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THE <br />ASTIN <br />AZETTE <br />VOL. L. --.No. 27. <br />HASTINGS. KINN.. 8 4TBDAY. MARCH 28, 1908, <br />A CELEBRATED VOAL' l e di g payed Ila <br />leatdin h aldana <br />and chemists <br />Story of the Fortsas Catalogue <br />and Its Author. <br />CLEVER AND BRAZEN FRAUD. <br />This Ingenious Publication Completely <br />Fooled the Savants and Bibliophiles <br />of Europe and Was the Literary Sen- <br />sation of Its Day. <br />When P. T. Barnum cynically re- <br />marked that the American people <br />loved to be fooled be might just as <br />well have left out the adjective, for <br />that Americans are much more gulli- <br />ble than natives of other lands can <br />very readily be called into question by <br />anybody at ail familiar with the his- <br />s tory of hoaxdom. I suppose that for <br />pure effrontery and ingenious brazen- <br />ness the Fortsas Catalogue stands Iu <br />the front rank of deception. Yet this <br />pamphlet was foisted not upon the <br />American public, but upon the savants <br />and bibliophiles of Europe–men skill- <br />ed in the art of books and in the detec- <br />tion of forgery. So cleverly was this <br />fraud conceived and executed that It <br />deserves to stand in the front rank of <br />any consideration, however brief, of <br />clever deceptions. <br />The Fortsas Catalogue was publish- <br />ed in 1840–a stnall book purporting to <br />be the catalogue of the private library <br />of a certain Count J. N. A. de Fortsas <br />of Binche, in Belgium. Although the <br />book consisted of but fourteen pages <br />and listed only fifty-two titles, It <br />stirred up a veritable teapot tempest <br />among the wise heads. The reason <br />was not far to seek–not one of the <br />books mentioned In the catalogue was <br />to be found In any other library or <br />publisher's list! They were all abso- <br />lutely "sole surviving" copies of in- <br />tensely interesting works. In the <br />words of the catalogue itself, "the <br />count pitilessly expelled `from his <br />shelves books for which he had paid <br />their weight in gold–as soon as he <br />learned that a work up to that time <br />unknown had been mentioned in any <br />catalogue." Each new research of <br />learned investigators into the book <br />lore of antiquity, it was claimed, "had <br />thinned still further the already dec- <br />imated ranks of the count's sacred <br />battalion." Weary of his tremendous <br />and self .. imposed task of collecting <br />only unique specimens, the count was <br />stated to have died on Sept 1, 1839, <br />and his library was now offered for <br />sale. Apparently the fraudulent char- <br />acter of such master foolery was quite <br />patent Yet the high brows "bit" en- <br />thusiastically, and there resulted one <br />of the most amusing incidents of the <br />decade. <br />For instantly the learned book lovers <br />were up In arms, each trying to outdo <br />bis rival and secure for himself the <br />most precious of the treasures at the <br />sale which was advertised. Orders <br />poured in from all ovet Europe on the <br />behalf of scholarly societies, libraries, <br />royal families and literary epicures. <br />One bookseller came all the way from <br />Amsterdam just to see No. 75, the <br />} ,"Corpus Juris Ciente." The. Princess <br />de Ligne "for the honor of her fami- <br />ly" ordered No. 48 at any price to sup- <br />press It on account of certain discred- <br />itable family episodes It was supposed. <br />to contain. Many other prominent per- <br />sons and institutions clamored for a <br />chance at the collection. "Men re- <br />membered having seen books that neve <br />er existed." says William Shepard. <br />"The foreman in Casteman's printing <br />office at Tourney had distinct recollec- <br />tions of a bogus volume credited to his <br />per." <br />Unfortunately the advertised sale <br />never came off. On the 9th of An - <br />gust, the day before it was to have be- <br />gun, the Brussels papers announced <br />that the town of Binche had determin- <br />ed to keep the collection intact by pur- <br />chasing it with public funds. The <br />amusing part of this statement was <br />that Binche was a most Insignificant <br />village, quite unable to purchase much <br />of anything, let alone a universally de- <br />sired library. Still, even that state- <br />ment was believed. <br />The truth eventually transpired that <br />the Count