ELEPHANT: FICTIONS. Impossible Stories Told Aboutl the Animal's Memory. His Sagacity Is Greatly Exaggerated. Says Prof. Lockhart—He Is, However, a Good-Natural Beast It Prop- erly Treated. Errors and e'xtravagances—Oriental, classic, medieval and modern supersti- tion—~cluster about “my lord the ele phant,” as he is called in India. There is hardly an animal about which so many fictions exist‘or which is so little understood. . The popular opinion is that the ele- phant’s memory is as retentive as man’s. Stories are constantly floating about to this eflect. The last one I met with asserted that an elephant had killed a man who, 20 years before, when a small boy, had given him apiece of to- bacco, or had in some way maltreated him. Of course this story is preposter- ous. In the first place most elephants love tobacco, and instead of killing a man for giving him a chew, he would be most likely to trumpet a welcome and caress him every time he presented him- self. But as to his rememberingany- body for 20 years or 20 months even, it is sheer nonsense. There is hardly an animal whose memory is so capricious. All equally unaccountable fiction is that there recurs a period each year when a gland swells on each side of the animal’s head about six inches back of the eyes, and which emits a watery (lis- -.-harge of unpleasant odor. At such times the elephant is supposed to be a very dangerous creature. As I never knew an elephant to be especially disa- greeable when he had a cold in his head, I am inclined to class this with the other ridiculous and absurd yarns so often repeated. It is commonly supposed that the elephant is unable to give definite ex- pression to his feelings. This 1s a mis- take. He always expresses his pleasure in one way, by blowing through his trunk. The noise made is exceedingly shrill. When in want, he expresses it in a low note made by the mouth, and when in anger or when in a revengeful mood, he makes a terrific roar with his throat, which sounds like distant thun- der. He never mixes these sounds; they always stand for definite states of feeling, and are as well understood by the trainer as are the deep, slow-drawn and far resounding snores heard at midnight in the elephant’s stable. The elephant’s wisdom has so often been extolled that “sa’gacious as an ele- phant” has passed into an axiom. In point of fact an animal will cross a rot- ten bridge fullof holes if you willpermit him to do so. Even in his wild state, though possessed of a proboscis which is capable of guarding it against such dangers, the elephant readily falls into pits dug to receive it, which are only covered with a few sticks and leaves. Its fellows make no effort in general to assist the fallen, as they might easily do by kicking in the earth around thé’ edge, but fly in terror. It commonly happens that a young elephant tumbles into a. pit, near which its mother will remain until the hunters come, without doing anything to help it—not even feeding it by throwing in a few branch- es. Whole herds of elephants are led into inclosures which they could break through as easily as if they were made of cornstalks, and which no other ani- mal would enter; and single ones are caught by their hind legs being tied to- gether by men under cover of tame ele- phants. Animals that happen to escape are captured again without trouble; even experience will not bring them 'isdom. I do not think that I traduce the elephant when I say that it is, in many things, a stupid animal. Regarding an elephant being unable to express with his countenance feel- ings of affection, fear, desire, I think all those who have seen Boney simulate drunkenness at Proctor’s pleasure pal- ace, ill the pantomime, “From Cafe to Police Station,” will readily acknowl- edge this error. It is really wonderful how much facial expression an ele- phant really has—with a face skeleton so imperfect; that is to say, its nasal bones are rudimentary, while the month, all of the lower half of the face, is concealed beneath great muscles at lached to the base of the trunk. But in spite of that, and with his ears un- cocked' and his proboscis pendant, an clephant’s countenance is full of char- actor. The truth about the elephant is that, treated kindly and considerately, he is a great, good-natured beast, who, for his master, will perform any possibele labor or feat. They are very affection- ate and exceedingly jealous of atten- tions from their master. There are “rogue” elephants, of course, but they are seldom met with except in large herds, and where attendants do not un- derstand how to treat the brutes in their charge—«N. Y. Journal. .7: i-‘f“"*.