The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, January 23, 1897, Page 10, Image 10
10 THE COURIER. "11" PUS m 1 ! I? I 1 . 1 I IS in PARADISE FOR CRIMINALS. X4e In tlin Op-n Air la Comparative I rrfilntn. A correspondent writing from Italy Rives some Interesting details of the treatment of prisoners on various Italian islands ho visited while on a trip In the Mediterranean, says Lon don Tid-BIts. Each of these islands contains several hundred prisoners, who are locked up every night at sun set, released at daybreak and locked up again from midday until 2 o'clock. During tho night no prisoner Is al lowed to be absent under any circum Etanccs, but at midday those who work on farms at a distance from the prison ero allowed to remain out by special permission of the director. During these free hours the prisoners can go nnywhero they like on the Island and can engage In any work offered them by the townspeople or farmers. Any infraction of the rules of ordinary lifo around them or of their prison is pun ished by f "uslon In ppecial cells. The government furnishes physicians and medicines, a summer and winter cult of clothpq tn each prisoner every year and allcvs him fivepence dally In money for his food and other neces saries of life. Danger of escape is pre vented by a squad of Foldlers one to every ten criminals and a swift-sailing felucca, manned by marines. On account of the cheapness of labor the Islands are so highly cultivated as to resemble gardens. The correspondent adds: "As for the prisoners, the open air makes them the healthiest of any criminals I have ever seen. There is no sign in their faces and bodies of that prison blight which strikes every visitor to ordinary jails." Fhlnv Havn Kim. The Gate City, which arrived here on Monday from Savannah, is the flrat Steamer going out of this port to be equipped with an aurophone. the new device for enabling the lookout to de termine the direction of sounds at Bea. Tha aurophone was tried on the way up, but little could be told about Its utility owing to its being placed in a poor position. It consists of a brass box, which fits over the mast and which has projecting from each end a broad-mouthed funnel. From this box, close to the funnels, two tubes like or dinary speaking tubes lead down the mast and through the main deck to tho deck below. Inside of the box there Is a complex arrangement of dia phragms and sounding boards so pfccod tjt a sound will enter only one of the tubes when it Is passing through f-hc funnel on the opposite side of the box. On the lower deck is an arrange ment like an engine-room indicator, by which the box above may bo turned around the mast, and directly under the indicator is a tell-tale compass. The man bctow places the tubes to his ears, where they are held in place by a cap. Unless the funnels above are pointing directly toward the sound which he wishes to locate he will hear It only fr-JnUy and in one car, because one of the funnels being turned from the sound tho tube opposite does not operate. He then turns the Indicator to the direction from which the sound fippears to come, and when the funnel Is pointing directly at the sound it passes through the funnel and out ot the other, putting both tubes in opera tion, and the operator hears the sound distinctly and in both ears at once. He then glances at the indicator and the point on the tell-tale at which it rests gives the exact bearing of the pound. Boston Transcript. I.lslilnln and Tree. Cedar and fig trees are rarely struck by lightning. The beech, the larch, the fir and the chestnut also seem to be pe culiarly obnoxious to the "bolts of Jove." There are trees, however, which appear to attract rather than to repel the lightning flash. The trees general ly enumerated in the category of those Which the lightning is most nin ftrike are the oak, the yew, the elm lf'1 til" T n ln-'i. "--Hr Won III Itct. A bewlldercd-looklng farmer stood in the center of Haymarket square Thursday looking at the trolley wire. The electric car came along and slowed up. They rang the bell ard shouted at him and ordered him to move. He still kept looking at tho wire and making inarticulate sounds with his lips. "Get off the earth, you Jersey calf!" shouted tho motorman. The old man was fairly bumped by tho slow-moving car before he moved. Then ho jumped and said: "I did it, by thunder! Where's my money?" He looked around cautiously and then he said: "You seen a red-faced feller with a white mustache waxed? I want him. He bet me ?5 I couldn't look at that ere wire three minutes and count 200. I'vo done it" "Did you put up the money?" "Sure," was the reply. "Ding-dong." went the bell. Lewis ton Journal. Canon City coal at tho Whitebreasi Coal and Lime Co. AFRICA, ENGLAND. GERMANY. Latter Wants tho Forcut In the lUiln of tlm Upps. Con en The object of Germany at the present moment is to connect her eastern and Eouthwestern African possessions, saya the Quarterly Review. To do this sho desires to possess the forest in tho basin of the Upper Congo a region which Is rich in copper. If she could obtain this territory from the Congo Etate and a narrow strip of land from Portugal she would realize her aim: and if she gets possession of the forest3 on the Lualaba and the Katanga cop per mines her colonies may become to her a great