El Reno Daily Eagle. (El Reno, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 201, Ed. 1 Saturday, May 25, 1895 Page: 2 of 4
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FIGHT TO THE DEATH.
Description of a Battlo Royal Bo-
twoon Two So r pen to.
Alderman Charles IVrley, of Monmouth,
ill., (ilves a ('uniplng ReminUcenco—
Queer Keating Place Selected by
a ItuttlcMnnkc.
“Of course everybody has heard of
rattlesnakes that measured six or eight
feet in length,” said Alderman Charles
Perley, of Monmouth, 111., the other day.
“Iiut I actually helped kill one down
Dn Johnson's island in the Mississippi,
two miles above Oquawka, which
measured five feet and a quarter of an
Inch long. I took part in the killing of
it and at the same time in the killing
of a cooperhead which was three feet
eight inches and five-sixteenths in
length. It was the most thrilling ex-
perience of my life. It makes me
shiver to think of it. It was six years
ago and at that time Johnson’s island
was a favorite summer resort for the
wealthy families of Monmouth and
Oquawka. It was a splendid place to
fish, too. We used to catch channel
cat that weighed from ten to twelve
pounds and buffalo fish even larger.
Ilut this isn’t a fish story.
“In August, 1883, Harry Smith,
Charley Porter, Crit Shultz, Frank
Harding, Murray Clayeorab and I made
up a party to spend a few weeks in
camp on the south end of Johnson’s
island. All the summer houses were
on the north end. We had lieen in
camp almut three days. It was Friday
and Ilarry Smith hod boon left in
charge of camp, while the rest of us
went out fishing. When I returned to
camp in the evening I was amazed to
find that Smith had made no prepara-
tion for supper, and nothing was to be
seen of him. I was alarmed, l>ut
my alarm was changed to terror when
I looked into the tent. There lay
Harry Smith fiat on his back and coiled
upon his breast was a rattlesnake that I
would have sworn was twenty foot
long. lie had Just awakened and was
afraid to move or make a noise lest the
reptile fang him. I dared not shoot it
for fear 1 should injure him. Present-
ly the other boys came back to camp.
I hastened to meet them and cautioned
them to be quiet. None of us could
think of n plan to relieve poor Parry,
who was suffering the tortures of the
damned. When we had all taken a
peep at poor Harry for the fortieth
time our terror was intensified n thou-
sand fold. From behind a trunk in
one corner of the tent there crawled a
monster copperhead. It crawled, hiss-
ing as it went, towards the nit tier,
evidently bent on having a fight.
Smith could hear it, but didn’t dare to
move.
“When the copperhead was with-
in three feet of the rattlesnake
the latter awakened. It raised its
head almost a foot, darted out its
TIIKKE LAY SMITH, FLAT OX Ills HACU.
tongue, and then sounded thnt awful
buzz of a rattle. At this the copper-
head coiled itself for a spring. It was
evident the reptiles were about to in-
dulge in a fight for the possession of
the comfortable nest on poor Smith’s
chest. The snakes glared at each
other for nearly a minute. Each kept
waving his head to and fro. Their eyes
looked like coals of fire Suddenly
each became motionless, but it wo3
only for an Instant, and then, quicker
than the eye could f >llow, they
sprang at each other. The next mo-
ment they were writhing about in a
tangle. The moment the fight began
Smith leaped to his feet and rushed out
of the tent. For a time we forgot
about the snakes. Smith was so scared
he could scarcely stand. We gave him
a drink of brandy, and when he revived
somewhat we went back to fee the
fight. The reptiles were still at it,
tied up in a big knot. Coiled about
each other as they were I don't believe
they could have been placed in a half
bushel measure. There is no telling
how long the fight would have lasted
had we not stopped it. Hut It was
growing dark, and wc didn’t care to
have two live monsters battling in
camp after sundown, ho we drew our
revolvers and fired several shots
through the snakes. It had no appar-
ent effect. A*, length, when we came
to examine, wo found both snakes dead,
but so tightly tt’ero they embraced lu
each other's coils that wo could scarce-
ly untangle them.
“The two snukes were weighed on
cur fish scales before we separated
them and together they weighed
twenty-four and one-sixth pounds. We
went home next day. Our snakes
spread ull over that region <-f country.
