. ' ; jr’an EVENING. GAZETTa] a NANSEN’S CARRIER PIGEON. It. Carried Mrs. Sansen a. Blessagc of'Lovo from Near the Pole. One day a wonderful bird tapped at the window of Mrs. Nansen’s home at Christiania. Instantly the window was opened, and the wife of the famous Arctic explorer in another moment cov- ered the little messenger with kisses and caresses. The carrier pigeon had been away from the cottage thirty long months, but it had not forgotten the way home. It brought a note from Nansen, stating that all was going well with him and his expedition in the po- lar regions. Nansen had fastened a message to a carrier pigeon and turned the bird loose. The frail courier darted out into the blizzardly air. It flew like an arrow over a thousand miles of frozen waste, and then sped forward over another thousand miles of ocean and plains and forests, and one morning entered the window of the waiting mistress, and delivered the message which she had been awaiting so anxiously. W‘e boast of human pluck. sagacity and endurance; but this loving little carrier pigeon, in its homeward flight, after an absence of thirty months, accomplished a. feat so wonderful that we can only give our- selves up to amazement and admira- tion which must overwhelm every one when the marvelous story is told. Mrs. Nansen‘s pigeon is one of the wonders of the world—The Churchman. His Specialty. The favorite game played on strang- ers is the “mock fight.” Two of thelo- cal stockyard boys pretend to start a quarrel before a farmer. One word leads to another, and in the heat of the excitement both the contestants draw revolvers. This is about all the'aver- age man who is not “on” cares to see of the fracas, for by this time he is about four blocks away. Yesterday af- ternoon the chief clerk in one of the freight offices was down in‘the yards, when two fellows started a sham fight. This fight was so sudden and so realis- tic that he lost no time in leaving the scene of action. He even took pains ' to get over the fence and crawl on his hands and knees behind a manger. “hen the guns were shown to him and ‘ found to have been corncobs wrapped with tinfoil for cylinders, he’said he was ready to buy out a barroom. But like many others this game was Worked once too often. Two fellows, both known around the yards, started a sham fight. before a stranger who happened to be from Texas. Of course, they didn’t know this. When the part came where they drew. guns the Texan pulled an enormous; 45 that looked like a Gatling gun on the would-be jokers and said calmly: “If thar is any shootin" going on I want a hand in it myself, and if either of yousc turns yer weepin this way I’ll let mine loose. I'm from Terantula Creek myself, and I don't get away from no place where there's shooti‘n’.” 11; is needless to say it was the jokers who did the “hot foot" this time, and this joke hasn’t been played since.— Iiansas City Times. —_.. Fleul ing Facts. A Vermont newspaper congratulates the people of the State that there was less drunkenness during the late ses- sion of the Legislature than usual. An interestingurelic 9f early days has been discovered at Augusta, 1a., it be- ing the first stone burr for grinding corn ever used in the State of Iowa. The wives of Siamese noblemen cut their hair so that it sticks up from their heads. The average length of it is about an inch and a half. The introduction of sugar in Eng- land is often dated as late as the fif- teenth Century. but it was really in use in that country in the thirteenth cen- tury. The work of training carrier pigeons at Portsmouth, N. H., for use in the navy, will prove an interesting attrac- tion for,visitors at the navy ydrd dur- ing the summer months. In certain parts of China the young women wear their hair in a long, sin- gle plait, with w iich is intertwined a strand of bright scarlet thread. which denotes them to he marriagcablc. England’s Great; Cruiser. The new British cruiser, the Power- ful, well deserves her name. She is the largest and most formidable cruis- er in the 'world. The figures repre- senting her dimensions, equipment and ability are really startling. Her length, for example, is 538 feet, her breadth Tl feel, her draught 27 feet, and her displacement 14,200 tons. Those di- mensions are surpassed. ' indeed equalled, by only a few of the great ' merchant steamers. How they" coni- l‘fsi'e or contrast with those of our own best: cruisers may be seen from the fact that the Brooklyn’s length is only 400.5 feet. breadth (34.68 ' feet, draught 24 feet. and displacement ii,- 271 tons. The Powerful has a protec- tive. dock of; six inches of solid steel, are-.1 contains no less than 100 steam engines in different parts of her vast hull. I-Ier guns will throw nearly eight tons of projectiles a minute, at the highest velocity ever attained. of which two and a half tons may be thrown straight ahead and two and a half tons straight astern.