‘ ‘ House of Lords. Probably the house of lords is the least sentimental assembly in the world, yet it is peculiarly susceptible to the authority and magic of a strong personality. On a celebrated occasion Lord Lyndhurst recited at enormous length all the black-letter authorities on a subject. Lord Lyndhu-rst got his way, not by the weight of his black-let- ter citations, which the pastoral peers whoswell our full-dress debates could hardly be expected to appreciate, but by the accustomed, yet ever vivid, im- pression of Lord Lyndhurst on his legs. Thus when Lord Salisbury rises to rec- ommend a. perilous success to the co- horts he controls, when the house "‘gives audience and attention still as night” topthe sequence of a clear-cut ar-' gument and illustration, every phrase poised to a hair, every point piercing to the quick, the whole speech acting like oxygen on the languid air of the house of lords, it is easy to realize the burden of responsibility which personal as- cendency lays upon 'the leader of the conservative party in the house of lords—Nineteenth Century. .__.-_.... SCIENCE AND ' INDUSTRY. ——The coffee crop of Venezuela. amounts to $15,000,000 a year in value. The average crop is 60,000 tons of cofiee. Two-thirds of this product is exported, mostly to England. - Maracaibo is one of the centers of trade; Maracaibo cof- ; fee is known everywhere. —A long series of experiments, in which dogs were. fed alternately with each substance during four consecutive periods, has shown, it is stated, that natural butter and manufactured oleo- margarine are practically equal in di- gestibility and nutritive value. —-A correspondent writes to Nature that carp are very fond of the larvae of mosquitoes, and, as this fish thrives in the only kind of water in which the larvae of the mosquitoes can live, he suggests that these fish might be em- ployed to exterminate this pestiferous insect. ——Africa is becoming a very good cus- tomer of the Pacific. states. Lumber and flour are the staples of the trade, and the shipments are rapidly growing in importance. The largest shipment of flour ever made from the Puget Sound region for African ports was being loaded a few days ago at Port Blakely. It- consistcd of 8,000 sacks. —-—About 15,000 tons of starch have been made from potatoes this season in the three states of ‘Nisconsin, Minne- sota and North Dakota. Not far from 3,500,000 bushels of potatoes have been thus used, and yet this represents about half the product of the potato belt. The farmers have received an average price of ten cents a bushel for the po- tatoes. ——The latest discovery of a new star was made by a woman without locking at the heavens. Mrs. Fleming, of the Harvard observatory, found it from standard photographs a. few days; ago, attention having been directed to it by a peculiarity of the spectrum taken in Peru last July. The new star is in the constellation Centaurus, and appears to have changed into a gaseous nebula. ——The saltiness of the sea has much to do with the ocean currents, which distribute the heat of the tropics over the colder regions of the earth. Cur- rents are largely due to the difference between the specific gravity of sea water and the fresh water of rains. Thus when rain falls on a certain part of the ocean the effort of the heavier salt water of the ocean to establish an equilibrium causes a current. —-The minute creatures that have lived in the sea for ages past have left endur— ing monuments in the shape of islands, rocks and continents. If the sea had not been salty, these marine animals could not have existed and secreted the hard substance known as a. “calcareous skeleton,” which has largely contrib- uted to the growth of continents. Among these early inhabitants of the sea. were corals, crinoids, sea urchins and star fishes. THREE TIMES THREE. California Woman Who Never Conde- scended to Anything Short of Triplets. In an almost inaccessible mountain fastness in Mendocino county, 18 miles northeast of Ukiah, is the home of nine children, all triplets. The mother of this remarkable family is Mrs. George Walters. All the children are well and happy, and the last trio are as healthy a set of youngsters as can be found anywhere. The Walters home is in an out-of—the- way part of the Mendocino forest dis- trict. Two of the sets of triplets were by Mrs. Walters’ first husband, Orville Orrin Oates, a Missourian. Three years elapsed between the birth of the first and second triplets, and 12 years be- tween the birth of the second and third sets. Mrs. Walters’ maiden name was Ellen Elaine Emmery. She was born in Quebec about 