"T "f
THE COURIER.
-
A ROMANCE FROM AFRICA.
The Story of a Treasure Incenlom and
Mar Ho True.
Englishmen arc pedatory creaturfis,
and the London papers do not hesitate
to express annoyance because the expe
ditionary force recently sent against
King Prempeh found at Coomassio
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" wa3
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 large "Jf" will make the
British cfilccrs wish they had not left
the Ashanti capital quite so soon. He
says: "Some years ago a slave gill of
surpassing beauty of the Ashanti type
beln entendu had the misfortune to
attract the fickle fancy of a chief,
whose head wife tolerated no rivalry.
To reproach a husband la generally
useless; in Coomassie it is dange-ous.
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 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 chiefs 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 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."
llli llrotlier'a Keence.
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 are
la need of guidance and direction In
thb simplest duties of life.
Mr. B was a young man of this
class. He was always painfully pro
fueo 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
fow months, leaving his bird behind,
he bored and exasperated his family
and friends with sens?l?ss 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 thlu was not enough he had no
sooner reached Liverpool than he sent
the following cablegram to hi3 brother,
who had assumed the charge of the par
rot: "Be sure and feed my parrot."
On receipt of this the infuriate
brother cabled back at hi3 brother's ex
pense: "I have fed hor but she is hungry
again What shall 1 Co next?" Har
per's Magazine.
Jarkon first Wheel.
The Jackson (Ky.) Hustler says:
"The first bicycle ever in Jackson ar
rived by express last week. It Is the
property of one of the professors at the
college. A big, strapping mountaineer
from Leslie saw the wheel In the ex
press office and said 'What's that air?'
'A bicycle,' answered a bystander, who
went on to explain its uses. 'I low'd
mebbe it was a newfangled contraption
to measure saw logs with,' replied the
citizen r.i Leslie. And just then Ben
Wells fainted and fell over a pile of ex
press matter."
A Squirrel's Capaclon Month.
A Dummcrston (Vt.) man wished to
Escertain how many kernels of corn a
chipmunk could carry in its mouth.
Thirty kernels were placed on a board.
A squirrel carried them all away at
one time. Forty-five kernels were then
placed in position, and chippy got away
with all of them at that trial. Seventy
kernels were put on the board for a
third trial. The little striped animal
was beaten this time, but succeeded in
carrying fifty-eight of the kernels Id
his mouth. Boston Herald.
BY A TURN OF THE HEAD.
MUsed III Wife anil the Theater bo
Hot III Dinner.
A city official, who supposes the epl
ode is a close family secret, arranged
with his wife to meet herjit the office
last Friday night at 7 o'clo'ck, says tho
New York Herald. They were then to
havo dinner at a hotel, and attend tho
theater. He was prompt, but hi3 wlfo
had not yet arrived, so ho patiently
waited on t-e sidewalk with hl3 eyes
on the door that she m.ght not coma
without his knowledge. He paced back
and forth, reading the bulletins, ob
serving the direction of the wind and
looking at the clock as It marked the
passing minutes: but he saw all who
entered tho building. He heard a loud
clanging c? gongs, as a fire engine
dashed down 6th avenue, and turned
his head for not more than five seconds
to look after it. His wife was only a
few minutes late, as sne hurried from
a Broadway car and rushed Into the
office, during the five seconds his head
was turned. She had not seen him, and
ras pleased to think that he would be
the one to be blamed for being late, as
she sat down to wait his coming. He
continued to wait and pace, as tho
clock ticked oft the minutes. Eight
o'clock was near and he became very
Impatient, as he realized that it meant
to either miss dinner or the first act of
the play. When S o'clock was passed
he saw another act slip away. In a
few minutes more he had given up the
theater, and feared for the dinner. In
another ten minutes all of the plva
were changed, and he determined to
go home. She was also discouraged
and hurried to the street to take a
northbound cable car. They met, and
well; the theater was given up, but
they had a dinner and each promised
to say nothing about it
Shlp IIata K.ir.
The Gate City, which arrived here
on Monday from Savannah, ia the Aral
ptcamer 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
sea. Ths 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 aud
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 tho
mast and through the main deck to
the deck below. Inside of the box
there Is a, complex arrangrmeu of dia
phragms and sounding boards so
pl'.rni t..it a sound will enter only one
ot the tubes when it i3 passing through
Uie funnel on the opposite side of the
box. On the lower deck is an arrange
ment like an engine-room indicator, by
which the bo:c apove may be turned
around the mast, and directly under
the indicator Is a tell-tale compass.
