Show talked of in new york the sport of ballooning the fanner given new cause to dislike the motor folk money made in performing seals to be applied to saving mens souls politics in new york NEW YORK balloon ascensions are becom ing so frequent in hew york as to have ceased to be a novelty yet they are by no means so corn mon place as not to excite intel est last week revealed the spectacle of a whole stock exchange of eager if somewhat overheated speculators turning into the street to see a balloon sailing southward as it to invade the financial section wall street has scarcely ever been u excited by anything short of a real money crisis the balloon in question was on an interesting mission it appears that the balloon men on get ting down to the fine points of the science and leo stevens has been experimenting like dr thomas and others on sea anchors the pur pose of the sea anchor is to diminish the danger which every balloonist in or near new york baa occasion to fear the danger of being carried out to sea by a wind unforeseen at the time of the ascent or by the failure of the valve rope the sea anchor is a conical canvas bucket which hangs at the ends 0 two ropes one of which supports it from a handle and the other which dumps it by attachment to the bottom with the bucket filled the flight of the balloon is checked if the balloonist desires to bo treed he has but to pull his dumping rope to empty the bucket which then leaves the water freely both stevens and dr thomas seem satisfied with their sea anchor ex perl ments though not unaware it may be sure that there is many a slip mrs knabenshue has been saying that ballooning Is an ideal sport for women but despite the tremendous vogue of ballooning in france the number of women in isea york continues to be comparatively small the ie continues to hold the lead although it sometimes appears a scarcely less dangerous sport THE MOTH AND THE HE speaking of automobiles reminds me that the new york state entomologist has just made a rather sensational announcement that the de va stating gypsy moth Is being brought into the state by automobiles at the first reading this sounds as it the dainty creatures were being imported in a fash conable way like so many pampered gueits but the real purpose of the announcement Is to re mind the farmers ol 01 the state that ahe dreaded auto has a new power to annoy in that gypsy moth ride uninvited into our domain by becoming lil e so many human creatures at cached to motor cars the gypsy moth Is set forth as a ravenous leaf feeder that has been particularly destructive in eastern massachusetts it feeds when pres ent in large numbers on almost every tree and shrub besides herbaceous plants its operations are particularly fatal to pine hemlocks and other since one defoliation of these trees Is invariably followed by death the more recently imported brown tall moth Is said to be especially destructive of fruit trees danger is spreading in new york cries the entomologist by inter ence it Is spreading westward whether by automobile or otherwise it will find its way westward unless something radical Is done to fight the cater fillers which are declared to be particularly hard to dislodge and kill hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent by new england fight tag the pests who came to massachusetts la 1868 the birds most useful in the fight are the yellow and black billed cuckoo the baltimore oriole the cat bird chickadee blue jay chipping sparrow and robin FROM SHOWMAN TO PREACHER this city has just witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of a man for years devoted to the show business a master of his craft turning his whole time and fortune to the salvation of souls everybody I 1 suppose has heard of capt joseph george woodward master of the perform ing seals capt woodward s trained seals were real wonders they played in a band they jug aled counted performed all manner of curious and singularly intelligent tricks they did every thing oae might say but speak it was no exah aeration ge ration to speak of them as the most intelligent animals on earth the seal Is notoriously intel legent but it was under woodward a astonishingly successful training that these seals made their hit these seals for exploiting which woodward received a week have been sold for 10 I 1 am told it this figure Is correct woodward now has a fortune of about 70 the whole of this sum the showman Is to devote to his Ilfe work the conversion of his tel to the paths of re llalon every showman every circus player or vaudeville artist who has ever been associated with woodward has known of his religious trend and not one of these people will be found to say a word against his sincerity when woodward held a religious meeting between the sessions of a show nobody scoffed or it he did he remained to pray it was a habit of woodward to give away small bibles with certain sages marked these markings were not the same in every case and those who received the books soon discovered that in making the markings wood ward had been influenced by what he regarded as the particular needs of the person to whom he gave the gift that a man could follow the life woodward has here in new york and la other parts of the country without ridicule and without rebuff Is a and striking tribute to his sincerity and to his tact he Is now going to england to pursue there the work of an evangelist A WAITING GAME IN POLITICS politics Is playing a waiting game new york is very hot of course and everybody Is away but Is some very hard thinking the democrats see their way clearer than the republicans though no man seems to know how many democratic and semi democratic tickets are to be in the field mr hearst will run for governor and support mr bryan for the dency the so called bargain is pretty well venti by this time but then there Is mr jerome and there are others many others the republicans are getting together but they are getting together in groups mr platt who has just been having a seventy third birth day and who declares that he Is all right except for his legs Is said to be relaxing in some of his hospitality toward the man who challenged his leadership of the state ex gov odell the talk of platt and odell getting together to fight gov higgans and any administration favorites Is possibly tar fetched but there will be instances of strange bed fellows before the fall campaign Is over new york has got to have a new governor or to reelect the present in there aie the usual hordes of aspirants nothing has occasioned more talk in and out of political circles than the sun s mysterious declara alon that the next governor of new york will be a democrat and that the next governor of new york will be the next president of the united states what does this meana many thousands of answers have been offered meanwhile comes the preparation tor a great reception to william jen aings bryan theodore roosevelt Is fishing and romping with his boys at oyster bay THE VARIOUS ingenuities OF FASHION women are becoming more and more ingeni ous for instance they aro doing without hats very largely at present and feathers and other devices in their hair this may be because hairdressing Is becoming increasingly elaborate and expensive also the high coiffure Is coming in higher and higher rises the crowning glory not in a simple pompadour abed by a single rat as heretofore but in one terrace ol 01 hair after another into a final gorgeous tuft it is wonderful is it not and then the elaborate ti i ench petticoat fash ion is coming in the fancy petticoat that puts a premium on the lifted skirt it Is no longer the fashion at the muddy place to lift both skirt and petticoat no the petticoat Is short and tul more beautiful and expensive than the skirt and the dress alone Is lifted thia Is the latest decree last here Is the new fad foi hiring clothes certain feminine costumers have devised a plan by which they can rent dresses for several weeks long enough for a stay at i fashionable watering place or at two or three for that matter dresses so rented even it slightly soiled can be mended and pieced for a new rental you dont get tired of your dress and you have a moie expensive outfit than you could otherwise afford to wear the owner gets a big profit out of a few rentals and gets the dress back with possibilities of re mal ing and re using of costly lace etc moreover bridal gowns arc rented and frequently the bridal gown Is only needed for a single occasion and why buy onea the philosophy of thia scheme seems quite unanswerable to a man anyway philosophy or no pauo scoby the practice grows OWEN |