’rnEFEvENING a THE GERMAN ARMY.‘ A Perfect and Thoroughgoing Mil- . itary Organization. Every German Is Liable to Service After He Reaches the Age of Seventeen —-—Method of Recruiting and Maintaining the Army. The German emperor may declare war, though such declaration is sub- ject to the consent of thefederal coun- cil. If, however, the country is in- vaded, then what the emperor says pre- vails, without federal ratification. An America-n may think that the young kaiser talks a good deal about his function as war lord,-and takes a good deal of room in discharging it, but, by the imperial constitution ‘ of p 1871, after the Franco-Prussian war had ended in German unity, the em- peror is rightfully the first soldier in the empire. the entire forces of which, in war and peace, are under his cor - mand. It is his to see that the army is kept in fighting trim, and his to se- cure this end by imperial legislation. The Bavarian army is, however, a dis- tinctive contingent, by itself. though practicallycoordinated and subordinat- ed in the. imperial army system. Sax- ony and Wurtemburg, also, preserve a certain military identity, in that each puts up an army corps for itself. It is provided that the entire land forces of the empire shall consist of 21 army corps. Every German is liable to service. No substitute is allowed. No' one es-. capes unless a member of a sovereign house, and he would deem it proper to serve voluntarily. So the army of Ger- many is the people’s army. When a German boy has finished his 17th year he finds a drill master wait- ing for him. When he puts away the tools of war for good he is 40 years old. But practically his service will begin in his 20th and close in his 39th year. During this period he will serve active- ly three years in the ranks, four in the reserve, five in the first levy of the Lanwehr, then, until he is 39, in the second levy of the Landwehr, and fin- ally until he is 45 in the Landsturm. A young fellow, however, of means and education, who bears all expenses and passes an examination gets off with one year’s service in the ranks. The duty of the Landsturm is to take part in the defense of the- country. Neither the Landsturm nor the second levy of the Landwehr is called out in peace, but the men in the Ersatz (relief) reserve snare in annual exercises covering 20 weeks. The institution of the one-year vol- unteers is an advantageous exception to what an American might call a mili- tary despotism. Under this exception, young men of professional inclinations not only re- ceive the military training that prepares them for duty in the reserve, but also continue their studies with less detri- ment to their educaton than if they de- voted three valuable years to a soldier’s life exclusively. But a fellow must pay for this one-year privilege, his legitimate military expenses amount— ing to from $350 to $500. The military forces of the several German states are administered through their own war ministries. which are all subject to the Prussian war ministry. To control this vast ~military system there are, besides the war ministries, the emperor’s military cabinet, the commission for the defense of the country, the general staff, the head of which is directly responsible to the emperor, and the great general staff, which in the most scientific sense is intrusted with the defense of the em- pire. ‘ Generally speaking, an army corps is recruited in the district where it is garrisoned, but the Prussian guard corps is recruited throughout the coun- try. In the case of Alsace-Lorriane, the province taken from the French, Germany discneetly takes no chances [of disaffection among her troops there garrisoned. The men she raises in this province of French antecedents are sol- diers of unquestioned loyalty. . The cavalry of the German army is the: only branch which has been in— cneased since the French war. Its strength is 93 regiments, or 465 squad- rons. France has 45 squadrons less, but of field matteries she has 45 more. Germany’s field batteries is smaller than that of any standing army. As regards uniform, the infantry, ar- tillery, dragoons and pioneers wear the ‘ helmet, the officers the “kaeppi,” the Ifhlans the “czapka,” the hussars the fur cap, the cuirassicrs the steel helmet. The‘cuirass nowadays is only worn on parade. The infantry coat is dark blue. In color, style and equipment. there is much dissimilarity in he Ger- man army, but there is complete uni- formity in marks of rank distinction. A German officer finds a private in- come a useful adjunct. tenant’s monthly income is about $30. then a man has nothing he may per~ haps