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Show w e SCIENTIFIC TOPICS. and across the Aunncan isthmus, nmd A TENDER WAR SONG. the great rivers, Amazon, Orinoco, Niger, Nila and Congo, arise in these rain-soakCURRENT NOTES Or DISCOVregions, which are like exhaust- -: THE VACANT CHAIR IS POPUless reservoirs. Tha cause of the equaERY AND INVENTION. LAR AGAIN. torial ckmd-be- lt is connected with the trade-windand is the course of a IN HUM Cumm Eror Ball Ttkta year it oscillates north and south over Fathatt CInumIum , Attaadlof tk. BU Plata Wu hy rtaa Fact A Haw s distance equal to about three times its Writing of Tkk BMrt4Uf(l BiBa far Cm la tha Xavy Various own breadth. BtlM SktMk ( Bury S WatSkun, laaaattaaa. tk. Aithor. ed s, Ta Bara Taatk Lika Pearl. The reckless manner in which most leople abuse their teeth is enough to ak their worst enemy remonstrate with them. The care of the teeth should be begun in babyhood, a soft toothbrush being used twice a day by whoever has care of the infant. As soon as the first teeth loosen the child should be taken to a dentist to remove them, so the new teeth will have room. After this periodical visits should be made to the dentist. A child should never be allowed to bite bread of crack nuts with his teeth, for it is likely to chip the enamel. The teeth, to be kept in proper order and to look white and immaculate, should not pnly be brushed night and morning, but after every meal in the day. The toothbrush must be rather hard and you must provide yourself with two or three of various shapes, so as to keep the teeth in proper condition, as you cannot properly dean every tooth unless you have a brush that is especially constructed to reach the back corners In your mouth. A toothbrush should be well washed in clean fresh water and either soap or ammonia used now and then to clean it with. It muat be remembered thatAo take too hot drinks or eat too hot food Is very bad, Indeed, for the teeth. The rapid transition from heat to cold is the worst possible thing that could happen to them and often causes cracks and disease of the teeth. If vinegar la taken with one's food or medicine in which is any kind of iron, steel or any acid, the teeth not only should be well brushed afterward, but the medicine taken through a glass tube. M(mI Camera Ever BeUA the photographic exhibition at tha Oystal palace, London, there was shown what is undoubtedly the largest camera ever made. The camera was over six feet high; it takes a plats six feet by five feet, but this else caa only At he utilized for line work and ordinary copying, as the Levy screen, necessary for the half-ton- e process, can only be obtained up to about forty by thirty inches. It is Intended that tha back part should be built into the partition wall of the dark room, so that the latter would really form the dark slide, otherwise a holder of sufficient dimensions would be extremely heavy and cumbersome. By Inclosing the rear of the camera as a dark room, the plate would be placed directly Into the back part of the camera, being held In position by adjustable bars, which taks any size from whole plate up to the full capacity of the camera. Tha full extension of the camera was twelve feet, so that when using a lens of about sixty inehes principal focus, it is possible to copy same size as the original. To provide for the use of lenses of shorter foci the middle body of the camera is provided with a plate holder and by means of s door in the side the operator can enter. This part of the camera forms a little room about seven feet by three feet, in which at least two persons can stand and watch shall meet but we shall miss him; There will be one vacant cbalr; We shall linger to caress him, When we breathe our evening prkyer." ' On the 25th day of July, 1843, there Was born in the beautiful colonial home of his parents in Worcester, Mass., John Wiliam Grout, a boy whose short life endeared him to all who knew him, and whose death in the defense of his country gave rise to one of the tenderest and most beautiful of all the melodies of war. Young Grout grew to manhood's years in the city of Worcester, sad from the very beginning of the war he was eager to volunteer, hut was kept from doing so at first by the pleadings of his parents, who felt that he was too young to begin such service, and who felt that the war would bo brief. But as the call for troops became more urgent they gave ta their consent, and when the Fifteenth regiment was organized young Grout became a member of It and received the commission of second lieutenant of company D, a rare honor for one so young to bear. But he was well versed In military tactics and capeble of filling the position better thsn many far older men could have filled it, and he was one of the foungeet. If not the youngest, commia- Massa-chuset- RAT WITH A WOODEN LEO. giving day. I wrote as if be had bean A MYSTERY. SOLVED. my boy, kni because I could not help How aa laveatlv MS llama FfcOaSdl It Musing aipoo the