The man below places the tubes to his
ears, where they are held In place
by a cap. Unless the funnels ab'bve are
pointing directly toward the sound
which he wishes to locate he will hear
It only frintly and in one ear, because
one of the funnels being turned from
the sound the tube opposite does not
operate. He then turns the indicator
in the direction from which the sound
appears to come, and when the funnel
Is pointing directly at the sound it
passes through the funnel and out of
the other, putting both tubes in opera
tion, and the operator hears the sound
distinctly and in botb ears at one
Ho then glances at the Indicator and
the point on the tell-tale at which It
cests gives tho exact bearing of the
wund. Boston Transcript. v
The Herman Kmprri.' '".hllrtren.
How the German emperor will bring
up his only daughter Is no subject
of wonderment to the Uerllncrs. They
know that, princess as sho Is, she will
bo taught to be a good housewife, to
sew, to cook perhaps, and to order din
ner certainly. For the sovereign's ideal
woman is a strictly domestic person,
as his ideal man is a stout coldler. His
little boys haven't much fun In their
daily lives. Concerning those lives tho
Rketch says: In the Spartan upbring
ing of his children the kaiser rivals his
ancestor, Fricdrich Wilhelm of Prussia.
According to Klausmnnn's "Leben In
Deutschen Kaiserhaus," the life of the
royal children of Berlin is not sweet
ened by hours of Inactivity, la their
years of Infancy the kaiserin ministers
to almost all their wants, spends a
good part of the day with them and
enters Into -all their amusements. When
the princes arrive at the age of 9 things
are all changed and It Is all work.
They are then allowed about an hour
and c half out of their '.vaklng hours to
themselves; all the rest of their day
is spent in suidy and physical training.
Even in holiday time their tutors ac
company them to superintend their
Btudies. Philadelphia Ledger
Teru'n Ilenert.
In the long coastal desert of Peru,
which is 2,000 miles in length, but
only 120 miles broad at Its widest part,
he rivers disappear in tho dry season
and begin to flow again in February
jr March (wen rain falls in the Cor
dilleras. One of the most important of
these rivers is the Piura, the return
of whose waters is welcomed with great
rejoicings by tho Inhabitants of lt3
Air-Tight Compartment.
The air-tight compartment theory ot
building ships was copied from a pro
vision of nature shown in the case of
the nautilus. The shell ot thie ani
mal has forty or fifty compartments,
toto which air or water may be ad
mitted, to allow the occupant to sink
r float as he pleases.
THI.VGS Ullt
From Truth.
"If Jjick kissed you. would jou pay
"Xo, I would give him a check."
--' j M ''tIbIbIbIbIbIbIbIbR
'o Womlcr lt' a Crie.
The silver question, a3 It Is under
stood in some parts of Kentucky, Is
graphically Illustrated by a letter
which one of tho statesmen at tho cap
itol received from a correspondent lu
that state. It appears from this epis
tolary evidence that a controversy was
being waged between a sound-money
man and a silver champion. Tho gold
man thought ho bad the best of the
argument. He asked hi3 advarsary why
he thought that the freo coinage of sil
ver would make times better.
"Simply because It would put raort
money In circulation," said tho whlte
mctal crank.
"But how will it put more money In
circulation?" demanded tho gold man.
"How?" asked the silver man, with a
smile of contempt at his opponent.
"How? Why, you blamed fool, if you
can take one gold dollar to tho treas
ury and get sixteen dollars for It, won't
that lncreas. the circulation?" Pitts
burs Dlspitcn.
Wm III, IJrt.
A bewildcred-Iooklng farmer stood
In the center of Haymarket square
Thursday looking at tho trolley wire.
The electric car camo along and
slowed up. They rang the bell and
shouted at him and ordered him to
move. Hr still kept looking at th
wiro and making inarticulate sounds
with his lins.
"Get off the earth, you Jersey calf!"
shouted the motorman.
The old man was fairly bumped by
the slow-moving car before he moved.
Then he Jumped and said: "I did it,
by thunder! Where's my money?"
Ho looked around cautiously and
then Ec 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 20t. I've done It."
"Did you put up the money?"
"Sure," was the reply.
"Ding-dong." went the bell. Lewls
lon Journal.
1.3 TALK AUDIT!
:
him back In his own colaT