1855. She met her first husband during the Centennial ex- position at Philadelphia. After their marriage they moved to Alton, M o. It was at Alton in 1897 the first triplets were born. They were named Wheeler Henry, James Rutherford, and Martha Christine, being two boys and one girl. The family moved to California in the fall of 1880, and settled at first in Inyo county. From there they moved to the Little Bear valley, San Bernardino county. There, in October, 1882, the second triplets were born. They were all girls, and were named Matilda Ann, llcbecca Elizabeth, and Marie Louise. While out on a prospecting tour, seek- ing family, Mr. Oates became lost in the vast- deserts of western Arizona, and was never again heard from. The widow then determined to move to the upper part of the state with her six children. They traVeled north by easy stages. and on the way she met Mr. Walters. He helped her and her chil— dren along the way, proposed marriage, and was promptly accepted. They kept on. their journey north, seeking for some far-away valley, where they could set up their home. They found it in the location already described. There in June, 1894, the last triplets were born. They were named Grover Eldord, Jasper Otis, and Ruth Ellen. The children of the first two sets of triplets do not resemble one another at all, but the last, the babies, look so much alike that they cannot be told apart. The only way to distinguish them is to dress them differently, and when put to bed they wear different kinds .of night dresses, so that the mother can, tell which is which—San Francisco Examiner. Measles Microbes. Dr. Joseph Czajkowski, after four years of investigation, announces the discovery of a microbe which may be the cause of measles. Two other in- vestigators have found the same mi- crobe in the blood of measles patients. One of the most interesting peculiari- ties is t-hatwhile rabbits suffer no in- convenience when inoculated with it, ' it appears to be sure death to mice.— Youth's Companion. , .. “mam“ u 11.441: -” “‘"‘=-' “" ' am a. fortune for his fast~gr0wing ‘ » .r‘ WAR BALLOONS. Many of Them Used During the ' Siege of Paris. An Excellent Method of Getting Within the Enemy's Lines—Ballooning Has Since Become an Important Branch of Military Study. The last big European war taught the French more about ballooning than they would otherwise have learned in a generation. At the begin- ning of the war the government re- jected 'many proposals from balloon makers to construct a. number of war balloons, but when they were shut up in’ Paris they gladly turned to the bal- loon to help them. They turned all their disused stations into balloon factories, and sought the services of the few experienced aeronauts then available for the teaching of the use and management of the balloon to the people. During four months 66 bal- loons left Paris, of which number only 1hrec have never been accounted for. This is remarkable when it is remem- bered that no lights were allowed in the night ascensions, and the balloons could only be sent up under cover of darkness. One hundred and sixty persons, in— cluding Gambetta, were carried safely over the Prussian lines, and 2,500,000 I ctters were sent. The balloons also took with them pigeons, which were sent back to Paris with letters and dis- patches. Tl‘le'mcssages were written and photographed- down very small on exceedingly thin paper. This was rolled up, inserted in a quill and at- tached to the tail feathers of the pigeon. When it was received ill Paris the photograph was put under a. mi- croscope and the message read, One of the balloons, the Ville d’Orlcans, left Paris at 11 o’clock at night, and arrived near Christiana, Norway, 15 hours later, having crossed the North sea in its remarkable voyage. Most of the aeronauts were sailors, who were chosen because of their familiarity with the management and steering of boats at sea, and they proved very ca- pable. During the entire siege bal- loons formed the only means of com- munication with the outside world for the imprisoned inhabitants, and noth- ing could have taken their place. Since then ballooning has been made an important branch of military study, and the course through which the bal- looning corps has to pass is becoming daily more scientific and severe. The war balloon must- be compact, always ready for action, and very strong. It is not large enough for two. It is always captive—that ‘is, it is secured to the earth by a cable. It is seldom emptied of its gas, and is, therefore, always ready for action at a. moment’s notice. The equipment of a balloon corps, be- sides the balloon