THE CHARLOTTE MESSENGER
VOL. IV. NO. 34.
THE
Charlotte Messenger
IB PUBLISHED
Every Saturday,
AT
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
In the Interests of the Colored People
of the Country.
Able and well-known writers will contrib
ote to its columns from different parts of the
country, and it will contain thepatest Gen
eral News of the day.
Ths Messenger is a first-class newspaper
and will not allow personal abuse in its col
umns. Ilis not sectarian or partisan, but
independent— dealing fairly by all. It re
nerves the right to criticise the shortcomings
of all [public officials—commending the
worthy, and recommending for election such
meu as in its opinion are best suited to serve
the interests of the people.
It is intended to supply the long felt need
of a newspaper to advocate the rights and
defend the interjsts of the Negro-American,
e«|>ecialJy in the Piedmont section of the
Carolina^.
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
(Always in Advance.)
1 year - - - $1 50
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6 months - - 75
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Address,
W.C. SMITH Charlotte NC,
There is a great store of gold as well
as of coal in Corea, but an entire lack
of proper mechanical devices for mining.
The production of gold last year wa*
$3,000,000. The main object of the
Corea n Embassy to this government is
understood to be to interest the citizens
of this country in the development of
Corean resources.
Benjamin Franklin, of the Second
Minnesota Volunteers, is the only man on
the government pension rolls who sacri
ficed both hands and feet in tlic late
civil war, and as there is no provision of
law applicable to such special cases a bill
has been presented to Congress increas
ing the pension he now receives to $l5O
a month. He now receives the pay pro
vided for a soldier or a sailor who has
lost both hands or both feet.
The 1,000-foot tower in connection
with the French exhibition of 1839, and I
known by the name of the designer and I
constructor as Eiffel’s tower, has now
reached the height of 179 feet. The
four arches of the base are now joined,
and the great platform for the rooms
of the first stage is about to be con
structed, so that the work has pAsscd
the most laborious stage. Most of the
construction will now proceed from the
interior. _
“Now comes another competitor with
coal and wood,” says the Cultivator.
Several of the strongest railway corpora
tions in the Middle States are experi
menting with the transportation of nat
ural gas carried in steel tanks under
high pressure, and regulated for distri
bution at a very low pressure, without
serious lo«s from the original supply. If
this natural gas can be transported and
made available at a distance from the
well, its commercial value will be greatly
increased, for its use must be extended to
every bran'h of industry. The supply,
so far as present indications can be taken
os evidence, is practically illimitable. It
is evident that nature has supplied this
great Republic with abundant sources for
heat and steam, not only in wood, coal
and petroleum, but in vast supplies of
natural gas.'*
There is no question, according to the
New York Trilmne , that the buffalo is
well-nigh extinct on the plains. There
are a few in Yellowstone Park protected
by the Government, but they arc likely
to be kil'cd at any time. In Texas a
herd of about thirty is owned by one
ranchman, several other small bunches
may be found, but the days when they
rambled at large over the country have
been numbered. Unless some means of
protecting them is adopted within ten
years the American Bison must become
an extinct species. In Central Park,
Director Conklin has several specimens
of Buffalo, but the cow is growing old
and another one ha 4 not been secured.
The buffalo will not breed in captivity
uniats like other domestic animals it has
abundant room for feeding and exercise.
TELEGRAPHIC TICKS
THE SOUTHERN STATES.
New. Collected by Wire and Mall From
All Parte es Dixie.
NORTH CAROLINA.
Three miles from Jones, Moore county,
Mrs. Louis Wickey was burned to death
wiih her house and contents. She was
sixty years old and insane. Her daugh
ter had left her to go to the spring, and
on her return she found the building in
flames.
At Scotland Neck there was an explo
sion of a boiler in Gardner & Hassall’s
machine shop. There were only two
men in the shop, Henderson Purse, fire
man, and John Scott, both colored.
Purse had his leg broken, and is badly
scalded and bruised, he will probably
die. Scott was badly scalded. The
boiler was blown nearly out of sight.
