily newspaper to take all the small change received each day by ‘he newspaper. The average cost of building an Eng lish ironclad is £48 per ton; French, £55; Italian, £57; German, £60 ADULTERATED FOOD. DECEPTIONS RESORTED TO BY THE GREEDY AND UNSCRUPULOUS. Information Which Will Enable the Hon»e wife to Tell the Genuine From the Doc tored Article—A Little Joke at the Butcher** Expense—Bogus Spice*. The adulteration of articles ot food is by no means an invention of modern times, but was practiced by our classic al ancestors. Daring the middle ages the cunning baker mixed h’s flour with lime,sand and gypsum,'and on discovery was thrown into a prisoo cell and com pelled to eat the product of his entire bakery, which cured him of the fraudu lent habit. The most important article of food in every household is the meat. The meat which comes from healthy animals is distinguished by a pleasant odor and fresh color, from a delicate pink to a deep carmine, according to the animal from which it comes. It must bo clas tic to the touch. The dent which is caused by pressing a finger on it must disappear when the pressure is removed. The fatty substance of the meat is a good indicator of its quality. In healthy animals the fat is yellow and elastic and has a pleasant odor. The fat in the meat from sick animals is pale, gray and smeary and has an unpleasant odor. Sausage offers a wide field for adul teration of the most dangerous kind, and in the pamphlets which vegeta rians send broadcast over the land from time to time they give prominence to an anecdote which is as terse as it is il lustrative of the esteem in which they hold the sausage. “A man saved the life of a butcher by endangering his own. The poor butcher, overcome with gratitude, cried out in a moment of self forgetfulness, ‘Never in your life again, my friend, eat sausage.’ ” ido auuuerauons in mis line are manifold. To produce the fresh red color, bo alluring in sausage, fucbsine is mixed with the ingredients instead of blood. It is a very common practice to put flour in sausage, and while a lit tle of it is harmless, it nevertheless leads to early fermentation of the ar ticle in question. The buyer, however, is very much imposed upon when flour is added in large quantities, for it en ables the sausage makers to add from 60 to 70 per cent of water, which is paid for at the rate of meat. France has lately put a stop to this fraud by limiting the addition of flour to 3 per cent. Fish are adulterated in the same way by rubbing their gills with aniline, which gives them the appearance of freshness. The aniline is easily washed off and the fraud detected. In fresh fish the eyes are full and protruding, while in old fish they are opaque, dull and sunken. The best way to recog nize an old fish is to watch the gills, which emit an odor of decay if the fish is too old for use. Crawfish or crabs should always be bought alive. Crabs that are sold al ready cooked have usually been boiled after they were dead, and soon decay, generating a very dangerous poison. A crawfish that has been boiled alive will show a curled and twisted tail, while, on the other hand, one that was cooked after death has the tail perfectly straight. The best way to tell butter from ole omargarine is to put a piece of it on a hot potato which has been boiled in the jacket and freshly peeled. The taste of butter is more pronounced when eaten in this way than any other, and the fraud is detected. It is also the safest way to discover the age of dairy or creamery butter. Lard is frequently adulterated with water to increase its weight, and mixed with cornstarch, salt, chalk, etc., to bind the water to the fat. This may be discovered by carefully melting the lard and setting it aside in a lukewarm place. The fat not only separates from the water, but collects at the bottom of the dish with all the other foreign ingredients. To tell good eggs from bad ones it is only necessary to put them in a dish filled with water containing from 5 to 10 per cent of salt. Fresh eggs drop to the bottom, old ones swim on the sur face, and those of medium quality sink half way down. All spices sutler more or less adulter ation, but most of all those which are sold in a pulverized state. Ground pep per is mixed with paprica, millet, bread, powdered olives, almond meal, dust, sand, gypsum, sawdust, spar, and almost the same ingredients are used for the adnlteration of cinnamon. Pul verized ginger fares no better and is mixed with potato flour, wheat and cayenne pepper, while the sweet scent ed anise seed comes in for a share of earth, sand and little brown and black 6tones. Housekeepers will always be more or less cheated in