A SUFFICIENT REASO
Optician Showed Wonderful Lafck of
Insight Into Feminine Character.
There were so many pairs of glass
es in the room that it put spots on
the woman’s sight just to look at
them. She had no idea what kind
she wanted, but after the optician
had worked with her for about three
hours she decided that the glasses
that gave her most satisfaction were
a pair with big round lenses set in
black rubber frame.
“That style is coming into high
favor with people these days who
read a great deal,” said the optician.
“The round lenses protect the eyes
much better than the oval, but their
size adds so much to the weight that
the-ordinary steel frame does not
hold them steady enough. So a more
substantial frame of shell or rubber
becomes necessary. Shell is really
the best material, but it is rather ex
pensive, and since rubber is but
slightly inferior many lenses are now
set in it.”
The woman adjusted the black
t . bowed spectacles critically, says the
** New York Times.
« “They are awfully unbecoming,”
she said. “They make me look like
a Chinaman.”
. “They really are patterned after
Chinese models,” the optician ex
plained. “But what ditference does
that make so long as they are good
for the eyes?”
The look the woman flashed his
way ought to have made him very un
comfortable. “It makes all the dif
ference in the world,” she said. “1
will take this pair, but I have no idea
that I will ever wear them, even if
they do feel all right and you say
they are the proper thing.”
The optician gfSfcned. “Why
won’t you wear them?” he asked.
“I just told you why,” said the
woman. “They are not becoming,
and I could never stand up before
folks looking like a fright even if I
go blind as a bat from wearing poor
glasses.”
DEFINITION OF A WATT.
Necessary in Order to Save the Ten>
per of a Justice.
Everybody connected with the
First District Municipal court in
Long Island City, from Justice
Thomas C. Kadien down, has been
—''TuirTriiig the midnight gas delving
into electrical lore since the trial,
a few days ago, of a suit, brought by
the New York and Queens County
Electric Light and Power company
against a consumer to recover the
amount of a bill for power fur
nished. Among the witnesses, says
the New York Times, called by
George W. Sehoonmaker, counsel
for the company, was an expert in
electrical matters.
“Now.” said Mr. Sehoonmaker in
the course of the examination, ad
dressing the witness, “will you
please explain what a watt is?”
“What?” asked Justice Kadien,
looking up suddenly from some
papers before him.
“Y'es, your honor,” returned the
lawyer.
“I said what,” repeated the
court, somewhat irritated.
“Why, yes, that is it, your honor,
and 1 have asked the witness to ex
plain what a watt is,” said Mr.
Schoonmaker, coolly.
“Explain what?” asked the jus
tice, beginning to wax indignant.
“What a watt is,” replied th?
. lawyer.
The court was about to lose its
patience when Mr. Schoonmaker
saw the point and hastened to ex
plain. And he told that in the
world of electriety a volt was the
unit of measurement for pressure,
an ampere the unit of measurement
for volume, and a watt the unit of
measurement based upon both
pressure and volume. He was going
into kilowatts and such things
when the court suffered a short cir
cuit, and the case was adjourned for
the day.
From the Age of Chivalry.
The lifting of the hat in salutation,
on meeting a friend, had its origin
during the age of chivalry, when it
was customary for knights never to
appear in public except in full armor.
It became a custom, however, for
a knight upon entering an assembly
of friends to remove his helmet, sig
nifying: “I am safe in the presence of ,
friends.” Among the many acts of
courtesy which can be traced back to
the age of chivalry, none is more di
rect in its origin than that of lift ing
the hat to acknowledge the presence
of a friend.
High Tuition Fees.
—
Experience is a great teacher, bnt'
her tuition fees are exorbitant.—
Chicago Daily News.
FRENCH IGNORANCE.
Army Conscripts Know Little About
Even French Affairs.
