OCR Text |
Show LN THK ODD COUNEIl. QUEER AND CURIOUS THINGS AIVD IVEN IS. The Sleeooou. Kllnglng lion by Unreels see w.., -,,,, Act. . aa.,1-eaaa aa.,1-eaaa Vth. jj, ',h. t p , llraels' MeaL A little joy; A little etrlfn; Hope. fear, hnle, lovo And this It life. A little p.iln; A shortened lire.ilh; Htae. rcet pijue. slfcp And this la d.'nth. The song, the sigh. The evening call T!iiu live, thus die. Thus pus we nil. Arthur J. nurdlik. ftTRKM 1M B STINIir.lta. "I read In one of tho - sguilnes re-rently re-rently lomctlung ahont the sting of the I'eea." auld a cllUcn to the New Or-Irani Or-Irani Democrat, "nnd 1 was reminded uf sn vxperlrenre 1 had with a friend oma llmo ago while In the country He was ploughing over behind a imall clump of bills, and they were well wooded almost down to the fence line It Is a section which Is noted for risking risk-ing wildcat whisky, and this fact threw me off the track, as will appear here-'ter. here-'ter. I was approaching my friend from the hillside. I was tiding. Suddenly Sud-denly I thought he glanced at mo, and at the time he rimlied around hurriedly to the singletree, unhooked the trace chains, threw them arnn-a the horse- hack, and the anltnnl struck out on a dead run down the turning row which Pllt the ravine. My Mead followed and It was a race for who laid the rail through It all In a minute. My friend had been making moonshine whisky, and he thought I was a I'nltrd Htntcr marshal. I split my sides laughing over the thought of the thing, and then I itrurk out down the ravine after htm. 1 traveled some distance before catching eight of my friend and hie horse. Finally I found them close to a branch, and my friend wna alooplng down occasionally, picking up something some-thing snd smearing It on hla hands face and neck. 'Hello, D.ll.' I said amlllngly, 'I gueea you thought I wni a I'nlted fltutes marrhnl.' Tnlted Btntea h !' he aald, almost uncivilly; '1 ploughed up a horneta' nest.' And sure enough he had, and both the man and the horse were aa knotty aa a hickory limb as the result of It all. The be may be a good stinger, but the hornel la the fleetest thing on winns when It comes (o using the stinger with swiftness swift-ness and effect. Thst remlatla me of ths surlous methods of bees and thli-71 ot tbat sort In stinging." the narrator continued. "Tnke the honey bee. for liiitaneo. Now, tho boncy bee la what you might call a laiy, clunay. liurlle aort of stinger. Henlly, the he Is awkward when compared with other Insects. The bumble bee Is a trifle more vigorous, and there is a dcnl more of what one may call action In It't movements. It Is a striking sort o' sting, and I have seen children almost knocked down by theae heavier members mem-bers of the hen family. It Is a mean ting to handle, too, and does not yield so quickly to trelament. The hornet and the yellow Jacket atlng on the wing, aa It were. They do tholr work quliklv, tut thoroughly, and they gen-' gen-' i-r'.ly leave a record behind them thai ' kv would have no cause to feet ashamed of If they had this element ; In their makeup, nut there la my old friend, the waap. I want to speak of him. He Is ths prince of atlngera. You may not forgot him so quickly when he stlnga you. Ho leaves a aort of waspy taste In your mouth, and It Is anything but pleasant, and It la a taste you will remember even after the years hsve gono by. The wasp Is a lingering aort of fellow. He lovingly and caressingly ca-ressingly atlngs, perches for a while on one's neck, I may say, and then hums shout his buslnosa. But really, while the wasp lingers longer than other Insects while stinging, hs also shows more anger, and la probably the moat spiteful member In the Hat of stinging Insects." WAta TO f ATI II Tt'KTI.KS. Frank T. lltillen In bis new book. "A Hack of Khakinga," introduces his readers to the remoru. or "sucker," a species of shark that never exceeded a dogen pounda In weight. Ho say;: "On tha top of lta head Is a Hat. oval contrivance con-trivance which la un adhculve attachment attach-ment of atieh strength that, when by I hla means the fish Is holding on to a plane surfuce. It Is Impossible to drag I he body away, ei ept by almost tearing tear-ing the Huh In half. Y t by the Hexing of atmie simple nitiaclcH the flah ran release re-lease Its body Instantly or as Inalanlly reattach Itself. The remora does not by any means limit Its company to ships. It Is exceedingly fond of attaching attach-ing Itself to the body of a whalo, and almi to some of the larger rhnrks. Indeed. In-deed. It goes a step further than mere outward attachment In the latter case, bernusi) well-aiithentliiited Inatuucea are recorded where several suckers have been found clinging to a huge rhark'a palate. This Is another stage on the way to perfect parasitism, because be-cause under such clrcuinst.inces these daring lodgers needed not to detach themselves any more. Tiiey had only to Intercept anniclent food for their wants on Its way from the front dooi fo Hie Interior apartments. I have alao seen them clinging to the Jaw of a sperm whale, hut that Jaw waj not In working order. It was bent outward at right anglea to I lie body and HlTord-ed HlTord-ed harborage to a moat comprehensive collection oi punaitcs. barnacles ess-claMT ess-claMT diving the front elevation of that whaie an npi'nrance utterly nnlta anyioing with life." lint the Chinaman has u.itwlttid the superlatively Isxy reninm. liy a w-ny ona iiiuat regard as a triumph of Ituennlty he hsa stic-ieded stic-ieded in conveitlng the very means whereby Dili hmn-tlrrd flah usually rsenpea all nccej-slty for energy tuto an Instrument fur obtaining gain for other oth-er people Til" mode la us follows "Fliet catch your renio,-a No dutifully duti-fully here. A hook and line of the simplest, a b.ilt of ulniiiKt anything that looka e.