In Rutherford county, a school teach
er, Lloyd Early, had a school examina
tion, which terminated in a fight. Edley
Hunt and Sammy Hunt had a desperate
combat with the Black boys. Thomas
Mode, a magistrate, at first commanded
peace, but soon joined in the fight,
which became general. J. C. Blake’s
head was broken. Hunt got reinforce
ments and returned to renew the combat.
He overtook the magistrate. Mode, who
was assailed with a sling shot, knocked
down and left insensible. I. T. Mode, a
brother of the magistrate, received severe
wounds in the breast.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
The citizens of Cheraw are making ef
forts to get a graded school in that town.
Seventy-five thousand dollars were
spent last year in erecting new buildings
in Florence.
The Savings Bank at Prosperity began
operations on March 1. In less than one
week $1,500 were placed on deposit.
A school building to cost $1,200 is to
erected at Graham’s. The lot contains
six acres.
Charles D. Miller, of Florence, !i_s won
by competitive examination the West
Point cadetship controlled by Congress
man Dargan.
The coliisior of two construction trains
on the Three C’s Road, near Camden,
caused the death of one man and in jured
several others.
A Jen year old son of John Crews, of
Anderson county, had his arm broken in
two places while playing about his fath
er’s cotton seed crusher.
The rilroad ticket office at Williston
was entered by a robber a few nights ago
who succeeded in stealing about four
dollars. The agent had left his safe un
locked, and it was an easy matter to
pyr open the door.
Scott Young, a white man about thirty
years old, was knocked from the railroad
track and killed one mile below Starr, a
station on the Savannah Valley Road, by
a passenger train. The unfortunate man
was deaf, and of course did not hear the
warning whistle.
London Bryant, colored, constable of
Justice Rogers, of Port Royal, surrender
ed himself and was committed by Trial
Justice T. G. White, having shot and
killed one Robert Gadson, while violent
ly resisting arrest by warrant and mak
ing an assault and battery upon the offi
cer having him in custody, on his way
to jail from Port Royal.
The excitement over the recent mur
der near Glassy mountain has not yet
ended. Governor Richardson has offer
ed a reward of $l5O for the apprehension
of the guilty party or parties. It was
remembered that Ben Ross was shot in
his own house, while crossing the room
to get in his sick bed. The murder was
as cowardly an act as has ever occurred
in Greenville county, and the news of the
reward offered was received by the peo
ple here with much satisfaction.
Chas. Johnson, an ex-convict from
Georgia, who is serving out a sentence
at Greenville for stealing, made an at
tempt to break out of jail. The sheriff
and the jailer make a search of the dun
geons every few days, to guard against
any attempt that might be made to
escape on the part of the prisoners.
When they visited Johnson's cell, they
found two of the la-ge oak planks which
are three or four inches thick, and used
on the inside wail, pried from their fast
enings. The removed plank had been so
carefully replaced, that is was only by
the closest inspection that their scheme
was detected.
KEOROIA.
' A movement is on foot to erect a barrel
factory in Conyers.
A large steam laundry is being built
in Brunswick.
Dublin, by a vote of 82 to 3, has de
rided >o issue bonds to the amount of
$5,000 for the erection of school build
ings in that place.
A moonshine still was captured and
destroyed between Resaca and Tilton.
It was only a short distance from the
railroud, and had been in operation for
more than two years.
Mr. Bee Brown, son of Judge Loam
Brown, of Abbeville, dropped a pistol,
nml the hammer striking a crosatic, fired.
The ball jienetrated his left foot near the
ankle and ranged upward, and lodged a
few inches above where it entered.
Rena Wall, an old colored woman liv
ing in Hranonsviile, wtiile cooking her
breakfast her clothes caught fire, and be
fore they could be extinguished she was
so badly burned that it caused her
| death.
A forty pound crocodile, covered with
woolly hair, was captured liy a British
boat's crew on an island in the Atlantic,
and is now A great jict aboard ship. II
is apparently of an unknown species.
CHARLOTTE, N. SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1888.