get a stipend from special funds or from the emperor. A captain of the first class draws annually about $1,250; a major or lieuteant colonel, $1,650; .a colonel, $2,250. There is also an al- lowance for outside lodgings. A young ofiicer cannotpossibly live up to his social station if he has a family to sup- port. ,If a young officer wants to mar- ry he must get the emperor’s permis— sion, and satisfactorily prove that his income is at least (in Prussia) $450 a year. The future wife of an officer must be worthy the army—she must be of un- blemished reputation, and be of a fam- ily of unquestioned respectability. There are pensions for the old and infirm, though no age limitation exists as with us. = , When a German recruit takes the oath the act is made as solemn as possi- ble. No criminal is allowed to wear the uniform of the German army. A German soldier’s pay is between seven and eight cents a day, and he is allowed one and two-thirds pounds or bread—Chicago Inter Ocean. 3......— __.. ._z. .— A second licu— 5 ' Bearded Lady. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. —There are six tunnels in the world which have a length exceeding 21,000 feet—St. Gothard, ‘Mont Cenis, Hoosac, Severn, Noehistongs and Sutis. —A small planet, the tenth discovered this year and the 408th in the list, was recently discovered by Prof. Max Wolf, of Heidelberg. ——It is said that the inferior grades of tea are greatly adulterated by the Chinese, who use for this purpose’plum- bago, turmeric, indigo, prussian blue, china clay and other substances. —Coca, like mat-e, confers wonderful powers of endurance. Under its in- fluence, Indian runners have been known to travel continually for 30 hours, covering in that time a distance of over 100 miles. —Lake George is 326 feet above the sea. and 225 feet above Lake Champlain, with the upper end of which it is parallel , through most of its course, and but a few miles distant from it. The descent to Lake Champlain is made over a suc- cession of falls at Ticonderoga. ——When Anna Jones and W. A. Dono- van were beardless children they were : playmates. As the ' grew older they became lovers, but fate separated them. Anna married a man named Elliott, and became celebrated as Barnum’s A few days ago she was divorced from her husband, and on the following day she became Mrs. Dono- van. ‘ ——Twelve miles west of Hereford, at I the southern end of the Golden valley, the nave of the old Cistercian abbey of Dore was dug up last summer. There were nine bays to the nave. divided by columns 3%, feet in diameter. Parts of the rude screen and fragments of a shrine in 13th century carving, with traces of color, were found, together with armorial and embossed tiles. —The biggest moose head ever seen in Maine was brought into Bangor the other day by T. D. M. Cardeza, of Phil- adelphia. The antlers spread 62 inches, just two inches more than those. on a head owned by Hon. C. B. Hazcltine, of Belfast, Me... which was, until Mr. Cardeza secured his trophy, the big- gest moose head in Maine. Mr. Cardeza _ shot the moose at the foot of Chesuncook lake. ——An interesting relic was discovered near San Bernardino, 0211., recently. It is an immense sculptured arrowhead, four feet four inches long and weighing more than 200 pounds. It is of bluish granite and shaped in perfectimitation of the smaller arrowheads frequently , found in that region. On the mountain ! side, near where the stone was found, i is a natural formation in the shape of an arrowhead many feet in length and conspicuously visible for many miles. RUNAWAY BLACK BOYS. Escaped Samoan Slaves Who Livein the Thick Woods. Boys sometimes run away from the plantatious and live alone in the forest, building little sheds to protect them from the rain, and sometimes planting little gardens for food; but the most, part live the best they can upon the‘ nuts of the trees and the yams that they dig with their hands out of the earth. I do not think there could be any where in the world people more wretch- ed than.these runaways. They can- not return, for they would only re- turn to be punished; they can never hope to see again their own people ——indecd, I do not know that they can hope but just to find enough yams every day to keep them from starvation. And in the wet season of the year, which is our summer and your winter, when the rain falls day after day for louder than the loudest thunder—pump < that ever tell in England, and the room is so dark that the lean man is some- times glad to light his lamp to write by, I can think of nothing so dreary as ' the state of these poor runaways in the houseless bush. You