source of wealth. England should definitely make up her mind as to the attitude she will assume toward this policy. If she opposes It Germany vill become a persistent enemy. On v"ae other hand, if she supports it Ger many should agree not in any way to Interfere with England south of the Zambesi and support her heartily in Egypt. The increase of German pros perity at home is also an advantag to us. As Germany becomes richer she will become a better customer and less jealous of the political position. Tho wages of German artisans must go up and consequently Germany will be les3 able to undersell us in the open mar kets of the world. We have now come to a state of things as regards tho German empire when we must either come to terms with it or drift inttt a position which will certainly lead o danger. The Germans, if they are tc maintain their possesisons beyond the tea, must either be sure of the friend ship and good will of England or eLi they will endeavor to break down her power on the ocean. Since the begin ning of this year every corner of the fmpire has rung with the most violent denunciations of this country. The newspapers, with the almost solitary exception of the Wcser Zeltung, have given expression to feelings of bitter hostility. Organs of opinion usually tre most opposed have vied with each other in their violence of lan guage. This ill feeling to Great Brit ain, as we have said, has not been a growth of recent times. It Is now strengthened by a growing conviction that the position of England in the world is undesen-ed, artificial and cannot be maintained if it is seriously menaced. This view has been fostered by distinguished historians and men of letters, who exercise a powerful influ ence on the youth of the country, on the guides of public opinion, on writers in the principal periodicals and jour nals who indirectly shape the policy ot the cheap newspaper, which is the gos pel of toe village inn. A ROMANCE FROM AFRICA. The Mory of n Trc inre tngenloui and Miv He Trne. Englishmen arc pedatory creatures, and the London papers do not hesnato to express annoyance because the expe ditionary force recently sent against King Prenipeh found at Coomassie only a meager number of gold orna ments, and hollow ones at that, says the New York Times. The value of tho loot taken from the royal "ralace" 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 true a very largo "jf" will make tho British officers wish they had not left the AEhantl capital quite so soon. Ho says: "Soiza years ago a slave gill of surpassing beauty of the Ashantl type beln entendu had the mistortune to attract the fickle fancy of a chief, whose head wife tolerated no rivalry. To reproach a husband Is generally useless: in Coomassie it is dnnge-ous. The lady, wise in her generation, fore bore to risk her head, but sent for tho executioner and caused the ears and lips of the too fascinating maiden to bo 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 Coomassie, and readily undertook to point out the spot Digging is being vigorously car ried on, already more than a fourth ot 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 cosL" IIM Ilrotlier ItvenRP. We are all more or less familiar with that exasperating class of individuals who seem to feel that the simple com mon sense of the world Is centered in themselves and that the rest of us ar in need of guidance and direction in the simplest duties of life. Mr. B was a young man of this class. He was always painfully pro fuse in details regarding anything ho 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 sensM'-ss details re garding the care of tho 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 pirrot!" came faintly over the water. As if this was not enough he had no sooner reached Liverpool tbaa re sent the fo.lowlng cablegram to his brother, who had assumeJ the charge of the par rot: "Be sure and feci my parrot." On receipt of this ih" irfuriated brother cabled back at his brother's ex pense: "I have fed her but she i3 hungry again What shall I do next?" Har per's Magazine. An Ancient ANlter IIox. A curious box war recently found amid the ruins of Pompeii. The box was marble or alaba.Uer, about two inches square and closely sealed. When opened, it was found to be full of pomatum, or grease, hard but very r'ragrant. The smell resembled some what that of roses, but was much more fragrant. coocooocooo 5 CYCLE PHOTOGRAPHS o o ATHLETIC PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS OF BABIES PHOTOGRAPHS OFGROUPS EXTERIOR VIEWS o o o o 8 o o Tho Photographer 12!) South Eleventh Street. o o o o 00OCOO300O30 ...O30DO00COD CLAKKS0N LAUDEY CO. UOS32-334S36-33H South Eleventh Street. Time i MoncV SAVE IT Bf 111 THE THESHN The first of Amuuan JV trj a j(T CHARLES A. DANA, Editor. The American Constitution, the American Idea, the A ir.criccn Spiiit Thcse first, Uit, and all the time, for ever. Daily, by mail, - - SG a year Daily and Sunday, by mail - S8 a year Tlie Sunday Sun is the greatest Sunday Newspaper in tre World. Prieo 5c. ncopy. By mail, $2 a yea Al.lrt-(., TUB SCX. Nt w Ye rk The Model restaurant, .110 South Twelfth is open froni S to 10 p. m.,when soup and lunches aro served. Drop in on jour way home. cvy-rerraia iMiUF Villi r Tiiroat. 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