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Show OS INDEPENDENT. SPRINGVILLE. UTAH Trolley cars continue to be lafei than dirigible balloons. Now it is the Georgi Pobledocost- teff that has staggered humanity. Hard coal is not satisfied with being a luxury it wants to be a curiosity. "Why are Dives Open?" asks a New York paper. Open for business probably. prob-ably. The first piano was made 200 years ago. But people didn't live in flats then. Now it is asserted that there is no open polar sea. It is not, however, a Closed incident. He is a proud football hero who can shew to his credit a touchdown and a compound fracture. Duke Boris brother Cyril Is also coming to America to drink champagne cham-pagne out of a slipper. The Americanization of Kurope continues. con-tinues. A man was lynched in a Bohemian Bohe-mian village the other day. Gen. Urlbe-Uribe has been dis lodged at Teneriffe; didn't pay his dues or else he lost his grip. Millionaire Stratton was embarrassed embar-rassed by riches, and his estate is now embarrassed with administration. ' Russia has begun to evacuate Manchuria, Man-churia, but may be depended upon to steal in on the other side righi away. It 3 noted that 99 48-100 -fix.- fient of the people of Kansas can write. Yes, but can they sell what they write? The way to save money is to stop eating. Milton Rathbun, who fasted only 60 days, left an estate valued at $35,000. Guam has had an earthquake. If we must have earthquakes on United States territory Guam is the place to bave them. The king of Servia has had his ears boxed by the queen. Sometimes there are compensations for being nothing bat a deuce. A man and five girls were locked in a Chicago office building. What luck some men have! Think of the joys of copsoling five! The Chicago pastor who has lost his life savings in an alluring mining venture thus preaches an impressive sort of sermon. Now that silk is made without worms, let us indulge the fond hope thai ere long cheese may be made in he same manner. A New Yorker wrote to Justice Dunwell of Penn Yan and asked for a divorce from his wife by return mail. He was in a hurry. At a recent political meeting In Porto Rico three men were killed end several wounded. Politics Is politics in our new possessions. The ladies have started their club of politics with the usual spirit and every indication that high tempera ture will last right through the cold spell. Among their other mercies, men should not fail to count the fact that they don't have to comb their Iiali so that it will suit their face and their hat. It is noted as rather a remarkable thing that Cornelius Vanderbilt has been shovelirg ccaL Mr. Vanderbilt, however, is rich enough to have coal in shovel. The unexampled prosperity in Eu rope' this year is partly explained by the fact that Hetty Green has spent he summer there, scattering money 1 a reckless fashion. A New York paper states that Sal-ittury Sal-ittury resigned because King Ed ward refused to. give W. W.. Astor a peerage. Edward VII. is an even bet- tT man than we thought. Under the advice of his doctors, it Is said, Russell Sage will retire front business. But if the doctors pur pose to keep him retired they would better attach a hawser to him ct once. The editor of a Tennessee newspa per has been arrested for giving (f quart of whisky as a premium to each of his subscribers. He should move across the state line or increase h! premium. Queen Draga's latest performance of. boxing King Alexander's ears for cut'ng off her pin money is sort of democratic. Kings and queens are oaly husbands and wives, after all. The heir to the throne of Siam will cross the United States in a special train, but he will not stop at way stations to make political speeches Anericans are prone to gush more or less over their distinguished vis itors from abroad, but they would dmw the line at King Leopold. Sir Thomas Lipton is assured that be is the one British sportsman who can take America's cup back to Eng-ltnd Eng-ltnd with the heartiest good will from Americana if he should win it. In one sense the Omaha school principal who has forbidden the use of mirrors to the girls may be wise, bi be certainly lacks discretion. M. Urbain Gohier discriminatingly says that some of Zola's work is "peculiarly strong." It is. A tan-yard tan-yard is nothing to some of it. It costs 6 cents for a policeman to steal a kiss from a pretty girl in New Jersey. Lots of young fellows who axe not policemen wouldn't object to Incurring the same realty. That motorman who ran Into the President's carriage evHently needs business agent. He '.sn't making capital oat of his notoriety. i Sir Frederick Treves, who operated oper-ated on King Edward, says that appendicitis ap-pendicitis is really a good thing. .Other doctors think so, too. SIESTA. TreTnwTens trills and quavers And broken melodies fiuat Across the fields and the meadows From the bobolink's mellow throat. Poplars all a-flutter When the westering wind goes by. And the music of murmuring waters Answers the wind's faint sigh. Black-eyed susans nodding Over the grasses tall, IT 111 aflame with golden rod Beyond the old stone wall. Wins aflash !n the