After that Johnson’s island 1 » t its pop-
ularity aa a summer res >rt. No one
ever goes there now except a few old
fishermen. Those who used to spend
their i uminer vacations there usually
come up to Chicago."
Sloth makes all tilings difficult, but in-
dustry makes ull things easy.—Franklin.
THE AMERICAN VOICE.
A MINER'S ADVENTURE.
THE BRAVE RESCUE.
FETISH WORSHIP IS COMMON.
CYCLONIC POWER.
CrltlrUniM Which Foreigner* Invariably
Make on It Are All Deserved.
There is one criticism which is inva- |
rinbly made upon us even by our own
country people, who, if they happen to j
have been abroad a few years, come j
home with eyes and ears keenly open to !
impressions, and that is that our voices
are bad. We have some excuse for
speaking loud. Our large cities are
said to be the noisiest in the world,
and one realizes that fact after l>eing
in the country several months. In the
street, then, we must holler, literally.
There is no other word to express it.
What with the cable cars, the elevated,
and the noise of the trucks on our
stone pavements, life is simply bewild-
ering.
Hut why we should scream in the j
house is#unanswerable. Go to a wom-
en’s luncheon, if your nerves are I
strong enough to stand the wear and I
tear, and listen to the voices. They j
are all pitched high, they are too often |
nasal in tone, and the result is deplor- i
able. We could remedy this (if we
stopped to think) in ourselves, and we
certainly ought to stop it in our
daughters, whose speaking voices
should be cultivated. A low-voiced
woman is charming. Poets have sung
of her and writers have praised her,
but where is she to be found? Only
occasionally is there one out of our
large acquaintance. An old lady who
had been blind for thirty years not
long ago had an operation performed
on her eyes, and recovered her sight.
It was like a resurrection from the
dead, and her experiences as she tells
them, are wonderfully interesting and
pathetic. She had, of course, trained
her ears to supply what her eyes
lacked, and voices meant everything to
her. One person of whom she was very
fond, and who hail a beautiful, full,
soft, rieli voice,was rather taken aback
when she was presented to her old
friend for inspection. The old lady
looked at her carefully and then said:
“My dear, your face doesn’t match
your voice!”
If our faces did match our voices,
how dreadful most of them would be!
Loud, coarse, and unreflnod in the
main. It is somewhat easy to judge a
person’s character by the voice. A
thin voice may be strengthened and a
loud voice modulated and a nasul
twang cured, and there is no doubt but
that we need much education in this
direction. Another curious fault or
habit which almost all Americans have
is clipping their words and using slov-
enly English. The simple little word
“yes” is rarely pronounced distinctly
or clearly. All sorts of curious inodes
of expression are resorted to to denote
assent, *’ye-p” being the one most com-
monly heard. Slang of course is the
inevitable consequence of the famili-
arity with which school girls and boys
play their various games together, the
girls easily adapting the modes of ex-
pression used by their male compan-
ions. Americans, however, are no
more guilt}' of slang than are the Eng-
lish, although they are commonly ac-
cused of so being. Not having been
brought up in a family of boys, my
own repertory is limited, anil so I was
completely at a loss to understand my
English neighbor at a dinner party in
London who insisted upon using the
most curious slang. Upon explaining
to him that he was speaking a foreign
tongue to me, he expressed much sur-
prise, and said: “Why, I thought all
Americans talked slang!” The partic-
ular lingo, as I discovered, which he
had treated me to. out of compliment
possibly, to my limited knowledge of
the English language, was what he
had learned from friends who had j
lived on ranches in the far west.—liar- j
per’s Lazar.
MATRONLY PLUMPNESS.
When Too Pronounced It Should He Con-
(dderutcly Overlooked.
Many a woman’s sharpest thorn in
the llesh is paradoxically the flesh it-
self; in other words, too much of it.
Not less ardently than the melancholy
Dane does the desire that her “too
solid flesh might melt,” and generally
not less unavnilingly, in spite of the
heathenish self-torment to which she
cheerfully subjects herself in the shape
of thin and restricted slices of graham
bread without butterns a staple of diet
and the untold, though not unrecorded,
miles which she walks with resolution
in her eye and pedometer in her pocket, j
The mere comfortable accession of j
matronly adipose taken on as one }
draws near or leaves behind the
meridnn of “life's little day” is rather
attractive than otherwise. Hut to be
so stout that when one approaches a
long mirror from the length of a draw -
ing room one jars the floor and sees re-
flected globular and quaking surfaces, j
and reflects oneself upon one’s sylph-
like proportions at eighteen, to nar- ■
rowly escape a double chin and to have
arms like the tins of a codfish and a
general overflowing amplitude of con-
formation for which a single seat in a
public conveyance is so inadequate j
that the occupants of the adjacent
seats consider one’s advent a grievous
personal injury—well, it is not so bad j
as to be humpbacked or one-legged,
but it is bad enough.