Compulsory free elementary edu
cation having been established in
France in 1882, the conscripts
drafted into the army, and born
one year, or at least two, before
that date, have, without exception,
passed through the communal or
other schools which cost so many
million fraDcs to create, and of
which the maintenance entails such
a heavy burden on the taxpayers. It
is undeniable, says the London
Standard, that the sacrifices have
not. been entirely wasted, for a
Frenchman who cannot read and
write is becoming a rarity. Cap
tains in various parts of France
have this year subjected the con
scripts drafted into their companies
to a sort of examination, which has
demonstrated that nearly every
man was fairly proficient in read
ing. writing and arithmetic. But
beyond the three R’s, the ignorance
of the great majority of the men
was astonishing. According to the
Revue Pedagogique, which gives
detailed results of the ex-officio ex
amination, a captain of the Fifth
army corps, of which the headquar
ters are at Orleans, and of which
the population is, in the matter of
elementary education, above the
average, discovered that two of the
14 conscripts drafted into his com
pany were completely illiterate.
The others could read and write
fairly well, and the greater number
could solve a problem of arithmetic
correctly. Having ascertained that
fact, the captain assembled the
conscripts, and giving them pen and
paper, asked the 42 to sit down
quietly and take all the time they
required to write the answers to the
three following questions: “What
to you know about Joan of Arc?”
“Of what does* the national fete of
July 14 remind you?” “What do
rou know about the war of 1870?”
Whtn the written answers were
handed to him the officer discov
ered that more than half of the
conscripts knew nothing at all
i bo lit J.oan of Arc, that three-quar
ters were ignorant of the event
commemorated by tlve national fete,
md that two-thirds had no knowl
edge whatever of the Franco-Ger
man war of 1870. Had they not
been vouched for by unimpeachable
luthority, and if the sober Journal
ties Debats had not commented on
them, one would have been inclined
to reject such assertions as incredi
ble.
A QUERY.
Do People Need the Assistance of
Doctors When They Die?
Coroner Nevitt, according to the
Washington Star, has been kept
busy lately investigating cases of
sudden deaths and giving certificates
n order that burial permits might be
obtained at the health office. In
most of the cases the reports come
through the police department.
Many times the reports telephoned
;o headquarters from the stations
have conveyed the information that
the particular individual “died with
out the assistance of a physician.” A
*ase of this kind occurred when Dr.
i 4 VI. Cl V AA VIA AW n <1 4 ll A
I (U ILlOUtl n uc V/V* V'HV *. y * VI i»*v J''
iceman who made the report heard
from the coroner.
“What kind of a report do you call
;his?” the coroner asked the officer,
vhen he went to make an investiga
tion. “Do people need the assist
ance of doctors when they are going
io die?”
“I don’t know,” was the police
man’s response, “but I judge that
they have helped many a poor fellow
;o die. It may be wrong to say that
i person died without the assistance
if a physician, and it may also be
right to say that death occurred with
the assistance of a medical man.”
“You may be right.” admitted the
loctor, “but 1 thought the wording
of your report might have been such
that there would be no reflection cast
upon the profession.”
After that incident most of the
reports merely told of the sudden
leaths, without an effort to fix the
responsibility.
Superstition Dies Hard.
Avery unusual event was witnessed
it Lutfincott, a small parish bordering
>n the Tamar. An agricultural labor
er sat in the church porch on a Sun
day and collected half a crown in pen
lies from the congregation, the thir
tieth donor giving a silver half-crown
ind receiving the 29 pennies in
change. A ring is to be made from the
silver coin, which will, it is supposed,
cure the collector of tits. This is one
of the ancient beliefs which die bard
:vn the remoter parts of Devon and
Cornwall.
Lesson in American History inWzzie
THK FIGHT FOn HENRY HILL AT BULL RUN.
Find Gen. Slierman.
One of the most stubborn contests that occurred during the hotly-con
tested battle of Hull Run on July 21, 1861, was that which occurred at Henry
Hill. Here the tide' of battle ebbed and flowed from side to side. Gen.
Gherman, then a colonel commanding a brigade, ordered the Second Wis
consin forward to attack the enemy at the brow of the hill, it made a
stubborn tight, but in the face of such a galling lire that it was repulsed,
ar.d fell back in some disorder, but rallied again and passed the brow of the
hill a second time, only to be again repulsed. It was at this point that the
scene of confusion began about 3:30 in the afternoon which ended in the
utter route of the federal army.
THIS AND THAT.
A San Francisco theater labels
union acts.
Holton, Mo., with a population of
1,500, has 17 churches.
Liverpool is the latest recipient of
a present of two royal swans from
King Edward.