buying powder ed spices, which should be bought in their natural state and ground at home. The vanilla bean before the invention of the aritficial vanilline was deprived of its natural aroma and basted with balm of Peru. Coffee is adulterated in all forms and in every possible way. Machines have been invented and large factories erect ed, where artificial coffee beans are made from acorn flour and gum arabic, and these are mixed with the real coffee, and even the real beans are cov ered with poisonous chemicals if they have been damaged by sea water in transportation or the influence of the sun or time. Ground or roasted coffee offers the best opportunities, however, for fratid. But all these perpetrators of fraud and deception cannot hold a candle to the Chinese, who are masters in the art of the adulteration of tea, which they dye, mix and prepare from leaves that Lave but a bare resemblance to the real tea plart. —St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I THE ANGLER FISH. It Secured Hi Prey Like un Artist, With Regular Strategy. There is a fish that seen res its prey like an artist, with regular stiategy, and, strange to relate, nature has fur nished it with a full equipment for the purpose, rod, line and bait. The an gler, as it is called, is by no means a beauty. It is about a yard long and has a huge, toadlike head, an enor mous, gaping mouth and a formidable array of teeth. The first dorsal, or back fin, is almost wholly wanting, its place being occupied by two or three long, slender, movable spines which are fas tened to the body by means of joints. One is attached by a hinge, which per mits of only backward and forward mo tion. The first spino is connected by a reg ular ring and staple and admits of movement in all directions, as it is pull ed this way or that by the muscles. This is the angler's pole, which contin ues into a fine filament or lino, and at the end there is a loose, shining Blip of membrane, which plays the part of a bait. The angler fish is a slow swimmer, and It would have but little success if it had to chase the swift, active fishes upon which it feeds, so it snares them. Par tially hiding itself in the mud or sand, it waves its long filaments with their glittering tips. As is well known, fishes are attracted by glistening objects moved about in the water. The neigh boring fishes, following the instincts of their inquisitive nature, come to exam ine the curious object, and suddenly they find themselves snapped up in the wide jaws of their hidden foe. The angler is a very voracious crea ture, and on several occasions it has been known to seize a fish that had been hooked and was being drawn to the surface. In one such case the angler seized a codfish and would not loosen its grip until it was struck on the head with a boathook. On another occasion the fish fell a victim to its own glut tony, for having dashed at a conger eel that had just been hooked, and having taken it into its mouth, the eel con trived to escape through one of the gill apertures, and thus it was the uncon scious means of involving its captor in its own fate. Even the cork floats on lines and nets have been swallowed by the greedy fish, and when taken in a net it de vours its fellow prisoners with perfect unconcern.—Mary M. Friend in Phila delphia Times. A Slag Steam Generator. A slag steam generator, for utilizing the waste heat contained in the furnace slag for the production of steam for mo tive power purposes, has been designed by an Australian inventor. The ma chine consists of a steel shell in the form of a strong egg ended receiver, having flattened faces on the top and bottom, and through these flat portions a number of Galloway tubes arranged in two rows and tapered from 5 inches at the top to 10 inches at the bottom are passed, secured to the shell by flanges. The lower or larger end of each tube is closed by means of a cast iron door manipulated by means of a con venient lever, and the upper end of each tube is provided with a funnel for con veying the slag into the tubes, a pair of iron rails also passing across the upper face of the boiler and all the funnels, thus serving as a track for the slag pots. At each end of the boiler a bin is provided, into which the skin of the slag is dumped, which always sets on the cast iron pots from which it is pour ed, and this redhot material lying against the ends of the boiler plates serves to conserve the heat.