It is a constant source of discomfort
and mortification which ought to elicit ,
respectful consideration and courtesy ,
of treatment, according to the unwrit- !
ten law that it is human to fail in these
toward the physically afflicted. “Some
are burn great, some achieve greatness
and some have greatness thrust upon
them,” and the last-named may be a
species of bodily infirmity which it is
most unkind to regard in any other
light.—Philadelphia Press.
llr \\ ould He Ml**©*!.
The Judge—I hope I shall not sec
you here again.
Prisoner (who is arrested w cekly)—Not
see me? \\ by ycr ain’t goin’ to resign
ver position, are ye? Truth.
No Doultt of It.
“Those men seem well connected."
said Mullins, as he looked at an officer j
and prisoner handcuffed together, on
their way to the court-room.—Truth.
—breeches reaching to the midcalf j
are mentioned as parts of the ltoiauu
uniform H. C. 07.
II© Fired Four Giant Powder Fuse© andj
Found Escape Cut Off.
Frank Hagley, a miner, had an experi-
ence ut the bottom of a three-hundred-
foot shaft in the Little Jessie mine
which he never wants to go through
again, and which no other miner would
care to experience, says the Prescott
(A. T.) Miner-Journal. lie was engaged
with a companion in putting in four
blasts, and when the work was com-
pleted his companion climbed up a rope
to u place of safety above, leaving him
to apply the light to a fuse which was
to explode the shots. He had an abund-
ant length of fuse to give him plenty
of time, as he supposed, to climb up to
the timbered part of the shaft out of
reach of flying rocks from the shots.
The distance was only about ten feet,
but he had no ladder or. account of the
inconvenience of handling it while
shooting, and the only means of es-
cape was by climbing a rope. He ap-
plied the light to the fuse and started
✓ f v
THE ONLY MEANS OF ESCAPE.
to climb the rope, but it was wet and
slippery, and as soon as he made a few
feet his hold would give way, and he
would slip back to the bottom of the
shaft, where four pieces of fuse were
sizzling their way to as many sticks
of giant powder. His first unsuccess-
ful attempt did not alarm him much,
as he had no fear of his ability to get
away, but as he tried again and again,
and each time t > only slide back to the
bottom, he began to realize that his
position was a very critical one. lie
had blown out his light, and in the
narrow confines of the shaft there was
not a crevice or a projecting rock big
enourrh to shield even his hand. The
place was black ns midnight darkness
itself, and his only way of escape was
through the agency of that slippery
and treacherous rope. He knew about
the time the explosion must inevitably
occur, and as the time grew nearer and
nearer the more desperately did he at-
tempt to make the ascent, but all to no
purpose.
The first shot went off, scattering
rock in every direction around him and
hitting him in various places on the
body. The second, third and fourth
followed in rapid succession, but with
lev. serious results to him. The in-
juries he sustained were mostly re-
ceived from the first shot. lie is lacer-
ated and bruised from head to foot, al-
though none of the wounds are deep.
While they arc serious and quite pain-
ful the}’ are not considered dangerous.
WOMEN SNAKE KILLERS.
Some C lub or .Stone the Reptiles, Others
Shoot or Behead Them.
Rattlesnakes, pilots and blacksnakes
arc more plentiful this season than for
years past, and have been discovered in
localities which they have never been
known to inhabit before. Women have
sh »wn ifr »;:t courage this season in dis*
out *hin : the reptiles.
Mrs. Daniel Hush, of Wind Gap, Ha.,
di • • vere 1 a huge rattlesnake in her
do a*way and blew its head off with an
olu-fashioned shotgun. It was nearly
five feet in length.
Mrs. Van Fatten, of Port Jervis, N.
