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Show I fill I lit MIS w For Centuries Before the Christian x Used Egyptians and the Military Mist. 'll a place of peril tie fighting top 1$ the most in a heated action, cut Off aa ita occupants ate from all bettering armor and polled high and Clear M ft tempting targij for an bf ft modern I pored position man-of-w- It that guns. and swept overboard by the tempest of small shell can bring to bear that ahlps of y upoo unarmored parts of a foe, and the brave defenders must go to certain death without the chance of a bit quick-firin- g malt be torn away to-da- of floating spar, at In the olden days, to bold them up till succor come alter the fierce rush of conflict. Tba story of fighting top reaches jwny back centuries before the Christian era; In fact, back to the earliest time when war craft might pardonably be tailed ships by virtue of their successful struggle with wave and tempest; and, amid tbe rapid changes of It Is bard to trace tbe connection between those ancient craft with their rnde equipments snd the modern i battleship, fierce and strong, by right of tbe power ebe baa plucked of tbe earth tbe from howelt and turned to her own purposea of might and majestic dominance, Tbe carvings and drawings of tbe war craft of the anctent Egyptians and Asiatics, two thousand years before iCirlatr bear tbe embryo of .the mllt-jtar- y top perched et tbe masthead of tbe single spare that bore tbelr sails i then. It was merely a rough basket- like arrangement In which one or two !men might stand and assail the warriors of the foe where they crouched j behind the sheltering bulwarks of 'bucklers hung against the sides. Perch ed high above, tbe men In the "ga- ble," as later It was called, picked off, tbe enemy before ;llke (be could come aboard or tempted him Into open exposure and the conse-quencsuch rashness brought. Down, upon the foes deck tbe hurtling spear- was sent, while tbe top- men rested far above retaliation save from the enemys topmen, If be bad any. During the time of the naval struggles between the Greeks and the Romans, tbe fighting tops disappeared, lor tt was customary then to lower the meets and trust only to the great weepa or oare when going Into action. Strange as tt may seem the merchant wmlt stoeeowirW flghtln g tops then, and for- - tbe purpose - only 'of meeting the attack of pirates, with iwhom nearly every eea was then Infested. Thoe tops were not unltke casks, end, with two or three men In 'them,' could be holstcd'weli . up and Into position In time to be of service. Many of our large merchant llnars and all whalers carry a somewhat similar arrangement well up ou their masts ; and, from tbe crow's neat, aa It la now called, most of tbe lookout The Japanese have , duty ia now done. adopted something of the kind for their modern naval vessels and the cut of Chltosea mast la typical. the ' Aa the ships grew In power their masts bad to be heightened by splicing on additional spars, and to give spread for the stays and shrouds that held them in place, a platform was built at the top of the lower mast. There the archer and spearman found ample room for bis woik, and the Saxon chronicles jff that lusty writer, Sir John Froissart, In the latter part of the fourteenth century give as Borna Very Interesting accounts of the damage inflicted ripen the Front h. the Spanish, and the Genoese by the top- to-da- sharp-shooter- Era They Were metL of the BritDh ships. Down upon the fragile struituiea of wood they hurled great atones that bore down the foe in great bleeding masses, tore through their decks, opened their seams, and sent them to the bottoiu Iq a style that Sir John makes highly commendable. In the seventeenth century we find ve for the tbe tops brosd and open afier part, where a wooden breastwork wag roan d to shield the topmen, Why only the aft-- r part should have been singled out for protection is open for speculation, but It la not improbable that the sails before the mast covered to great extent the marksmen top and behind the mast only did they need supplemental protection. These wooden bulwarks In tbe tops were variously painted according to ihe nationality of the ship; snd for a couple of hundred years that style of top prevailed, and In form, square behind and rounded In front, still is in vogue vesIn modern sail powered naval sels: During all the frigate actions of the war of 1812 the sharpshooters In the tops of the various ships did excellent work, and there It was the marine showed what could be expected of him, even though he stood out with no lthe tbe stink balls, and th rocks of th past might b dismissed vug a shrug There Is but MUa doubt tht tb French bare set the pace for the modern fightiug top, and so luxuriantly lave their vessels developed these gicatbs In riotous profusion and vanities cf forms that it was no wondej j s soon beard of wanting stability ltj