sunlight. And Insects' drowsy note. And over all, in a golden haze, August's red sun afloat. Teena's Futile Gu:st. BY LOUISE J. STEPHENS. (Copyright, 1902, by Dally Story Pub. Co.) When our friends learned that Jack had accepted the position of station agent In a comparatively new Dakota town they were all duly horrified and received the news with many exposta-latlons. exposta-latlons. "You will die of loneliness and homesickness"; "You never can endure life there without a soul of your kind to speak to"; "What! bury yournelf and your beautiful voice in a contemptible little western village!" But I had Jack and we had not been married so long but that we felt we were more to each other than all the world besides. Jack already knows pretty nearly every one in the county, it seems, for the railway company's elevator, of which he has charge, make3 this quite a market for grain. He is such a sympathetic, generous fellow, so kind-hearted kind-hearted naturally, that he always extends ex-tends what help he can to every person per-son he sees in trouble, and so brings to us many odd, interesting and sometimes some-times amusing, often pathetic experiences. experi-ences. One day after the regular train had passed Jack came over to the house with a very sober face: "I've a case out there for you, Dolly; a young Swedish girl who can speak scarcely a word of English. She showed me a card with Ole Larson, Fargo, N. D., written on it, and say ing vehemently, "Him no dar," turned the other side on which some one had written the name of our station. sta-tion. So I suppose the man she is looking for has come here or hereabouts here-abouts from Fargo sometime or other, but there's no one of that name here now. What shall we do with her?" "Bring her here," I replied promptly, prompt-ly, "until we can find Ole. Good Mrs. Peterson will act as interpreter and we can soon make her comfortable." So he called -at her door and asked Mrs. Patterson to come in, and then brought the girl over. She was a scared-looking but rather pretty Swedish girl of perhaps twenty years dressed in the odd fashion of all the newcomers from her land, with a kerchief ker-chief instead of a bonnet tied under her chin, soiled and travel stained, and as is the custom of emigrants, with all her worldly belongings done up in a package by means of a square cloth tied together by the four corners. cor-ners. She dropped me a most humble hum-ble little courtesy, and when Mrs. Peterson Pe-terson spoke to her In her own tongue she turned to her with such pleasure in her face that I knew her answer was but a Swedish exclamation of joy. After some minutes' conversation, conversa-tion, Mrs. Peterson explained: "Her name Christine Olson, most call Teena; she come from Gottenborg; she vas marry Ole Larson, but he come avay to Ameriky an she stay vit her granmooder, who has no odder od-der but Teena. Her granmooder die las' vinter, den she tink she come Ameriky an' fln' Ole Larson, den dey vill marry. He write by Fargo, an' go dar, but postmaister say Ole Larson Lar-son come by dis blace; den she come. But dar is no Ole Larson in dis blace, I know, an' iff he hass not gone by some odder blace, den he vork by some farms." Further inquiry drew out the fact that the girl had not heard from her lover for nearly a year, and that he did not, of course, know that she had come over. "She hass plenty money," inter preted Mrs. Peterson; "mos" hoonder dollar by her granmooder." We then and there decide that Teena shall stay with us while we try to locate her Ole. And after much explanation and more persuasion from Mrs. Peterson, Teena consents to take her "hoonder dollar" from out of the leg of her stocking and deposit it in the village bank, whither she is at once escorted by Jack, accompanied also by Mrs. Peterson. Teena proves a jewel about the house and can soon "spik Englis'" quite intelligibly. "No no pay!" she declares when I want to pay her for doing my work. "I no vork," she says scornfully, "dis no vork!" spreading spread-ing out her hands to indicate my small domain. "I eat an' sleep you gif me I no pay, den I vork leetle "Teena. no pay ma!" and she shakes her head vigorously. And so she stays on, apparently ap-parently content, though her large blue eyes grow larger and more pathetic, pa-thetic, and she eats little and I fear sleeps less. Meantime Jack makes every Inquiry In-quiry for Ole Larson, but learns nothing noth-ing of him. This is her description of him to Jack: "He big, like" hesitating hesi-tating for the pronoun "like Jack," Bhe says finally, to our great amusement; amuse-ment; "hair so," indicating curls, "an' so like." pointing to my own dark locks to indicate color; "eyes like Jack; good look; dwenty-fower year." So Jack keeps in mind a well-built, good-looking young Swede with dark curly hair and blue eyes. But the summer passed by and it was not until after the wheat harvest and threshing were over that he came in one day, somewhat excitedly, and said to me, "Dolly. I've found Ole! He lives with a farmer named Swen-son Swen-son some twenty miles from here, and he's at the elevator now with a load of grain; I spotted him before I spoke to him. I'm going