V.. while seated on a rock near a camp-
ing -round, saw two largo copperhead
snakes in deadly combat. She watched
the fight f >r a time and then killed
l> >t’i of them with a stone. A black-
snake over four feet long entered a
store at Archibald, Pa., anti a woman
el rlc killed it with a hatchet. At Long
Eddy. Sullivan county, Mrs. Jones saw
a large blacksnake in a tree, twenty-
five feet from the ground, robbing a
bird’s nest. The woman blew its head
off with a rifle.
Sarah Sanford, near Ellenvillc, N. Y.,
found a rattlesnake and a pilotsnnlco
HaMHNO dead from a pole.
in her henhouse, and in less than ten
minutes both of the reptiles were hang-
in ' from a pole dead, their total length
ng regating ten f *t The woman out
tlu ir heads off with an ax.
M Hurt n, u dx teen-year-old girl
■ Li rt , N Y., has a e >11< otion ->f
i.iti •y-t’ire.* rattles, cut from the tails
i lift- n nukes whieh she has killed
• far this m-usoii Mrs. Frank Tower,
•t* Hu:. • vk, while going home from a
n» i hi* *r*s h uise after dark, heard a
rattles:.alee in the weeds by the road-
The woman got u lantern, found
t ee reptile and killed it with a club.
... w • . six f t in length nuil
euiric 1 nine ratting. #
A Talc of New York's Water Tront—Con-
tribution for Bill's Sake.
It was nine o’clock in the morning at
erne of the east-side docks, which was
crowded with people waiting for a
sound boat, says the New York Trib-
une. Suddenly there was a cry from
those nearest the water, and, as all
rushed in that direction the first ob-
ject they saw was a child's head rising
and falling with the waves, the hair
streaming out like a mass of seaweed.
She did not sink, yet every now and
then the yelling spectators could plain-
ly see her strugglingas the cruel waves
broke over her. A rowboat was head-
ing toward the Brooklyn shore and it
seemed as if it must have passed the
spot, but the oarsman’s attention was
evidently elsewhere, for he neither
heard the cries nor turned toward the
perishing child.
Suddenly one of the hangers-on of
the boat-landing plunged in and parted
the waves with sturdy strokes as he
quickly approached the child. lie
reached her, and, resting her on his
strong back, began the return. Cheers
greeted him as it became evident that
his brave deed was not done in vain.
At this point one of the loafers took
off his hat and, passing in and out
among the crowd, requested a contri-
bution “for Hill’s sake.” Everybody
felt that “Hill” should be rewarded,
and soon the hat had a good lining of
join. As he finished his collection and
stood hat in hand attention was divid-
ed between himself and the approach-
ing swimmer. Suddenly he mounted a
pile of rope, and. gazing into the hat,
began to speak. “Friends, as I look at
wots in dis hat deres nothin’ bigger dan
a quarter. Now, most of youzc is rich,
and how many would a dun wot Hill
did for a quarter? Ilez got a wife an'
five children ter home, and risked hiz
life fer de kid. Ize a poor man, but I
kin go more dan dat.” So saying, he
thrust an exceed ingly grimy hand into
an apparently empty pocket and
brought forth a dollar bill, which he
laid in the hat. 11 is words had a salu-
tary effect upon the crowd, men press-
ing forward on all sides, and soon cop-
per was replaced by silver, and silver
by bills. So that when the head of the
hero appeared above the pier, bearing
In his arras the dripping child, quite a
comfortable sum awaited him. lie re-
vived it with a modesty which made
ill hearts warm toward him.
The event probably would never
aave been remembered except for an
ncident a few weeks later. One of the
ipectators was on the west side await-
ng a friend when he saw the same
;ragedy enacted—the drowning child,
:he heroic rescue, the magnanimous
ipeech and the second collection. And
aot only was the play the same, but
the actors were also.
NOT A TARGET.
A Juryman Who Objected to Being
Pointed At.
In a New England courtroom one
ifternoon an energetic counsel was
setting forth, in no measured terms,
liis opinion of certain testimony which
had been given by one of the wit-
nesses. As he talked he gesticulated
freely, and was particularly lavish in
the use of the forefinger of his right
hand, which assumed a decidedly
threatening aspect, as he progressed
In his speech.
Suddenly a tall, lank countryman,
who was directly in a line with this
warning forefinger, rose from his seat
among the jurymen.