de Fortsas, his miraculous <br />library and the catalogue were all the <br />creations of an ingenious fellow named <br />Rene Chalons, living in Belgium. His <br />catalogue begot a rather extensive ilt- <br />erature of Its own, which has since <br />been collected and published under the <br />title "Documents et Particularites His- <br />toriques sur le Comte de Fortsas." A <br />copy of the original catalogue now <br />rests in the Congressional library at <br />Washington. – Cincinnati Commercial <br />Tribune. <br />t <br />A Surprise For St. Kilda. <br />The inhab11tants of the lonely Isle of <br />St. Kilda were astonished one winter <br />some years ago at the appearance of a <br />great blood red, conical object floating <br />on the wild Atlantic billows to the <br />westward of the isle. With much diffi- <br />culty the derelict was brougbt to shore, <br />and as the St. Kildans bad never be- <br />fore seen such a queer looking thing, <br />and could make no guess as to its par- <br />. pose or place in the scale of created <br />tbings they indulged in wild visions <br />of its valuable nature. But when the <br />factor came across on his yearly visit <br />from the neighboring but distant is- <br />land of Great Britain be identified it <br />as a great iron buoy which, it subse- <br />quently appeared, had broken away <br />from its moorings in New York harbor Sheridan on being asked how <br />and drifted in the gulf stream across came to tail Gibbon "luminous," <br />the Atlantic. It had taken two yeah <br />in the Passage. e�vered, "I said 'vo•lnmlaoua'" <br />FIVE <br />CALUMET <br />BAK1NG POWDER <br />has obtained the confidence of the public. <br />1. It complies with the Pure Food Laws of all states. <br />2. It is the only high-grade Powder sold at a moderate pre <br />3. It is not made by a Baking Powder Trust. <br />t. Food prepared with it is free from Rochelle Salts or Alam. <br />5. It is the strongest Baking Powder on the market. <br />11,000.00 given for any substance <br />Injurlousto health found In Calumet <br />Calumet is so carefully and scientifically <br />prepared that the neutralization of the <br />ingredients is absolutely perfect. There- <br />fore Calumet leaves no Rochelle Salta <br />or Alum in the food. It is chemteally <br />correct. <br />All Grocers are Atthorlred to Guarantee this <br />eatumet B eking Powder costs little. Costs, <br />a little more than t`.- . wap, Injurious <br />w <br />powders noon the n; , but Its a big <br />saving ovct ...c trust powders. <br />Try Calumet <br />lea <br />FESTIVAL. OF THE DEAD. <br />Eskimos Provide Food and Clothes For <br />Returning Ghosts. <br />The natives of the Yukon river region <br />hold a festival of the dead every year <br />shortly before Christmas and a greater <br />festival at intervals of several years. <br />At these seasons food, drink and <br />clothes are provided for the returning <br />ghosts In the clubhouse of the village, <br />which Is Illuminated for the occasion <br />with oil lamps. Every man or woman <br />who wishes to honor a dead friend sets <br />up a lamp on a stand in front of the <br />place which the dead one used to oc- <br />cupy in the clubhouse. These lamps, <br />filled with seal oil, are kept burning <br />day and night until the festival is over. <br />They are believed to light the shades <br />on their return to their old home and <br />back again to the land of the dead. If <br />any one fails to put up a lamp in the <br />clubhouse and to keep it burning. the <br />shade whom he or she desires to honor <br />could not find its way to the place and <br />so would miss the feast. When a per- <br />son has been much disliked his ghost <br />Is sometimes purposely Ignored, and <br />that is deemed the severefit punishment <br />that could -be inflicted upon him. After <br />the songs of invitation to the dead have <br />been sung the givers of the feast take <br />a small portion of food from every dish <br />and cast it down as an offering to the <br />shades. Then each pours a little wa- <br />ter on the floor so that it rune through <br />the cracks. In this way tbey believed <br />the spiritual essence of all the food and <br />water is conveyed to the souls. Witt <br />songs and dances the feast comes to an <br />end and the ghosts re dismissed to <br />their own -place. The dancers dance, <br />not only in the clubhouse, but also at <br />the graves and on the ice if the dead <br />met their deaths by drowning. On the <br />eve of 4he festival the nearest male <br />relative goes to the grave and sum- <br />mons the ghost by planting there a <br />small model of a seal spear or of a <br />wooden dish, according as the dead <br />was a man or a woman. The totems of <br />the dead are marked on these imple- <br />ments. The dead who have none to <br />make offerings to them are believed to <br />suffer great destitution; hence the El <br />s! <br />kimos fear to die without leaving be- <br />hind them some one who will sacrifice , <br />to their spirit, and childless people <br />generally adopt children lest their <br />shades be forgotten at the festivals.