The Daily Republican from Monongahela, Pennsylvania • Page 2

"sodo." or pill of opium, with one long A Freak of Fortune. SLATES TO OPIUM. RELIGIOUS BEADING. Longevity or Animals. A German paper states that in Lapland an eagle was shot and that "around its neck it had a brass chain, to which a little tin box was fastened.

The box contained a slip of paper, on which was written in Danish, 'Caught and set free again in The study of the longevity of animals is wanting in accuracy, but it does seem quite certain that the span of life of some few of the lower creatures is much more extended than i. mi tt' i draw, and allowed it to escape through his nostrils. An expression of beatitude rested upon his cinched features, and he lay for several minutes before preparing another pipe. The boy was evidently greatly excited over his stolen pleasure. His eves were glassyj and his pulse, when timed, was found to be galloping at twice the normal rate.

He seemed flattered by inquiries in regard to his condition, and said he "felt heap good." In the other bunks were smokers in all the stages. Some were just enter ing on the night's debauch others were gazing intently at the ceiling! and seemed to be in a tranoe, while one was holding forth with great volubility to his companion, who was evidently far beyond the sound of his shrill voice. A few were buried in deed sleep. In a remote corner were two 'hoodlums" smoking with that nonchalance which never deserts the juvenile ruffian of San Francisco in any emergency. The air was heavy with the Chinese smell a mingled odor of an old clothes shop and strong tobacco.

The opium, contrary to general opinion, gives off very little odor, and the smoke is not oppressive The drug has a pronounced flavor, lnaarincr a. at.mnef roaomWanpo fr Knmt. kirschwasser, the taste of bitter almonds mingling with a sweetish flavor. Smok ing is a costly indulgence, as the old hend demands "four bits or a half dollar's worth of the drug for a night's indulgence. When he sinks lower in the scale and is compelled to econo mize, he smokes "No.

2 opium," made from the refuse left after using the superior or "No. 1 opium." A smoke of this may be enjoyed for ten cents. Opium-smoking is a sensuous pleas ure and depends for its full enjoyment upon leisure and society. The major ity of the better class of Chinese San Francisco smoke opium, but not in ex cess. They will lounge on their little bunks, enjoy twelve or fifteen pipes in tne course of an afternoon or evening, 1 1 1 cnat, smoke tobacco, and drink tea or rice brandy.

Few except the confirmed opium-smokers use the drug to produce insensibility or the opium sleeps The primary effect of opium is that of good tobacco, increased ten-fold. It soothes and tranquillizes the nerves arid laps the smoker in a delicious state of Syba ritic ease and voluptuous enjoyment It induces a species of day-dream, but its effects in this regard have been greatly exaggerated. It seldoni produces the drunken stupor which follows undue indulgence in liquor. The Euro pean who contracts the habit of opium- smoking usually craves an inordinate amount of the drug. A man whom I know smokes regularly every day six bits (seventy-five cents) worth of opium, or about fifty pipes.

He is a walking skeleton, and when not under the influence of the narcotic he trembles like a paralytic. His cheeks are sunken, the bones seem starting through the pallid skin, and the whole man is a living wreck strength, energy, will, manhood, all clean gone. He lives only for his daily indulgence in the drug, and his body could dispense with it no more thau his lungs could perform their functions without air. He is a walking barometer; sensitive to the slightest change in temperature and racked by neuralgic pains when exposed to) cold. Fatally insidious, too, is ibis opium habit.

It saps the moral strength and enfeebles the will then shorn of these two allies, it takes a man of exceptional strength of character to free himself rom its thralldom. The poorer classes of Chinese in Cali nrnin. find tViosA mmnn'fl nino-tonftia of the whole number use opium as a solace to their hard life. It is one of the few pleasures they allow themselves in a slavish straggle to lay up money, jho store, wasu-uouse, manuiactpry or restaurant is without its opium "lav- out." The habit of opium-smoking is universal, as common as the use of to oac among American men. A very intelligent Chinese merchant, who speaks excellent English, in a 'recent conversation with me on the evils of opium-smoking, said "It is the curse of our people, and is far worse in its effects than your whisky-drinking.

A man who drinks liquor gets some strength from the stimulant, though tins may last only a few minutes. He may even live to old age, and never go to bed sober. But the effects of opium are far different. It takes away strength it never gives any. It weak ens a man, thins his blood and steals all his energy.