to tell him there's a girl here from Gottenborg and bring him in to talk with her." We both thought it would be a most delightful surprise to them, and the best way to bring them together. Their meeting brought tears to our eyes. Jack led the way to the kitchen door and stepped in with the young man following. I saw them from she dining room door. "Ole!" screamed Teena, turning red, then white, and almost falling into his arms, and I noticed that his face was whiter than hers, as he exclaimed, "O Teena!" and seemed to stagger backward. Then we closed the door and went out. But a few moments later there was a cry of alarm from the young mn and we rushed . back and found him supporting Teena, who had fainted. In the excitement of caring for her no questions were asked. We supposed her emotions upon meeting her lover so unexpectedly had simply overcome her. But the moment she revived sufficiently to open her eyes she said "Ole!" screamed Teena. to me faintly, "Ole he marry," and the tears rolled down her cheeks. Jack, too, heard, and we turned to the young man in shocked surprise. Somehow,' such a possibility had never nev-er occurred to us, no more than to Teena. Larson's eyes too were wet, and he was trembling with agitation. "I loaf Teena," he said to us earnestly, earnest-ly, "but ven I write I send money to come to marry me, she write back no, she no leave her granmooder. So I t'ink she vill marry some odder boy in Sveden, an' I feel bad, an' I write no more. I go from Fargo right avay. I live by Mr. Svanson more den von year, an' two, tree mon's ago I marry hees girl, hees daughter. She nice, goot girl but I feel so bad for Teena I loaf Teena many years." And he does not try to hide the tears that fill his eyes. In all my life nothing I have known or heard or read has seemed to me so Intensely, dramatically, despairingly sad. I stroke and kiss poor Teena's bowed head, which she has pillowed on her arms on the table, and dear, soft-hearted Jack gives Larson his hand in mute sympathy. The young man says something in Swedish to Teena, who shakes her head without looking up, and throws out her hand as though to bid bim go. "O Teena," he pleads, but she again shakes her head, and he says to us: "She no spike to me I go." We at last persuade her to be helped to bed, and saying, "I t'ank you," so pathetically, she turns her face to the wall. I go to her room several times during the night, "but she lies motionless and unheeding, though I am sure she is not asleep. She comes down and prepares the breakfast as usual the next morning, and performs her accustomed duties many days thereafter, but I can see that her strength is gradually going, and at last there comes a morning when she does not come down stairs. Then the end 13 not far away. "Would you like to see Ole again," I ask, but she shakes her head. "He no mine he marry," she says, and the tears flow. Larson comes often to ask Jack about her, but does not ask to see her, and when I tell her she makes no comment. When he learns that the end is near he asks Jack to let him know, and says, "I come den." And one sad day poor Teena's broken brok-en heart is forever stilled, and as she lies In the dainty last bed in which we have tenderly placed her, Larson comes in to look upon her fair, peaceful peace-ful face, and we leave him alone with the dead. When he comes out of the room I notice how pale and sad he has grown since we first saw him, and give him my hand in sympathy; he holds it a moment, too, much moved to speak for a time, then says, "My wife she not know I hass not tell her she goot girl she will be much sorry I not tell her she not know." And I understand that he has not told his wife because he does not wish to trouble her, and my heart goes out to the poor fellow. He does not come to the simple funeral service, ser-vice, for "my wife she not know," and we respect him the more because he stays away. And so we lay poor Teena in her last resting place, and feel that upon the simple stone with which we mark the spot might truthfully be engraved en-graved the words, "Died of a broken heart." Portuguese Africa. Traveling in Portuguese Africa Is thus described by a recent writer: "As soon as one gets into the Interior there is an absence of roads and a great paucity of government military stations or trading posts. The country coun-try is slightly policed. The consequence conse-quence is that the negro bearer who carries his rubber, has a long, dangerous, dan-gerous, difficult journey and Is robbed of a portion of his stock from time to time; and when he returns to his village if his chief be informed that there is a smallpox on the coast he is likely to be summarily shot by his own people. They have simple but very effective quarantine methods among the natives in Africa." People are more surprised at tlieir neighbor's mistakes than at their Navigating the Air Inventors Have Been at Work on This Problem Since the Year 1500 Stanley Spencer's Machine the Most Successful Produced Flights of two dirigible airships at Coney Island, New York, recently, call attention anew to the slow but apparently ap-parently 6teady progress which man is making in the difficult