President Loubet of France has
been a keen musician all his life.
When a hoy he was a member of a
village band.
The Homestead mills produce
with about 4,000 men three times as
much as the Krupp works with 15,
000 men.
Charged with being drunk in his
own house, a Bury (Lancashire, Eng
land) publican claimed his “legal
privilege to be as drunk as! he liked in
his own private room.” The bench
allowed the claim.
The mines of the Black Hills dis
trict. S. D., for the year just closed
produced $8,363,392, which is nearly
$1,000,000 increase over the previous
year. The average value of ore
handled in the district per ton was
$4.44.
A few years ago quartz mines that
would not yield $50 to the ton were
despised and rejected as unprofit
able. Now, with improved methods
of extracting, ore containing as low
as $1 per ton pays large dividends to
the stockholders.
Charles Lauri, the English panto
mimist, is dead. His specialty was
the imitation of animals, and no
Drury Lane Christmas pantomime
was complete without him. He was
the son of a father equally famous as
a clown, so that a Lauri had been on
the London stage for nearly 60years.
WONDERFUL WILLIAM PITT.
One of the Most Remarkable Boys
the World Has Known.
One of the most remarkable boys
ihe world ever saw was William
Pitt. He astonished folk with his
learning at the age of 7. He be
came prime minister of England
when he was 24.
He was a sickly boy, but he took
all the out-of-door exercise his deli
cate frame could bear, and was as
eager to study as most boys are to
play, lie would not let his weak
body stop his work and he was read
ing ancient history at an age when
most children are reading stories
written in words of one syllable.
His father was the great Earl of
Chatham and the boy was brought
into contact with all the great men
of the time in England. When he
was 13 years old he wrote a trag
edy which he called “Laurcntine,
King of Clarinium.”
At this age, too, says the Detroit
Free Press, he was able to read
Greek and Latin almost as well as
he could read English. He also was
well informed on the politics of the
day and on a variety of subjects
about, which only men of learning
are supposed to know anything.
At 14 he was able to take the
works of Thucydides, written in
Greek, and read page after page,
turning it. into excellent English as
he read, and this off-hand transla
tion of hjs is said to have been al
most without a flaw.
His father spoke of him as “eag
er Mr. William, the counselor, the
philosopher.” At the age of 14 be
entered the great University cf
Cambridge in England and at once,
in spite of his youth, took a high
place among the students at that
celebrated place of learning.
When he went to Cambridge the
boy was in such feeble health that
he had to be accompanied by a
nurse, and all through his course
there he was in so poor a condition,
physically, that it. was doubted if
he ever would be able to finish the
course.
But hard study seemed to agree
with him, and when he was grad
uated, at the age of 17, he was
much stronger than when lie en
tered the university.
At an age when most boys are
preparing to enter college, or, if
they are very clever, have just be
come freshmen, young Pitt won the
degree of master of arts from one
of the greatest universities in the
world and began the study of law.
At 21 he was admitted to the bar,
and the same year was elected a
member of parliament, to become
prime minister three years later.
While he was yet a law student,
and only 18 years old, he attracted
the attention of prominent men by
his clear views on the questions of
government, which then were per
plexing the rulers of England. The
boy was invited everywhere, and
men holding important offices lis
ton pi I tn Ilia, jwlvipp uml n.cL-pil hi a
opinions.
His friends wanted him to go
into parliament when he was <50
and all predicted for him a brilliant
career. It was curious to see this
delicate stripling, a boy in looks
and years, meeting the great and
wise men of the country as an equal
and conversing on even terms with
the most learned scholars of the
day.
Young Pitt used to like to listen
to the debates in the British par
liament, and Mr. Fox, the great
statesman, meeting him once after
a debate, was astonished at the
manner in which the hoy criticised
the eminent, men who had spoken
and pointed out where they could
have made their argument stronger.
One of the hardest works to un
derstand that ever was written is a
hook called “Cassandra,” written by
a man named Lycophronis. It is
written in Creek. A learned man
placed the hook in the hands of
young Pitt when the boy was 16
years old and he read it at first
sight, translating into English as
he read and explaining it in a man
ner which made the learned man
declare that had he not seen it ho
“would have believed it beyond the
power of human intellect.”