are to remember, besides, that the people of the island ' hate and fear them because they are; cannibals; sit and tell tales of them about their lamps at night in their own comfortable houses, and are some- times afraid to lie down to sleep if there is a. lurking black boy in the neighbor— hood. Well, now', Alick is of their own race and language, only he is a little more lucky, because he has not run! away; and how do you think that he prOposed to help them? He asked if he might have a gun. “What do you want ' with a gun, Alick ?" was asked. Ile an— swered quite simply, and with his nice, good-natured smile, that if he had a gun he would go up into the High bush and shoot black boys as men shoot pigeons. He said nothing about eating them, nor do I think he really meant to. I think all he wanted was to clear the plantation of the vermin, as game- keepers at home kill weasels or rats. The other day he was sent on an er- rand to the German company where many of the black boys live. It was very late when he came home. He had a white bandage round his head. His eyes shone, and he could scarcely speak for excitement. It seemed some of the black boys who were his enemies at home had attacked him, one with a knife. By his own account he had fought very well; but the odds were heavy. The man with the knife had cut him both in the head and back; he had been struck down; and if some black boys of his own side had not come to the rescue, he must certainly have been killed. I am sure no christmas box could make any of you children so happy as this fight made Alick. A great part of the next day he neglected his work to play upon the one—stringed harp and sing songs about his great victory. To-day, when he is gone upon his holiday, he has announced that he is going back to the German firm to have another bottle and another triumph. I do not think he will go, all the same, or I should be uneasy; for 1 do not want to have my Alick killed; and there is no doubt that if he begin this fight again, he will be likely to go on with it 'very fan—Robert LOuis Stevenson, in St. Nicholas. Crude Petroleum in the. Orchards of Los Angeles. In a Moment of Desperation an Owner Begins to Bore, and the Result Is Something Astonishing to Him- self and Neighbors. Indications of oil in and about Los Angeles have been apparent for years. and a few instances are on record of enthusiastic prospectors who sunk wells to the depth of from 100 to 200. feet, and actually succeeded in securing an occasional barrel of crude petro- leum. The first cable car line was built in Los Angeles in 1886, and it was natu- rally conceded by investors generally that a piece of land close in on the cable line was about the biggest card tin their pack. This particular section of town is made up of a series of hills crowded along as closely together as q a. prairie dog village. and just about as an ailable for town lots. A local real es- tate dealer acquired some property in ithe much-valued region, and then for several years tried vainly to sell out at almost any price. Finally. in a fit of desperation, he decided to bore for oil. This was in August of last year. Discouragement and ridicule met him .on all sides, and when 1,000 feet had ibeen reached without result, his “wild cat.” scheme was the talk of the town. Then something happened. Sudden- ly, in the dead waste and middle of the inight, a tremendous burst of oil and Igas shot out of the drill hole, flung every portable object in its pathway _l1igh in the air, literally soaked the linen in attendance, and saturat---rl the eregion roundabout with the grimy, i ill-smelling substance. Dismay reigned lsupreme, until the owner of the well 5 was enabled to turn the enormous out- put into a hastily-constructed tank. At first a. universal wave of indigna- .tion swept over the community which Shad in the passing of years taken up ;its abode in this region. It was out- =rageous that olfactorics of the peo- ple should be so violently assailed— their very hearth-stones invaded. It was furthermore declared that the Well was a menace to health, and applica- tions to abate the nuisance were made to the city council. Then there was a. great calm, which lasted exactly 24 hours, after which a every adjacent property owner with $1,500 in hand or in sight began to pre- pare for boring. Innumerable agents now appeared on the scene, eager to furnish estimates on reading, casing, tubbing, etc.; to supply rig irons, en- gines, boilers, or sand pu‘nps, while you waited; to take your measure for oil- proof overalls; to move your house. Oil companies and oil exchanges are being organized and reorganized al- most daily. Two pipe—lines are com— pleted from the field to the railway tracks, one having a 32,000-barre1 stor- age tank, and the other with a ca- pacity of 35,000 barrels. These lines cost about $75,000. - There are over 400 wells in actual operation to-day, and the drilling is progressing ranidly. What with the purchase of plants and the cost of pip- ing the oil to the railroads, nearly $1.