“I jest tell ye what ’tis,” said he; “I
ain’t done nothin’ I’m ashamed of. I
ain’t done nothin' notr>iy of no kind, so
fur’s I know, an’ I ain’t a-goin’ to set
here an’ be abused. Ef you say an-
other word I’ll jest light out fer
home.”
“My dear sir." staannexed the coun-
sel, “my remarks were not intended
for any member of the jury; they re-
ferred entirely to the witness.”
“Well, then, you jest quit a-p’intin’
your finger at me when you’re talkin’
like that,” said the lank juryman,
without appearing to be much molli-
fied by this statement. “If you do it
agin I’ll break up this ’ere court, or
my name ain’t Joshuy Howker!”
And with a determined mien and fire
in his eye Joshua Howker at last sub-
sided, and the counsel continued his
harangue without further interruption.
The Moon 11 ;ih Been Maligned.
It was recently pointed out by Sir
John Hutton in his annual address to
the county council that in 1889 there
were 10,041 pauper and imbecile asy-
lums. January 1 of the present year,
however, these figures had been in-
creased to 13,058, or an average increase
of 400 per annum. The rate of increase
last year was strikingly in excess of
any previous year, and stood at not
less than 807, the blazing summer
months being considered responsible
for this big jump in the figures. In
spite of what the poets have said, it
looks as if the sun had a more malign
effect on human wits than the moon.
Ancient Burial l’leccs.
In ancient tunes burial was always
without the walls of cities and towns.
Indeed, before the time of Christianity
it was not lawful to bury the dead
within the cities, but they used to be
carried out into the field and there de-
posited. About the end of the sixth
century St. Augustine obtained of
King Ethclbert a temple of idols- used
by the king before his conversion—and
mnde a burying place of it, and St.
Cuthbert afterward obtained (A. D. 752)
leave from the popo to have yards made
to the churches suitable for the burial
of the deack
Went lllm a Point Better.
A story is told on a prominent Ver-
mont man who has on several occasions
been a candidate fur ollieial honors. A
man once approached him on election
day with the statement that if ho had
about a pint <>f whisky, he thought lie
could vote a man for him. The candi-
date gave up half a dollar in compli-
ance. Later in the day, meeting the
man again, the candidate greeted him:
“Well, 1 suppose you voted your man?”
“No,” came the response, “the other
fellow had a quart of whisky and voted
mo. ”
IMuratcd and Rellned Peoplo Often Be-
lieve in Charm** ami TulDtnaus.
“Fetish worship is not confined to
the ignorant as exclusively as most
people imagine,” said an Atlanta man
recently to a Washington Star reporter.
I “For several years I have made more
j or less steady inquiry into the super-
j stitions cherished by intelligent, cul-
tured people, and you can scarcely be-
j lieve how widespread is the belief in
charms and talismans. At the Ponce
de Leon in St. Augustine, last winter, I
i met a young woman from away up in
i the frozen north. She was one of those
superior girls who go to the roots of
things, and her learning was some-
thing wonderful. She invariably wore
a queer-looking locket at her neck, and
one day I asked her why she wore such
an incongruous thing when dressed in
J evening costume. She coolly told me
that it contained a charm that had
preserved her from impending danger
a number of times, and recited several
hairbreadth escapes she had made,
j Upon my inquiring what the charm
was she told me that it was an
African mooka stone that her
grandfather, who was a seafaring
man, had brought home from one of
his voyages, and that it had exerted a
protecting influence on her mother’s
life, as it had on her own. That woman
was one of the few really thoroughly
educated women I have ever known,
and yet she firmly believed in the su-
; pernatural properties of that pebble
I she wore in a locket around her neck.
I There are hundreds of men all over
! the country, college men, too, who
| would as soon leave their collars and
| cravats at home as to go out without a
rabbit foot in then pockets, or who
i will not talk over a business proposition
without touching their precious talis-
mans. And, speaking of rabbits’ feet, I
have been credibly informed that the
great Henry Irving once changed the
bill from ‘Hamlet’ to ‘The Hells’ be-
cause the rabbit foot he has always
used in making up for the part of the
melancholy Dane was mislaid, and he
felt a presentiment that something
dreadful would happen to him if he
used anything else to give the proper
lines to his stage complexion. I’ll bet
there are a dozen otherwise sensible
men in this hotel this minute who
would wear their stockings inside out
all day if they accidentally happened
to get them on that way in the morn-
ing. The more I look into the interest-
ing matter the more I discover to prove
that superstition is as strong among
the educated as it is among the igno-
rant."