matter la a reBar Fitted Out a OrtspM Rt fUa walk, short tired distance from my RIVER GIVES UP BODY OP A A rat with a woodea kg la a curio residence, I jotted down the words aa GIRL. YOUNQ curioattlea go nowadays. Tsj tty, they cam ta me, and copying them aa such animal can be seen any da as now stand, with hardly a verbal they alteration. I gave the verses to the Bar DlMppMnaM LmI Barak Raw at the residence of a man named Dog Aaaoaatad Far A Story of Iaa more, in the southwestern section of Worcester Spy, hearing only my ini&. W.' H. I Do.po.tr aoS rMly Viwl Ead of the city. About a month ago WlllU had no thought of tials, Dugmora, a lad of 11 years, found tht GaUty Lora. the poem attaining the popularity it little rodent in a trap in the cellar, haa enjoyed. N . a maddened Hla first Impulse wu to brain the peel The poem came to the notice of the Annie Burk- with a baseball bat, but the rat looked state T, muWho Root, set it to late Georgs him eo pleadingly that Willies heart 16 ett, years old, on at sic, and very soon it was being sung wu touched, and he decided to take 10 March last by many camp fires and in thousands the trap to an adjoining vacant lot and herself threw into It would be to homes. of Impossible liberate the animal. This he did, hot the Conemaugh estimate the number of copies of It that instead of scampering off, u he exwaa and river have been mid, but. as has been tbs drowned. The body pected, the rat limped painfully up ta ease with some other immensely popuwas not discovered him and began to lick hla hand, WlllU lar songs, this very large sale brought until the other then discovered that one of the ani- -no pecuniary profit to the author of mal's jegs had been almost severed b Vacant nearly morning, h! of Chair" bemuse "The the trap. Taking tha rat home, he cut from weeks nine to failure copyright it. Indeed he did the lag off and then bandaged tbi not receiv even the credit due him the time the deed wu committed. The details of the story, if they were wound.us!n as a liniment a little vasetor writing the song since it was publine. He then put the rat into a cage lished over the Initials of his namt made public, would be simply a dis- and nursed it for a week. He then freclosure as read of of life such is only and when set to music by Ur, removed the bandage and found that been had The dead quently. girl W WashRoot appeared without Mr. Robert the wound bad .completely healed, "keeping company" witk u -- burns name, so that In many homes in which the long was sung and loved the real name of the author is not known. Indeedj in some instances. Mr. Root has received credit for both the music and the words. Mr. Washburn, now la hla 85th year, is a resident of the beautiful Brookllns district of Boston The ptetura given of him was taken on the sixtieth anniversary of his marriage, in November last, Mr. 'Washburn and h Is wife sitting for their photographs on that day. It was not until three or tour years ago that Mr. Washburn published hla poems in book form. PRESIDENT OP SOROSIS. .Mrs..Mry Dame HalL president Sorosts, hu Innocently created a truly terrible sensation among the members of tha famous womans club. Boros la Floating Docks. In very early days ships of any size were docked by grounding them at high water and then waiting for the tide to recede, work being proceeded with until the tide again rose. This method was Improved upon by hollowing out a berth or small basin, and then, when the water was down, a temporary dam would be made across the entrance to the basin where the ship lay, so that work could go on uninterrupted by the rising tide. This was the origin of the graving dock, the essential factor of which was the existence of the rise and fall of the tide, and it is due to the absence of tide that we owe the original floating dock. The almost tideless shores of this country make it the nursery of the floating dock, but it was in the Baltic see that the first floating dock was tried. In the time of Peter the Great the captain of a British ship, finding that his vessel in - Cronstadt harbor was in want of docking, and that, owing to. the Absence of tide, the then orthodox method was impracticable, obtained a hulk called the Camel, and, completely removing her decks and Internal work, eut oft one end and fitted it with a gate. He then beached his ship inside the hollow hull of the Camel, closed the gate, and pumped the water from its inte rlor. the operation of focusing the Image and exposure. The lens fitted to this camera is of the symmetrical type, specially made for copying purposes. It works at and has an equivalent focus of sixty inches. The prince of Wales inspected this remarkable camera with much interest. f-- Electric Mail Delivery. -- er six-pou- Barn In Rwl Since Mr. C. E. Trlpler of New York has perfected his apparatus for liquifying air, scientists have been able to make carious experiments, as the liquid air can be secured in large quantities, says the Scientific American. When a dishful of the