- 000,000 capital has already been invest- ed in the industry. As high as 300 barrels of oil have been pumped from a single well in 24 hours, although 100 barrels is con- sidered an excellent daily average for the best producers. The present out- put is over 3,000 barrels per day. Of this 1,500 barrels are. required for local consumption —— breweries, laundries, iron and steel works, printing offices, etc, and the Santa Fe and Terminal Railroad companies being the princi- pal consumers.—Harper’s Weekly. SUBLETTI NG THAT PAYS. Lawyers Who Make Money Allowing Out- side Corporations to Use Their Offices. “Well, that’s the worst that I ever saw,” remarked a man in a small New Jersey town, as he stood in front of a lawyer’s office. What he saw was enough to stagger anyonewho was not initiated into the mysteries of modern business methods. The ground—glass door was fairly covered with the names of high-sounding corporations, many of which were favorably known in New York business circles. “Can’t make it out, ch ?” said the jan- itor of the building, who had noticed the surprised look on the man’s face. “Well, all those names belong to manu- facturing firms doing business in New York. As they are all stock companies they have to be incorporated. Now, ac- cording to the laws of New York state, every corporation is pretty well ham- pered with red tape, besides being com~ pelled to pay heavy taxes. “New Jersey, taking advantage of her proximity to New York, has adopt- ed very liberal laws in order to induce manufacturing concerns to' settle with- in her jurisdiction. As a natural result these laws are taken advantage of by many firms who do business in New York and have their plants located in. various parts of the country. All the direct letter of the law requires of them, after they'have become incorpo- rated, is to have an office within the state. » “A struggling lawyer is only too glad to let them put-their names on his door, and give them the use of his office for about ten minutes once a year when the annual meeting of the officers is held. For this service the corporation generally pays the lawyer $10 a month, which sum is entered in the company’s books as office rent. so you see that if a young lawyer is fortunate enough to get several names on his door he rakes in a nice little sum every year for doing nothing.”-—N. Y. World. ~ —Ferguson—“I don’t like to see a full- grown man like you carrying a pair of skates along the streets downtown;” IIankinson—“You’d' rather see me car- A‘z E-T‘T E I, FIRESIDE FRAGMENTS. [OIL AMONG THE ORANGES. _ -—If you possess a cozy corner with a shelf at the top have a zinc trough made to fit it and fill this with some hardy foliage and flower plants. They will last a long time and add greatly to the veauty of the room. —-Small pieces of toilet soap which are too little to be used may be utilized. Make a bag of Turkish toweling about seven inches square and put into it all. the small pieces of soap. When it is three-quarters filled sew up the end and use the bag as if it were a cake of soap. —Cream Toast with Poached Eggs.— Prepare toast as usual. Lay each slice in a saucer before adding dressing, and then finish with a. delicately poached egg. Eggs broken into separate sauce dishes or patty pans, and steamed until the whites are set, will present a. more appetizing appearance than when dropped into water.—--N. Y. Ledger. -—To make pastry successfully, it is important that it should not be much handled, and that the hands should be cool. It is, in fact, acknowledged that persons with cold hands make lighter cakes than others, generally speaking. For this reason 3 china rolling-pin will be found preferable to one of wood.— Liverpool Mercury. ‘ —Salmon Steals—Steep for an hour or so four middle-cut, good-sized sal- mon steaks with a glass of sweet oil, salt and pepper and the juice of a lemon. About half an hour before. serving, broil them light brown over a charcoal fire, and garnish with quartered lemons and serve wit-h a bowl of tartar sauce.— Boston Budget. —Crumbs spread over the tops of dishes should be mixed evenly with melted butter over the fire. This is a better method than having lumps of butter dotted over the crumbs after they are spread. When the sauce bub- bles through the crumbs on top of a. scallop dish the cooking is completed.