HUMORS OF THE POOR.
Funny Sayings of Unfortunates In the
Lower Walks of Llfo.
Country doctors are to be envied if
all of them have experiences as amus-
ing as those described in Cornhill
Magazine. On one occasion the doctor
found an old woman toiling to his door
with a heavy load of potatoes. “Take
’em, doctor, take ’em,” she said, mag-
nanimously. “What snith the Scrip-
ture? Cast thy potatoes on the doctor,
and thou shalt find them after many
days—maybe about Christmas time,”
she added slyly, and, with obvious glee
at this ingenious method of insurance
against the privations of the winter,
old Peggy hobbled off.
This same old lady, when on her
deathbed said “she didn’t expect to go
to Heaven, but wherever she did go
she’d put in a good word for the doc-
tor.”
Another woman lost her husband.
The doctor found her tearful but not
inconsolable. “Ah! poor Jim!” she
said. “My good man! Eh! I’m very
grateful to you, doctor, but it’s a
mercy the Lord took the case into’s
own hands.”
An old couple fell ill. of old age, to-
gether. The husband died, but the
wife hud more vitality. On the day
following her husband’s death she was
I better, and the doctor was congratulat-
ing himself on the success of his treat-
ment. Hut the woman’s point of view
was different. She complained bitter-
ly; for. as she forcibly pointed out:
“Ef ec’d lut me alone, one funeral ’ud
’a’ done for us two; an’ look what it ’ll
cost now, berrying two of us separate-
ly!”___
APPLAUDING AN ENEMY.
Bow the Parisians Recognized tlio Duke
of Wellington.
Countess Brownlow, in her “Slight
Reminiscences,” tells a story of the
duke of Wellington which is less
commonly repeated than many con-
nected with him. While he was still
marquis of Wellington he went to Paris
from Toulouse, where he had fought
and won the last battle of the Penin-
I sular war.
He went to the opera that first even-
ing. and though he wore pluin clothes
and sat in the back of the box, he was
almost immediately recognized by some i
one in the pit, who cried out, “Velling-
ton!”
The name was taken up by others,
and at last the entire pit rose, turned
to the box and called, “Vive Veiling- 1
ton!”
Nor would the peoplo be satisfied un-
til he had stood up and bowed to them,
when he was cheered and applauded
ngaln. At the end of the performance
the passage from the box was found to
: be crowded with people. The ladies of
| the party drew back nervously, but the
duke said: “Come along!’’ in his
brusque way, and conducted them on.
While they were still in the corridor a
man in the crowd was heard to say to
his companion:
“Hut why are you applauding so
much? He has always beaten us!”
This was very true, and the question
seemed a natural one; but the answer
was charming:
“Yes, but he has always lieaten us.
like a gentleman!”
Adulterate the Weed.
In England the temptation to adul-
terate tobacco is much stronger than
with us on account of the higher price,
j Dock, rhubarb, colt’s foot, and other
kinds of leaves have been occasionally
I employed, but their use is not fre-
| quent, ns a very heavy fine is inflicted
* for the offense.
It Slakes the .Mightiest Efforts of Man
Appear lnslgnlflcunt.
Careful estimates of the force of a
i cyclone, and the energy required to
keep a full-fledged hurricane in active
operation, reveal the presence of a
power that makes the mightiest efforts
of man appear as nothing in compari-
son. A force fully equal to four hundred
and seventy-three million horse-power
was estimated as developed in a West
Indian cyclone. This, says the New
York Ledger, is about thirteen times
the power that is creatable by all the
means within the range of man’s ca-
pabilities during the same time.
Steam, water, windmills and strength
of all men and all animals combined
cannot approach the tremendous force
exerted by the storm. The scientist
tells us that the force comes from the
latent heat of vapor which rises in the
center of the hurricane and is there
condensed. The fury of the whirlwind
literally wrings the rain from the
clouds. There is always a much great-
er area covered by the wind than that
embraced by the rainfall that usually
accompanies the cyclone. Persons
with vivid imaginations are fond of
conjecturing and speculating on inven-
tions by which rainfalls are produced
at the pleasure of the rainmakers, but
a moment’s consideration will show
how pun}’ are the efforts of man, and
how unavailing when it is taken into
consideration that all the existing
power on the face of the earth at pres-
ent within man’s control would not be
sufficient to produce even a baby cy-
clone. to say nothing of the full-fledged
and mighty devastations that some-
times sweep over the country. Science
may cause a few drops of moisture to
condense and fall, but can never, un-
der existing conditions, make a hurri-
cane.