It makes him feel the cold, makes hira what you call invalid no good for any real work. He may work at a trade, but he cannot carry on any business which requires thoright or calculation. For myself, I smoke a few pipes frequently with friends. It is social and pleasant, but I always take the greatest care not to smoke twice in succession at the same hour, hen I feel the longing to smoke, which always attacks yon just twenty-four hours after your last indulgence, I never give way it. Pronunciation.

We need a pronunciation manual. Most people believe that there is a "standard" pronunciation, and that a word given can be pronouticed correctly in but one way, while all other ways are wrong. This belief is not well founded, for historical truth is a growth and an approx imation. English pronunciation has been investigated in all respects, ufter philology done its duty ranch that is recommended by Webster, Worcester, Smart and Walker will have be abandoned. Or aro theso authorises infallible? Is it final authority to that a word must be pronounced in certain manner becuuKo Worcester snya bo? in A Chicago journalist is an intimate friend of a Chicago millionnaire.

In a recent confidential conversation oc curred the following narrative, as re produced in the Chicago Inter-Ocean: After sitting in reflective silence for a few moments, Mr. Blank said suddenly "I've a notion to tell you my story. it is ho singular that it may be incredible, and it is certainly not an experience one would think I had gone tnrougn." lhe reporter expressed a deBire to hear the story. "I will tell you, upon condition that you will never mention my name in connection with it." The promise of secrecy was readily given. "I do not propose," said Mr.

Blank. as he puffed leisurely a fragrant cigar, "to De so specific that 1 will worry you. All you want to know is the general circumstances, of course. Well, I came from Devonshire nearly thirty years ago, landing in New York, about the age of twenty-five, with my wife, a few pounds in my pocket and a stout heart. I had come to seek my fortune like many young men before me who found their native land unkind care of them.

Almost upon my anival I was taken sick, and before I had secured any em ployment a fever seized me, and when weeks acterward came back to me my money was gone and we were in debt for rent. My poor wife had made a few dimes here and there doing cheap sewing, but the little she could do was not enough, and much before I was able I arose from my bed to seek for work. Those were sorry days for us, I can tell you. Up and down the streets I wandered, asking every place for work; but I was weak and emaciated, and no one cared to give me employ ment. I was not worth it, really, and so I went on for two weeks, my health scarcely improving, my case becoming more and more desperate.

One day, utterly exhausted and discouraged, feel ing miserable and sick, ready to die but for my wife, I sank down upon a box that stood against a lamppost on Broadway. I took my hat off that the breeze might cool my burning head, and I guess that I so fell asleep. Anyway, when I became conscious of where I was and felt somewhat rested, I arose to put on my hat, when some small coins rolled out upon the sidewalk. My heart throbbed as though a miracle had been performed. I picked these up, and found others in my hat.

Altogt ther I had nearly There was a good supper for my wife and me, and I had besides got an idea. 1 said to myself, 1 was perfectly willing to work for a little money and no one would employ me now since people are willing to give me money without work I will accept it that way, and I did. Every day after that I slouched down at a corner on some public thoroughfare and held out my hat. I asked no one for alms, but just sat there with my hat out. As fast as any money was dropped in I transferred it to my pockets.

The first day I took in $2.50, and from that time my earnings were never less and they have run as high as $25 in a dav. I took to all sorts of tricks to look miserable and played upon the public, though I was soon as well and vigorous as the best who came along. Well, sir, I kept this business up six years, and at the end of that time I had actually taken in a little over $30,000, of which I had $20,000 in bank, a little in many banks. I then had two children, and we lived comfortably. When I found I had $20,000 I concluded to invest it.

I did. I bought stocks, and after quietly speculating two years I had made $227,000, and concluded to give up my old life and become a gentleman again. I came West. I bought land in this vicinity. In a time that land more than ever made me a rich man, and to-day I am worth not a penny less than $800,000.

That, sir, all came from a beggar's hat in the streets of New York. Strange story? I think so myself. Really, it now seems to me that all this was a dream. It does not seem real." Mr. Blank relighted his cigar, leaned comfortably back in his chair and remarked, "Never despise a beggar.

You can't tell how rich he may be." The journalist went his way that afternoon wondering much, envious of the mendicant at the corner, and inclined to turn beggar himself. Marguerite, the Young Qirccn of Italy. She is the only royal person who sees her friends in the street. She has one of the most winning and sympathetic of faces. She is a blonde, has large blue eyes, a lovely mouth, and, without the aid of art, has a fair, fresh complexion.