– <br />New York Tribune. <br />A QUEER TREE <br />The Tumbo Is a Monstrosity of the <br />African Desert. <br />The mature tumbo is a tree with a <br />trunk about two feet long, shaped <br />much like an inverted cone. Almost all <br />the trunk is below the surface of the <br />ground, the visible part rarely exceed- <br />ing a few inctles. But the remarkable <br />feature of the stem Is that it is often <br />fourteen feet in circumference and be- <br />comes more or less a two lobed image. <br />The stem looks more like a great mass <br />of "the burned crust of a loaf of <br />bread," to quote Dr. Weiwltsch's letter, <br />than the trunk of a tree. The under- <br />ground portion becomes greatly elou- <br />gated, and its continuation is the top <br />root of the plant. This goes down sev- <br />eral feet in its effort to get the few <br />drops of water that the arid conditions <br />of the country permit. <br />There are never more than two <br />leaves after the seed leaves drop off, <br />and very curious leaves they are. Start- <br />ing from a groove on opposite sides of <br />the depressed mass, they stand straight <br />out on both sides of the plant. They <br />are often six feet long and two feet <br />wide and usually split Into ribbons <br />that undulate over the ground in a way <br />strikingly suggestive of the tentacles <br />of an octopus. With its great ugly <br />body and its tentacle-like leaves it is no <br />wonder that it has been the most re- <br />markable plant novelty of the last cen- <br />tury. The flowers are borne In scarlet <br />cones on a cymose inflorescence com- <br />ing from the crown of the trunk. <br />Tumboa batnesil belongs to the joint <br />fir family, or gnetaceae, and is known <br />only from Portuguese West Africa to <br />Damaraland. This is a region that <br />seldom gets any rain, and desert condi- <br />tions prevail almost completely, except <br />for the sea fogs. The tumbo is thus <br />a desert plant par excellence, and it is <br />only by a close approximation of these <br />very arid conditions that we can cul- <br />tivate It.–New York Botanic Garden. <br />we <br />an - <br />1 <br />:.a end t'se Lips. <br />The t.o.r .u: 1st a of smoking pipes <br />has a pen:ei•.i:Se e..ect upon the face. <br />The pressure of the Ilpe to bold tbe <br />pipe in its t.iou luereuses the curva- <br />ture of the lips round the stem, and <br />the muscles become more rigid bets <br />than in other parts. Thus the lips at a <br />certain point become stronger, and the <br />pipe is unconsciously held in the same <br />habitual position. Atter long continu- <br />ation of the habit small circular wrin- <br />kies form parallel with the curvature <br />of the lips around the stem. These are <br />crossed by finer lines caused by tbe <br />pressure of the lips to retain the item <br />In position. In the cane of old men <br />who have smoked a pipe for years the <br />effect upon the lips is very matted. <br />not only altering the form of tbe lips. <br />but of the one entire side of the face, <br />causing the wrinkles that are the re- <br />sult of age to deepen and Instead of <br />following the natural course of facial <br />wrinkles to change their course so as <br />to radiate from tv part of the mouth <br />where the pipe is habitually carried. <br />Furthermore. oue or doth lips often <br />protrude, just like th" 'ape of people <br />who used to suck thea.• thumbs when <br />children.