GOSSIP FROM UNCLE SAMS’ CAP
ITOL
tVhnt Inr Dn.r Law Maker, are Doing.
Congressional and Other Newn.
The House, on motion of Mr. Stewart,
of Georgia, took up the bill appropria
ting $120,000 for the enlargement of the
public building at Atlanta, Ga.
Mr. Bland, of Missouri, entered his
protest against the illogical manner in
which such measures were passed by the
House, and against emptying the treasury
and wasting the public money. The bill
was passed.
Tlie Senate Committee oil Territories
instructed Senator Flatt to report favora
bly the bill to admit North Dakota as a
State. It also instructs Senator Stewart
to report favorably the enabling act ad
mitting Washington Territory and Nortli
Idaho as a single State, provided no part
of Idaho be admitted without consent of
the majority of electors in the part af
fected. There will be a minority report
against this last named Dill.
The Senate Committee on Agriculture
resumed its hearing on the bill to protect
the manufacture and sale of pure lard.
Prof. Sharpless, of Boston, appeared,
and at the request of Mr. Wilson pro
ceeded to compound an article out of 25
per cent of stcarine, 25 percent of cotton
seed oil. 40 per cent of pure lard, and 10
per cent of dead hogs’ grease. The ex
periment was made to show that refined
lard manufacturers might use the grease
of smothered and deceased hogs in the
manufacture of the compound.
Senator Cromwell suggested to the
committee that the advocates of the
pending bill, having failed to show how
refined lard was made, had resorted to a
process of jugglery to show how it might
be manufactured, and he suggested, fur
ther, that pure lard might also be com
pounded with dead hogs’ grease. Dur
ing the course of the experiments the
question arose as to whom the opponents
of the bid were—whether anybody op
posed it except Fairbanks & Co., Ar
mour & Co., and a few other manufac
turers.
Senator Gray remarked that there was
universal objection throughout tiie South
to the bill, which attacked one of the
products of that section. He had re
ceived numerous telegrams protesting
against the bill, which he would, at the
proper time, hie with the committee.
In answer to a question by Cromwell,
Prof. Sliarplcss said that it would be im
possible to tell from the odor the pres
ence of dead hogs’ grease in lard when
cotton seed oil was also used.
The committee adjourned until Satur
day next.
NORTH. EAST AND WEST
The fight between Sullivan and Mitch
ell resulted in a draw, the former get
ting rather the worst of the fight, which
was stopped after it had lasted three
hours and thirty-nine rounds had been
fought.
It is officially stated that 100.000 per
sons were drowned and 1,800,000 render
ed destitute by the great Yellow River
flood iu China.
Stanton & Co’s stove factory at Louis
vill Ky, was destroyed by fire. Loss
$65,000.
Mre. Ellen Tupper. the celebrated bee
culturist, known as Bee Queen, died sud
dhnly at El Paso, Texas.
The wife and child of Rudolph Speller
were asphyxiated by natural gas at Fiud
lay, O. Speller was also overcome by
the gas and remained unconcious for
several hours.
Mormon elders have been discovered
working in the remote rural districts of
Botetourt county Va. They have made
many converts, among them a wealthy
and intelligent fanner, Mr. Ferguson,
and it is expected a large number will
emigrate to Utah.
A BLOOMY TRAGEDY
In Which Robbery Wa.the Motive of Ihe
Aaaaaaiaa.
A diabolical attempt was made to as
sassinate, rob and cremate the bridge
keeper of Broad river bridge and his wife
near Columbia, S. C. Mr. and Mrs.
Buff, who are both past seventy years of
age, were attacked by two men. Buff
was beatea unconcious with a club, and
his wife was knocked down and fearful
ly beaten. John Felton, a'negro who
lived on the place, had his throat cut
and was killed. The murderers were in
tent on robbing Buff of several hundred
dollars in toll and money suppossd to be
in his house, and it is believed that the
negro was strangled with a rope in the
efforts of the assassins to make him tell
where the money was. As it happened
tne bridge-keeper had only about SSO in
the house.