——New York Tribune. Signs His Name “'itli His Teeth. . Bernard J. Murphy, an armless man, made application to License Clerk Sal- monson of the County Clerk's office for; permission to wed Emma. Amelingi 'VVhen requested to sign his name he asked that a pen be put between his teeth. This done, he wrote in a per- fectly legible script: “Bernard J. Murphy.” To be sworn, the clerk had to ask some one to remove his hat for him—Chicago Tribune. - . o .lllilSSQS. HER OLD SLAVE AlDED HER- The Reason Why the Color Line Was'Noi Drawn on One Patron. I Two members from Mississippi were swapping stories during the intervals between refreshments when in an ac- cidental way the name of ex-Senator Blanche K. Bruce was mentioned. “That reminds me,” said one, “of a story told me a long time ago by a barkeeper at the Ebbitt. I was in there one day when Bruce came in, went into one of the side rooms, and having been served, walked out Without say- ing anything to any one. “ ‘You don’t draw the color line here, John,’ I remarked to the barkeeper. " ‘Not on that man, sir, I don’t,’ was the reply. ‘I have had a pretty good opinion of him since a. little thing that happened soon after he first came here. “ ‘Bruce was in his seat at the Capi- tol one day when a card was brought to him.' He read it and at once went out to the waiting-room. There he met the woman who owned him when he was a slave. With her was her daughter. Both were in tears. She had lost all her property during the war, and was absolutely penniless. The negro once her slave was the only man she knew in Washington. She ap- pealed to him. Bruce listened to her story. He got his hat and went out- side with her. I-Iis carriage, drawn by a handsome pair of bays was waiting there. He called the carriage, assist— ed the mother and daughter to enter it with as nmch deference as he could possibly have shown them in the old plantation days, closed the door and told the coachman to drive to the Treasury. Then he called'a public' cab and followed. The three entered the Treasury together, and before Bruce came out he had placed in the hands of the woman he had once called “Missus” an appointment to a good clerkship in the Treasury Department.’ "That,” added the Mississippi mem- her, “was the reason why the barkeep— K. Bruce, and seems to me thereason was a mighty good one, too."——\Vasb- inglon I’ost. RUBBER TEETH NOW. An Invention of a Newl’ork Dentist ‘Wliich Elay Prove of Great Value. An entirely new thing in teeth has been invented which places artificial nasticators within the reach of the The inventor and manufac- turer is a Well-known New York den- tist. ' The invention is a departure from anything heretofore introduced in mod- ern dentistry. It consists of a complete artificial set of teeth made entirely of rubber, the base, or plate, and the teeth being formed integrally. In their manufacture an ingenious method is employed which not only insures a correct formation of the artificial inas- ticators. whereby they are made to closely resemble nature‘s product, but also simplifies the process of what is called “setting the teeth up.” A hol- low. flexible metallic matrix, which both internally and externally repro- du‘ces the formation of the natural teeth, is made, which, when filled with rubber and vulcanized, produces a per- fectly formed set of teeth. One of the greatest advantages of the rubber teeth, aside from their cheapness. is their extreme lightness. They weigh less than half as much as any other form of denture—New York Journal. ‘ Electrical Rat-Killing. A Kansas City electrical supply shop has an electrical method of catching rats in the electrician's