–Medical Record. ' <br />Wanted the "armory seats." <br />Leigh Lynch while he lived was a <br />happy man. In the first place, be was <br />the husband of lovely and gentle Anna <br />Teresa Berger, the bells of tbe bell <br />ringers In her girlhood; secondly, be <br />had the years long friendship and in- <br />timate companionship of Eugene Reid; <br />thirdly, he was the father of a family <br />of children In whom was centered bis <br />unselfish hope. He used to carry his <br />business cares and pleasures borne, <br />where he was always sure of ready <br />and generous sympathy. For several <br />years he was treasurer of the Union <br />Square theater in New York. One <br />evening at dinner, in the presence of <br />his little daughter, Marie, be men- <br />tioned to Mrs. Lynch that the gross <br />receipts of the week had risen to an <br />unprecendented heJgbt The next day <br />Marie asked to be taken to the mati- <br />nee. <br />"All right, dumpling." aaeented the <br />fond father. "What seats would you <br />like?" <br />"Well, papa," she replied, "I'd like <br />to have them grocery seats you tailed <br />as about"–Detroit Free Press. <br />A Fatal Auetrisn Flag. <br />Once there was an epidemic of plague <br />at Odessa, in Russia, which lasted <br />more than a year. It had a most re- <br />markable origin, being due to a fatal <br />flag. An Austrian vessel arrived at <br />Odessa, bringing one of the crew who <br />had died during the voyage. The sail- <br />or was duly Interred In tbe Catholic <br />cemetery at the port. and at tbe tu• <br />neral the Austrian flag mu carried by <br />two seamen. On their way back to <br />the vessel the men entered a great <br />number of saloons and laid dowu the <br />flag while drinking. A very short <br />time afterward the sailors who bud <br />carried the flag died, and before long <br />it was found that people were 111 Its <br />all the houses where the men had cal) <br />ed with the fatal flag. Soon the plague <br />spread throughout Odessa,. tilling all <br />with terror and claiming a frightful <br />toll. There is no doubt that the flag <br />contained the plague bacillt In the <br />folds and so spread the disease.– <br />Baltimore Sun. <br />Strictly Business. <br />"Sir," began a stranger as be walk- <br />ed directly up to a business man. "i <br />am strictly on business." <br />"So am I." <br />"Good) I believe every man should <br />furnish money for his own tombstone." <br />"So do I." <br />"Good again! I want to raise $25 <br />to pay for a steno over my grave. <br />What assistance will you !tender the <br />enterprise? I want a business an. , <br />ewer." <br />"You shall have It, sir. Unless yea <br />immediately take your departure I will <br />aid the enterprise by furnishing the <br />corpse." <br />The stranger hurried ort -Cleveland <br />Plain Dealer. <br />His Giratitude. <br />The Medical Record tells el a Tan <br />who was cured of blindness_ by a ase, <br />geon remarkable for bb• unprepesesee <br />ing appearance. When visas was <br />fully restored, the patient looked at <br />his benefactor and said: <br />"Lucky for you, young man. I did <br />not see you before you operated er 1 <br />would never: have givan.ay. consent" <br />MINNESO{A <br />HISTGFIOt,L <br />SOCIETY. <br />Si pee Tear I Adteaase. <br />HIND00 C �E MARKS. <br />The Women of a Weer Them en <br />the Fylshead. <br />The casts market woni by women to <br />India are confinedte the forehead and <br />are more uniformthan those affected <br />by the men. <br />The orthodox inn* invariably worn <br />on religious and eseemonlat occasions <br />1s a small saffron t'pot in the center of <br />the forehead. Bet -the more popular <br />and fashionable mimic Is a tiny one <br />made with a 'tuella substance, usual- <br />ly jet black in colon,. which is obtained <br />by frying sago till it gets charred and <br />Uses boiling it In water. <br />Women who have not reached their <br />tweattee are sometiasea partial to the <br />use of small tinsel disks, purchasable <br />I& the bazaar at the rate of about <br />haK• a dozen for a • pie. To attach <br />these to the skin the commonest ma- <br />terial used Is the gum of tbe jack fruit. <br />quantities of wbkh will befound stick- <br />!ing to a wall or pillar In the house, <br />reedy for immediate use. <br />Ia the more orthodox famines It is <br />eersidered objectionable that the fore - <br />bead of a woman should remain blank <br />MD ea for a moment, and accordingly It <br />is permanently marked with a tattooed <br />"ordeal line. The blister takes some- <br />times a fortnight to heal, but the Hin- <br />doo woman, who is nothing if not a <br />martyr by temperament and training, <br />suffers the pain unoomplainingly.