their ships. Their moat recent designs are decidedly moderated, but still bear the hall mark of great freedom With the French the Idea bar bees to cover entirely the positions of ths guns and the men In the tops to give the navigator a chance to guide hit ship In action from a point well abo$ the smoke of the guns,-and- , too. to bear aiort the searchlights. Wherever a Closed in top la found on hips of other nations It la of French inspiration. The British have almost exclusively held to an open or uncovered top the only real protection to either guns or men being the shields carried on the weapons themselves. With us the gunboats Wilmington and the Helena represent the greatest development of the military ma-- t. In all tt means for fighting and s'.roal pui poses, for conning the ship and foj the carriage of that great shining ev that Is to look far Into the Tin conning tower, so to speak, ls just below the lower top. and Ig reached through the body of the mast proper Just because of this. curious type ol mast, one of the enemy's large auxil lary cruisers took one of thee boat for a battleship the other day, and losl no time In hustling for the distant horizon. The national tendencies of the navies are marked by the military masts thetr recent vessels bear, and whether they seek their inspiration from Great Britain or Frame It is easy enough to tell. The Russians ars unsettled; Austria ls equally divided; ! ' ARft MADE. I TXoiMada of Moo, Worn a oaS Bog la tba loSutry. Are Employe One of tbe leading Industries In this country is the manufacture of "hats. At the present time fur felt hata are made In eleven stales namely: Connecticut. Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New jersey. New York, Pennsylvania aUd Rhode Island. There are In all more than 200 manufacturing plants producing hats for mens, boys', womens and childrens wear composed of the fur of the rabbit, beaver, nutria, and other animals. The Industry employes upward of 25,000 men, women and boys, and the approximste vAlue of the tut-pIs said to be 220,000,000 annually. Speaking of men's hats and their manufacture, a representative of one of the "Felt largest firms In this city said; bats Include the popular derby and the various styles of soft hats, all of which are made from animal furs, the natural coats of the coney; hare, nutria, muskTo manipulate the rat and beaver. ikies of these animals so as to properly prepare the fur for felting purpoeee ls to expert chemical operation, in fact, a trade In Itself, entirely distinct from that of hatmaking, and is carried on by hatters fur cutters in London, the worlds great center for that work. The art of the hatmaker Includes a knowledge of the particular fur or combination of furs for making a given quality of hata. The proportioning of the different furs requires the utmost exactness. The quality of product having been decided up ., the fur Is then cleaned and separated from stray hairs and all unfeltable substances. This initial process ls accomplished by a winThe dy machine called the devil.' next process, forming, consists of distributing by means of air currents a light coating of fur upon the outer surface of a revolving perpendicular cone, perforated with small holes. When fur covers the cone sufficient for one hat it ls wrapped In wet cloths and given a brief hot bath, then stripped from the cone, and, after the stopping process of adding a little fur to weak spots, ls wrapped with other cloths Inside a woolen cloth to harden It for handling. By a process called sizing, which consists of repeated Immersions In hot water, together with rolling and unrolling, folding and unfolding, the Its originmass ls reduced to al size. It U wonderful how each fiber will twist and Intertwine, basket fashion, with the other, until The product ls a closely woven mass. The body ls then shaved, to remove stray hairs in the fur, and then It ls stiffened with a coating of shellac, thoroughly dried, and then subjected to steam, which softens the shellac and draws It Into the fabric. When dried it ls immersed In a hot alkaline solution to free the surface from shellac and then In cold water to remove the alkalL Blocking succeeds stiffening. The fabric ls dipped In boiling water and placed on a block patterned for the final shape of the hat. . After the dyeing process comes that of finishing, which consists of steaming, blocking to shape the crown, drying, coating with a stiffening solution, drying again. Ironing out wrinkles, after which It ls pounced with emery paper and singed to remove the long nap, and oil applied to smooth the surface. The curling department cuts the brim to the desired width, rolls up the sides, and pitches the front and rear as the style demands. With the process of trimming, consisting of sewing bn the binding and band and cementing the lining, the derby ls finished. If a soft hat ls desired the stifNew York