The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-02-08

900 together with 100000, the interest
ofwhich is to be expended to keep it in
good order.
The Minnesota state railway bonds.
issued in 1853, will become due and
payable in about a year. They amount
to 81, 900, which, with twenty years
interest at seven per cent, will make
the total principle and interest $500
900. The people voted a loan of FIVE
million, and if all the bonds had been
issued, as was originally intended. the
state would have had 3I2, 00O, 900 to paw.
The Cherokees have over eighty com.
mon schools. The Chickasaws have four
public and about ten district schools.
The ChOctaws have two public schools
and over fifty district schools. The
Creeks have three public schools and
about thirty district schools.
Louisville bankruptcy statistics for
the past year; Unsecured liabilities of
city petitioners, $1,720OO0; Unsecured
liabilities Of county petitioners, in which
citizens were represented, $50, 900;
claims Of non-residents represented in
city petitioners, $720, 900, OF which $3.50
900 were Unsecured debts; total value Of
real estate secured by petitioners during
the year $850,OO0, and total personal
property 100000.
Bustles are declared to be out of
fashion, and many new dresses are made
perfectly fiat behind. Some few stvIishIv
dressed ladies still, however, cling to the
hustle, but very few new ones are sold.
TIE TURKISH rEE4srRERooM.
Charles Dudley Warner in chapter
about Constantinople, writes follows:
The apartment in the seraglio
which is the object of curiosity and de-
sire is the treasure-room. suppose it is
the richest in the world in gems; it is
certainly a most wearisome place, and
gave me a contempt for earthly treasure.
In the center stands a Persian throne-a
chair upon q broad platform, and both
incrusted with rubies, pearls, emeralds,
diamonds; there are toilet tables COW
cred to the feet with diamonds, pipe
stems glistening with huge diamonds,old
armor thickly set with precious stones,
saddle-cloths and stirrups stiff with dia-
mOnds and emeralds, robes embroidered
with pearls. Nothing is so cheap as
wealth lavished in this manner; at first
we were dazzled by the flashing display,
but after a time these heaps of gems
seemed as common in our eyes as pebbles
in the street. I did not even covet an
emerald as large as my fist, nor sword
hilt in which were fifteen diamonds each
as large as the end of my thumb, nor a
carpet sOwn with pearls, some of which
were Of the size of pigeons eggs, nor
sigrettes which were blazing with inter
nal fires, nor chairs of state, clocks and
vases, the surfaces of which were on fire
with jewels. l have seen an old Oaken
table, carved in the 8tteensh century,
which gave me more pleasure than one
OF lapis Lazuh, which is exhibited as the
most costly article in this collection
though it is inlsid with precious stones,
and the pillars that support the mirror
are set with diamonds, and the legs and
claws are a mass of diamonds, rubies,
carbuncles, emeralds, topazes, etc, and
huge diamonds pendants ornament 1t,
and the deep fringe in front is altogether
of diamonds. This is but a barbarOus,
ostentatious, and tasteless use of the
beautiful ana l suppose gives one an
idea of the inartistic magnihcence of the
oriental courts in centuries gone by.
This treasure-house has, presume,
nothing that belonged to the Byzantine
emperors before the Noslem conquest,
some of whom exceeded in their magnifi-
cence of any of the Osmanli sultans. Ar
cadius, the first eastern emperor after
the division of the Roman world, rivaled
in the appointment of his palace (which
stood upon this spoO and in his dress the
magnifceuce of the Persian monarchs;
and perhaps the luxurious califEs of Bag
dad at later day did not equal his splen-
dor His robes were of purple, a color
reserved exclusively for his sacred per
son, and Of silk, embroidered with gold
dragons his diadem was of gold set with