She is not an insipid blonde she has character in her face, tempered with a gentle and lively expression. Tho Italians call her 'La Gentilezza Italiana." She is thirty, perhaps a little over, but does not look over twenty-five. Royalty does not seem to weigh very heavy on her mind, and she seems to have changed the traditional, stately, queenly air of bygone queens for the happy, cordial, affable look of a happy and beautiful woman, securely reposing in the love of her subjects. She has an unpretending way of going out shopping in an entirely unroyal way, and one of the pleasures of the American in Rome is to find herself shopping beside the charming princess, who is often unknown even to the shopkeeper. She is noted in the street for the plainness of her attire.

Her favo rite jewelry is the marguerite fashioned the exquisite taste of Florentine handicraft. Philadelphia Time. The free use of lemon juice and suerar will always relieve a cough. a Seenes In San Francisco Dens. A Typical "Fiend" In his Hoars of Indulgence A Contly and Ruiaana Habit.

From a San Francisco letter describ ins the recent marked increase in the Opium habit among the Chinese of the slope we take trie following "Chinatown," which occupies a rectangle in the heart of thecitv, is filled with opium dens. You would never suspect their existence in walking along the street or even in passing through the hall which affords an entrance to them. An elaborate system of passwords makes it imposible for a stranger to gain admittance, while this precaution, joined to strong bolts and bars, frequently renders a police descent fruit- less. The dens are so nearly alike that ft description of one will apply to all. One of the largest is situated in the basement of a large, four-story lodging-house on Jackson street.

Before the fumigation of Chinatown last year this house had the reputation of being the foulest place in the quarter, and was shown to Eastern tourists with the same satisfaction as a hideous case of leprosy. Nowall this is changed, and the pungent smell of chloride of lime attests that some effort is being made to preserve ordinary sanitary conditions. Passing through a large central court, lighted by one dim old lamp, the outer door of the den is reachei. A signal in Chinese and an attendant draws the bolts and admits you to an inner hall; through this you pass, and another door, battened with one great plate of sheet iron, and furnished with several strong spring locks and bolts, swings open and admits yon to the room itself. It is along, low apartment, about thirty feet by fifteen, and not over eight feet in height.

It is as grimy as the fo'castle of a coaster. Around three sides are arranged a double tier of bunks, which strengthen the fancy that one is on chipboard. These bunks are divided off by partitions at distances of about four feet, and in nearly every compartment reclino two opium smokers. The bunk is covered with Chinese matting, and a roll of cloth nerves as a pillow. Here are two typical smokers.

One lies on his right side, the other on his left. They face each other and make use of the same "lay-out." This con sists of a small lacquered tray, two thimble-like dishes of opium, a little oil lamp covered by a glass globe open at the top and a box for the refuse opium ash. The pipe looks very clumsy to the uninitiated. It is about two feet long, a bamboo cane an inch in diam eter. When new it is bright and shows the material from which it is made, but age and use give it a rich brown tint.

In one end is left a small aperture, to which the lips must be closely applied in smoking, so that no air may penetrate into the pipe and clog he "opium. About two inches from the other end of the pipe the bowl is inserted. It is shaped exactly like the email ink bottles which have a round base and swell suddenly to a narrow neck. In the center of the flat top of the bowl is a small hole, through which the burning opium is drawn. The bowl is screwed into the stem of the pipe, and is removed every half hour and the refuse opium cleaned out carefully and placed in the little box at the foot of the tray.

The bowl is inserted in silver, neatly set into the stem and highly polished by long use. The richness of this work determines the value of the pipe. The clay of the bowl takes on the appearance of old bronze, so that the pipe has a mellow look of age which would commend it to the eye of the meerschaum lover. A new opium pipe may be bought in any of the Chinese stores for $3. When colored by the daily use of several years it is worth from $20 to $150, and excep tionally nne ones are valued at 9250.

To smoke opium gracefully requires as msch skill as to roll a good cigarette. The smoker reclines on his side, facing the tray. From a small, thimble-like dish he takes with a long steel wire, called a "yen hock," as much of the liquid opium as will adhere to the point. The drug resembles cheap New Orleans molasses, being black and viscid. Held over the flame of the lamp, it begins to bubble, and by deftly whirling the wire it is saved from falling and is socn reduced to the proper consistency a thick paste.

It gives off a slight bluish smoke and a faint odor of burnt susar. It is then held near the aperture of the pipe bowl, and the smoker, with his lips giueu iu me bivm, innaies tne smoKe in one long draw or in frequent short puns, xne opium must ue Kept over the flame while smoking, as it will not admit of rewarming. An amusing illus tration of the lack of knowledge about the process was furnished by a recent issue oi a popular magazine. In an ar ticle on opium smoking was a sketch of tne interior of a den, which several smokers were lying flat on their backs puffing away at tomahawk-lookingpipes lifted up at an anle of forty-five de grees I Of the two smokers in the bunk before me one was a boy evidently taking Lis first lesson in the vice, while the other was an ancient "fiend," as the confirmed opium-smoker is called. The boy had the fresh, peachy bloom on his cheeks which one sets occasionally in healthy young Chinese who Lave not been stinted in food The other looked like amurunjy, galvanized into life for one Mht only.