liqnld air is dipped from the can it boils so violently that drops of it are projected some distance. The liquid is blue in color, and a burn from It takes about six months jo heaL Ths picture shows how steel may be ignited in the liquid oxygen. It is only necbrass and the glass it acts as a non- essary to stick ths point of a steel pen is conductor and consequently, there into a match, light It, and thrnst the very much less heat conducted than Whole into the liquid air, to furnish there would belt the brass and glass sufficient beat to communicate the fire were not intercepted, to the steel. i Tfc F.Ftk' The Clead-Bal- t, A write? In TCnoi ledge makes a viv- id picture of the great belt of clouds, some 800 mile in breadth, which surrounds the earth a little north of tha equator. Within this belt rains almoet Incessantly falls, sometimes in sheets, and the wind seldom stirs. Before tha invention of steamships, vessels besometimes calmed in the "cloud-be- lt drifted helpless for weeka Even now the crossing of this belt, where everything is surcharged with moisture, is a disagreeable experience for voyagers going from the north to the sooth Atlantic ocean, or vice versa. The belt can be traced across equatorial Africa Bay., - It is estimated, says Science Sifting that the earth receives not more than h one part of the total radiation of the suns rays. If any considerable proportion ef this heat were concentrated upon the earth it would not only become uninhabitable, bnt become speedily consumed. If the great accumulation of Ice at the north pole were placed at a point on which this tremendous heat could be focused it would melt at the rate of 300,000,000 cubic miles of solid ice per eecond; and the heat ia estimated, as mechanical energy, at the rate of about 10,000 horsepower to every sqnsre foot of surface. thousand-milliont- - u The Tat wu, however, unable to walk, -and Willie decided he would make fot it an artificial down to ths lng cellar, he obtained a piece of pine, and after some whittling succeed edjumak-- , lag a leg. ThU he fastened on with a string, and wu delighted to seejtha ' hla plan was entirely successful. The rat it sow ths family pet and can be a any day hobbling about tbe kitchen or teasing a little Irish terrier, of which it hu made a lifelong friend. Philadelphia Times. leg-Go- PROGRESS OP CIVILIZATION. . The portrait given below of a Swazia testimoland belle ia instructive nial to the benefits conferred by the spread of civilization. Swaziland comprizes a ' comparatively - email native stale In aouth east Africa, wbfch, until, the Zulu war, wu left very much to Its u f f. a j us Ia Geneva a novel system for delivering letters in high apartment houses is to be tried. On the ground floor is arranged a cabinet having as many compartments and boxes as there are floor. In the house. When a fetter la depoeited in any box. it makes a contact which rings a bell cm the corresponding floor. Tbs bell can only be stopped by the removal of the letter. The same current that rings the bell opens a valve connected with n water tank In the top of the house. Here are located cylinders attached by pords and pulleys to the letter boxes and so arranged that when they are filled with water they will serve to haul np the letter box and its contents to the proper floor. When the box arrives, ths letter is automatically dumped into a stationary receptacle and at the same time the cylinder is discharged of its water. For Cm 1b Damp Plseoa. The English electrical papers are de- The letter box then descends to the lowlamp shown in the er floor, the bell stops ringing and it scribing the dry-ca- p illustration, which is specially recom- remains in position waiting for the next mended for use in damp places or out- visit of the postman. side lighting. The lamps are specially suited for mines, pier lighting or damp DntfwIclimSw Rifle. cellars, where it has been found that Here is a toy for the navy one softens the after of the plaster parls which some of the navys men would lamps have been in use for a little enjoy playing with in the neighborhood time. The cap Is attached by means of of the Spanish flotilla. It is a Dregges-Schroeda brass disk and is fastened to the rifle. It can fire prepared thirty-thre- e glass bulb by specially shots a minute and Its procement, which is thoroughly damp-proo- f, can pierce three inches of steel and the leading-i- n w ires are per- jectile of three miles. a distance at fectly free, so that the lamp has an air It is a new gun which has just been insulation in the Interior of the cap. on the revenue cutter Gresham, It is Important to note that although placed of Gunner Finn, be in will It there is sn air insulation, by using the who has beencharge on the old cutter Anthin layer of cement between the drew Jackson and on the Gresham for twenty-si- x years. The Gresham has rifle, but she only one could easily increase her armament by four or five more. She haa a speed of twenty-on- e miles an hour. But her