The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-01-23


turned our steps IN that direction
! entering tho South lransopl de-
voted TO England, or moro proper
~ To Great Britain, a gentleman
Enthusiastically English, sat near inc
entrance reading newspaper, ana
anon II table before him were q COL
lection Of queer things that we
stopped 20 study, They were made
(, uf Two mclNl rings about three inch
es in diameter, one Inside the olhor,
but ut right angles and with an axis
passing through tho points of IN.
torsection, the axis being ut one end
elongated beyond the circumference
Of the rings about quarter Of an
inch. Beside each Of these stood n
small wooden standard consisting Of
II circular bottom and n stem three
inches high, quarter Of an inch
thick, and with II hollow In the upper
end, ! AN well enough acquainted
with human nature TO know what
/ am doing when | disturb man
who IL reading n newspaper, but |
was then in n mode 10 risk any
thing, 50 said politely as possible
to the reader, Beg pardon, but
may trouble You to tell me what
these areY' "Tops," replied the
gentleman, laconcaIly, without rails,
ing bis eyes, "AhW Well if they
are tops they must spin, 80 we scru'
tinted them still more closely, and
! ] venturod on another question,
"WiIl they spin on these little
wooden standards" Eyes" was
the reply, as gracefully MS before,
placed the elongated axis in the
little hollow Of the standard and
twirIcd ii around, but instead Of
spinning it topped Of on the table,
"But it won't SPIN ! said to the
gentleman, who threw down his pa
per II little impatiently, and arose
saying, half good humoredIy, ~
sco you do not mean TO lot mo read
my paper in peace "CcrtainIy
not Why should II l am an
American and must know about
everything" II knew you were an
American and therefore you knew
that in the end | would conquer,
didn't your He smiled and shook
his head, saying after u silence, 81
like tho American ladies, but ! don't
like the American people" But"
said my friend, with smile, "the
American ladies are the American
people Nevertheless, adhere to
my statement" answered the gen,
tleman, and proceeded to show us
how his tops were made to spin BY
winding them up by means Of u
string wound around the axis and
then pulled off with jerk, after
which the tops would spin on
plate, on the hand, be tossed up in
The mir and come down spinning,
would spin on the standard with the
axis vertical or placed ut any angle,
in fact, were very amusing little
toys, ard we bought one of them in
return for disturbing him at his
newspaper. Looking back after we
had turned away from him, we saw
that be had resumed his paper to.
tally obivious Of the crowd who
had gathered around, attracted by
the display which had been made
for our benefit. We were attracted
by IN exhibit Of sole leather and
small trunk about eighteen inches
long, made OF leather an inch and
n quarter thick, standing on q
shelf, which we ut first took to be q
board, but which we afterwards dis.
covered to ben piece of 4 tanned hip
popotamus' hide, about six by two
feet and fully one and 4 half inches
in thickness. An oval shield, con.
cavo-conveX of the same hide, hangs
against a column, and near it an
other shield Of the same form, made
of beautiful piece of untanned hip.
popotamus' hide, fully three-fourlhs
of an inch thick and beautifully
translucent, showing the delicate
network Of blood-vesscls running
through it. The display of tanned
leather, both thick and thin, is fine.
Then in manufactured leather are
elegant boots, beautiful saddles and
harnesses, patent leather and car
riage feathers. In harnesses and
whips the English Surpass. Some
Of the latter are very beautiful, with
handles Rknotted wood and some
artisticaly carved. There are also
iets for roofing, dry felt for pianos,
one fourth inch thick, canes, oil
clothes, skins tanned with the wool
on, dyed in beautiful coorS for car
riage mats, and amid all this dis
play of feathers, the British Foreign
Bible Society finds its place. This
society was established in 1904, and
lis principal business is to publish
the Bible IN different languages and
distribute it over the world. AT
the time of their establishment there
were but fifty TRANSACTIONS Of the
Bible, and there are now two hun
bred and four. In the first four
years Of their existence rs u socie-
ly, they distributed cighty-one thou.
sand one hundred and ffty-sevon
bibles. In 1872 two million, five
hundred and nincty-two thousand,
nine hundred and thirty.six. The
total number distributed being over
sixty millions, and the whole amount