Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-12-21

by the united strength of your seventeen guides
who, exerting their energies in perpendic-
uiar direction, under the opera ion Of another
well known law Of physics, would, undo1oted-
"'Iknow no law said specIly-Burger, ironl-
cally, that
ssIgnoraatia legis ne ninc,n ereusat,' rejoinea
the little man promptly. not for an instant
pausng to take breath, and submit that your
testimony, while perhaps entitled to certain
weight, does not establish point in direct con
traventiOn OF the recorded observations OF
thousands Of naturaliStS, better qualified to
judge of the qualities of the snow ice or niuose
which you have mentioned, and which leads me
to remark, merely as current suggestion, and
not in any way as pertinent to the question az
issue, that possibly that much-disputed passage
in Ivy, In Which ii is related that Hannib IL,
wnlle crossing the Alps, made passage foT his
army Dy pouring vinegar upon the rocks to
soften them, may be explained by the suppo-
Sit10n that the great Carthagnian employed
salt 10 melt the snow, as Is still done on the
trackS OF many tramwayS in American cities,
the historian, by natural association of ideas
confusing the two condiments, and thus putting
on record as an historical fact a statement
which dixie your own regarding the maoulia) is
palpably absurd, inasmuch as if vinegar has any
action upon granite, which doubt, that action
Is so very slow that engineering operations
cls-Alpine progress of HannibaIs army far more
efectually than the Fabian policy adopted by
his
..Thus it went on" said my Geneva friend
rising from his seat, for we were now approach
ing the Quai, "nOt for minutes, but for hours
We guests drew back and watched the tremen-
douS battle between the two cOnverSatfOnaliStS,
physically so unequal, with the lveliest in
tereSt.
"Speckly- Burger had met his conqueror He
made a few Intellectual attempts to recover the
ground he had lost, but the mOnologue of the
little man. flowing steadily on without break or
breathing place, gave him no opportunity to
resume his narrative of the ascension. At one
O'Clock in the morning, disheartened, huInili-
ated, crushed, he abandoned the field and lied
from the room. AT that hour the small stranger
was still talking, without giving the least indi-
cation OF fatigue or Of an intention to stop.
What, are we already at the pier? Well,
from that day to this NJ. Specify Burger has
never told the story of his ascent OF Mont Blanc
Occasionally, under some strong temptation, he
begins it, as he did just now to you, but before
he has said half dozen words the memory of
that overwhelming disaster comes rushing back
and he is as dumb as an oyster. Good-by.'
But the little, thin man?' / asked
" on must nave cCnjectured,' said he, s.that,
the little man, the Monitor of that terrific en-
gagement, was no other than distinguished
Fellow c0untryman OF yours. a noted juris-con-
suit of New York city, and lately not uncon-
nected, as the reporters say, with active dipIO-
macy at Washington"
looked again toward Mont Blanc. 1t was no
longer visible. A fleecy cloud hid from view
the scene OF III. Speckly-Burgers extraordinary
achieVement.-[N. Y. Sun.