When Pitt was 16 his father de
clared that he would he a great
statesman and was the hope of the
country. Other folks soon became
of his father’s way of thinking and
that is why they put him into par
liament when he was so young and
made him prime minister soon
after.
He fulfilled all that was expeettd
of him and ruled England during
13 of the most evtutful years of bet
history.
EASILY SWINDLED.
Even the Experienced Sometimes Al
low Themselves to Be Fooled.
“Men who knock around the world
a great deal, who travel, and who see
things, and have all kinds of experi
ences are not as shrewd as they think
they are,” said the observant man, to
a New Orleans Times-Demoerat
writer, “and as a mat ter of fact they
are generally further from the truth
in their estimate of themselves than
the fellow' whose life has been con
fined to a much more limited field
aud who are classed among the un
sophisticated. Of course, we are all
more or less deceived about our
selves, our talents, capabilities, and
so on, but the one particular man
who misses the mark further than
the balance of mankind is the fellow
belonging to the particularly wise
class. These reflections are strength
ened and amplified by a little story I
have in mind, and the man involved
is one of the shrewder kind. Up to a
couple of weeks- ago if you had told
him that a sharper could trap him he
would have laughed you out of coun
tenance. But he wouldn't do it now.
lie has been caught since then,
caught badly, and in a thoroughly
clumsy and commonplace fashion,
lie prided himself particularly on his
knowledge of railroad rates, how
to get to and from places, how much
it would cost and all that kind of
thing. Unwanted togo out to Plaque
_it .! i ii...
mini' (utu nau oini icu iw i in
office, when he was approached by a
man who said he could give him a
ticket, at a reduced rate. ‘What is
the fare to Plaquemine?’ asked the
wise man. ‘Three forty-live,’ said
the ticket vendor, ‘and here is a tick
et you may have for $3 even.’ It
was a go. The wise man congratu
lated himself on saving45 cents. He
bought a return ticket at Plaque
mine, tendering a $5 bill in payment.
The agent gave him $2.55 in change.
Haven’t you made a mistake?’ asked
the wise man. ‘Nope,’ said the agent,
fare’s $2.45,’ and the man walked
away, reflecting on how easy it is for
a man to lose 55 cents while trying
to save 45 cents.”
A MYSTERY OF SCIENCE.
Radium Exerts a Force That Puzzles
the Most Learned Men.
In 1896 M. Bccquerel discovered
that salts of uranium gave out rays
like the Roentgen rays that pass
through opaque bodies and affect a
photographic plate, and Mme. Curie,
while experimenting with “Becquer
el rays” discovered radium, so named
from its property of radiating cease
lessly into space minute particles of
electrons at a velocity of 120,000
miles a second. The material is
found in such minute quantities that
a single pound of it is said to be
worth$l,000,000. Some experiment
ers, says the Indianapolis News,
think that the rays thrown out by ra
dium are streams of particles of elec
tricity called electrons, together with
minute particles of radium. These
particles proceed with such amazing
force that it is only their smallness
that prevents them from destroying
surrounding objects. They pass
through sheet iron without loss of
speed, and, like the Roentgen or
X-ray, they have a destructive effect
on the human skin. A small bit of
radium salts in the pocket will pro
duce a serious burn.
Radium is luminous without heat
and causes objects to phosphoresce.
It colors glass, changes oxygen into
ozone, turns white phosphorus red,
ionizes gases, liquid air, petroleum,
paraffin, etc. And yet it loses no
weight notwithstanding this inces
sant bombardment of surrounding
objects. If it throw off electricity
and not its own particles its retention
of weight is understandable, and yet
the source of its energy is an enigma.
HIS FIRST EARNINGS.
Financier Gathered Leeches on His
Bare Feet When a Boy.
Abram Barker, the father of Whar
ton Barker, the Philadelphia political
economist, is, at the age of 84, still in
active business. Ho was during many
years one of the prominent.financiers
of the country.
M r. Barker tells the storyof how he
earned his first money when a boy liv
ing on the island of Nantucket. His
father was coming to New York on
one of his sailing vessels, and said he
would bring his young son along.
Abram spent days catching leeches by
wading in the stagnant streams which
abound on the island. The leeches at
tached themselves to his bare feet and
legs. He brought them to New York
and sold the entire consignment to a
druggist at the corner of Wall street
and Broadway for$.‘i.—N. Y. Times.