chief weapon of offense is her torpedo tube. Brendllnger, 21 years old. The mother of the girl disapproved of this, and finally the girl told her mother a pathetic The mother then sternly Instory. sisted that the- intimacy should cease. The girl wu young and wayward, and wu Dot inclined to take her mother's advice. The lover wu persistent in his attentions, and his sweetheart was not averse to them. On the evening of March 10 Brendllnger accompanied the girl home from a revival meeting which wu In progress at Lockport, Westmoreland county, where the parties lived. He wu not permitted to enter the house, and Ahnte wu forbidden any further intercouae with him by her mother. The girl wee furiously enraged at thla command from her parent, and Brendllnger departed. The mother locked the doors of the house, fearing thafAnnle would atshe tempt to elope with her lover, had imagined that they had made a plot to that effect. The gtrl meanwhile had returned to her room, changed her dress, and then broke into the room where her mother, her eldest lister, Maggie, and her youngest brother.aged 7, were sitting, and sprang through a window, screaming as she fled: I will drown myself." The mother did not regard the threat seriously, and It was not until the lapse of an hour or two that the family became alarmed at the prolonged absence of their favorite girl. A search wu then commenced. The Tlverwas but a sbort dl stance away. There were various ways of waters reaching the of the ConemaOgh from the Burkett homestead. Each one of the paths wu carefully followed that night, but not a trace of the unfortunate girl could bo- - found. The next day .the alarm wu raised. The river wag dragged for a mile each way, up and down, but no body wu found. As the days lengthened into weeks various rumors were circulated, ft was reported that Annie bad been seen in Johnstown, Moxham, Indiana, New Florence, Plttaburg and other placet. The developments made lately proved all these stories to have been false. On the night she sprang from the window of her home Annie bed fled to the river, thrown herself in, and had been drowned. The recent heavy rainfall caused the river to be greatly swollen, and the body of the girl wes caught np by the ewlft current and carried to the surface. It was first noticed at CokevlHe, and the parties who uw It made pursuit, and it wu brought to shore about a mile below Blalrsvllle. It presented - a shocking appearance after its nine weeks submergence in the river, bnt could still be recognized. , A brother, the mother and a sister identified the remains, on which were found eome Jewelry, a black skirt, waist The body and shoes and stocking!. had evidently sank to the bottom of the stream after the final struggle for life and remained there until the rushing waters brought it to jhe surface nine weeks later. The mother and sister, who, for over two months, had lived in an agony of suspense, mingled with hope and fear, and who had used every means in their power of ascertaining the fate of thllr loved one, when brought to the place where the remains were, manifested a grief which wu heartrending HENRY S. WASHBURN. loned officer in the Union army, not yet having reached his nineteenth year. Soon after its organization young Grouts regiment was ordered to Pootsvllle, Md and on the 21st of October, 1861, he lost his Ufo at the conflict of Balls Bluff, 'after displaying the most remarkable calmness and courage in seeking to repulse the enemy. One writer has said in his account of the conflict: The coolness, and courage of Ueut. Grout were noticed by his comrades with astonishment, and greatly stimulated the courage of othdra. When the day was lost, and they wife forced to retreat to the riTer, he seemed to be ntterly regardless of himself An his desire to have the wounded conveyed to the opposite shore. To hla honor let it ever be remembered that he crossed the stream in safety with a boatload of sufferers, and seeing them safely landed, returned, to render like assistance to others, and continued to do so until he was. obliged to plunge into the stream to save his own life. He had reached the middle of the river when he exclaimed to a comrade at his side: Tell company D I could have reached the shore, bnt I am shot and must sink, and he disappeared from sight Several weeks later his body was recovered and placed In Rural cemetery. Worcester, and a splendid monument erected oVer' it Young Grout was a visitor .at frequent and the home of Henry, S. Washburn, of Worcester, and the young soldier and son were intimate Mr. Washburns friends and companions. - When, the newt of the yonpg lieutenants death reached Worcester It created great sorrow in many' homes and caused Mr. Washburn to write "The Vacant Chair." Speaking of the song, Mr. Washburn says: My writing of The Vacant Chair was entirely unpremeditated, It grew out of the Interest I took in Grout aa a promising young officer, the Intimate companion of my on. Deploring deeply his death at the very