art of flying. The earliest historical record of an attempt to design a flying machine on really scientific principles is found in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. The famous artist and engineer never worked the idea out. but it is known that the principle involved was the flapping of wings. He proposed to use man power for that purpose. Several Sev-eral inventors during the last half of the nineteenth century devised toys that would keep afloat for a moment by moving wings. A typical device oT that kind was Jobert's. It dates back to 1872. Twisted rubber supplied the power for its operation. Among the first to recognize th? sustaining power of an out-tretched Lilienthal's Gliding Machine. l flat surface, entirely apart from the question of propulsion, was a Germfra engineer, Herr Otto Lilienthal. A series of experiments and observations, observa-tions, covering twenty-five years, were discussed in a book which appeared in 1899. Subsequently Lilienthal made short flights through the air by jumping jump-ing from a roof or cliff and gliding forward and downward at the same time. At first he used only one Pair of stationary wings, or aeroplanes," to hold himself up, but later he made a double decker. His apparatus was supplied with a double rudder for steering sideways and up and down. Gravitation was his motive power, although al-though toward the end of his career he meditated using a small engine. Pilcher, a young Englishman, and Octave Oc-tave Chanute, an American engineer, have done a great deal of good work along this line. The two most prominent investigators investiga-tors of the possibility of combining the aeroplane for sustaining the ship in air with powerful propelling mechanism mech-anism of the screw type have been Sir Hiram Maxim and Prof. S. P. Langley. Maxim's machine was a colossal co-lossal affair. For experimental purposes, pur-poses, in order to ascertain how fast it would go ahead, it was mounted on a railway. It had three decks, or sets of aeroplanes, and, with three men on board and plenty of naphtha for fuel, weighed 8,000 pounds. There were two enormous screws astern. The engines were marvels of lightness. light-ness. They developed 360 horsepower with a weight of about six pounds per horsepower. While he was experimenting, experi-menting, in 1895, Maxim's airship pulled loose from the track, rose a little and then came down abruptly enough to be considerably injured Since that time Sir Hiram has given little attention to this subject. Still, he showed that It was possible to Jobert's Flying Machine. 1872. attain a speed of something like twenty-five or thirty miles an hour. Prof. Langley, who has probably gone deeper in to the philosophy of aerial navigation than any other living man, improved on Maxim in two or three ways. He made a model too small to carry a passenger, but big enough to test the merits of the design. de-sign. Its length was 16 feet, and the distance from tip to tip of wing about 12 feet. His steam engine weighed only twenty-six ounces and developed" one or one and cne-half horsepower. Finally he launched the ship from the roof of a houseboat on the water, so that when it descended the craft would not be injured. The trial flight lasted a minute and a half, and developed devel-oped a speed of twenty-five or thirty miles an hour. The type of airship to which that of Santos-Dumont's belongs employs a balloon for sustaining purposes, This is shaped like a cigar or sweet potato, in order to minimize the resistance re-sistance of the air in moving horizontally. horizon-tally. Commandant Renard, of the French army, was one of the first to utilize this system. He drove' bis propelling screws with an electric motor, mo-tor, and carried along a storage bat- Leonardo Da Vinci'3 Model, A. D, 1500. tery. The latter was so heavy that nt one else of any consequence has adoyted that form of motive power. The Frenchman managed to spurt at the rate of twelve or fourteen miles an hour for a few minutes, though. This feat was performed somewhere between 1883 and 1885. An attempt to Improve on Santos-Dumont Santos-Dumont in another way is being made by two Englishmen, Stanley Spencer and Dr. Barton. The former sprang a surprise on the public last month by making an unannounced ascent at the Crystal Palace, London, and keeping keep-ing aloft long enough to travel thirty miles. He thus broke all records for distance. The details of his design are'not yet known on this side of the Atlantic. Leo Stevens adopts the Renard plan, and thinks that he has improved on Santos-Dumont. He has one gas bag inside of another. He has adjustable adjust-able water ballast, the receptacle containing con-taining which can be slid to and fro on a rod. His chief novelty, though, in his own estimation, is a pair of -arachutes, which are folded up like wings ordinarily, but are intended to open out automatically in emergencies. SPREADING LIGHT IN ASIA. Railroads Being Laid Over Scenes .f Former Barbaric Splendor. The distant and almost legendary regions in Asia Into which Russia is infusing a new civilizing spirit always al-ways exert over the imagination a peculiar attraction. New