After robbing the place the murder
ers saturated the bedding and floor with
kerosene oil, set the house on tire and
fled. They would have cremated their
victims had not Mrs. Buff recovered con
sciousness and escaped from the house,
and a passer-by saving Buff from the
flames, llis wounds arc very severe, and
is it not believed that he wi'l recover.
His aged wife is ill a very precarious
condition. William Johnson, a white
man, has been in jail on suspicion. It
is believed he had a negro accomplice
who did the work. The scene of the
crime was three miles from Columbia.
The community is greatly incensed, and
if conclusive proof of guilt could be fix
ed tiimn any one, lie would probably be
lynched.
It takes every year 1,000,000 horses'
tails to keep a Pawtucket ill. I.) hair
cloth factory in running order.
Paris ha* lost 10,000 population In the
year past.
COTTON AND GRAINS.
A Summary of the Agricultural
Situation.
The Monthly Htntement of the Avrlcul
tnrnl Bureau—Home Interesting
Cotton Figures.
The monthly summary of the Agricul
tural Bureau has been issued in Wash
iugton, and says:
The report of the cotton marketed was |
completed for eight States a month ago,
but deferred for returns from the Caro
linas and Texas. The apparent propor
tions forwarded from plantations on the
Ist of February were as follows: Vir
ginia, 90 per cent; North Carolina, 94;
South Carolina, 93 ; Georgia, 94; Florida,
87; Alabama, 92; Mississippi, 90; Lou
isiana, 89; Texas, 94; Arkansas, 90; Ten
nessee, 89; Missouri and Indian Terri
tory, 92. The general average is 92 per
cent. This indicates an increase of 3or
4 per cent on the aggregate of county
estimates of the Ist of October, although
the February returns of the estimated
product compared with that of 1886 w ere
nearly identical* with the November re
turns. This furnishes a further illustra
tion of the local tendency to underesti
mate production.
It was suggested in the November re
port that it might be assumed that deep
rooted and early and well developed
plants would produce better than six per
cent iu their apparent loss of condition,
and that if the outcome should surpass
this first estimate the excess might be
due to this cause. This view was cor
rect. An allowance for the depressing
effect of this in local returns, so stoutly
opposed by speculators, is again proved
to be necessary.
The quality of the fibre is superior, the
condition clean, and the yield of lint a
little above 32 per cent. The value of
the seed averages IG cents per bushel on
the Atlantic coast, 15 cents in Mississippi,
14 cents iu Tennessee, 13 cents in Lou
isiana and 14 cents in Texas.
The average close of picking is as fol
lows: North Carolina, December 10;
South Carolina, December 8; Georgia,
November 29; Florida, December 4; Ala
bama, November 24; Mississippi, Decem
ber 2; Louisiana, December 13; Texas,
November 30; Arkansas, November 26;
Tennessee, November 27. The date was
later than last year on the Atlantic coast,
Georgia excepted, aud earlier in the
more Western States.
The statistical returns of the Depart
meat of Agriculture for March relate to
the distribution and consumption of the
wheat and corn stock in farmers' hands,
the proportion of merchantable corn, aud
the average prices respectively of mer
chantable and unmerchantable. The corn
crop is the smallest since 1884, and the
remainder on farms also the smallest in
seven years. It is estimated at 508,-
000,000 bushels, against 603,000,000 last
year, and 773,000,000 two years ago.
The proportion is 34.9 pel cent of the
crop, the lowest percentage except in
1884, when it was 33, and the stock
512,000,000 bushels. In recent years the
percentage has ranged from 1-4 to 4-10
of the annual product.
The proportion of merchantable corn
is 84.4 per cent of the present average
value of 50.6 cents per bushel. The
average value of stock remaining is 47.6
cents per bushel, 3.2 cents higher than
on the first of December. The propor
tion consumed without removal beyond
county lines, whieh was last March 17
per cent, is estimated at 12 per cent for
the present crop, which reduces the quan
tity transported to 170,000,000 bushels,
18,000,000 less than last year, while the
amount for consumption is also smaller
by 90.000,000 bushels.