– <br />Madras Mall. <br />THE GHOST OF THE FUTURE. <br />Fear of Coming to Want and the Ter- <br />ror of Failure. <br />The terror of failure and the tear of <br />eomtng to want keep multitudes of <br />people from obtaining the very things <br />they desire by sapping their vitality, <br />by incapacitating them through worry, <br />anxiety and tear from the effective, <br />creative work necessary to give them <br />success. <br />Wherever we go this fear ghost, this <br />terror specter, stands between men and <br />their goal. No person Is in position to <br />do good work while haunted by It. <br />There can be no great courage where <br />there la no confidence or assurance. <br />and half the battle is in the conviction <br />that we can do what we undertake. <br />The mind, always full of doubts, <br />tears, foreboding& is not to a position <br />to do effective, creative work, but in <br />perpetually handicapped by this nntor- <br />testate attitude. <br />Nothing will so completely paralyze <br />the creative power of the mind and <br />body u a dark, gloomy, discouraged <br />misotal attitude. ' No gnat creative <br />work can be done by a man who Is not <br />an optimist. <br />The human mind cannot accomplish <br />great work unless the banner of hope <br />goes In advance. A man will follow <br />this banner when money, friends, repu- <br />tation, everything else has gone.–Suc- <br />eaw Magazine. <br />The Majesty of the Pyramids. <br />A.a the wonder of the sphinx takes <br />possession of you gradually, so grad - <br />natty do you learn to feel the majesty <br />of the pyramids of G1zeh, unlike the <br />SUP pyramid of Sakkera, which even <br />when one Is near it looks like a small <br />mountain, part of the land on which It <br />rests. The pyramids of Gizeh look <br />what they ate–artificial excrescences. <br />invented and carried out by man, ex- <br />pressions of man's greatness. Exqui- <br />site as they are as features of the <br />drowsy golden landscape at the setting <br />Of the sun. I think they look most won- <br />derful at night when they are black <br />beneath the stars. On many nights <br />I have sat in the sand at a distance <br />and looked at them, and always and In- <br />creasingly they have stirred my Imag- <br />ination. Their profound calm, their <br />elaMlcal simplicity, are greatly empba- <br />atsed when no detail can be seen, wben <br />they are but black shapes towering to <br />the stars. They seem to inspire then <br />like prayers prayed by one who bas <br />said. "God does not need my prayers, <br />but I need them."–Robert Hichens In <br />Century Magazine. <br />A statesman's Confusions. <br />For all his caustic wit Thomas B. <br />>Reed of Maine was as tender of heart <br />al/ large of frame. He was not much <br />a a banter. "I never shot but 'one <br />bird In my life," he once confessed. <br />"I spent a whole day doing that. It <br />was a sandpiper. 1 chased him for <br />bone up and down a mUl stream. <br />When at last I potted him and held <br />h im up by one of his poor little legs. <br />I sever felt more ashamed of myself <br />hi ail my life. I bid him in my coattail <br />pocket tor fear somebody would see <br />bow b I was and how small the vic- <br />tim, and I never will be guilty again <br />et the cowardice of such an unequal <br />battle."–Exchange. <br />A Convenient Possum. <br />An cad negro preacher gave as hie <br />Int "De tree U known by his fruit <br />an' bit dee impossible ter shake de <br />possum down." <br />After the benediction an old brother <br />said to biro: <br />"I never knowed beto' dat such a <br />tut wus in de Bible." <br />"Well," ,admitted the preacher, "bit <br />ain't 'zactiy sot down dataways. 1 <br />th'owed in de possum ter hit de Intel- <br />llgence er my congregatlonl"–Atlanta <br />Constitution. - <br />I' <br />The Only -Fault. <br />Quest–Walter, bring me sotne rice <br />podding. Waiter–Er, 'fraid 1 can't <br />jest recommend the rice puddle' today. <br />Mr. Quest–What's tbe natter with <br />it? Waiter–Nothin', sir, 'cept there <br />ain't menet–London Scrape. <br />Time is tie great comforter of grief. <br />bat the agency by whkb 1t works is <br />exhaustion.