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Show SINK-HOLE- IN S KANSAS. Mysterious Depressions In the Western " Part of the State. : - . An Interesting phenomenon In West, rn Kansas is described and pictured In a recent report of the United States geological survey. One of the natural curiosities of the great plains region known as the Meade salt well, in Southwestern Kansas. It made Its appearance very suddenly in 1889, states the New York Sun. On March 3 In that year the famous Jones and Plummer cattle trail extended right over the spot where this depression was soon to appear. A wagon 'passed along the trail over the level rround. It is not known that this spot was seen again until 23 days later, when It was found that the ground for a considerable area had sunk into the tarth and the hole was partly filled with water from an underground source. The cavity was circular, and the tracks of wagons and cattle on the trail were still plainly seen on either side of the hole. A considerable area around the hole had bbeen depressed to a smaller extent. .;. .remains today, and on . The sink-holeither side of it are still to be seen the road ruts and cattle trails along which for years scores of thousands of ranch cattle , were driven from Northern Texas Into Kansas. There were very few routes of travel across this wide plain. But the accident to the surface occurred on the most Important of them. Those who studied this depression were surprised to And that the water In It was very salt, although the ground water in the neighboring wells contained not a trace of salt. It was also found that this saline water had at times a high temperature, closely approaching the boiling point. The geologists as yet have not been able to explain either the saltiness or the high temperature of the water. It was also found that there were two distinct layers of water, the upper layer, three feet thick, being much less salt than the lower layer, which was six feet in depth. Today the depression measures 2C0 feet across the top and 12C feet across the surface of the pond, which is nine feet deep; the distance from the bottom of the water to the level of the house plain Is 40 feet. A good-sizehid In be the away depression. might The geologists say that the Meade Bait well is only the most striking of for there are the Kansas many other depressions of similar feature la the state. Large sections of the high plains which stretch across the western part of Kansas are fairly pitted with large or small saucer-lik- e depressions, sometimes so near together that a stone may be thrown from one to another. Many of these sinks are shallow, but itbers are deep, like the salt well hero described. The depressions are so numerous that farmers are talking of utilizing them for the storage of the tprlng rains, and thus conserving the water that falls into them for irrigation purposes. It may be worth while to make them serviceable In this way, for Irrigation is all that the great region needs to make It wonderfully fere THE TEASEL. BATTLE BETWEEN SNAKES. Blue Racer Needed It Is a Rattler for'DInnef and Enjoyed Catching It. "Snakes," said a native of the Young Women's Town district of the Pins creek spread of waters, "is curious crlctters. an' some. kind of snak, if course. Is curlouser than others. in their "Now, 6nakes with pizen teeth ain't half so sudden as thera tht F? count-len- s It Kitty Oh. yes, he did. Cat of course you know Harry's taste in pictures Isn't anything to brag about Boston transcript Have Astringent Principles. ee , Sun. dTt with the commander-ln-chl- f In Acre Gen. Aroyas shll "t1 ig'-- e! rf thn Brazilian forces place until that the authorities r.ave se.tkd dispute. Wlsdom's Whispers. but the finest points they can make are rough and Jagged compared with the points which nature puts on the teasel burr, and which are necessary In producing the proper nap on the fine-hoo'V- ed cloth. 'The teasel Is sown in the spring as the ground is ready, and the is left to grow till the frost kills plant It down. The root remains, and the the plant grows from Eeason following this and bears .the burrs,, which are cut In August basketed and wagoned to sheds, where they are housed and trimmed ready for market An acre of ground will produce from 150,000 to 200,000 teasels, running ten pounds to the thousand, although I have seen them worth as much as $5 a thousand. I remember buying 3,000,000 teasels at 50 cents a thousand from a man who had held them twenty-on- e years and had at one time refused $2.50 a thousand for them. They require three of four weeks of dry: then they are trimmed,. the stems cut to about six Inches, and then are parked in boxes. 