The indicated stock of wheat of 1887
in the hands of fanners is 132,000,000
bushels, against 122,000,000 last year, or
29 per cent, of the crop, against 26.7 per
cent last March.
There lias been used in the seeding of
winter wheat 34,000,600 bushels, 187,-
000.000 in eight months, consumption
61,000,000 bushels, exported in wheat
and flour, 38,000,000 visible supply, and
an unusual quantity in minor elevators
and mill stocks in course of distribution
between former stocks and actual con
sumption.
A Chinese Earthquake.
The Hong Kong Mail, copies of which
have been received at San Francisco,
gives a description of the earthquake in
the province of Yunnan December 15,
and it is indicative of frightful mortality.
The Mail says: In the interior depart
ment of Chung ([hau the disturbances
were extremely violent, being continued
at irregular intervals for four days, when
they ceased entirely. The departmental
city is said to have been reduced to a
mass of ruins, scarcely a house escaping
damage, and over live thousand persons
are reported to have been killed by fall
ing buildings. Many of them were
buried under thfe ruins, while the num
ber of the injured is too large for compu
tation.
At Lo Chau, in (’hula, a striking
change has l>een caused in the appearance
of the country, large tracts of land being
swallowed up and the surface changed
into a lake. At Lo Chau more than ten
thousand jiersons are said to have per
ished.
Jitst the Hare.
Wife—“l found an egg in the coal bin
this morning. That’s a queer plat e for
a hen to lay in.”
Husband—“ Just the place, my dear,
just the place.”
W.—“ Just the place?”
If.—“ Why, ce«t..*nly. If our kens
begin to lay in coal for u«, we won’t need
to mind how the price goes up.”—
lionton Courier.
LEAPING FOR LIFE.
One Man Burned (o Death—Two Women j
Fall from a Window iu the Hixth Story j
and are Killed and Fearfully Man
vled-One Itlnn JumpH and In Kill
ed, and Another fall* nud Meet*
the Same Fate.
The new office of the Evening Union
of Springfield, Mass., was destroyed by
fire, and the blaze was attended with the
most sickening horror ever in that city,
six of the employees of the paper meet
ing a terrible death, most of them jump
ing from the fifth story and being crush
ed into a shapeless mass below. Six
others were badly injured.
The fire was first discovered in the
mailing-room, and clouds of smoke were
pouring out of the lower story windows
before fifty souls on the upper floor were
aware of their danger. Flames shot up
an old elevator in the rear, cutting off es
cape by the stairway, and most of the
employees who escaped found their way
to the ground byway of a roof in the
rear. Some were cut off in the compos
ing room, and there is still terrible sus
pense, as several fell back into the flames.
The employees who rushed into the edi
torial room were cut off from escape in
the rear, and had to face the horrible al
ternative of burning to death or jumping
to the sidewalk below.
The fire department responded prompt
ly. A ladder was put to the fourth story
and the sight of rescue so near seemed to
madden the suffering group at two win
dows, who dropped in succession to the
sidewalk below. Six fell in this way,
some of them forced off and some madly
leaping, and the crowd groaned and
turned their heads away as they whirled
through the air.
Four compositors suffered had frac
tures of bones and serious burns. Two
named Donohue and Ensworth are prob
ably fatally hurt. It is thought that the
fire started among lumber in the closet
on the ground floor. The flames were
drawn up the elevator and spread through
the composing room. There were more
than thirty compositors, men and women
on the floor. There was no fire escape.
Dense black smoke issued from the
windows in clouds and by the time the
fire department arrived the win
dows were filled with poor despairing hu
man beings, who did not seem at first to
realize their dreadful position The
crowd underneath called to them to have
courage and on no account to try to
jump or climb down, and they at first
seemed disposed to obey, but so slow
were the ladders in being erected that a
panic seized the victims.