–Landon, <br />enr. isiminsimmh.sard <br />I! <br />Economizes the use of flour; but- <br />ter and eggs; makes the biscuit, <br />cake and pastry more appetiz- <br />ing, nutritious and wholesome. <br />a <br />ABSOLUTELY PURE <br />This is the only baking <br />powder made from Royal <br />Grape Cream of Tartar. <br />It Has No Substitute <br />Uwe are Ale. sad Phosphate of Lima meatuses aaM 1111 <br />a fewer prim. bet se housekeeper ngaMiag the bssttb <br />M bar lastly can abed to use tbsm. <br />How to Stick Stamps. <br />"Say," remarked the postoffice clerk <br />who was off duty na he watched a <br />friend affix 'two stamps to the corner <br />of an envelope, "why don't you put <br />those stamps on horizontally Instead <br />of vertically? Don't you know you <br />would save a lot of work for us stamp - <br />era If you put your stamps beside eaclt <br />other instead of under each other? We <br />always have to make two strokes when <br />canceling vertically pasted stamps by <br />band, and they don't work well through <br />the stamping machines either." <br />"Is that so?" inquired his friend as <br />he took another envelope and proceed- <br />ed to affix two stamps to it in a ver- <br />tical position. "Then. by the great <br />horn spoon, whey doesn't the govern- <br />ment sell its stamps in horizontal <br />lines? Look at these. Here I bought <br />20 cents' worth of two cent stamps. <br />and they come to me in vertical lines. <br />If I buy five twos, I get them attached <br />one to the bottom of the other. Do <br />you think I'm going to the trouble of <br />tearing each stamp off just to pieatse a <br />government clerk by pasting them side <br />by side? Guess again."–New York <br />Press. <br />Discovery of Osteopathy. <br />"The man who discovered osteopathy <br />was a great sufferer from headache," <br />said a man who claims to know. "II. <br />tried every remedy on earth almost, <br />but could get no permanent relief. One <br />day he had a terrible beadache and <br />went out into his front yard to lie un- <br />der the shade of a big tree and rest his <br />throbbing bead on the cooling grass. <br />Suspended from a limb of the tree was <br />a rope swing used by the children. <br />The man lay under this swing for <br />awhile and finally put the rope under <br />his head to not as a support In n few <br />moments be was surprised and pleased <br />to find that his headache was much <br />better. In half an hour the pain had <br />gone. He began an investigation. He <br />discovered that the rope swing pressed <br />on the nerve in the back of the head. <br />This pressure stopped the headache. <br />With more study he decided that many <br />pains could be relieved If nerves could <br />be given the proper treatment–a mas- <br />sage. He started an osteopathic school <br />and has made n grand success." -- <br />Nashville Tennesseean. <br />Departed Giorles of Fez. <br />Fez the "fertile," the Rome of the <br />western Arabs, still retains traces of <br />the magnificence which made her In the <br />middle ages the rival of Mecca. In the <br />twelfth century the holy city, to which <br />when the road to Mecca was closed <br />pilgrimages wear made, contained as <br />many rte 700 temples, fifty of which <br />were adorned with marble pillars. In <br />those old days the elty was the haunt <br />of philosophers, physicians and astron- <br />omers. A mere formal pretense of <br />study is now all that 1s practiced. <br />'They have Euclid in folio volumes," a <br />traveler writes, "but neither copied <br />nor read. The teacher sits crossleg- <br />ged on the ground and repeats to k <br />drawling tone between singing and <br />crying words which are echoed by the <br />scholars sittingaround'hlm," Fez, how- <br />ever, is honest enough In one respect– <br />she does not believe in outward show. <br />In the interior of the houses are apart- <br />ments decorated with paintings and <br />arabesques, while the outside walls <br />are often built of mud. <br />Not • Matter of Choice. <br />Columbia Alunsnns–That woman on <br />the debate team Is lntolerallte. You <br />wouldn't like to debate with a woman. <br />would you? Cornell Alumnus–Got so <br />I don't mind it now. Been married <br />five years.