MYSTERY OF THE SUN.
Something That Science Ilns Thu* Fnr
Failed to Fathom.
Well might McPherson’s ancient and
half mythical Gaelic poet, speaking,
eighteen hundred years ago, from the
mists on his stormy hills, wonder at
and rejoice in the sun, says the Hart-
ford Times. Nor has Ossian’s early
question ever yet been answered:
“Whence are thy beams, O Sun! thy
everlasting light?” Modern science has
wrought damaging discussions about
the reality of alleged “miracles,” and
done much to establish the universal
reign of inviolable law; but of all mira-
cles, what greater one is there than the
calm persistence, through so many mil-
lions of years, of this unfailing fount
of light and warmth? We no longer
deny or question the doctrine of Kant
and La Place concerning the origin of
our family of planets—for science ad-
mits the truth of the conclusion, that
one after another, but at v%dt< ages
apart, they were thrown off from the
sun—once a nebulous object filling all
the space to the farthest verge of Nep-
tune’s orbit (and perhaps farther), and
then a slowly condensing body, from
which the planet Mercury, or possibly
a still nearer one to the sun, was the
last to be thrown off, each and all
obeying the omnipotent magnetic law
that compels every planet to circle
around the parent orb—the controlling
center ever keeping, like an earthly
parent, his youngest child nearest to
him. Hut science has not yet told us
how the central magnet perpetuates its
infinite stores of light and warmth.
Ossian’s question is a question still.
Sometime perhaps the advance of
science will give us some knowledge of
the actual nature and condition of that
governing orb of our solar system.
STEAM POWER AT LONG RANGE.
An Instance In Which It Was Conducted
Forty-Flvo Hundred Feet.
The practicability of transmitting a
long distance a given amount of steam
is illustrated in an account recently
given by Mr. Coxe before the Society
of Mechanical Engineers. It seems,
says the New York Sun, that at a col-
liery it was desired to carry steam to a
water works about forty-five hundred
feet, over a hill from the boiler plant.
To do this a trough was made by
nailing the edges of two boards to-
gether, so that they formed a right
angle, the trough being supported by
two stakes driven in the ground and
crossing just beneath the trough; the
pipe was laid in the trough, resting on
cast-iron plates, the pipe surrounded
by mineral wool, and a similar in-
verted trough placed at the top.
To allow expansion a bend was made
to one side at the top of the
hill, and then it was turned back tc
its original direction; n large receiver
was introduced in the pipe at the pumps,
mnde of three boiler sheets, and having
a diameter of thirty-four inches, and
serving also as a separator. As the ele-
vation was some eighteen hundred,
feet, above the sea excessive cold
was experienced in the winter time,
the arrangements, however, fulfilling
the desired purpose, costing nothing
for maintenance and giving no trouble.
A*toul*h©d Mule*.
The other day at Lacon, 111., six
mules that had for four years hauled
ears In the lower workings of the
Spailand coal shaft were brought up.
The mules in all that time had seen no
light stronger than the flicker of the
little Davy lamps the miners carried.
! The sun was in its zenith when they
| reached the surface. The astonished
mules closed their eyes to shut out the
flood of strong light, and kept them
tightly closed while they were led to
i the pasture lot a mile distant and
turned loose. There they stood trem-
I bling ns if they Were afraid something
evil was about to befall them. Pres-
ently they half opened their eyes and
peered around In open-mouthed amaze-
ment. When they had become accus-
tomed to the sunlight they elevated
their heads. Toward sundown they
I broke into a chorus of joyous brays.
After a quarter of an hour of that
music they took to kicking, jumping,
whirling around like teetotums, and
rolling on the sod as if they had gone
mod. The sun ;<nd pure air were more
■ to them than food, and they refused
i everything put before them to oat.
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Diven, William H. El Reno Daily Eagle. (El Reno, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 201, Ed. 1 Saturday, May 25, 1895, newspaper, May 25, 1895; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc913405/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.