interest is directed to them by the extension of the "trans-Caspian railway southward towards the Persian Gulf. The sandy composition of the soil explains the desolation of the land, several centuries cen-turies of comparative sloth and neglect neg-lect on the part of the inhabitants having hav-ing intervened since the time when it was highly productive and boaated of flourishing towns. Merv itself, one of the largest and most magnificent cities of Central Asia, was swallowed up by the sand and destroyed in the eighth century. Its ruins still give an idea of its former greatness. But the city of this region above all others whose name awakens the memories of an heroic past is Samarcand, known also as Maracanda. It is one of the oldest cities of the world, and has witnessed many of the mighty events of history. A Samarcand is still seen the Kok- Tasche, a throne or stone upon which the ceremony of coronation was performed, per-formed, one of the finest relics of the reign of Tamerlane. It is an immense im-mense block of grayish granite, with black veins running through it, flanked flank-ed by four pillars and guarded by a balustrade. On this stone Tamerlane gave audience to foreign ambassadors and to messengers and petitioners from all parts of his vast empire. He also sat upon it when pronouncing judgment of life and death, and a great vase of stone near at hand received re-ceived the heads of the countless victims vic-tims who were executed before his For the Western visitor the point of chief interest in Samarcand is the Remains of University of Chirdar. plaza called Righistan, which, considered consid-ered in its relation to the rest of the city and the veneration in which it is held by the natives, may well be compared com-pared to the Piazza di San Marco, at Venice. Here was the University of Chirdar, once so famous in the Oriental Orien-tal world. Architecturally, its remains re-mains are still beautiful. , THE. NEED QF EDUCATIOJM. JtT Russian Peasants Benefit by Spread of Knowledgcjigl The economic decay oceie Russian peasantry is not primJiy due to ignorance, for in the first few years after emancipation, when the peasants were totally illiterate, they were comparatively com-paratively prosperous. Nevertheless, education invariably has good economic eco-nomic results, for the need for intensive inten-sive farmiifg grows, and ignorance and intensive farming are incompatible. incompat-ible. The Moscow Zemstvo in twenty years reduced the illiteracy figures from 70 per cent to less than 30 per cent in certain districts, and it was found that in the educated districts the peasants were much better off than in the districts where illiteracy was more common. Peasant education, educa-tion, however, is hampered by climatic conditions, by the distance between the villages and by the poverty of the Zemstvos. A Russian Zemstvo village teacher is paid from ten to fifteen dollars dol-lars a month; the teachers in the parish schools sometimes receive as little as $2.50 a month; and their social position is extremely bad; so bad, indeed, that when the introduction introduc-tion of the State Drink Monopoly created a new class of government officials, of-ficials, many schoolmasters left the villages and obtained positions as assistants as-sistants in tae" government public houses R. E. C. Long, in The Pilgrim. Pil-grim. Productive Power of Money. The reproductive power of money is illustraied in the suit brought by the descendants of Benjamin Franklin against the cities of Philadelphia and Boston to recover the 1,000 which the great statesman left to each of those cities as a fund to aid printers and other artisans in starting busi-nes3 busi-nes3 on their own account. These descendants de-scendants say that no attempt has ever been made to carry out the pro-vis'ons pro-vis'ons of the will, and lay claim to principal and interest. The 2,000 of the thrifty printer has now increased to about $400,000, an increment from which Franklin, if he were alive, would not fail to extract a moral as to the potency of small savings. An Unfortunate Giant. At Warrnanbool, Victoria, Australia, an application for an "old-age pension" has recently been made on behalf of a young man, named M'Lean, whose height is 7 feet 4 inches and his age twenty-four years. It was stated that owing to a heart weakness this youthful Goliath would never be able to work, and that he had no one to rely on for support. For some time he had been an inmate of the local hospital, where two beds had to be placed together in order to accommodate accommo-date his recumbent form. Money in Orchards. Somebody in the East started .a newspaper paragraph about the fine apple orchard owned by Foster Udell of Brockport. N. Y., from which he this year sold $15,000 worth of fruit. Comes now a Western editor and tells of an orchard near Leavenworth, Kan., owned by Judge Wellhouse. The orchard covers 15,000 acres and the judge's profit this year will run up to $35,000. He has already sold about 50,000 bushels of fruit. American Trade in South Africa. American exports to South Africs this year will reach a total of $33,000,-000, $33,000,-000, cr double that cf 1S97. POPULAR