fening process ls omitted. Commercial. BUSTLING KEY WEST. WAR OF ud EL PARAL, SPAINS SUBMARINE TORPEDO BOAT. shelter other than a stray hammock or so hastily triced up for his protection. The first of our ships of the new navy had tops that were practically steel duplicates of those of the late war, and but for- - the presence of modern rapid-fir- e guns, were really of less defensive value than thoae of thirty odd years ago. It wasnt till we began to build our battleships that ' we really launched out Into regular modern military masts, and then we followed In principle the practices of the French. The modern mast on a fighting ship Is purely for military purposes, namely, on such ships that are without a spread of canvas of any sort, and its duty now Is principally for a service that wag once merely incidental to those of the sailing ship. To bear sigIts first mlobion, and then to nals guns carry an armament of rapid-fir- e with which to meet tbe attack of toro pedo boats, to sweep the open ports, and to enfilade the unprotected gun stations of an enemy. With Gatling guns pouring out a verb able rain of bullets at the rate of 2 OOP a minute, and with other heavier automatic guns capable of hurling a hundred or more of shell In the same time the modern military top It. someting to be considered where the hand grenade, 1 one-potn- d Germany leans toward the French, while the Japanese and the Italians fol low the English. ROBERT Q, SKEKRETT. ifrlMV AmImS Sea. t . Recent studies of the animal Ufa of Lake Tanganyika have shown that that lake differs from all other African lakes In possessing Inhabitants that belong to the oceanic species... Still, these singular , denizens of lake Tanganyika are not exactly like the marine organisms of the present day, and the conclusion Is drawn that a sea, connected with the open ocean, once occupied the parte of Africa where Tanganyika now lies and that the lake is the last remnant of the ancient sea. Subiitllnte. "You want a trip to the seaside? Nonsense, Jones! Pm a little salt In your Tnornlng tub, eat tsh at every meal, walk up to town and back so as to tire yourself out, sleep on tbe floor, and let the house be dirty, and you'll fancy you're at Margate. Pick-tP.p- mrRiiln Clnurtf1 I Hi GARDEN IN A BARREL. Miniature Strawberry Patch Being nut rd CUSTOM HOUSE AT KEY WEST. town of 25,000 people, but that It is absolutely true is shown by the fact that a ride about the town of two hours failed to disclose a house not so decorated. They are big Dags, too, not the small kind usually used tor deco- rations. Kara Avis. First Farmer I think he was the queerest man in Kansas. Second Farmer He was. Why, he took no Interest at all In politics. thought ,ou were not go- Ing to pav more than 2"" f'ra wheel! OUT OF THE VEST POCKET. Msml I iluln t mean to when I went into the store but ho said if Id take An amateur photographer at Water-vlll- e. the wheel he would ! t me have q Me., before going to the rescue of dollar pump for 9S cents. -- Indianapolis a friend who had lost hls balance and Jburnal. fallen into a lake, took a snap shot of him. HOW TO KEEP HEALTHY. Dont wt rrv Dont Ltv awake at night to think about shortcomings and other peorU s mu. Dont care violently or any one. Hearts and ronscienu are opposed to rounded contouYs and ehnp-l- y necks. Eat mas with fat n !v. Eat : 1. -fish w,;h white i a otatoes, vc-r- r - corn st creams mh. simple pu id.ng "car warm, Iuxuii.cm beLr fuj not to have -- Ice Noting, hut u v. K m as to pirntmn, fm the will prove Do not let u he too heavy, 1; induce pot nd -- thinn.ng Other Drink milk and eta am a' h .'ne vef you happen to want them, if you dont care for these nourishing rinks, cultivate a taste for them av aid lemonade, . lime Ju! e and the like Eat fruit for your breakfast, but not the tart grape and the tartar grape fruit. Eat baktd apple wits plenty of sugar and cream, and all Borta et stewed fruits, which require sweetening. Eat for Or THE MILITARY MAST. breakfast oatmeal swimming in cream. Drink net tea and eoffee, but cocoa, chocolate and milk. Spurn toast, especially If u be tnade'of graham or gluten bread. Eat freshly made wheat bread, with butter and honey. Do not takb more exercise than Is absolutely essential to health. Take the Mr yes. But let It be in a carriage, whenever you can, or on a suaay bench In the park: Violent exerts jg worst possible thing for the woman who would fain grow plump. , A small wallet may coutaia vaat ft deal of coined selfishness. Many men ewrry themselves ia their Siberia is an empire In itself. There have been discovered along its line of road fifty-fobituminous coal fields, twenty gold, forty copper, and two silver deposits. The wings of birds are not only to aid locomotion iq the air, but also oq the ground and water. One bird even has claws in the elbows" of Its wings to aid In climbing. It is estimated that there are no fewer than 