The scenes as the people began to drop
or fall from the blazing windows was
horrible. A shriek broke from the crowd
as each one of the victims fell into the
street below. There was great clapping
of hands when a woman was seen slowly
descending a ladder. The noise of the
erow’d was hushed as the wounded were
carried through to the ambulances. The
only available article for quenching the
flames in the office was an old watering
can. There were no force pumps or fire
buckets of any sort. A large canvass
sheet was stretched over the sidewalk.
Three men jumped on this, but broke
through and fell to the pavement. A
woman also fell through the canvass and
landed on the sidewalk insensible.
Joseph H. Lanford was standing on
the sidewalk at the end of the building
furtherest from the corner of the build
ing when Mrs. Farelyfell. He stood his
ground and reached out his arms to
catch her. She fell on his neck, hear
ing him to the grouud and knockiug him
senseless. Mrs Fairly was killed instantly
Lanford was not seriously hurt.
Discoveries nt Pompeii.
Excavations at Pompeii have yielded
abundance recently. Surgical instru
menfc (mostly of bronze) have been found,
which appear to have been kept in a
wooden box; also a small pair ot apoth
ecary’s scales and a set of weights, equiv-,
alent to 14, 17.5, 21, 24.9 and 35.8
grammes respectively. Among various
domestic utensils may be mentioned as
noteworthy, a beautiful stewpan of
bronze, the silver inlay of which repre
sents a head in raised work, aud a bronze
lamp, still containing the wick; liually,
various glass vessels, terracotta, gold
rings and ear pendants. Atnond the finds
of coin are a sesterce of Vcstmsiau with
Fortuna on the reverse and the inscrip
tion: “Fortune reduei,” and a depen
diura of Nero with the temple of Janua
and the inscription: “Pace per übiq.
parta Janum elusit.” —Christian at Work.
A Bad Sign.
It is an old story about the store sign
that advises people not to go further and
be robbed, but the average newspaper
reader has regarded that story as a mere
invention of the wits, and us having no
foundation in fact. At this very rao
men there hangs in the window of a
second hand furniture establishment on
West Randolph street a placard which
reads:
* DON’T GO DOWN TOWN TO BE ;
: ROBBED,
f BUT COME IN AND SEE US. :
—Chicago Herald.
Lost II i h Legacy.
A French provincial lawyear recently
died. Iu his will he directed that au
annuity of sU><> :t year lx* paid to the ser
vant who should “close his eyes.” When
this clause was rend the servant who hud
performed the office jumped with joy,
but his delight was speedily dampened
by the nephew and heir of the dead man,
who reminded the sernint that his mas
ter only had one eye, and the servant ac
tually failed to get his legacy on this ab
surd technicality. —Now ioric Urajihic.
Terms. $1.50 per Aim Single Copy 5 cents.
A MEXICAN MONKEY HUNT
THE DIFFICULTIES MET IN CAPT
URINO THE LITTLE ANIMALS.
Keen-Eyed Monkey-Hounds of the
Sierra Caliente—Bananas Soaked
in Brandy Make Capture Easy
The fruit-planters of the Sierra Cali
onto keep “monkey-hounds”—gaunt,
xccn-eyed brutes—that reconnoitre thf
fences of the plantations with the regu
larity of a military patrol, and have
been trained to iutercept the fugitive*
in their retreat to the woods. Hut tht
monos often contrive to defeat suet
tactics. They cross the enclosure at th«
first peep of dawn, entering the gardet
with extreme circumspection, beside*
posting a sentry in the top of a con
venienttree; and a New York Alder
man might envy their talent for exhaust
ing the business opportunities of a lim
ited term. In less than five minutes
they manage to fill their stomachs, a*
well as their cheek pouches and at least
two of their four bauds, and recrosi th«
fence before the hounds have started io
pursuit.
At a safe distance from the scene oi
i the forage the marauders will huddle to
gether to compare notes and redivide
their spoils after a code of prestige
which the junior members of the tribe
seem to accept as a matter of course.