—New York Sun. Asafetida Seasoning. At a lecture in New York a popular cookery teacher hesitated perceptibly while dictating the recipe for her de licious lobster Columbus. “I know I may expect a groan from the bottom of all your hearts, but real ly the dish will be twice as fine if you will only have the courage to add a penknife's point of powdered asafetida. It smells horribly, I know, but there is nothing that gives such a flavor to made dishes. “Do you ever use it on beefsteak,” asked a pupil. “Indeed I do! And isn't itdelicious! I never dare to put it into my books, but when I find an audience that can appreciate it I always give them the benefit of my experience. You will find asafetida in my recipe for catsup, for women are used to putting little messes into catsup and pickles that they would never think of putting into anything directly for the table. I always give those other recipes privately to those who ask for them.”—Boston Globe. An intelligent Bird. A species of woodpecker inhabits the driest parts of Mexico, where during the droughts it must die of starvation unless it made a store. To prevent this it selects the hollow stem of a species of aloe, the bore of which is just large enough to hold a nut. The woodpecker drills holes at interval in the stem, and fills it from bottom to top with the nuts, the separate holes being apparent ly made tor convenience ot access to the column of nuts within. The intelligence which not only con structs a special storehouse, but teaches the woodpecker to lay by only the nuts, which will keep, and not the insects, which would decay, is perhaps the high est form ot bird reasoning which has yet been observed.—London Spectator. He Married Her. He (after the honeymoon)—Why did you use to talk so much about being afraid that some one would marry you for money? She (a smart woman)—Because if any one did marry me for money, it would be such a terrible mistake, you know, because I haven't any. He—Oh—um—yes, yes. of coarse.— New York Weekly. MUST FACE DANGERS. THUS OUR SOULS GROW AND OUR MISSIONS ARE FULFILLED. Reflections on the Uselessness of Shallow Water Explorers—Where Should the Blame Rest For Slany Failures?—The Re* sponsibility of Paternity. What would be thought of a ship that was launched from its docks with flour ish of music and flowing wine, built to sail the roughest and deepest sea, yet manned for an unending cruise along shore? Never leaving harbor for dread of storm. Never swinging out of the land girt bay because, over the bar, the waters were deep and rough. You would say of such a ship that its captain was a coward and the company that built it were tools. And yet these souls of ours were fashioned for bottomless soundings. There is no created thing that draws as deLp as the soul of man; our life lies straight across the ocean and not along shore, but we are afraid to venture; we hang upon the coast and explore shal low lagoons or swing at anchor in idle bays. Some of us strike the keel into riches and cruise about therein, like men-of-war in a narrow river. Some of us are contented all our days to ride at anchor in the becalmed waters of self ish ease. There are guns at every port hole of the ship we sail, but we use them for pegs to hang clothes upon or pigeonholes to stack full of idle hours. We shall never smell powder, although the magazine is stocked with holy wrath wherewith to fight the devil and his deeds. When 1 see a man strolling along at his ease, while under his very nose some brute is maltreating a horse, or some coward venting his ignoble wrath upon a creature more helpless than he, whether it be a child or a dog. I involun tarily think of a double decked whaler content to fish for minnows. Their uselessness in the world is more appar ent than the uselessness of a Cunarder in a park por d. What did (jrod give yon muscle and girth and brain for if not to launch you on the high seas? Up and away with you then into the deep soundings where you belong. O belittled soull Find the work to do for which you were fit ted and do it, or else run yourself on the first convenient snag and founder. Some great writer has said that we ought to begin life as at the source of a river, growing deeper every league to the sea, whereas, in fact, thousands enter the river at its mouth and sail inland, finding less and less water ev ery day. until in old age they lie shrunk and gasping upon dry ground. But there are more who do not sail at all than there are of those who make the mistake of sailing up stream. There are the women who devote their lives to the petty business of pleasing worth less men. What progress do they make even inland? With sails set and brassy stanchions pclished to the similitude of gold, they hover a lifetime chained to a dock and decay of their own useless ness at last, like keels that are mud slugged. It is not the most profitable thing in the world to please. Suppose it