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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1896)
THB COURIER. 6R "V fr s- ' . r 4 .Af '.. s .. t"2 E H u ., A ROMANCE FROM AFRICA. The Story of a Treanure Infenlon 4 Mar He True. Englishmen are pedatory creatures, and the London papers do not hesitate to express annoyance because the expe ditionary force recently sent against King Prempeh found at Coomassle only a meager number of gold orna-' , ments, and hollow ones at that, says the New York Times. The value of the loot taken from the royal "palace" was only about 2,000 and made a poor showing when exhibited In London, as compared with the results of pre ous raids. Now a correspondent writing from Accra tells a story which if truo a very large "if" will make the British officers wish they had not left the Ashanti capital quite so soon. He says: "Some years ago a slave girl of surpassing beauty of the Ashanti type bein entendu had the misfortune to attract the fickle fancy of a chief, whose head wife tolerated no rivalry. To reproach a husband is generally useless; in Coomassle it is dangerous. The lady, wise In her generation, fore bore to risk her head, but sent for the executioner and caused the ears and lips of the too fascinating maiden to be removed, rendering her such an object as can only be seen in savage king doms. History does not say if the ex pedient answered the purpose of re storing the chief's wandering affections to their rightful owner, but the slave girl developed, not unnaturally, into a woman with an undying thirst for revenge. Lately she sought an audience with the governor, and she informed him that the real treasure of the Ashantis lies buried some fifty feet below the soil, in a dis used shaft of a mine near Coomassle, and readily undertpok to point out the spot Digging is being Igorously car ried on, already more than a fourth of the depth has been cleared, and should the treasure amount to anything like the rumored value, the cost of the ex pedition will be fully defrayed, making the Ashanti war a record one. as not only bloodless, but free of cost." life Hi-other' Kevene;e. We are all more or less familiar with that exasperating clas3 of individuals who seem to feel that the simple com mon sense of the world Is centered in themselves and that the rest of ua are in need of guidance and direction in the simplest duties of life. Mr. B was a joung man of this class. He was always painfully pro fuse in details regarding anything he wished done. He had a parrot, of which he was excessively fond, and when he was about to go abroad for a few months, leaving his bird behind, he bored and exasperated his family and friends with senseless details re garding the care of the parrot and his last words, screeched from the deck of the steamer that bore him away, were: "Hi, Jim!" "What?" shouted the brother on the pier. "Look out for my parrot! came faintly over the water. As if this was not enough he had no sooner reached Liverpool than he sent the following cablegram to his brother, who had assumed the charge of the par rot: "Be sure and feed my parrot. On receipt of this the infuriated brother cabled back at his brother's ex pense: "I have fed her but she is hungry again What shall I do next?" Har per's Magazine. cuai way here," he said. "It's oniy a little shake, perhaps the hundredth part of an inch, but It's perpetual. Some day I fear the building will shake to piece all at once. Just like the 'wonder ful one-hoss shay. The cause? Oh, it'a that electric light plant opposite. En gines and dynamos running all the time. Enough steam power Is exerted to blow the block to Jerlchot enough electricity generated to light a square mile brilliantly every night. All the houses around here shake. I remem ber when thl3 block was a most ex clusive residential neighborhood. Now at least half of It the half that shakes most Is given over to small shops and cheap theatrical boarding houses. There's one pleasanter aspect, how ever, to this vibration." Then the clubman performed a pleasing experi ment. He requested the caterer to bring him a glass of milk, some rum. Ice and sugar. These he blended, after which he placed the glass upon the window sill. "In three minutes," said the clubman, "it will be a perfect milk shake." It was no exaggeration. The vibration, though annoying, at least supplied one want. TALENT NOT APPRECIATED. !$i9SSOOO9SSOOO09SSs(i I Men of Dittlnctlon Frequently Laacaaa at bj Their Contemporaries. In the re.ent memoirs of Dean Buck land an amusing picture is given of the antipathy felt fifty years ago by the old classical scholars at Oxford to the new scientific learning. They 'described it as "mischievous and ab surd." When Buckland once went to Rome for a long vacation one of the elder dons is said to have exclaimed: "Well, Buckland has gone to Italy. Thank heaven, we shall hear no more of his silly geology." Learned men do not always appre ciate the achievements of their fellows. It is said that a friend brought Mil ton's "Paradise Lost" to a great Scotch mathematician, who remarked when he had finished it: "It's verra pretty, but, mon, what does It prove?" An American, who stated recently in a London club that he was going to Enfield in search of the grave of Charles Lamb was astonished to hear him contemptuously described by an English statesman as "a flighty writer of silly papers, in which there was no mention of political questions of his day." Paganlni, while in England, was mentioned by a great jurist In a letter as "poor ilddler who had driven the town mad with his squeaks and Bcrapes," and he, no doubt, would have described his critic as soulless and deaf to the highest expression of emotion. An anecdote is told of Henry Clay in the zenith of his popularity and fame. Meeting an old schoolmate at a recep tion, he expressed regret that another friend, a mutual acquaintance, whose career promised to be brilliant, had given up his life to the raising of pigs and making a fortune. The friend presently met the gentleman referred to, who exclaimed, with a shake of the head: "Poor Henry Clay! He might have made a good stock grower and be a comfortable planter now if he had not wasted his time In politics." A CONSTANT QUAKE. Section or Street That Kjperlence Ac tual rerpetuil Motion. A section of 2Gth street. New York, daily enjoys sensations similar to those caused by a constant succession of earthquake shocks, says the New York Journal. Everything in the vicinity trembles as If suffering from a mild attack of the ague. It is really per petual motion. There is a clubhouse In this section right in the center of the trembling district. A recent visitor, one who had not been there before, no ticed that objects on the mantel or else where always moved slightly and that he himself felt a strange vibration. The friend with whom he was dining laughed at his uneasiness. It's always Mio Wanted to Know. Howerer. Amusing Journal- "Now, dear, I have one favor to asA; of you." "It is granted." "Then please don't tell me that you hae neer loved before, that you never dreamed that you could love, that I'm the only girl you have been engaged to, that " He (interrupting) "I won't" She (anxiously) -"But you Lave never been engaged before, have you, dear?" An Ancient AlaVaater Box. A curious box war recently found amid the ruins of Pompeii. The box was marble or alaba.iier, about two inches square and closely sealed. When opened, It was found to be full of pomatum, or grease, hard but very fragrant. The smell resembled some what that of roses, but was much more fragrant. DESK ROOM FOR RENT SECOND FIOOR CMF OMJE! ARRIS IB u?2NSt 1182 N gt 'SsSSsCOSeS-aOa? --- ! SCOtt'S i Emulsion - Will Cure a Stubborn Cough when ordinary specifics fail. It restores strength to the weakened organs and gives the system the force needed to throw off the disease. 50c. and $1 at all drvggists. $ Three Opinions: "7,e CHICAGO RECORD is a model newspaper in every sense of the word.1 tiarrisburg Pa.) CalL "There is no paper published in America that so nearly approaches the true Journal istic ideal as The CHICAGO RECORD." From "Newspaperdom" (New York). " have come to the firm conclusion, after a long test and after a wide comparison with the Journals of many cities and coun tries, that The CHICAGO RECORD comes as near being the ideal daily Journal as we are for some time likely to find on these mortal shores." Prof . J. T. Hatfield in The Evanston (III.) Index. Sold by newsdealers everywhere and subscriptions received by all postmasters. Address THE CHI CAGO RECORD, 181 Madison-st. I