–New York Tribune. <br />Hard Lines. <br />"Does your wife make you explain <br />ail your acts?" <br />"Worse than that." <br />"Worse thou that?" <br />"Far worse; she doesn't permit me to <br />explain them,"–Honston Poet <br />MOUNT FUJIYAMA. <br />Japanese Pilgrimage to Its Tempest <br />Swept Summit. <br />To the people of Japan the mount <br />Fujiyama is sacred. The meaning of <br />the word is "honorable mountain." <br />During that brief six weeks of summer <br />when Fujtyama's wind swept sides are <br />climbable, writes A. H. Edwards in <br />"Kakemono," the pilgrims come in <br />thousands, in ten thousands. They <br />dress themselves in white trom head <br />to foot. They carry long staves of <br />pure white wood to their hands, each <br />stamped with the temple crest, and in <br />bands and companies they climb the <br />mountain. <br />Always the leader at their bead, kis <br />stair crowned with a tinkling mass of <br />bells, like tiny cymbals, chants the <br />hymn of Fujiyama. For six abort <br />summer weeks they come. Than the <br />winds rush down, the snow tails. the <br />tempests rage, and Lord Fajlyama Urea <br />alone. <br />No human being has yet stayed a <br />winter on his summit, and even in the <br />summer weeks the winds will blow the <br />lava blocks from the walls of the rest <br />houses and sometimes the pilgrim tram <br />the path. <br />Fujiyama stands alone, not one peak <br />among a range, but utterly alone. 8le- <br />ing straight out of the sea on one aide <br />and from the great Tokyo plata on the <br />other, his 12,365 feet In two long curv- <br />ing lines of exquisite grace rise up and <br />up into the blue, and not an inch of <br />one foot la hidden or lost It Is all <br />there, visible as a tower built on a tree- <br />less plain. It dominates the landatcape. <br />It can be seen from thirteen provinces, <br />and from a hundred miles at sea the <br />pale white peak of Myriam bats <br />above the blue. <br />AERIAL NAVIGATION. <br />The First Gas Bag and the First Dlr- <br />igiblo Balloon. <br />On the 1st of December, 1788, when <br />the first gas balloon ass from tbe <br />Tuileries, carried up by Charles and <br />Robert, the Marquis de !liter—try. an <br />octogenarian and skeptic, declared it <br />was tempting God himself. He was <br />rolled in his armchair to a wtgdew of <br />his chateau to witness the imposalbW- <br />ty of such an ascension. But the mo <br />ment the aeronaut, gayly saluting the <br />spectators, rose in the air, the old man, <br />passing suddenly from the most com- <br />plete incredulity to unlimited faitb in <br />the power of genius, fell upon his <br />knees and exclaimed: "0 men, ye will <br />find the secret of never dying! And It <br />will be when 1 am dead!' <br />The public, easily confounding the <br />atmospheric with the astronomic bee, - <br />ens, already bailed the day when tbe <br />aeronaut would continue bis aerial <br />course to the moon, to Venus, to Mars <br />or Jupiter. <br />Pierre Giffard, then Dupuy de Lome, <br />tried the first dirigible balloons. Later <br />Captains Renard and Krebs la their <br />aeroplane, La France, went from Men - <br />don to Paris and back at the sane <br />time that Gaston Tissandler was car- <br />rying out his fine experiment. But all <br />progress was soar Stopped by the <br />weakness of the motors compared to <br />their weight. <br />Nothing further could be dole nrtll <br />the arrival of the explosive motor. In <br />fact, it was the improvement in auto- <br />mobiles which won us tbe conquest of <br />the air. <br />What She Was Trying to Aseees li*s. <br />The other morning at the breakfast <br />table three-year-old Jeannette was pok- <br />ing vigorously with her knife at a bis- <br />cuit <br />"What areyou trying .to de, Jew <br />matte?" demanded mother. "Be cereal; <br />yob will cut your hand." <br />Said Jeannette, "Pm kyle( to ela- <br />11Ne se qct!"–,liss' <br />Tort Times. <br />A BURGLAR'S STORY. <br />Told by an English Thief In the Lan• <br />gunge of Thieves. <br />Some time ago there appeared a <br />somewhat curious book, "The Auto- <br />biography of a Thief In Thieves' Lan- <br />guage." A glossary is provided for <br />the benefit of those whose unfortunate <br />ignorance of the predatory classes may <br />render such aid necessary. <br />From one of the anecdotes related it <br />appears that honor among thieves it <br />not always to be found. <br />"One day," says the writer. "i went <br />to Croydon and touched for a red toy <br />(gold watch) and red tackle (gold <br />chain) with a large Locket. So I took <br />the rattier borne at once. When I got <br />into Shoreditch 1 met one or two of <br />the mob, who said: 'Hello! Beeu out <br />today? Did you touch?' <br />"8o 1 said 'Usher' (yes). So I took <br />them In, end we all got canon. W hes <br />I went to the fence he bested (cheated( <br />me because I was drunk apd only gave <br />18 101. for the lot. So thrnext day 1 <br />went to him, and I asked him if he <br />was not a -going to grease my duke <br />(put money into my band). <br />"So he