shall please the inmates of a bedlam house to see yon set fire to your clothing and burn to death, or break your bones one by one upon a rack, or otherwise destroy your bodily parts that the poor lunatics might be entertained. Would it pay to be pleasing to such an audi ence at such a sacrifice? We were put into this world with a clean way bill for another port than this. Across the ocean of life our way lies, straight to the harbor of the city of gold. We are freighted with a consignment from roomage hold to keep which is bound to be delivered sooner or later at the great Master’s wharf. Let us be alert, then, to recognize the seriousness of our own destinies and content ourselves no longer with shallow soundings. Spread the sails, weigh the anchor and point the prow for the country that lies the other side of a deep and restless sea. Sooner or later the voyage must be made; let us make it, then, while the timber is stanch and the rudder true. When you look at a picture and find it good or bad, as the case may be, whom do you praise or blame, the owner of the picture or the artist who painted it? When you hear a strain of music and are either lifted to heaven or cast into the other place by its harmonies or its discord, whom do you thank or curse for the benefaction or the infliction, whichever it may have proved to be, the man who wrote the score or the mu sic dealer who sold it? You go to a restaurant 8nd order spring chicken which turns out to be the primeval fowl. Who is to blame, the waiter who serves it or the business man of the concern who does the marketing? And so when you encounter the bad boy, whom do you hold responsible for his badness, the boy himself or the mother who trained him? I declare, as 1 look about me from day to day and see the men and women who play so poor a part in life, it is not the poverty of their per formance that astonishes me so much as the fact that it is as good as it is. With the parents that many boys and girls have aud the training they receive 1 am perfectly amazed that they ever attain to even half way respectability. Did you ever stop to think. 1 wonder, wbat an awful responsibility is laid upon you with every child given to your home? If you appreciate the risk and take the responsibility 1 shouldn’t think you would find much time for other callings. A man who is drawing up the plans for a new house attends to his business closely and doesn’t go off on many picnics or sail over seas in pursuit of pleasure while his plans are pending. A man who has entered a young horse for the Derby spends most of his time training the colt. He doesn't loaf about town or read novels or lie abed late; he is alert and on hand if he expects to win the race. Carelessness and indifference never brought a win ning horse under the wire yet.—Amber in Chicago Herald. WHY THE JUROR HELD OUT. The Extraordinary Secret Imparted to a Chief JuAttce In England. The most remarkable case of a jury j “standing out” against what seemed 1 irrefutable testimony, and all through the resolution of one man, occurred be fore Chief Justice Dyer many years ago. He presided at a murder trial in which i everything went against the prisoner, i who on his part could only say that on his going to work in the morning he had found the murdered man dying and : tried to help him, whereby he had be come covered with blood, but when the man presently died he had come away ; and said nothing about it, because he was known to have had a quarrel with i the deceased and feared he might get into trouble. The hayfork with which the man had been murdered had the prisoner’s Dame on it. In other re spects his guilt appeared to be clearly established, and the chief justice was convinced of it, but the jury returned a verdict of “Not guilty.” This was Chief Justice Dyer’s case, and he put some very searching ques tions to the high sheriff. The cause of the acquittal, said the official, was un doubtedly the foreman, a farmer of ex cellent character, esteemed by all hiB neighbors, and very unlikely to be ob stinate or vexatious. “Then,” said the judge, “I must see this foreman, for an explanation of the matter I will have.” The foreman came, and after extracting from his lordship a promise of secrecy proved at once that the prisoner had been rightly acquitted, “for,” said he, “it was I myself who killed the man.” It had been no murder, for the other had attacked him with the hayfork, and —as he showed—severely injured him, but in the struggle to get possession of the weapon he had the misfortune to give the man a fatal wound. He had no fears as to his being found guilty of murder, but, the assizes being just over, his farm and affairs would have been ruined by a confession, through lying in jail so long, so he suffered mat ters to take their course. He was hor rified to find one of his own servants ac cused of the murder. He supported his wife and children while in jail; managed to bo placed on the jury and elected foreman. Ho added that if he had failed in this he would certainly have confessed to his own share in the business, and the judge believed him. Every year for 15 years the judge made inquiries as to the foreman’s ex s tence, and at last, happening to survive him, he considered himself free to tell the story.