His eyes alone, with their dil uted pupils, showed that he was very much alive, and his long bony fiugprs were deftly manipulating the drug for his conipmion. The boy took the 'hort diaw''fr quent puff, as one would take at a tobacco pine allowing the tftrioke tocomeoiitof bin month. Then the 'fiend'' prepared a pipe for Jbimself, drew into his lungs the whole i 1 10 not and Jo ny The Heavens Declare His Glory. The untutored mind has often a short way of taking hold of great truths which men of culture might well covet. Here is an illustration touching the order of nature.

A minister asked an old negro his reasons for believing in the existence in God. "Sir," said he, "I have been here going hard upon fifty years. Every day since I have been in this world I see the sun rise in the east and set in the west. The north star stands where it did the first time I saw it the seven stars and Job's coffin keep on the same path the sky and never turn out. Jt isn't so with man's work.

He makes clocks and watches they may run well for awhile, but they get out of fix and stand stock still. But the sun and moon and stars keep on this same way all the while. The heavens declare the glory of liod." Religious News and Note. One in every six of our 50,132,860 population is a church member. Four hundred and thirty Presby terian ministers in Ireland have signed a petition to Parliament in favor of the land bill.

Abyssinia and the United States, said a speaker at a church conference in Chi cago, are the only two Christian coun tries that tolerate polygamy. The supreme court of the State of Maine decides that a church is not a corporation with authority to create debt erecting a house of worship." Four Presbyterian churches in this country the past year raised $727,511 for foreign missions, and three raised $510,703 for home missions, making a total of $1,238,214. Bishop Huntington, of Central New York, recently ordained two young Indians, one a Cheyenne, the other a Kiowa, who pursued a three years' course of study, and go on a mission to their own people in Indian Territory. The completed returns of the English Wesleyan church ehow that it has members, a net increase of 4,244. Over 30, 000 new members were received.

Of the net increase 1,118 was gained in London. There are 79 candidates for the ministry. It was said at the recent Cong.ega- tional convention in Chicago that Con necticut is the very center of Congrega tionalism for the world, since no other State or country can say that nine per cent, of its population is in Congrega-1 tional churches. The ratio of ministers to members in several of the leading churches is as follows: Reformed (Dutch) church, 1 minister to 147 members Presbyterian, 1 to 114; Congregational, 1 to 107; Protestant Episcopal, 1 to 100 Methodist Episcopal, 1 to 144. The average in 17 denominations is 1 to 141.

The following bishops of the various Methodist branches in America go to the Ecumenical Methodist conference in London Bishops Simpson, Warren, Peck, McTyeire, Bowman, Payne, Brown, Shorter, Dickerson, Hood, Jones, Hillery, Thompson and Of these all but the first four ored. Holsey. are col- rOPULAR SCIENCE. It is found that brandy augments the rapidity and force of the pulse 13 per cent. More than one-fourth the number of premature deaths are caused by lung diseases.

One cubic inch of water, when con verted into invisible vapor, occupies more than 2,000 cubic inches of space. The muriatic acid constituting the essential ingredient of the gastric juice is conceived to be derived by an act of secretion from common salt (muriate of soda) contained in the blood. The stiff blue clay upon which Lon don is chiefly built contains organic remains which indicate the presence, at some former period, a tropical climate in that locality. The quantity of blood existing in the human body at any given moment is from thirty to forty pints. The heart sends out about one aud one-half ounces at every beat, which, allowing seventy-five strokes to the minute, gives the amount passing through the heart in a day as nearly twenty-four hogsheads.

Late researches are showing an astonishing vitality of disease germs. Pasteur has investigated a case in which cattle died of a carbuncular fever twelve years ago, and were buried at a certain spot in a walled garden. Guinea pigs have beeu inoculated with the matter secured by washing samples of the soil, and died quickly with well-marked symptoms of cavbuncle. Or seven sheep allowed experimentally to pass a few hours daily on this spot, two died of the ii i. snine aiscase in me course ui tu wwt-Ka, the rest of the flock remaining unaffected.