40.000 to the box. The burrs vary in length from an inch to six inches, and they are designated by 'Mediums' and sizes as 'Buttons,' an inch to an from of those 'Kings,' inch and a ball being choice. . A great many are shipped abroad, and several years ago I sent lot to Moscow. "Some people say the 'bill thistle' and the teasel are the same, but If they will examine the two they will find that the prongs of the real wild teasel are straight while thoee of the real thing are hooked, which is all the difference In the world for the work they have to do. In the woollen mills a teasel will last about twentyf jur hours, and some of the big mills in New Englaad have used as high as 1,200.000 a day. but they don't uss them that way now. Very comfortable fortunes were mce made in teasel raining, too, but that time is past also. Most of the product Is used now Ij the making of blankets and coarse cloths. Skaneateles Is out of It, to a large extent, as Oregon has e Into the field with even a better teasel than we can produce, and we are turning our ploughshares to other uses. Any visitor to our town may see teasel farms and the teasel clippers at their benches snipping away with their scissors , but the busings Is no longer what it once was, and it isn't improving.'' soon as co-n- Kentucky Pardons. The feud problem In Kentucky has puzzled and amazed sociologist, reformers and religionist. It has never solved. The Implacable family hatreds that lead to such dastardly homicides nrm beyond the comprehension of most men. Beginning with the pardon record of Gov. John Brown, in December, 1S89, 1.131 persons, before they entered the penitentiary walls, have been pardoned of crimes of which they were convicted by the courts; 120 men sentenced to life Imprisonment have been set free after they served an average of seven and a half years, and 247 persons who committed some kind of also set free. Until the felony have Is taken from the govpower pardoning ernor and the courts are compelled by public sentiment to give a more rigid administration of law, there is little hope of wiping out this farm of lawlessness in Kentucky. Chicago Record-Heral- bn b-e- n d. tl : t;.'-Acrea- tion. Many substitutes for tea can be. found in any ordinary woods. The idea) is not a new one, for many country- ' vt Bolivia hs The ed to his co ntry after having tile. Culti- vated Around Skaneateles, N. Y. "What ever may be said of Skanea-teles- ," remarked Mr. H. Thurlow of that New York town of strange name, "it raises teasels, which for many years could not be successfully produced in iny other section of this broad land in ill sorts of products." Somebody wanted to know what a n' Kitty Harry Dix says you are pretty as a picture. Clara Non??T)r! He didn't mem s, Plant Once Extensively w, We have long known of the sink holes in the great cave regions of this country which are formed by water percolating through the limestone rocks, dissolving their mineral particles and thus carrylag the rock away In solution. No such explanation, however, can be given to the sink holo of Western Kansas. They are till constantly forming and are gradually lowering the surface over large areas, but how they are formed Is Dot jret fully determined. The atudy that has recently been tMde of them by the geological survey feeem to show that the settling Is doe la the smaller coius to the gradual compatclng of the soil particles by the percolation of water which colects from rain in particular spots and by the chemical solution and washing away of the more soluble particles which compose the ground. In the larger sinks which appear suddenly, like the Meade salt well, there iwems, however, to have been a caving In of the underlying rock bed, which Is thin In places and has probably been decomposed and carried away by the underground waters. sink-hole- TEA. How far a man should o ia a deThe Foliage of Flowers of Golden Rodj claration of love Is beyond calcula- inonly travels on their chape. teasel was. the blacksnake can git up stance, "It is a plant," continued Mr. Thur-ioand fight stlffer than a dried cllskin, "whose burr Is said to produce a notwlthstandln' that the rattler's got a toothful o' Juice that'd make even pile on cloth, and for certain kinds of a hippypottymus think he'd been hit by fabrics nothing has yet been found to take Its place. Forty years or more ago llghtnln if it was ever introduced into che teasel was in great demand, and as his system. they could not be raised anywhere ex"Some folks say that one snake won't cept in a small area about Skaneateles, swaller another one. Maybe it won't, the industry was very considerably but if I didn't see a big blue racer git within a radius of ten miles of my town. away with a rattler about, as slick as a Teasel raising began as long as eighty gray drake could bolt a sucker, I'll eat years ago and at one time it representyour hat. I was over along the creek ed a business of half a million dollars a huntln and heerd a rattlesnake off in year and over 500 people were engaged the scrub brushes, Just more than shak-l- In It Today not more than a hundred music out en his tail. I knowed are In It, and the amount has similarly that something more than common decreased. This Is owing rather to the must be goln' on. an I went over production of smoother cloth than the what it mowt be. I discovered a racer adoption of a substitute for the teasel, more than six feet long which had Just because, as I said, they cannot get a lunch off a rattler substitute for it. Steel has been tried, begun to take his to-s- "OR j half his length. "He had the pizen peddler's head In his mouth and was working the rent of him down to his tall and wrlggllr' like a skinned eel. I grabbed a stick and punched the racer until he spat the rattler out, and the rattler turned and started to go away In the