—London News. An English “Water Witch.” A young man of the name of Rodwell, in the employ of the Grinton Coal com pany in north England, has shown won derful powers in his occupation as pro fessional “water finder'’ or “water witch.” Professor E. R. Lankester, the great English scientist, stated very plain ly in one of the journals that he doubted the attributed powers of either the “witch” or the “divining rod,” with which he is armed in all professional operations. This evoked the following from Dr. McClure, the chairman of the Grinton company: “I deny emphatically that the lad is an imposter! He has been tested time and again and has never failed to locate veins of either mineral or water, depending upon what the search was being conducted for. The ‘divining rod’ which he holds only moves in obedi ence to the muscular contractions of his hands and arms, and lie can use a rod of any kind of wood or material, providing it be what is known as a ‘good conductor of electricity.’ Another oddity about the . lad, and one of which I have never heard in connection with ‘water witching,’ is this: The lad habitually walks with his ha-1 da clasped behind him, and as soon as he steps upon the ground directly over a mineral or water he is powerless to un clasp them until he moves away from the region of the lode or conduit.”—St. Louis Republic. The Salt In the Sea. The amount of common salt in all the oceans is estimated by Schafhantt at 3,051,342 cubic geographical miles, or about five times more than the mass of the Alps, and only one-third less than that of the Himalayas. The sulphate of soda equals 633,644.36 cubic miles, or is equal to the mass ot the Alps. The chloride of magnesium, 441,811.80 cu bic miles. The lime salts 109,339.44 cubic miles. He supposes the mean depth to be about 300 meters, as esti mated by Humboldt. Admitting with Laplace that the mean depth is from four to five miles, which is more prob able, the mass of marine salt will be more than double the mass of the Hima layas. The weight of water in the oceans equals 2,494,500.000.000.000 of tons, and the percentage of common salt in ■ the oceans is 2.7. Therefore, the amount of common salt in all the oceans taken together is about 673,515.000,000,000 of tons. Were all the salts of the oceans precipitated and spread out equally ever the land they would, it has been com I puted, cover the ground one mile deep i over an area of 7,000,000 square miles. —Brooklyn Eagle. How to Save Slippers. A recent advertisement emanating from a bootshop reads like this: “Slip pers for ladies should never be used for spanking purposes. “Careful mothers with unruly chil 1 dren will be presented with a fine, well ! made rattan carpet beater with every ! pair of shoes. The wearing quality : of our slippers will not then be eudan I gered hv using them for correcting pnr j poses. | “Bring your boy with yon. and wo i will show yon how to use the carpet i heater.”—Pearson’s Weekly. His Honors. “And so your son has finished his col lege course? Did he graduate with honors?” “Oh, yes, but he tells me that some of the other fellows carried them off. j Rascally, wasn’t it?”—Boston Tran ; script. FLEET FOOTED ZEBRAS. Their lliull of 1 .tied When Alarmed l»> the Whiz <>*» id tl« Hath The rapidity with which tbodiiferent zebras have been extenninutd, owi g to the advance of civilization in South Africa, is shown by reference to such works as that of Kir C'ornwalim Ilan •<, written in 1840, in which tlis author tells us that the quagga was at the time found in “interminable herd.'' la. ads of many hundreds being frequently seen, while he describes Burchett's ze bra as congregating in herds of 80 er 100, and abounding to u great extent, but now, after the expiration of but 50 years, the one species is extinct or practically so, while the other has been driven much farther afield and its num bers are yearly being reduced. This author's description of the com mon zebra is well worth repeating. lie says: “Seeking the wildest and most sequestered spots, haughty troops are exceedingly difficult to approach, as