Big and Little.
A little man is usually looking for
e big fuss.—Atchison Globe.
WASN’T HE H
How Uncle Tom Made Himself
tionable to This Young Lady.
“Do you know/’ said the girl
with the gray eyes, “I think he is
simply horrid.”
“Horrid? Who’s horrid?” quer
ied the demure little thing.
“Why, that uncle of mine, of
course,” rejoined she of the orbs of
gray, in a tone that evinced sur
prise that any one should not be
fully aware of the individual she
had in mind.
The demure little thing, says
the New York Times, looked
startled. “He hasn’t lost his for
tune, has he?” she asked.
“Good gracious, no—thank Heav
en. But he’s just as horrid as he
can be, nevertheless. Listen. You
know 1 have always had the great
est fondness for uncle Tom, and
have without exce1wf85*-him
everything—absolutely everything.'
The fact is that 1 have had so much
trouble with—well, you know the
men I have gone with. Last year
when that affair with Dick was on,
I, of course, wrote Uncle Tom, who
was then in Chicago, all about it.
Now he had always liked Dick, so
he wrote me a beautiful letter—■
simply beautiful—offering me all
manner of felicitations and wishes
for a bright and prosperous future.
“It isn’t necessary to tell you,
my best friend, how bitterly Dick
d' ippointed me by his conduct. I
know they say I threw him over,
and all that sort of thing, blit hon
estly, there wasn't but one thing to
do, and of course 1 did it.
i suppose it did seem a lime
‘soon’ to Uncle Tom, when, a lit
tle over two months after he wrote
that letter, to receive news of my
engagement to Jack. However,
uncle approved of my course in the
matter, even though he did prefer
Dick to any one else, and I couldn’t
complain of the letter he sent, me
in reply, which was as nice as the
first one, although he did express
some little surprise. All the same,
he expressed entire confidence in
my judgment.
“Now, my dear, here’s where Un
cle Tom made himself most objec
tionable. Two weeks ago, when I
found that above all that I loved
Reginald, 1 received a third letter
from Uncle Tom, in which, after
acknowledging the receipt of my
letter, he said: i
“ ‘1 desiff^-’jay dear, to congmtUr_
\&' you on yomg mar
riage with-/
“Then ho inserted one of those
star signs and added in a footnote:
‘Here insert the name of the hap
py man.’ ’’_
FAHRENHEIT’S THERMOMETER
Origin of an Instrument That la
Now in Common Use.
Sir Samuel Wilks, writing to
Knowledge, states that Fahrenheit’s
thermometer owed its beginnings
to the invention of a thermometer by
Newton, which was described in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1701.
Newton’s instrument was a tube
filled with linseed oil, and the start
ing-point of the scale was the tem
perature of the human body, which
Newton called 12 It is worthy of
notice that at this period, whim nu
meration was based upon natiiral re
quire men ts, the duo-decimal sy^tcfii^ __
was proposed for this, as it vvas in
use for all other purposes. Newton
accordingly divided the space be
tween his datum and the freezing
poi”t of water into 12 equal parts,
and stated that the boiling-point of
water would be about 30of these de
grees on the scale. Fahrenheit, when
he began to work with Newton’s
thermometer, did not find the scale
minute enougn for his purposes. He
therefore first doubled the number of
degrees, making the scale number 24
instead of 12. Finding he could, by
mixing ice and salt, obtain a temper
ature below freezing, Fahrenheit
next adopted this for his starting
point and counted 24 degrees up to
body heat, making the freezing-point
8 and calling boiling water 53. Later
on he again divided his degrees into
four. It will be seen that if the
above figures are multiplied by four
the result is the therriiometrie scale
called after him which is still in use.
Chicago’s Birthrate.
The laments of eminent person
ages over the decreasing birth rate in
in the United States have prompted
Chicago’s health department to print
in the bulletin the best possible evi
dence that the birth rate in that city
is satisfactory. It says: “The in
crease in the under seven-year popula
tion was 57.3 per eent., or 5.3 in ex
cess of the increase of the total popu
lation at all ages. This excess is ob
viously due to the births during the
period.”