itself, consists essen- tially of two wagons, one large and heavy, somewhat resembling a lum- ber truck, and the other considerably smaller. The former is used to fasten the balloon to, and is provided with large reels containing about 2,000 yards of twisted wire rope. The smaller wagon is filled with iron pipes containing. gas, and is technically called the “tube wagon.” At the word of command the balloon, always inflated, is released,and bounds upward to the height of several hun- dred feet, ‘uncoiling the rope after it. ’ ‘he officer in the car takes 11 p with him maps of the surrounding country and a field glass. The position and arrange- ment of the enemy are marked down on the maps with different colored pencils, indicating cavalry, infantry, etc. These marked maps are then placed in a leather bag, which is at- tached to a ring, which slides down the cable to the ground, where a mounted officer awaits it, and carries the mes- sage to the general in command. Other means of communicating the informa- tion have been tried, such as by tele- phone and phonography, but many officers still cling to the colored pen- cil method, which, they say, is very sure and effetive.—Chicago Record. ‘ ._ ..us_-.-:.,.,. THEY TOOK NO CHANCES. Congressman Helped Mike Out in Dis- pensing Hospitality. One of the Massachusetts congress- men lives near Boston. He has abeauti- ful estate, his admiration for which is shared by his coachman, Mike. The other day Mike brought a couple of his Irish friends upon the place and after escorting them around the groundsand showing them the stable ushered them into the hall. -' --- There, somewhat to his surprise, he ’ met his employer, but the latter was determined not to be outdone in hospi- tality by his coachman. “Bring your friends into the dining-room, Mike." he said, and into the dining-room the trio followed him. “Now, my men, of course you can have what- you like,” he remarked, as he stood by the sideboard; “but I have a drink here-that I think you will like. There is a story to it, by the way,” he added, “which may inter- est you. It is called Benedictine, and it is made by monks up on the Alps. They fill a little flask with it and send out their St. Bernard dogs to find travelers who may be overcome by the cold. When a. poor, half-frozen fellow is found he drinks a little of this cordial from the flask and then he is able to follow the dogs to a place of shelter.” The men listened .to the story in silence. Finally one of them mustered up cour- age to speak..' “Have you any gin?” he asked. “Certainly,” said the congress- man, as he laid aside the cordial. "Help yourself." The men took a good, sub- stantial drink of the gin and smiled happily over its familiar taste. “That wasn’t bad,” said one of them. “Now bring on your dog liquor;”———Washing- ton Post. At the ‘Dentist’s. , Young Lady (timorously)—Who was : that screaming just now? Dentist—Don’t be alarmed; it was a patient who was being 'treated free of charge.—-Journal Amusant. ‘ . ing to business. T H E E: v E N l N of o AZ'ELTTE .' NATURAL SOFT SOAP. It Is Found in a Series of Pits in the Big ‘ Horn Mountalhs. _ A party of gentlemen from the east, who have been hunting and fishing during the past 'monlh in the Big Horn mountains basin. met while "there with 'a per- tinent "llustration of the natural marvels of the great central west, says the Denver News. This was nothing less than the discovery of a series of pits or vats of natural soft soap, the ex- cellent quality of the product. showing that old Dame Nature is well compe- tent, when in the mood, to hold up fully the end of her string as a housewife. These natural soft soap pits, seven in number, and having an average ca- pacity of about 1,000 gallons, are scat- tered over an area- of two or three acres of alkali land, situated just below the mouth of half a dozen hot springs and two large springs of practically pure lubricating oil. The water from the hot springs and the oil drainage com- bining with each other and'acting on the alkali deposit, constitute a natural soap manufactory, the product of which is gathered in the adjacent se- lies of earth cavities or pits. Just be- low the pits themselves is a wide tract of spongiest marsh soil, in whose depths the soft soap surplus is ab- sorbed. The product is perfectly mar.