Adjustable Lamp Hanger. From far-away Alaska comes this improvement In the method of adjusting adjust-ing the height of electric incandescent lamps, though it is very doubtful if there is much need for it in that ter ritory. The Invention consists of a spring roller arranged to raise and lower the lamp very much after the manner in which the ordinary spring roller curtain is operated. As shown in the Illustration, the ccrd is wound on the undef roller. Works Like a Spring Curtain Roller. with the connection to the main circuit cir-cuit through wires leading to posts on the side of the bracket. These posts are in direct contact with the plates on the end of the rollei by means of the two spring tongues secured to the end of the bracket. The winding device de-vice consists of a coiled spring wound at the end of the upper shaft, which Is geared to the under roller by the toothed wheel at the right end of the upper shaft. The winding drum has the usual dogs and notched collar to maintain the lamp in any position, and by throwing the dogs out of action by centrifugal force the springs will revolve re-volve the drum and wind up the cord. The device is preferably inclosed in a protecting cover, with an opening in the bottom for the passage of tne cord, thus making a neat hanger and allowing the lamp to be adjusted at any desired height as easily as a window win-dow shade may be raised and lowered. The inventor is Henry J. Harrison of Juneau, Alaska. The Ice Supply and the Public Health. In Prof. Sedgwick's recently published pub-lished book on sanitary science, he summarizes the relations of the ice supply to the public health somewhat as follows: While it is true that some bacteria survive exposure to freezing , temperatures, such conditions, especially espe-cially if prolonged, are highly unfavorable unfav-orable to bacterial life. Water tends to purify itself by freezing, but the purification is usually incomplete. A few bacteria may survive even after long exposure to low temperature. Hence too much reliance must not be placed on the purification of water by freezing, especially if ihe ice is artificially arti-ficially made. The practical lesson is not to mix ice with food or to put it in drinks. A temperature of between 50 degrees and 60 degrees Fahrenheit is sufficiently low to be refreshing, and to obtain this degree of cooling it is sufficient to place vessels containing the food, etc., in ordinary cold storage. stor-age. A Pneumatic Knife. Through its perversion as a weapon cf war during the late Cuban conflict nearly every citizen of this country is now familiar with the machete, or care-cutting knife, which is In common com-mon use in sugar producing countries to harvest the ripe cane and bunch it for the crushing mill. In the general improvement, which is constantly going go-ing on in the methods of handling agricultural ag-ricultural products of all kinds it is now the turn of the machete to give way to a more modern implement for cutting the cane, as will be seen by a glance at the accompanying illustration. illustra-tion. The new cutting implement is nothing less than the pneumatic hammer, ham-mer, constructed on a small scale, and light enough to be carried around the field and applied to the stalks as shown. The compressor for storing the air needed to run the cutting tool may be located on the wagon which transports the cane, or compressed air tanks can be located at convenient intervals throughout the field, to which sufficient hose is attached to allow considerable play to the cutting Pneumatic Pressure Drives the Cutting Cut-ting Knife, tool. The latter consist of a cylinder, carrying a piston and hook to engage i the stalk as it is cut, with a handle by which to manipulate the implement. imple-ment. Electricity in Grape Culture. A Frankfort journal of recent dale describes experiments made by Mr. J. Fuchs, a wine producer of Elba, in the use of electricity In grape culture. He planted some years ago four fields with native grapevines in the midst of a district infested with phylloxera, and treated two of these fields with "air electricity." The difference in the development de-velopment of the grapes of the fields was apparent; those treated with electricity elec-tricity yielded better results, both In quantity and quality, and were not infested in-fested with phylloxera, while the other fields were. Mr. Fuchs, says the journal, jour-nal, has demonstrated that electricity increases the fertility of the soil. It is not sufficient to simply conduct air electricity to the earth, but there should be a direct metallic connection of the electric conduit with the main stem of the plant. On a field of two and a half acres five masts are erected, erect-ed, the tops of which are suppled with an arrangement for accumulating atmospheric at-mospheric electricity. These accumu-'ators accumu-'ators are connected with each other "y wires. Wires are laid in the soil about one and a half feet deep, form-"ng form-"ng an evenly distributed metallic net. Tvery accumulator is connected with his metallic net by a wire running ilong the mast. Short wires connect with the plants, the free ends being stuck into the