cellar. A large square of plate iron is placed on the floor, and above it another plate, not no large, and separated from the other, at the distance of an inch or so, by porcelain insulators. To each plate is attached a wire connected with a. dy- namo having a 1,000 volt alternating current. On the upper iron plate is scattered a seductive luncheon of bacon rinds, old cheese and tallow. When a rat steps on the lower plate the current has no effect on him; but the instant he puts his paws on the upper plate to reach for the cheese the full force of electricity reaches every. part if his 'sinewy body, and, contract- ii ‘ somersaults. The other rats, ob- serving thls. think he is jumping for joy and hasten to the feast. Ofie after the other they are shot into‘the air and fall to the floor stunned, when they are easily captured and killed. Thus it is that science lends itself to even so humble an occupation as rat-killing. ~.\'ew York i‘y'orld. ,\ Hutul'al Apparatus. “in Florida they have marsh hens that build their nests in the grass or in ‘logs.' ” said A. 1". Cornell, of Jackson- ville. at the National. “I was hunting along the upper St. John’s River when i saw what at first appeared to be a log. Then i noticed that one end was split and went to investigate it. I soon saw that. the object was a dead alliga- tor. with its mouth wide open, and as l am‘irtmt-hed a marsh hen [low from between its javs. making a fuss that indicated its nest was near. 01’) reach- ing the alligator I found its nest. in its mouth. with four eggs in. it. The sau— rian’s remains appeared to be whole, except a portion of the tail, which had rotted away. l~ went to turn the body over, and found that was a regular apartment-house. From the tail emerged three good-sized moccasin snakes, and from a hole in the side that I had not seen a ground-hog emerged. while the hen that occupied the mouth strenuously objected tomy interfering with her home—Washing- ton Star: . - lie—Jones is all right, I suppose. but he and i do notlike each other a bit. She—Well, that is much to the credit of both of yea—Cincinnati Enquirer. .nv.’ ,.. .,. or didn‘t draw the color line at Blanche . i g it suddenly. shoots him into the air . r IS OVER- NOW "is he TlME 15 : 9 To Subsoribeiifor the AND V» » - - .53, .‘u _ ever . cies. AA FETCHING FLY. .— [led ‘Hair Had a Greater Charm '1‘]me Beauty in This Ina-tax: co. « One day Christopher North had wan- dered many miles in quest of a basket of fish. On arriving at the stream he perceived that the trout were “on the take,” and were .rising freely to the: fly, a specimen of which heimmediately captured with the view of making up a cast to that particular pattern. Ex- amining his fishing-beek for the flies needed, he found to his annoyance that it contained nothing like the pattern— a peculiar species of red spider—and so it seemed as if he were to be done out of his sport for once at least. Not a bit of it! Spying a hamlet near at hand, he went up to the first native he met, and asked—so the story goes— if there was anybody ‘at band who had a “carroty pow.” The astonished countryman looked confused for a mo- ment at'such an extraordinary ques- tion, but at length replied that a cer- tain Mysic—the minister’s lass—had the “best trap 0’ reid hair in the hail parish!” Straight to the manse marched the resolute angler, who at . once interviewed Mysie, though on what particular subject the story tell- eth not; but he presently cajoled that ruddy damsel to part with a lock of her coveted hair, whose blushing beauty he no doubt praised as only a poet could, but for which he most like- ly paid with a handsome “douceur.” _ Busking his hooks straightway with a 1 portion of the fiery tress, he proceeded _ to angle with the same. a brimming creel being the result in a few hours thereafter! A UNIQUE PARSON. This Missionary Pays His \Vay, and Wan- ders on the Plains. Sleeping on the open plains, and wandering at will between the Missou- ri River andthe Pacific, Rev. J. Logan Sample, formerly of Pittsburg, devotes his life to missionary work. He is a graduate of Jefferson College and of Princeton Theological Seminary, and, being a man of wealth, is enabled to ' devote his life to the work, indepen- dent of missionary societies or church ' associations. It is now twelve years since Dr. Sample went West to begin his life as a wandering Presbyterian mission- ary. He bought a pair of ponies in the Black Hills of Dakota. which have been his reliance for travel, faithful and trusted in all emergen- In his buggy, drawn by this team, he has travelled over 13,000 , miles, crossing the Rocky Mountains seven times, and traversing eleven States and Territories. Dr. Sample has never received one dollar of aid from any mission board. and has faithfully adhered to his origi- nal idea, to preach the Gospel in waste places. He has often held forth hun- dreds of miles from any preaching sta- tion of any church. Night after night has he picketed his ponies and laid himself down to sleep on the open prai- rie, in the woods or on the mountain, with his face to the sky. Sometimes he has travelled for days without see- ing a human being. ‘ .- Cost of a London Fog. It?- has been computed that. a fog costs the City of London from £50,000 to £100,000 a day. A large proportion of this is borne by the railway com- panies. As soon as the fog descends the platelayers, without awaiting or- ders, leave their work and undertake the duties of fog-signalmen; for which they receive an extra shilling a day. This appears a small item, yet a single fog has been known to cost over £50 for extra wages to platelayers at Chap. ham Junction alone. Each fog-signal. man has a "supply of detonators. “Cau- tion” is givenby a single dctonator, “Danger” by two detonators, placed upon the rails at a distance or 10 yards apart. Detonators are small tin boxes two inches in diameter, contain. ing three percussion caps and a small quantity of gunpowder. At the base of each are two strips of lead for fas- tening ii: to the rail. They are made with great care, chiefly in Birming- ham and London,pand it is rarely that one fails to explode. The wholesale price of detonators is one penny each: and the averagerannual consumption of each big railway company is 150,- 000, costing £625. Entertaining for the Entertainer. A good story is told about a practi- cal joke played ofi on his guests in the course of a boar-hunt by the Emperor of Germany. While the party were tramping through the woods they came upon a rural policeman, whom his Majesty accosted thus—“My good fel. low,-you seen to be eyeing me in a very suspicious manner. Perhaps you think I haven’t a. license? But you are wrong, for here it is.” And from the pocket of his shooting-coat the Elm peror produced the document, duly stamped and signed. “And now,” 11! contin’uec , “you had better ask the oth- er gentlemen for theirs.” The result was that half of ‘the illustrious sports men proved to be unprovided with cre dentials. Their names were taken, and every one of them had to go before: magistrate and pay a fine. The Writing of Colleen Bawn. Mr. Dion Boucicanlt, strolling about the London bookstalls same years ago picked up Gerald Griffin’s Gollegians read it. shut himself up with it, and i1 three days had produced The Colleer Bawn, the most famous Irish play evei written, which has earned for itsau thor over one hundred thousand dol tars—Harper’s Bazar. w ~ Not Afraid. »' Dick Hicks (watching the orchestra ——Those musicians don’t care anythim about the director. ‘ _ Mrs. Hicks—How do you know? ~ Dick Hicks—The more he shake that stick at them the harder they fid dime—Puck. ~ , - -_ _ i ' it“? (MONKEYS. Between 500 and'600 Imported Annually ——Buyers and Prices. . There are imported into this country 500 or 600 monkeys annually, which come chiefly from Africa and India. by way of Europe. Natives catch the monkeys and carry them down to the shipping ports,‘where they Sell them to sailors aboard ship, or more likely to captains of vessels, or to agents of ‘ European dealers in animals. Some: times on shipboard a rope is tied around a monkey and it is permitted within a limited space to roam the deck. Usually, however, monkeys are shipped in slatted boxes. Some men. keys are brought direct to this port, but by far the greater number go to the animal dealers in Europe, where the monkeys imported here are bought. \ ' * - Occasionally a small monkey is sold for a pet, but the number now sold for that purpose is very limited. There is still Some demand for monkeys to be