- ketablc, and in the. coming commercial development. of the Big Horn basin there will doubtless be a natural soft soap syndicate. ' ' “NOT A LADY.” Queer Ideas of the Trades People of Scotland. The last time the significance of that very versatile and comprehensive word “gentleman” came up for discussion in the present writer’s hearing one of the talkers was reminded of the amusing experiences of an American woman in Scotland, says Harper’s Weekly. She had been studying to be a trained nurse and went abroad in the summer. In Edinburgh she undertook to buy a maekintosh. She found one that suited her, but the price was too high. She said to the shop girl: “I have to work for my living and can’t afford to pay so much. You must sell it to me cheaper.” “Vait a. minute,” said the girl, and went to the rear of the shop -to the proprietor and said: “That per- son would like that cloak, but she says she’s not a lady, and wants a reduc- tion.” Whether she got the cloak or not did not appear, but unquestionably she got a very surprisingillustration of‘fhe difference between the meaning of the word “lady” in Scotland and its mean- ing in the United States. CHAMPION HARD-LUCK STORY. Girl Gives Him Money to Keep—Jilts Him —His Dilemma. Cupid leads men into strange capers, and many of these capers have an inter- esting financial side. A seven-dollar- a-week porter in a large china. store came to his employer recently and made this interesting confession: “I’m in a peck 0’ trouble. I’ve been engaged to a girl, you know—was aw- ful gone on her—and blew in nearly all my wages on her -— theaters, sleigh rides, oyster stews and all sorts of things. Well, she’s mad at me and wrote thisletter to say that I‘m fired. Look at all this stuff she sent back— photograph, $18 ring, $7 ring, $13 gold chain, $5 locket—wasn’t I a chump? But the worst of it is, we were going to get married, and she was giving me her money to keep. I had $40 of her money. Of course, you know, I thought she wouldn’t want it soon, and I’ve been and blew it in on this suit of clothes, and three sweaters: had to look decent to go around with her, you konw. Now, 1 have to pony up that cash and I ain’t got it. Will you let me draw it on these here Wimmin’s trinkets ?” BECAME A PROPRIETOR. Sherman Tells Why He Purchased Prop- erty in Washington. “When I entered congress my pay as a member was eight dollars a day dur- ing the session, and it was said we had ‘rcast beef,’ but we paid for it'if we had it.” says Senator John Sherman, in his “Recollections.” “At the close .of the 34th congress the compensation was in- creased to $3,000 a year. During the latter part of the war and afterward prices of food, board and lodging were, considerably advanced. “In 1864 I offered the proprietor of ll'illard’s hotel my monthly pay of $250 for board and lodgings in very modest quarters for my wife and myself, but he demanded $300 a month. This led me to purchase a. house in which to live, a change which I have never regretted. It was quite the fashion then for the old families, who were in full sympathy with the confederates, to underrate property (even their own) in Washing- ton, on the ground that when the con- federacy was acknowledged the capital would be removed and real estate could, therefore, be obtained upon very reasonable terms." W'hen People May Dance. At a gathering of King’s Daughters at London, Ont., the other day, Mrs. Graham, of Toronto, on being asked if dancing should be tolerated, replied: "Yes, but only in the morning, an hour before breakfast, and then the woman should dance with her husband or brother." This encouragement of morning dancing at a. time when morn- ing prayers are said to be falling into disuse, may possibly strike some Chris- tian as unwise. And there are sedate leaders of families, not necessarily Christians, who would kick vigorously if: they were asked to dance an hour be- fore reading the morning paper and go- Farmers, also, who have to begin work very early in the morning, 'will be apt to complain if this dancing rule should be enforced. Want Protection. The. Bavarian pesants, who have a horror of fire, address the following prayer to their favorite 'saint: “0, holy _ St. Florian! Protect this house; burn the others.” _/ , ,...'.,. and . \\ s: AZETTE. —-—-—O >—0 «0+.» -O-O—fl ”—— Om; flnly Eight-Page [Ina Paper in connection SOLD EIN Norwalk, South Norwalk, East Nora walk,Westport, Saugatuck, NOW ' Canaan, Darieu. Rowayton, 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 reading The Evening Gazette you will be convinced that it is the best evening paper in Western Connecticut, and will take no other. Having a special correspondent in each town, it is en- abled to furnish the latest and freshest news. .,- I i n‘ NLY‘CENT. ‘ SUBSCRIBE FOR IT. ‘ OFFICE OPEN DAY AND EVENING. 31'? Ask your newsdealer or newsboy to bring it. to you for a week EVENIN ~> as. a:
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