— The Cook. —Egg Dressing for Salads—Take the yolk of one hard-boiled egg, one tea— spoonful of sugar, one-half teaspoon- ful of salt, one teaspoonful of made mustard and one tablespoonful of but- ter. Cream the ingredients and add gradually two tablespoonfuls‘ of vine— gar. Chop the white of the egg fine and add it to the salad. This is especially desirable for cabbage—Housekeeper. GOING UP-STAIRS. To Do This Gracefully Is to Be Accom- ' pushed. The woman who finds herself at the top of a flight of stairs, breathless and exhausted, gasping and blowing in a. distressing manner. has undergone an awful physical strain. The heart and the stomach have been made to do double duty, that. of the lungs and their own combined, with more often only one—half of the room required to do it in, from the compressing force of the stays. Consequently, one of the most graceful actions that a woman is called on mast often to illustrate is trans- formed, by the ignorance of afew rules of physical culture, into one of the most ludicrous and sorry sights imaginable. The woman who clutches her skirts in front midway between the hip and the knee bends her body from the hips almost in a. bow and drags up, labor- iously exhausting her vital energies at every step, is making a foolish and a ridiculous mistake, for which she suf- fers severely long before arriving at the top. One of the handsomest pictures paint- ed of feminlne beauty is that of a love- ly woman ascending a. fine, old stair- case. Her slender figure is gracefully erect, her lovely face on the column- like throat turned half over her shoul- der. The arms are bare, and droop with perfectly natural grace to her knees, where the silken skirts are daintily 1ift_ed to allow the free play of tiny, slippered feet. The lady is in the act of ascending, and seems to float up- ward, the personification of grace it- self. One imagines that he can see her catch her silken skirt at either knee, lifting it just to the ankle, expand her chest, hold her shoulders well back and her arms down. Then the slender body rests squarely on the hips, not drag- ging forward, and, standing perfectly erect, she glides upward, easily and gracefully—Chicago Inter Ocean. Domino Evening Cloak. The latest make of evening cloak re- calls the domino style, well plait‘ed in at the back, so that the base is wide and :‘mple. These plaits have to be dimin- ished and arranged in a most clever way on the lining that supports them to prevent the back looking clumsy. Im- mense hanging sleeves, wide enough to take in any other kind of sleeve, add to the voluminous appearance of the gar- ment. . An elegant one worn by a mar- quise at the fetes given to the king of Portugal was of yellow lampas broche, with silver, lined with ermine, and rovers of the same fur, showing in front a long white satin gilet covered with point d’Angieterre. The same lace was quilled inside the ermine-lined sleeves, falling on the arms in a most becoming way—Detroit Free Press. ' One Point in His Favor. “I haven’t lived with you 25 years without finding out you’re a brute!” wrathfully exclaimed Mrs. Bangle. “I know a million reasons Why I’d hate to be you, and only one why I’d like to be you!” “What is that one reason, madame?” fiercely demanded Mr. Bangle. “Because you’ve got a good wife!” she screamed—Chicago Tribune. Finance, National and Personal. “No,” said the man who picks up bits of wisdom wherever he can, “I never like to hear Blykins start out to show how all the indebtedness of the coun- try, can be liquidated and financial af- fairs put into shape at short notice.” “Why not ?” ' , “He nearly always Winds up by bore rying them than having them on, wouldn’t ‘you?”—-Chicago Tribune. ' ’ count.”—Washington Star. rowing two dollars on his own ae- - E I I r' ,-~ ; I ' z ' I I I' ‘ ‘uh ~H+-*”-Hh——— nly Eight-Page line [lent Paper in Bonnootiout 9 SOLD :IN Norwalk, South Norwalk, East Nora "ilrwalk, Westport, Saugatuok, New Canaan, Darien. Rowayton, a", it . and. Noroton. No other Paper in N orwalk compares with it for Local and General News. Its local news is bright, reliable and well written. After once feeding The Evening. Gazette you will be convinced that it is the best evening paper in Western Connecticut, and will take no. other. 0 Having a special correspondent in each town, it is en— abled to furnish the latest and freshest news. Yl CE SUBSCRJ CBE FOR IT. ' \ OFFICE OPEN DAY AND EVENING. \ Ask your newsdealer or 'newsboy to bring it. . to you f0' a week
Norwalk Chronicler