threshold ofvkffillltary, career, and knowing that he would be missed so tenderly at the fireside and table of bis family, on the approaching Thanks- - if made into marble, would be very like NIobe. Mr. Hall has nervous prostration and Sorosls lr in despair. It was a wily, mean maker of shoes that is the cause of it all. A man-j- ust a common cobbling man is M tha bottom of SoroslB woes. This veritable genius of a shoemaker sent, some months ago, several pairs of shoes to Mrs. HalL That lady accepted them. They were a good fit, well made, and in every respect desirable. Then, too, the foxy shoemaker told Mrs. Hall that since she liked the shoes he would name the make Sorosts. She wrote in reply that she was glad, since the shoes were to hear the Sorosts name, they were like their namesake, broad, good and solid. Soon afterward there appeared on a great, vulgar page of some pblllstlnlan dally paper an advertisement of the Sorosls shoe," together ever-weleo- Mary dame hall. Dame Hall S Uh a fac eimlle of Mary note! Thla advertisement spread everywhere and was blazoned In shop windows jn colors. Sorosls held a meetings several meetings in fact-- end found that Jt could not sue or estop the tradesman in his enterprise. He apologized, but refused to withdraw the advertisement Sorosls must continue to suffer or drop its beloved and hitherto .untarnished name. A Tepllts old lady of 89 hu committed suicide by holding her faesjL down in a tub of water because ehe did not want to live to be 100 years old. " b wa zroraL. ' own devices. By the convention of 1894, Swaziland wu placed under the beneficent rule of President Kruger, Up Jto the commencement of the Zulu campaign the damsels of this charming country were believed to take their walk abroad clothed In their beauty and a imlle. Today all this is changed, and the costume which hu been adopted will be seen to be well suited both to tbe wearer and the climate. Tbe young lady who ut for thla portrait wu at ths time engaged on her domestic duties; hence the apron, which, it le scarcely necessary to say, does not form part of the customary society costume. "The Swazi men evince a marked respect and admiration for their womankind, and indeed take an extreme delight in their society, shown by tha fact that they, a rule, marry several of them. A very curious custom which obtains among the race is that known as "ukuhlonipa," by which women are prohibited from mentioning the name either of their husband or thejr husbands relatives. In order to meet this difficulty In dally Intercourse, the ladle use names of their own invention, most of which consist of a series of click made by suddenly releasing the tongue from the lower palate. u RstM WbUkera ta tk u Fence. girls The patriarchal beard of one of the "oldest Inhabitants of Conshohocken Is still in its accustomed place upon his "and rag-re- d. chin, but it looks moth-eate- n .Thla la due to the tact that the old man is extremely To see an object plainly he is compelled to get bis optics within a few Inches of It The other day, while pottering around hia house, the old man undertook to repair a picket fence around the yard. Many of the palings had been knocked off, and these it wu hla purpose to replace. - He armed himself with a hammer and nalla and started in. He got his first paling in place, and with much labor succeeded in fastening it there. But this was not all. When he started to move on to the next break he was brought' up standing with a yell of pals. He had nailed, his whiskers between the .palings and the crossbar. Hts yells attracted the attention of his good wife, who, when eh realized the situation, brought her scissors Into play and released tbe old man, minus a considerable portion of his beard. PhlladeL phla Record- - Among the multifarious duties which demand the attention of the Calcutta police tbe capture of sharks in the Hooghly finds a place. During the put twenty years reward have been paid for the' destruction of those marine s, and recently tbe Bengal government laid down a scale for these ' ' payments., Blntlere of HUtorte Valuta man owns a most unique assortment of piece of blotting "paper, collected by his father, who wu long an official of the White Hoc each of which bears, reversed, the signature of a president, from Gen. Harrison, who died a month after hla election In 184L to Garfield. On one sheet, the most highly prized of the lot. the lut official letter signed by President Lincoln wu blotted before he wu a sassinated by Booth. - r c jr-- near-sighte- d. I -- Al J ANNIE BURKETT, in the extreme. Two of the coroners jury were eo affected that they were compelled to leave-- the room. - The Jury rendered a verdict of suicide, hut expressed no opinion, save that of famto the causes leading to ily troubles, the unfortunate ending of the young u life. la said that Brendllnger hu completely disappeared from the scene of the tragedy in - which he wu to principal a figure. It Potto man-eater- as Stark rttrlmz ' A Philadelphia r |