70,000,000 Europeans who wear wooden shoes. Basswood Is ordinarily employed fur sabots, but willow la the 'best material. There is a village in England built upon an enormous boulder of chalk. This boulder is half a mile long and must have been carried coastward a distance of twenty-fiv- e miles by some great Iceberg. The humming of telegraph wires Is sot caused by the wind, for It le heard during perfect calm. It has been conjectured that changes of temperature, which lighten pr loosen the wires, probably produce the sound. There are 1,896 miles of railroad In the state of Sao Peulo, Brazil, yet the lines can not use each others tracks. This Is due to the feet that six different gauges are In use, varying from five feet four Inches to two feet - Most of the monks at King Williams ;Town, Cape Colony, are tradesmen, land do their own carpentering, brick-layin- g, blackwmlthlng, etc., besides teaching school. All the buildings they ooeupy were erected by themselves. ; The regular army la made up of 16 iper cent. of foreigners, while in the 'navy U per cent of the petty officers and 4J per cent of the seamen are Sop-diborn. Forty per cent of those who went down wlth the Maine ef'thla class. ur V .1--- - - prise was brought into .the harbor bR crew selected from the creiV of her captor. In the harbor they1 were turned over to the United State marshall and he placed a deputy in charge of each, backed by a squad of marines. a prize IX Caboa Colon Float DimtMloaa from Evary HOT WATER IN ARIZONA WELLS Building In the Town Harbor Vhtked la Some Cuh Temperature RUe T went with Torpodon Degree la a Slagle Night. The wells in parts of Arizona have (Key West Letter.) ON D I T I 0 N S In recently become producers of hot Key West are most water, and apprehension Is felt by peculiar In conse- many of the residents of the region afquence of the war. fected that they are about to become It Is hard for a participants in a grand volcanic drama. etrani;e- - In the In. some of the wells the temperature town to realize just of the well water rose twenty degrees what normal eon- - In a single night. In a few the pheditions are In the nomenon disappeared soon after Its ap-- i Place. Now every-thin- g pearance. In a majority of the cases, ls given over however, the wells fairly steam from to the army, the their newly acquired beat. The first known of this curious state of affairs navy and the press. People of an Inland city far removed from the scene was a report that the wells at Maricoof operations hardly realize what a pa, on the Southern Pacific railroad, correspondent means when he says the thirty miles south of Phoenix, had sudwar spirit runs high. It does run denly become hot. It was four days high at Key West. Residents of the thereafter that the phenomenon first town, of which it has 25 f'00, gather was noticed a dozen miles west of that along the .wharves and- - watch the city. A test at one wetl Showed a Incoming boats. From five to ten peo- temperature of nearly 100 degrees. No ple occupy the observatories on the top difference Is noted In wells In the Imof Hotel Key West and Federal buildmediate vicinity of Phoenix. The line ing. Night and day these people have of subterranean heat wave follows the their marine glasses' and telescopes general direction of the Sierra Esturned out across the harbor, and for trella Mountains, a volcanic chain lytwo or three hours In advance of her ing immediately south of the Oila arrival ships are announced to the pop- river. Thence It appears to continue ulace. Before they can approach the on In the direction of the Harqua Hala harbor closer than ten miles they are Mountains, near which are a number overhauled repeatedly by torpedo boats of large and modern volcanic cones and and the big government cruisers In hills of drifted volcanic ash. Further front of Key West. In front of every to the east the lava flows are so geohouse In Key West and every store logically modern as to have overthere floats the flag of the Insurgents, whelmed In a number of places the surmounted by the Stars and Stripes. cliff dwellings of the ancients. CorreIt ls a broad assertion to make of a spondence Omaha Bee. fta cone-shap- -- EVOLUTION TALK AND FLACS TWO NATIONS. Old Glory ut one-thi- s, to-da- FELT HAT HOW j The town Itself is clean and beautifully paved by nature. The streets look as though asphaltnm had been jlaM everywhere, but a disagreeable dost la raised by the carriage wheels. However, this ls clean dust, brushes off easily and does not begrime face r clothing. Out on one side of the island ls what ls called the bight, and this la simply a big bay but two feet deep with a coral bottom. Whenever the enterprising resident wishes to acquire a corner lot he collects enough dirt and dislodged coral to fill In enough of the bay for hls lot. As a consequence some lots face coral streets, while the other three sides are touched by water. The