This seems to prove beyond a doubt the existence of disease germs for space of twelve years. A paper by M. de Grandimont on an experimental process for determining the sensibility of the retina to colored luminous impressions was read before the Academy of Sciences, Paris. The instrument employed is called ehro- matroposcope. -lhe observer looks steadily at the central point of a disk having apertures.

At a little distance from the other end of the disk colored surfaces are placed. Gradually the sensation of color is lost. If then white surfaces are quickly substituted for the colored ones, the complementary colors come out with great and purity. I Ljum ui mail. xuc uwuuua ueuevo lUaXi ah elephant lives to be 300, and there seems to be several authentic cases noted by Europeans of these animals having arrived at the mature age of 120.

Camels are shorter lived, the ordinary breed living forty years. Recent zoologists state that the swifter race of camels are even shorter lived. A horse at twenty is considered an old animal indeed, but he has been known to do some service even when he was thirty-five. Oxen are short-lived, twenty years being considered as about their limit of life. Dogs rarely live beyond their fifteenth year.

The stories about fish must be taken with a great deal of discrimination. That of the lives of carp extending over hundreds of vears rests on very poor authority. It is quite certain that numerous species of fish especially the salmon, are not long-lived. When we hear, then, of trout fifty years old we might think that there were ex ceptions to the general rules governing the "Salimo7iidas." The whale is said to live up to 500 years, a certain bone structure giving a possible clew to his age, but this does not rest on the best authority. As to the birds, certain kinds do live very long.

There are a great many parrots, as well known in families as the men or women composing them, who have lived fifty years and over and then been killed by an accident. There seems to be good reason to believe that a parrot in the south of France came to Marseilles when he full grown during the First Empire, and is as hale and hearty and garrulous to-day as when he was contemporaneous with the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. A chicken will live from ten to twelve years. A story some time went the rounds of a 100-year-old goose. Though swans of seventy-five years old have been known, it is not likely that geese outlive them.

As to the eagle, he is known to be long-lived, and sixty, sev enty and even 100 years may be found in the books as the limit of his life. The present bird shot in Lapland, if the story is to be believed, had been captured ninety-one years before. As he might have been of a certain ago when taken, the account would make us believe he was 100. A remarkable longevity for an eagle is possible, but, on the other hand, it is quite certain that the tin box around this particular bird's neck would have rusted and gone to pieces in les3 than ten years. M'hy He Went Out or Journalism.

"Well, Colonel Ochiltree," said John Russell Young, gazing at the blue ring of smoke just expelled from his lips, between which a Reina Victoria was balanced, "do you mind telling us how you came to desert from the ranks of journalism Tom Ochiltree, carefully setting down his glass of Perrier Jouret, said "What I boys, did I never tell you that story? why, it's one of the most remarkable events of my life! When Young first knew me, I can say without conceit, that I was a star of the first magnitude in the literary firmament. I had a proprietary interest in a real live paper down in Texas. The Houston Telegraph was a morning and evening paper, had a weekly edition, and was the leader of the public opinion all over the South. I tell you that when a man quoted the Houston Telegraph he was listened to, and the paper was celebrated for its truthfulness and terse English wherever the language was spoken, and don't you forget it. It was a big paper, and we were doing so well, subscriptions and advertisements coming in fast, that I thought it would be a fair thing to have a little relaxation in the way of spending a few of the summer months in Europe.

It isn't a bad thing on the other side to be known as the editor of a prominent newspaper in America, and I soon found myself sought after, and perhaps too conspicuous, which is not at all in my line. "Well, I and Jim Bennett were strolling down the boulevard one evening, smoking our cigars, after a good dinner at the Cale Anglais. We had three or four Dukes and a couple of Earis with us, and I think a Baronet or so, (Jim is partial to English noblemen,) when Bennett suddenly halted the whole party at the telegraph office under the Grand Hotel, saying 'Hold on, Dukes, have got a big dispatch to send to the New York Herald, just handed me by my rrench correspondent. "We all filed in and crowded the office, while the Dukes and Eurls wondered at the prodigal expenditure of tho young American editor. "I wasn't going to be behindhand as an American eiitor, so says 'How much will the telegram cost 'Sixty thousand five hundred says the operafor, 'and dirt cheap, "Says 1: 'Duplicate the dispatch to the Houston Telegraph.

With your permission, ini, says I. 'By George! the whole thing was telegraphed to Texas four columns, solid and tho Houston Telegraph went to protest tho next day. I haven't been taking much interest in newspapers since I prefer politics, and that'B the exact truth about tho mutter -The Hour. The Chinese have 0,982 ocean vessels, with an aggregate toina-tons. 1.