After incorporating his own share, a
eupeptic patriarch lists no hesitation in
snatching the savings of his nephews:
but in his turn will at once proceed to
deeds of violence if he should < atch
them ir. any act of retaliation. I re
member an old gray-whiskered glutton,
nuuichii’g a ten-inch banana while he
hugged two reserve specimens, and
at last bethought himself of be
striding them in order to get
his hands free. He had four of them,
bat only oi.c pair of eyes, and, while he
scrutinized the covetous faces in front,
one of liis victims slipped up from be
hind and with a sudden wrench jerked
those bananas from under his haunches.
The sachem dropped on his bands, and
for a moment glared about almost speech
less with rage, but then gathering him
self up, lie leaped to the ground and
raced after the offender with the energy
of an Andover heretic hunter.
In Chatham stiect, New York, the
price ot a pet capuchin monkey varies
from $lO to sls. In Acapulco sl2 a
pair is a fair average, while monkey
skins could be bought for as many dimes
a dozen. The Mexican mono, though
not tlic shyest of American four-handers,
is harder to trap than the weariest fox,
aud seems to discover the mechanism of
a snare by a sort of sixth sense; for,
after ail kinds of experiments, the most
successful methods of the native pet
faaeiers are still the pea rifle plan and
the brandy plan. The former consists in
killing a nursing she-monkey by a close
aimed shot and capturing her babies
(often twins) in the arms of their dead
mother. The brandy-trapper soaks a lot
of bananas in a mixture of sugar and
alcohol, and after distributing his bait
near the favorite haunts of his game,
he hides behind a tree and awaits
results.
The main difficulty lies in calculating
the proper strength of the mixture, as
its over percentage of alcohol is apt to
frighten the guests by its virulent taste;
a weak compound may begin to operate
only after th<? revelers have retreated to
their inaccessible roosts in the heart of
the jungle forest. Amateur trappers are,
therefore, ofte n obliged to repeat theii
experiments for weeks before they can
bag the desirable trophy in the shape of
a befuddled ringtailed squealer. There is
a third method, practiced on large
plantations, with the aid of trained
hounds, who, by long watching and co
operative tactics, may succeed in treeing
a marauding monkey and giving the
hunters a elmnee to capture him by means
of a troske-net.
In the primeval wood of Oaxaca and
Jalisco 1 have noticed that the appear
ance of a man excites the curiosity rather
than the dread of his arboreal cousins.
They will follow him for half-miles,
with a chatter quite distinct from the
panic screams awakened by the sight of
a panther, and if he should try the cx
|H*riment of taking a seat at the foot of
a tree, and remaining quiet for a quarter
of an hour, the long-tailed investigators
are quite apt to congregate in the lower
branches of that- very tree, every now
and then peeping down and exchanging
looks witn a sort of solemn whisper.
Dogs, on the other hand, are at once
suspected of wolfish propensities, hostile
to the iuterests a ,; ke of men and
monkeys, and that mistake may have oc
casioned the curious scenes witnessed by
Colonel Simon Hernandez, of the -Mexi
can Topographical Survey,and described
in the appendix of his official report. In
his bivouac on the Upper Sumasinta
River he had engaged the services of an
Indian boy, who carried his instruments,
and with his naked feet made his way
through the thorniest jungle, hut one
day was so overcome by fatigue that he
fell asleep in the shade of acaucho tree.
The Colonel was < leaning his top boot*
in a little pond a few hundred steps from
that tree, wh<*n his attention was attracted
by loud screams in the tree-tops, and,
looking back, he was surprised to see a
troop of Cebus m nkeys leaping from
branch to branch of that cnuclio, till at
last half a do'cn of them jum|>cd to the
ground nud made a simultaneous rush in
a dir ction where tho Colonel’s hound
was nosing about in the underbrush. In
his first surprise the dog actually turned
tail, when his aggressors at once stopped,
and,bristling with dread and excitement,
surrounded that rancho tree with the
evident intention of defending their
sleeping little cousin against the attack
of the wolf-like prowler! —CinekVKiti An
f uirtr. «
A pound of United States pennies i*
actually worth $142. A pound of nickel
llve-ccut pieces is worth $405.50.