brush. But the racer didn't caluculute to lose his dinner, not If he could help it He headed the rattier of every way he'd turn, till by and by the venemous critter stopped, throwing himself into a coll and showed fight. "Then there was fun! That blue took on as if he was havln more larks than a passel o' boys in swimmln'. He'd spring over that rattle snake and stride around him in circles and zigzag across him like a flashin' o' llghtnln'. The racer edged up to within easy distance of the rattlesnake, and though a rattler strikes about as quick as a gun goes off. that racer'd dodge the fang every time, sometimes passin' under the rattlesnake's head, and sometimes Jumpln' clean over it. "The pizen tooth varmint's eyes looked like two sparks o fire, and his tongue played In and out of his mouth like a sewing machine shuttle passln' to and fro. He had struck at the racer maybe a dozen times, the racer doin' the nicest kind o' ground and lofty tumblin' over him all the while, when he raised his head for another ugly dart, and the racer lassoed him as slick as a Mexican could 'a' slid his rope around the rattler's neck and he held the wrigglln ' fang shover as If he was in a vise. The rattlersnake's wind was soon ehct off. and it wasn't no use of his tryin to strike, for the racer had him so he couldn't turn his head. The rattlesnake gave up his squirm-In- ' before long, but he kept right on soundin' his buttons. Then you ought to seen the cuteness o' that blue racer blacksnake. He slid his coll up to the rattler's head and pinned bis mouth tight shet While he held the rattlesnake that way he th rowed hU own Jaws open, and they could a' took In a full size rabbit and then shoved the rattlers head In and closed down on It Then, slid In' his coll down the rattlr' body he crammed the whole business In after the head. 'The rattles never stopped rattlin till they disappeared In the blacksnake' maw. In a little more than ten minutes' that blue racer had pizen enough stowed away Inside of him to kill a team of tannery mules. It didn't kill him. though, and It wouldn't 'a'. Bat I flattened his head with a club sod took Bio and his contents borne. "Young Women's Town.wber I live used to be as good a place for rattlers as any In the state. I kin remember when you could hear 'em singing ny time 'f day, an' folks didn't think more of It than they do now o' hearin grasshoppers. For that matter, the snakes was a blame sight better than the grasshoppers, for they didn't do no harm. But nowadays you can on y hear a rattler sing wunst In a while, and It makes me lonesome when 1 old time." IjMdy think o them (Ta.) correspondent to the New York d FORESTS SUBSTITUTES A model wife is Judged from t&a way she looks after her home. Men think of retiring from business as a condition sure lo bring content folk made use of the substitutes in the days when the luxury of Chinese! tea was not so easily afforder as now. Before the Revolution, when the col-- i onlsts were in a turmoil over the stamp taxes. It was considered un-- , patrotic to drink tea that had paid tribute to the government and the so-- , called Liberty tea was the popular! drink. The four leaved loose strife was, no doubt, the herb from which this beverage was made possibly with the aid of various other herbs. This plant grows a foot or two high, and may be recognized by its simple upright stem, up-- ! on which the leaves are set in whorls, of four or five, the yellow starllkej flowers being produced on long, slcnd- ed stalks from near the base of the leaves. It is common to almost every, woodland. The leaves of the New Jersey tea. a low bush which grows everywhere ln( dry woodlands, and bears in June and' July a profusion of delicate white blooms, was also extensively used in the Revolution. An infusion of the leaves boils a bright amber colon and In looks is as attractive as tho real beverage; but the taste, thovgh astringent, ds by no means lively. Some effort has been recently made In commercial curcles to revive tha use of this plant as a substitute for tea. The leaves are said to contain about 10 per cent of tannin. Hemlock leaves and those of the arbor vltae have played an important part in the making of rustic tea. The arbor vltae is a that grows wild In great abundance In Northern woods, and the old time' Maine lumbermen used frequently to resort to Its leaves for tea when other herbage failed them for the purpose. It was thought to bo very Invigorating. The leaves of the wlntergrecn, a small plant, whose bright red berries, about the size of peas are sold on the streets under the name of teaberry, have long been used for tea. Fronr this it takes the name by which It Is, New known in Pennsylvania. for some unknown reason, call it checkerberry . The foliage Is very aromatic, and people who like a dash of splciness In their drink have sometimes added its flavor to real tea. It Is near of kin and simillar In taste to the creeping snow berry, a small delicate vine, abundant in the great bogs and mossy woods of the North and Alleghany regions, and this Is also approved by mountain palates as a substitute for tea. Thoreau, in "The Maine Woods, tells of his Indian guide bringing It into camp one night and recommending it as the best of all substitutes' for