possibilities of war were brought forcibly before the residents of the town when the government leased a large convent and tobacco warehouse with the intention of converting them into hospitals for the reception of sick and wounded soldiers and .sailors. Work on the alterations of these buildings will go steadily forward as rapidly as the liberal expenditure of money renders possible. Out near the barracks the colored troops are in camp. But the scene of greatest activity ls at the wharves. Everything naturally eenters about the naval station and the Federal building. From the naval station runs a narrow-gaug- e railway, leading out to the coaling wharf in the harbor on a system of long plies. As rapidly as the government steamers bring supplies and ammunition from Tampa and other Southern ports they are placed in the station, and when needed transferred to the ships of Admiral Sampsons fleet. One of the Interesting things to be seen ls the laying of nines In the harbor. Just where the mines are and where the keyboard is which controls the powerful explosives they contain no one knows, and yet- everybody knows. It ls one of thoee things which the civilian finds to his advantage to forget. Not that any one threatens you with dire consequences for Inquiring Into such things, but there Is a feeling prevailing that many things should be forgotten as soon as learned. The mines are of several varieties, each having a technical name, but, lor landsmen, they are best of them by saying that-somare attached to the coral bottom of the harbor, some float on the surface, acwde are exploded by an Metric spark and others are exploded by conAs another protection from a tact. hostile fleet, all of the Gove-me- nt buoys have been misplaced, and many have been taken from the harbor entirely. Only the experienced pilot, who for years In among baa wormed the treacherous coral reefs, can te 1 how effective this provision ia la the inner harbor, not far from the Governments harbor, lie the prises which have been brought In by the fleet They nake a gallant array, and there was much disappointment and chagrin among naval men when the new of the Presldente proclamation reached Key West with the dcduetteir'that all' but the few last would have to.be released. Each by a Flt-l)ll- Cultl-M- G p. Out near Garfield park there lives a family the members of which will shortly enjoy eating strawberries grown In what Is probably the most original garden In all Chicago. The hostess, a southern woman, finds It hard to believe that fruit that ls shipped a long distance can possibly be fit for human use. Before her marriage to a Chicago man she had been accustomed In her southern home to eating freshly picked fruit the greater part of the year. She lives in a flat, but determined last year that before summer was over she should have fresh strawberries grown under her own eyes. Accordingly she decided to form a garden in a barrel. An empty sugar barrel was perforated by a series of holes an inch and a quarter In diameter, the holes being five Inches apart and the circular rows being at a distance of six Inches from each other. The barrel was then filled with alternate layers of gravel and sand loam, with a thin layer of fertilizer sandwiched between them. The gardener then Inserted through the auger hole the roots of her strawberry plants and rooted them also, as many as possible. In the earth of the open top of the barThe course of time found her rel. barrel one mass of luscious fruit. The same experiment Is now In process of being carried out. SPANISH DUKE FETED BY US. Here is a Spanish nobleman who must have some difficulty in adjusting his Ideas In these troubled times. A few years ago during the World's Fair he was the guest of the United States. Being the duke of Veragua, he was wined and dined, and generally feted. State and army officials were detailed to represent the government in hls suite. Just before his departure some brilliant- - genius decided that It was a horrible thing for the country which Columbus had found to permit a scion of Columbus to journey about the world encumbered with debts. A w; s started to pay hla suSHcrlptlon debts, but the movement never a- - - ed e hls-wa- y man-of-w- ar THE DUKE OF VERAGUA. mounted to anything. Tbe duke waa spoken of as a possible member of the new Spanish cabinet Just constructed by Senor Sagasta, but he did not accept any position In It Whet Cm Swutnkd Dr. Luigi Sam bon asserts, in the British Medical Journal, that sunstroke Is not due to excessive heat or to exposure to an unclouded sun, bat ls aa Infectious disease caused by a specific organism. Doctor Sam bon baa not yet succeeded in discovering the alleged germ of the disease, but he thinks he has evidence that It la bred In the superficial layers of the soli in certain g regions of the earth and that tt enters the human system throng the breathing of dusty, air. low-lyin- |