Morning journal and courier., 1890-09-16

 hold He seized the other by the wrist and holding him in fierce grip said: 'I know you we'll, and knew you when you spoke to me before" Then he deliberate ly slapped the face of the "bunco" man. This all happened near the post office, and | many men in the street knew the character l of the man who had been SO severely treat | ed. A wave of applause went around and | the would-b swindler went away, a shame | faced and sneaking disgrace on man.
 BEAUTIFUL AMBER. Some Interesting Facts About This
 Valuable Substance.
 [From the Washington Star.l
 ''Amber is curious stuff, ," said collec- tor of curios the other day. sIt is only comparatively recently that it's nature has been known, and even at this day very few people seem to have any notion as to what it is in reality. The ancients regard ed it as altogether mysterious and even magical. They found that it was rem dered electrical by friction so as to attract light substances, and our word 'elsctrici- ty' comes from the Greek name for amber, which was 'electron.' A favorite puzzle with them was how the insects so ire quently found in amber became to be so situated.
 'I have myself seen a chunk of very transparent amber in which small lizard with five legs was encased, looking as if it might have been alive yesterday, though, doubtless, it had been dead for thousands of years. The mystery regarding this sort of phenomenon is easily enough ex- plained when it is understood that amber is actually the fossil gum of an extinct kind of cone bearing tree. In the process of hardening it imprisoned the flies and other creatures preserved in the chunks of | it that are found to-day. It is discovered | plentifully by digging ia certain parts of the great plains of north Germany, where the strange tree once fourished.
 "It is also found in considerable quanti- ties along the shores of the Baltic, in the yellow sandstone. At Palmicken, in east Prussia, it is dug in regular mines; else | where 1t is picked from cliffs, and a good deal of it is gathered in the shape of nod | ules cast up by the waves. The finest | specimen of amber in Europe is a cup made of that material now at the Brighton museum, England. It was found at Hove some years ago, together w.th weapons and utensils of stone and bronze, so it is evidently very ancient indeed.
 "In the fourteenth century, and before amber was made into knives and forks with one prong, which were used by princes and church dignitaries, it was more valuable than gold. Now it is worth from two to fifty dollars pound, accord ing to its quality. The most important use made of it is for meerchaum and other pipes"
 ssWhat a very beautiful sphere of crys- tai this is." said the newspaper man, talk ing in his hand a cool globe that looked like huge dewdrop, which the collector handed him for examination.
 "Yes, that is a pretty specimen. I sup pose you are aware of the theory enter tained by the ancients regarding such rock crystal. They thought it was actually ice frozen to great density by duration of time, congealed beyond liquidation. Kun tallos' in Greek means ice The fastery writer on natural philosophy, Pliny, who wrote more facts that were not true than ever any man collected together before or since, says the crystal is undoubtedly wa ter frozen by cold so intense that nothing can melt it again. Roman ladies of that time were accustomed to carry such spheres as this one in their hands during hot weather for coolness.
 ''It was the thing, also, to have the ma terial worked into wine jugs and othel vessels. Nero had two drinking cups o
 crystal worth three thousand dollars each ! . learned that he had lost his kingdom h, . broke them, lest they fall into the handl
 of any one else. A crystal lens was em
 ployed in Rome to kindle the sacred vesta
 fire Great care was taken not to put the crystal ware in n warm place for fear that it would melt. The most remarkable dis. covery of crystal on record was made iu
 1861 above the Tiefen glacier by party oi
 tourists, a single cave in the granite yield
 ing one thousand crystals of from fifty tc
 one hundred pounds weight
 , "And what is this:'
 ''That," replied the collector. .'is di minutive Chinese god. covered with a coal
 of pearl by real pearl oyster. On sucl
 parts of the coast of the Flowery King dom as produce pearl oysters regular business is often made of manufacturing pearls artificially by introducing into the
 shells of the live oysters foreign objects oi 3 various kinds. You doubtless know that the pearl is morbid symptom in the bi
 valve A grain of sand or some such sub
 stance getting into the oyster produces ir i, ritation, and the animal protects itself by | covering the objectionable particle N.tl f coating after coating of its own pearly se
 cretion. The interruption of light by th'
 successive coats of which the pearl Ii formed in this way gives it its beautifu ! luster. Taking advantage of this habit O s the pearl oyster. the ingenious Chlnamal
 pries it gently open and puts in whateve !, he likes, maybe a little figure of a go' | like this. The oyster goes to work an' covers it with pearl, until after fe, months the idol is pearl idol. It worth mentioning incidentally that shark
 are by no means such terror to pearl di e vers us is commonly supposed. It is tru l. that now and then diver does get gob y bled, but for every such human victim t hundreds of sharks are killed by the di l. yers.
 ..Pearl divers in the Torres straits ar n not one-twentieth part so much afraid O | the tiger sharks which are swarming ther f as of the giant mollusk at the bottom, si, Q feet or more across its shell, which lie D with extended jaws, as if waiting for tn e unfortunate fisherman to drop into them
 The victim, dropping out of his boat int T the depths With a heavy stone attached t his feet, brings his leg into contact wit I the mantle of the huge mollusk, whicl
 closes upon the limb with one tremendou
 bite. Only one thing then remains for tn r diver to do, namely-amputate the linn - with his own knife, because the might bivalve's jaws are clasped together with a tenacity that would take several hors power to loosen, and it is anchored to tn O bottom with cable of its own three time IS as strong as the best inch rope"