tea. "It has a slight ctcckerbt-rry-j flavor," he records, "and we both, agreed that It was better than tne black tea we had bought We thought! It a discovery and that it might bej dried and sold In the shops." The foliage and flowers of all golden-- ' rods are Imbued with an astringent) principle, and are moderately stlntu- lant, so that their suitability for the manufacture of a domestic tea wa recognized by the American colonhts: as long ago as when George III. wa king over them. One species, the fra grant leaved goldenrod, known omc--. times as Blue Mountain lea, possesse in addition the flavor of licorice. Drink piping hot In the wilderness, IQ makes a pleasant feature In the camp er's limited menu. This especial kind of goldenrod begins to bloom quite early In the sunnier and Is easy of recognition even by the non botanical, because of tlo, licorice perfume which the leaves give, out when rubbed. It Is a very common species In tie pine barrens if Jersey. The astringent Quality, In a greater or Ipss degree, Is possessed by nearly all these Hants. They also cor.taln considerable tannic acid In their makeup. These two quJitles go far to make tea the popuHr beverage It Is. icent. Most women are inclined to regarl themselves as being equal to aaj emergency. The ideal husband usually is only the creation of a fond wife's lmagtao tlon. When a woman is popular with ta men, Bhe shows little Interest In other women. The vices some men have are tat stiongest points In their make-up- . Woman can sanctify a sentlmeif, which is based more on thsory thaa fact. Mothers will find Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup the best remedy to use for their children durbg the teething period. Railway Ties of Shoe Leather The latest form of railroad ties Is xtade of leather. The scrap leather from shoe shops Is taken into a disintegrator, ground and molded. Tha tension of the molding machine can b.- so regulated that ties hard enough, to take a spike or tie through whlo a bpike cannot be driven can be pro duced. The three great essentials la a crcsstle are apparently found la this leather sleeper, for it Is guaranteel to ho'd k spike, the fishplate will not tp.Mnter In it and will not rot It in case of iright also be added elevated roads it may serve to aeadet" the noise of passing trains. Sample ties, which have already been dowf twenty-eigh- t months, fall to bhow thf least wear. - '"-e- o Eug--lander- Judge Parker a Great Worker. Judge Parker Is now 52 years of sge. He has scracely a wrinkle '.n his fece, the New York Times says, and his whole appearanoe is that of a strong man still in his prime. He looks like a man who had taken life easily. The fact is that all his life he has been a prodigious worker, and if tha marks of toll have not been left on h'a countenance or his frame the explanation of that marvel is to be found la his abstemious mode of living and the care which he has takea to keep hit phytlcal vigor unimpaired. His per-fehealth enables him to dispose of an amount of work which would break down an ordinary man. Since he became chief Judge of the court of appeals that court has shown an ability f- - dispose of a much larger number of cafes than ever before in its hijtory, and In aa address which he delivered before the state bar association a yeai aifo Judge John Clinton Gray attrlbr ted this Improvement to the ua wearying efforts of the present chief Judge." s, ci Gaylor "I hear that Smith Is ser 111; what Is the matter with let sly tlm?" Caylor "Conscience stricken I guess." Gaylor "Then be wi'! recover, all right" W. T. Stead has broken down nnJer the strain of publishing his new dlly paper in London, and has started for South Africa for a complete anger Guneo OIL. WITH SOOTH I NO. BALMY TVMf. 0nX TO, flat! t7)ea. C4or, F.T-PaaMta LMmmm WrtaS h4 ml Skla a4 A44nm r4 OR. BYLES.kmsCitr.Ul m lor K.T3ene Inebriety In becoming common In many cities. The boys climb upon the tank car, place their noss over the manhole, and thus Inhtle the fumes. The effects produced are similar to ttuse produced by alcohol: First a feeling of exhilaration, then a period of deep sleep. It la stated that In several lntancs boys, drunk from Ibcta funv-s- , bare betn taken to hospitals. Women comy'aln that they are when men stare at them, but yon may safely bet that not one of them wuld wear the Quaker garb to stop It good. lU BManfra Money may talk for some, bet ia the most of us It hardly bangs around long enough to be Introduce! jb-ncry- ed It Is harder work to h" a pood man than to make people believe you are rest i How's ThlsT We offer One Hundred Dollars Reward for any rase of Catarrh that cannot be cured by Hall's Catarrh Cure. F. J. CHENEY & CO., Props., Toledo, O. We, the undersigned, have known T. J. Cheney for the last IS years, and believe him perfectly honorable In all b'islness transactions and financially ?M to rarry out any obligations mads by their firm. WEST & TRUAX, Wholesale Drug gists, Toledo, O. KINS AN tt MARTIN, WALIINTJ, Wh'Jr-salDruggists, Toledo, O. Hall's Catarrh Cure is taken later-rja:i- r, artjfis directly upon the blood and nvco'is surfaces ef the system. Price 7.c pet little. Sold by all Drug-giSts-. Testimonials free. 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