stem or into the main oot thereof. It is stated that, ir this SCIENCE method fulfils expectations, it will bt a very important invention. West Indian Eruptions. Sir Norman Lockyer writes to the Times of London that the terrible cat astrophes of Martinique and St. Vincent Vin-cent occurred at a time of minimum of solar spots, and that bis investiga tiors lead him to the result that sue! disasters for the past seventy years occur, at critical instants in the sun spot cycle. Such critical instants, it will be remembered, occur every five and one-half years on the average. The results of a comparison of two curves, one of disasters, the other of sun-spot frequency, should be received with caution. If the same method be applied to the United States Census maps of 1870 it is easy to prove tha' illiteracy in the United States varies inversely as the rainfall, which would be interesting if true. Unfortunately other census maps do not bear out the conclusion. Coincidences of the sort should be noted, but until we can predict pre-dict future disasters by their use, we should hold them as accidental. Another An-other ccineidenca may be here set down. The Martinique disaster oC curred at the epoch of new moon and therefore of a maximum lunar tide. Are we, therefore, to conclude that eruptions and earthquakes occur more frequently at such epochs? This was for many years supposed to be the case, but the researches of Montessus do Ballore have completely disproved it. Volcanic phenomena are, in all probability, essentially local. If they depend on variations of solar energy S'.e dependence is, it would seem, not likely to be eo simple and direct as the sun-spot hypothesis demands. Some Immense Viaducts. 'ihe viaduct that carries the Chicago and Northwestern railroad across the valley of the -Des Moines river at s height of 185 feet above the river is 2,658 feet long. Most cf the spans are 75 feet in length, and four lines ol plate girders support the two tracks. The viaduct terminal of the Chesa peake & Ohio railroad at Richmond Va., is three and one-eighth miles long The highest viaduct is at the crossing of the Kinzua creek by the Erie rail road. Its height is 201 and its length is 2.C53 feet. The longest span of any simple truss is that over the Ohio river at Louisville namely, 546 feet. The Delaware river bridge on the Pennsylvania railroad near Philadelphia Philadel-phia has a span of 533 feet and contains con-tains 2,094 tons of steel.' Electrically Driven Clock. In an electrically driven clock, the combination with the clock train, of two mtlbuVs, one of "which is a per-manecf' per-manecf' by Xpetand the other an electro-ma?; boxe permanent magnet being be-ing ada,, jfo act first upon the train through a limited movement, and the electro-magnet adapted to act at the end of such movement to restore the permanent magnet to the beginning of its working position. Newton Harrison, New York, is the inventor. Electric Detonators. It is not generally understood how useless dynamite would be but for the insignificant little detonator. A ton of dynamite may lie secure, yet the smallest Nobel detonator exploded in the mass sets free the terrible resistless resist-less power of the dynamite in all its fury. Detonators consist of thin copper cop-per tubes closed at one end and filled with a detonating composition consisting con-sisting of fulminate of mercury and. i generally, potassium chlorate. Ful minate of mercury is produced by the action of nitric acid and alcohol upon mercury It is very sensitive to heat and shock, and, beirg one of the quickest explosives known, gives an extremely sharp shock, which is exactly ex-actly what is required to detonate dynamite. Electric detonators usually contain a mixture of antimony sulphide sul-phide and potassium chlorate as a priming mixture, in addition to the fulminate of mercury. New Theory in Wine Culture. A French investigator, Rosenthiel. told the Paris Academy of Sciences a few days ago that he had satisfied himself that the bouquet of a well -known vintage depends less on the quality of the grape than the nature of the yeast which grows on the latter. The flavor of some of the most famous dairy products has been traced to microbes, mi-crobes, and such bacteria are now an article of commerce. Should M. Ro-sensthiel's Ro-sensthiel's discovery be corroborated, says the New York Tribune, the independent inde-pendent culture of yeasts for the winegrower wine-grower may become an important industry. in-dustry. Light of the Sky. Starless parts of the sky are not dark. At the Lowe observatory In California, Mr. Edgar Larkin says that "the stellar floor," the background of the visible universe, has been proven to be a vast sheet of minute stellar points of varying degrees of brightness, bright-ness, with here and there a rift seeming seem-ing to reveal the blackness of outer space. It is thought that the universe may be far larger than is commonly believed. Wireless Telegraphy System. A system of wireless telegraphy, says Electricity, is to be put in operation opera-tion in the Hudson river vally between be-tween Yonkers and Newburg, N. Y., in a short time. A station will be established