carried by organ grinders. Though the monkey has disappeared from the city it is still carried to some extent by organ grinders in the country. But the great demand for monkeys comes from the show people. Themon‘key- is particularly sensitive to draughts, and to changes of temperature, to which it is often subject with the con- stantly changing location of a circhs menagerie. The average life of 3. mon- key under such circumstances is about a year; the menagerie practically re- news its stock of monkeys annually. Under favorable conditions indoor monkeys live in captivity for, it may be, twelve or fifteen years. Monkeys rarely breed in captivity. DIDN’T KNOW THE ROPES. How a Raw Recruit “’as Imposed Upon by Jocular Comrades. Gen. Morgan of Illinois. who com- manded a brigade in Davis's division, was one of those men so slouchy in‘ his appearance that a. stranger would never have picked him out for an offi- cer of high rank. One day a raw re- cruit of his brigade who had lost some books asked a veteran where he might be likely to find them. 'The veteran said the only thief in the brigade was Jim Morgan ,who occupied a tent near the blue flag. The recruit hastened to Morga n‘s tent, shoved his head through the flaps and asked: ~ “Does Jim Morgan live here?" “My name is James Morgan," an- swered the General. “Then I want you to hand over those books you stole from me!” “I have none of your books, my dear man.” ‘ “That‘s a lie," cried the soldier. “The boys say you are the only thief in camp. Turn out them books, or I’ll grind your carcass into apple sass!” Gen. Morgan'appreciated the joke, and laughed heartily but when the re- cruit began pulling off his coat to make good his threats the oflicer in- formed him of his relations to the bri- - gade. “Waal, blast me if I’d take you,for a brigadier!" said the man. “Excuse me. General, but I don’t thoroughly know the ropes yet.”-—Ha.rper‘s Round Table. A Smart; Footmnn. A lady had issued invitations for a party of twelve, and, on the morning of the appointed day, when conferring with the footman, she discovered that one of the twelve silver shells in which th scalloped oysters were to be served had been misplaced. the missing article having proved un- availing. the lady decided that sooner than give up that particular course, she would simply decline oysters when they were handed her, and so the eléven shells would be sufficient. It happened that when the oysters were served at dinner, the hostess was engaged in an animated conversation with one or two of her neighbors, and, forgetting her determination, took one of the shells of oysters and set it be- fore herself. If the servant's heart fell in’consten nation at this, he gave no external signof it, but, speaking in tones dis- tinct, though low, said, respectfully: “Excuse me, madam, but you said I was to remind you that the doctor for- bade your eating oysters.”——"id-Bits. The Man in a Trunk: Hermann Zeitung. the Teutonic tai- lor, who some years 'since traveled as, luggage from Vienna to Paris has been repeating his pranks, says thee London Telegraph. This time he reached Rome from Basil in a box. He was for six days cramped up in the case. and was unable to move when the lid‘was lifted by the railway por- ters. who had been attracted by his cries for help. He had to be conveyed ' to a hospital for treatment, .and on re- covering his consciousness, for he was nearly dazed, he said he had per- formed the strange and perilous jour- ney for the purpose of drawing atten- tion to an apparatus which he has in- vented for taking measures for suits of clothes. The tailor will no doubt endeavor to exhibit himself to the Ital- ians as “The Man in a Trunk,” a title by which he was known during his stay in Paris, where he was well treat- ed after his journey from the banks of the Danube to those of the Seine. No Laughing )Iatter. Rigid search for , Kind Old Gentleman (to small boy ' crying on the stepl—W'hat is" the mat- ter, little boy? Small Boy—l—p—pa—pa down a e-‘—c—-arpet. . “And does that unpleaSant taskof your father‘s make you so sorry,. then?" ' “N—n—no; p—pa—pa hit his thumb!" “Ah! Sympathy for your father’s pain. ‘18 that what makes you weep?” “N—no! .I I—I—-laughedl”—Pearson’s \Weekly. ’ "" ' is putting - .34;
Norwalk Chronicler