well on account of their extreme agility and fleetness of foot as from the abrupt and inaccessible nature of tbeir high land abode. Under the special charge of a sentinel, so posted on some adja cent crag as to command a view of ev ery avenue of approach, the checkered herd whom ‘painted skins adorn’ is to be viewed perambulating some rocky ledge, on which the rifle hall alone can reach them. No sooner has the note of alarm been sounded by the vedette, than, pricking their long ears, the whole flock hurry forward to ascertain tlio na ture of the approaching danger, and having gazed a moment at the advanc ing hunter, whisking their brindled tails aloft, belter skelter away they thunder, down craggy precipices and over yawning ravines, where no less agile foot could dare to follow them.” Of Burchell’s zebra he says, “Fierce, strong, fleet and surpassingly beautiful, there is perhaps no quadruped in the creation, not even excepting the moun tain zebra, more splendidly attired or presenting a picture of more singularly attractive beauty.” Zebras are by no means amiable animals, and though many of the stories told of their feroc ity are doubtless much exaggerated they have so far not proved themselves amenable to domestication..—Saturday Review. Dumb L.u<‘k. I saw a case of hick awhile ago that nearly made me crazy. I was in a pool room down in Baltimore, and I was playing close to the cushion. Nothing came my way, and I had but a few dol lars between me and the touching of some friend for a stake. I saw a little fellow come in there with a $2 bill and get out with $1,402 in cash. 1 wasn’t next, and I didn’t get a cent of it. After it was all over be told us his system, and it almost made me daffy to think that any such fool scheme would go through. “There were five races that after noon, and he played them all. He par leyed his money, and $1,402 is what he palled out. If he'd had a good sized roll when ho started, he’d have broken the room sure, and every' other room in the city. And what do you think his system was? You couldn’t guess in a thousand years. He placed the seventh horse in every race. He started at the top and counted down to the seventh, and she won. Then in the next race there were but four horses, and he count ed one, two, three, four and then start ed at tlie top again and counted five, six, seven. He played that horse aud won. That was his scheme. His pick won every race. And what do yon think made him do it? His girl told him to. Luck? Why, some people have it to burn, and be was one of that kind. Not again in 67.000,000 years would that scheme work. I tried it for a week, and I know.”—Buffalo Express. Court Martial Witnesses. All court martial witnesses who are Protestants are sworn by laying their right hand, ungloved, on the Bible, closed- or open, while the oath is re cited. Kissing the hook is frequently required in addition to the laying on of the hand. Raising the right hand and keeping it raised during the,recital of the oath is also a form adopted by a number. There are many who prefer to affirm rather than to swear, and those are accommodated by saying: “You dc. solemnly affirm, “ instead of “solemnly swear,” the right hand being raised or placed on the Bible as before. Form erly it was required to place the right hand on the open Evangelists. In swearing Roman Catholics, the Bible is closed and has marked on the outer cover a cross, generally cut out of white paper and pasted on. Sometimes a crucifix is placed upon it, which the witness, after the oath is recited, ki3ses when there is any suspicion in the mind of the president of th : court martial, or in that of any of its members. The witness, if a Roman Catholic, after kissing the cross, is frequently directed to cross himself.—New York Times. The La*t “Lion Sermon.” The last annual "lion sermon” has been preached in the city, and the leg acy, left for the purpose 2 >•? centuries ago, will in future be devoted to ether uses. Sir Richard Guyer, who -e’ quently became lord may'or, so the story runs, while traveling in Arabia was at tacked by a lion. He fell upon his kn< es and vowed to devote his life to charity if spared from the lion’s jaws. Th- lion thereupon walked quietly away.-—London Tit-Bits. A Missing “V” Discovered. The Buffalo Express says, * ‘Pack my box with four dozen liquor jugs” is the shortest sentence which contains every . letter of the alphabet. Says the Roches ter Post-Express, “Where’s the letter v in that sentence?” To which the Rochester Herald re plied, “Probably they went to the man who sold the jugs.” None 6eems to have seen that it was I probably originally “ five dozen,” etc. [ —Journal of Education,