estab-lished in Yonkers, and communica-tioa communica-tioa opened up wuh all points along the coast where wheless telegraphy stations are to De in operation. The De Forest system win be used. New Magic Lantern Idea. By the new electrical apparatus of Prof. C. W. Carmen, pictures on any opaque material are projected upon a screen. Even a view from the object itself, if the latter is not too large, may be magnified and thrown upon the sheet without any lantern slide. - If you are fond of a woman tell her so, It cannot hurt you, and it will make her much happier. HERE'S my neighbor having hav-ing the outside of his house calcimined," grumbled . Herr Mayer, under his breath, "and I can't afford it for mine! " He looked disconsolately at the workman who was preparing to begin the job. The- latter was going about It languidly, with an indolent air of abstraction, after the manner of house-pointers. house-pointers. He had not finished the pre- ! ! Z I liminaries before the clock struck midday. mid-day. Then he took from his dir.ner-pail dir.ner-pail the wherewitb&l to compensate him for so much physical exertion, and, after consuming it, with the concomitant con-comitant ration of a quart of beer, stretched himself out at full length upon the scaffold. Soon afterward he was sound atleep, snoring with that full-toned vigor which befits an honest heart and an unclouded conscience. Into the brain of the onlooker, who was not overblessed with this world's goods, there flashed the idea of a traitorous plot, as he eyed the slumbering slum-bering figure. His neighbor was absent ab-sent for a couple of days on a journey. The street was deserted. "Quick" he cried to nis faithful spouse. With her aid he moved the scaffold, with the Eleeping painter still upon it, most cautiously from the front of one house to that of the other, and then hastened back to his chamber to note, from behind the curtains, the progress of events. After a good half hour the painter got up, rubbed his eyes and yawned, and then began to daub the house, which- to strain an idiom had been placed under his nose. The good man did not observe the change, but worked work-ed on and on. and so diligently that actually two drops of sweat fell from his heated brow. Having finished the job, the painter with a self-satisfied smirk was just refilling his pipe when suddenly Herr Mayer, apparently much astonished, emerged from his house, and exclaimed: ex-claimed: "Who gave you the order to calcimine calci-mine this house?" "Who gave me the order? Why, the Herr household of the house, Herr Muller, of course!" "Herr Muller! But the next one Is Herr Muller's house; ard this Is mine. Confusion to you!" shouted Herr Mayer, with simulated anger, while inwardly in-wardly laughing at the chopfallen painter. "Blank the blankety-blank-blank-blank!" audibly sighed the latter. "There's nothing for me to do but to calcimine the right house to-morrow and charge the Herr household, Herr Muller, for two days' work, is there, sir? What do you say to that?" "Why, nothing at all!" laughed Herr Mayer, and he vanished within his own door, smilirg like the open face of a Waterbury watch. From the Fligende Blaetter: Translated Trans-lated by Vanbenort Dupree in the New York Times. Booth Tarkingtcn's Picture. . Booth Tarkir.gton, the novelist, always al-ways sketches bis stories in pictures before he writes them in words, and all of his stories lie hidden away in picture form. He is unwilling to show these drawings even to intimate-friends. intimate-friends. His publishers have urged him to allow them to use his own drawings for illustiation of his books, but he wouldn't hear of it, wouldn't even let them see any of the pictures. At last he promised them one of the Vanrevel sketches, but he was canny enough not to send it until too late for insertion in the book. About tho supplementary autograph edition he did not know. The picture came in time to be clapped into that and there it is, to the author's dismay. Unique Vacation Trip. Bishop Leighton Coleman of tha Protestant Episcopal church of Delaware, Dela-ware, has just returned to his tome in Wilmington, having completed his annual vacation tramp. Every year the bishop dons a rough Bu t of clothes and starts on an expedition of this kind. His latest tour, wa.s 200 miles in the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, all on foot. He travel;? incognito, stopping over night wherever he finds it most convenient and mingling with all sorts of people. New England Fish Harvest. The total harvest of sea fish scld at Gloucester and Boston, which art the principal markets, during the past year, officially reported, amounted to 162.218.921 pounds, worth $4,3r?r.,102. of which the Newfoundland bank:! produced pro-duced more than 65,000,000 ponnds, while the grounds off the New England Eng-land coast yielded nearly 97,000,000 pounds. Christmas Cards Popular. Fiity thousand Christmas post cards designed and printed in London have been ordered for t.ale on the continent. Increased Use of Coke. Coke, a byproduct in the manufacture manufac-ture of gas, has increased 200 per ceai in price in five re 'r' r - V im n. j ii j-" . J3 n |