Morning journal and courier., 1893-10-14

dealer from insurance companies. The large plates of this kind of glass are in ! sured when put in window, and when any of them is broken the owner of the injured glass usually prefers that the in
 surance company should replace the brok-
 en piece rather than that he should be paid its price. The dealer in the second hand glass contrives to utilize what remains of the unbroken part of the glass.
 Many native American girls from the back districts of Maine are now being em- ployed as servants in Boston, and their ''greenness" sometimes brings about anus ing situations. Recently a lady called at a Beacon street house where one of these girls was employed and rang the bell. Samantha Wayback answered the call.
 "Can Mrs. Croesus be seena" the visitor asked. ''Ken she be scent" snickered Samantha. "Well, ruther guess she ken; she's six feet high and four widel My sakes! You can't see much of anything besides when she's around"
 Baltimore has a blind boatman. His boat was stolen by some worthless fellows the other day, and subsequently absn- doned and picked up. He claimed 1t, and when told that he must identify it, did 80, not by telling its color and model, az a man with good eyes might do, but by giv- ing the positions of all the nails and the chinks in the boat, where eplinters had been knocked of, and 80 on. Then, being admitted, he went all over 1t with his careful touch, finally said, "Yes, 1t is mine," and rowed away, successfully avoiding the dozsns of other boats, tugs, etc., that were moving around.
 Whether or not a German official vio- lates his oath of allegiance by teaching and advocating socialism is a question which the courts at Berlin have been called upon to answer. A lieutenant in the army was tried by court-martial on such a charge, but was acquitted, the court holding that he had not been proved to advocate social ism. The main question was not passed upon, but the inference from the courts rulings is said to be that hsd the lieutenant been found guilty of teaching socialism he would have bsen punished for violating his oath.
 A successful system of producing arti- fcial ice surfaces has been inaugursted in Paris, and available large areas at all seasons of the year. As explained, the machinery oonsists of two ammonia ice lrtya hv fyra steam engines; this ice apparatus has pumps which force ammoniacal gas into water cooled condenssrs, liquefying the gas, which then passes into large reeer- voirs, where 1t expands with the produc- ton of oold, the same gss being pumped back and used continuously. In the sp- plieatiou of this system for the formation of 8 skating surface, rink has been con- structed 60 by 130 feet, having a floor of cork and cement, upon this being laid three miles of connected iron pipe; through this pipe circulates solution of chloride of calcium, an uncongealable liquid, which, by passage through spirals in the refriger- ating reservoirs, is cooled to some five to twenty degrees below zero. The water over the pipe Is thus kept frozsn, and daily sweeping and flooding insure smoothness.
 Some destitute Alaskan miners who were recently landed in San Francisco by a United States revenue steamship brought a dismal account of the gold fields of the Yukon country. They do not dispute the claim that mineral wealth exists there, but say that great part of 1t lies under i'm penetrable mountains of ice. Moreover, the high cost of living renders the pros poets of the average miner extremely dubi ous. Flour sells for SIP hundred pounds necesaaries of life are approximately as dear. For & meal of corn beef and beans in the settlements 75 cents is charged. In clement weather, too, limits the mining season to three and half months each year. "Mining in Alaska, said one of the prospectors, 'is different from mining In any other region ever heard of. In pros pecting for a claim you frst have to dig up from six inches to three feet of moss, and beneath that Is a mass of ice of questiona- bls depth which has to bs thawed before you strike bedrock. 1 have seen men thaw out thirty feet of ice and then not get anything" He admitted, however, that occasionally the gold-seeker ''struck 1t rich"