said 'No.' Then he said, 'I <br />will give you another half a quid,' and <br />said, 'Do anybody, but mind they don't <br />do you.' <br />"So I thought to myself, 'Ali right, <br />my lad, you will find me as good as <br />my master,' and left him. Some time <br />after that affair with the fence one of <br />the mob said to me: <br />"'I have got a place cut and dried. <br />Will you come and do to* <br />"So I said: 'Yes. What tools will <br />you want? <br />"And he said, 'We shall want some <br />twirls and the stick ((crowbar), and <br />bring a Neddie (lite preserver) with <br />you.' And he said, 'Now don't stick <br />me up (disappoint); meet me at C, to- <br />night' <br />"At 6 I was at the meet (trysting <br />place), and while waiting for my pal <br />I had my daisies cleaned, and I piped <br />the fence that bested me go along with <br />his old woman (wife) and his two kids <br />(children), so I thought of his own <br />words, 'Do anybody, but mind they <br />don't do you.' <br />"He was going to the Lyceum thea- <br />ter, so when my pal came up I told <br />him all about 111 So we went and <br />screwed (broke into) his place and got <br />thirty-two quid and a toy and tackle <br />which he had bought on the crook <br />(dishonestly). A day or two after this <br />I met the fence who I'd done, so he <br />said to me, 'We have met at last.' <br />"So I said, 'Well, what of that?' <br />"Bo he said. 'What do yon want to <br />do me for? <br />"So I said, 'You must remember you <br />done me, and when I spoke to you <br />about it you said, "Do anybody, but <br />mind they don't do you."' That shut <br />him up."–London Tit -Bits. <br />A Witty Irish Judge. <br />Mr. Doherty, who was chief justice <br />of the Irish court of common pleas <br />from 1830 till his death in 1848, was <br />famed for hie wit. The gossip in the <br />hall of the four courts, which of course <br />reached the bench, was that one of <br />the judges had been somewhat excited <br />by wine at an entertainment In Dublin <br />castle on the previous evening. "Is 1t <br />true," tbe chief justice was asked, <br />"that Judge — danced at the castle <br />ball last night?" "Well," replied Do- <br />herty, "I certainly can say that I saw <br />him in a reel." <br />"As I came along the quay," remark- <br />ed one of the officers of the court <br />whose face was remarkably hatchet <br />shaped, "the wind was cutting my <br />face." "Upon my honor," replied the <br />chief justice, "I think the wind had <br />the worst of it"–London Law Notes. <br />Swiss Naval Wars. <br />References to the Swiss navy are <br />usually jocular, but ft is none the less <br />a fact that ships of war once floated <br />and even fought on the waters of the <br />lake of Geneva. The great fleet was <br />that of the Duke of Savoy, who at the <br />beginning of the fourteenth century <br />maintained a number of war galleys <br />armed with rams and protected by <br />turrets and propelled by a crew of <br />oarsmen varying in number from for- <br />ty to seventy-two. These vessels be- <br />sieged Versoix and even blockaded <br />Geneva. But Geneva also had a fleet <br />which helped in the capture of Chllon <br />in 1586, and when the Bernese an- <br />nexed the canton of Vaud they, too, <br />had their flotilla. Their largest vessel <br />was the Great Bear, with C.4 oarsmen, <br />8 guns and 150 lighting men.–West- <br />mtnster Gazette. <br />Mee Boy's Little Coup. <br />The office boy in a downtown office <br />bas framed up the following schedule <br />of the firm's office hours, which is dis- <br />played in a prominent place on the <br />wall: "9-10 reserved for book agents <br />and people with various things to sell, <br />10-11 for insurance agents, 11-12 bores <br />with long stories, 1-2 solicitors for <br />church and charitable institutions, 2-3 <br />discuss sporting news with callers, 3-3 <br />miscellaneous social visitors. N. B.– <br />Ws transact our own business at <br />night"–Cleveland Plain Dealer. <br />A Financier, <br />"Father," asked Rollo, "what L a <br />financlerr <br />"A financier, my son, differs from <br />the ordinary business man in being <br />able to make the government sit up <br />and worry when his attain do not go <br />tight."–Washington Star. <br />Seurat of Supply. <br />Minister–My dear little boy, why <br />doa't yea get an umbrella? Jakey– <br />d htee pe has gnat going to church be <br />Mier beings home any more ambrei- <br />-Jin islb Ledger. <br />