-itnhle lowered by the side of a ship, and if there lie a surker hidden hid-den there he will .e jflei- the luro In-alantly. In-alantly. The only skill necea.ary Is to haul hltn up awl tly when he bites, because be-cause If hi. be nllowed to get hold of the ship r.pnn you tiny pull the hook out of his Jaws, but you will not succeed suc-ceed In detnehtug him. Having caught a remora. the Hahernmn fastens a brass ring rlosely around Its body. Just at Its smnllrat part before Ihe spread of the tall. To this he attaches a long, fine nnd strong line. He then depart for Ihe turtle grounds wllh his prisoner. prison-er. Arriving there he confines himself him-self to keeping the remora away from ttie bottom of his bost by means of a bamboo.. Of course Ihe captive, gets very tired, and no turtle ran pass within with-in ranre of htm without his hanging on to that turtle for a rest. The moment mo-ment he does so the turtle's fate Is sealed. .Struggle how he may, he cannot can-not ahako loose the tenacious grip of the sucker, and the stolid yellow man In the sampan has only to haul In upon up-on the line to bring that unwilling turtle tur-tle within range of his hands and lift him Into the boat." Chicago Newl. cold irit and warm trn. The college professor asked the reat of ua whether Ice was colder In winter than It was In summer. Now, to ths test of us. Ice was Ice, and therefore we could not see now It could remain ice anu oe euner coiner or warmer. Then the professor explained Ihe thing In thla fashion: "If a theimometer la burled In Ice In summer It will Indicate Indi-cate 32 degrees. If you throw a piece ot Ice Into boiling water, and leave It there until It Is almost gone, what Is left will be atlll at 32 degrees. Ice can never be gotten above that temperature. tem-perature. Dut while Ice can never be warmed above SJ degrees. It will go aa much below that aa the weather doea. An Iceman delivering lee one tero day in January waa asked whether hla Ice waa any colder than In July. He tnought not. Dut, as a matter ot fart, a piece of suiiilner Ice, If he had bad It, would have been aomethlng ol a foot warmer for him, aa It would have been iO degreea warmer than the air of the bottom of bla wagon. Mixing Mix-ing aalt with Ice makes It much cooler. The Ice In a wine cooler goea down to about aero. This la why the point tero on our common thermometers was fixed fix-ed where It la. It was supposed to be the lowcat point which could be reached reach-ed by artlllrlal meana. Since then ws havo reenhed about 383 degreea below sero by chemical proressee. Ice will, cool down with everything else on a cold night to xeru or below. What should pievint It? On a day when It Is Just fiecxlng a block of Iron, a block of Ice. outdoors, will stay at 3- degrees. de-grees. If Ihe weather grows warmer the Iron will warm up with the weather, weath-er, but the Ice will stay at 3 degrees and melt away. But If the weather grows colder the Iron and Ice will coot off, and one Just aa much aa tha other. As the Ire growa colder It gets harder and moro brittle. There can be no hickory bend on a skating nond on a sero day, for Ire la then too brittle. Slivers of Ice dipped In liquid air become be-come ao hard that they will cut glass. Water thrown on Ire In the Arctlo re-glona re-glona will ahlver It like pouring boiling water upon cold glass. Thla la because ths Ice Is sn much colder than the water." wa-ter." Beverages. A MOT NAMRD THI TOW. Mr. J. H. Btoddart, the veteran ae tor. who Is starring In "The Bonnie Brier Bush" at the Theater Republic, la a Scotchman by birth, aa la also Reuben Fax, who playa the bibulous postinnn In Ian Msclaren'i book-play. Mr. Fax waa aboard during the aum-mer aum-mer and visited relatives In tilssgow. While there he heard a lale of two Scots, which ha related with much unction unc-tion In Ilia i,iir., Illv Hin.l.l-!- "II waa after the British had landed a force at Wel-Hul, In China," aald Mr. Fax, "that. two excellent Bcota were discussing dis-cussing the war news In the Broumle-luw Broumle-luw quarter of dlaagow. 'I aee. Sandy, mon. Ihel we ha' taken Wel-Hai-Wel.' snld Jock, peering oveer the edgo of bit evening pupt r. 'We hue. hae we?' 'Wc hao. aye. wo hue.' 'Hoot, mon!" exclaimed ex-claimed Jock, peering at him suipl-eloosly. suipl-eloosly. 'I'm thltikln' It was a Hcot named the toon ' " New York Bun. Digging ll.ei rr (lull!. A sclent I IU problem of much Interest will confront tliu engineers of tilt Trunavnnl gold mines when the. wat between the Kugllxh and the Boers li over, and that Is tho depth to which HhnflH will bo sunk in search of gold-bearing gold-bearing veins. Home of the shafts si reaily opened will descend 4,000 to &.0HU feel, but It la thought by some ol the engineers that a depth of 12,000 feet will be reuehed In other cases. The temperature at that depth will be about ion degreis, the wsrmest, psr-hnps, psr-hnps, at which men can work, but the suggestion Iihh been made tbat a still greuter depth may be found practicable If means lie deviaed for cooling the alr- l.'llia fllobe. |