St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-09-16
NOTES AND COMMENTS


richest countries in the world In natural
resources. Besides valuable mines of
gold, silver, copper and quicksilver it
produces all kinds of tropica! fruits, as
well as cedar, indigo, coffee and sugar.
It's sugar cane grows to enormous pro-
portions and often attains such size that
the plantations resemble groves Of trees.
THE Buffalo Courier says: "The
florist who makes sea. serpents and pugi-
lists and sun dials out of flowers does
not cause any Indifferent person to ad-
mire their beauty; rather he distracts
attention from their delicacy of form and
color to the effect of the mass. Flowers
and foliage were never intended to be
made into sun dials and globes. Hun
dreds of other materials lend themselves
more readily to such purpose, while
their position in the economy of nature
is far different"
IT is the testimony of those who have
seen the great trees Of California that
much of the effect of establishment is
lost because the visitor approaches the
trees through a forest of giants that
gradually increase in size. Many pines
ten feet in diameter are passed on the
| Journey, and in this way the visitor
slowly works up to trees that measure
above thirty feet in diameter. Ifa horse
| be placed ia front of tree, with his
side toward the approaching traveller,
| some notion Of the enormous size of the
giant is obtained
JUSTICE BLArCHFoRD was one of the few
men wht ever sat upon the Supreme
Court bench who possessed great wealth,
and be was not only the richest man who
ever sat upon an American bench, but
was probably the richest who ever held
appointive office in America He might
have spent the last twenty years of his
life in delightful ease, but he used to
| declare to his friends who pleaded with
him to retire that he was happier when
at work. and that no recreation which
he could command would begin to give
him the pleasure which his duty as jus-
tice afforded hir,. He inherited
fortune, and by private practice and real
estate investment he became worth prob
ably as much as 50, 600, 900.
GENERAL Lew WALLACE says that the
Furkish cavalry is admitted to be the
finest in all Europe. The soldiers of the
Sultans Circassian body guard, whom
Bull Run Russell called "the most
picturesque scoundrels in the world"
are, General Wallace says, "blood THIRSTY
and treachercrs, .ecklessly brave and
exceedingly beautiful. Even among the
meanest of them you see noble, well-set
heads of finest mould The Sultan
himself is man of kingly bearing, but
with thin face and colorless eyes, keen
as falcons, When he appears in
public on ceremonio,'s otcasicn5 lie rides
riilk-White Arabian horse, which he
manages very skilfully, and his manner
is. most gracious as he bows right and
left to the people. This Commander of
the Faithful, according to popular
Turkish belief, has never signed death
warrant, and doubtless the reputation is
deserved, for such matters iiiay easily be
attended to vicariously.
GENERAL R. G. DYRENFoRTH, who is
known as the "rainmaker," from hi es-
petihAents il producing rain by artificial
methods, is an enthusiast On the subject
of rainmaking. He believes that it is
possible by the aid of science to make
rain even in the Desert of Sahara II
do not know" he said to q New York
Press reporter "whether the Secretary
of Agriculture vii! con ipue the rain
making experiments which were com |
msnced Under the last Administration. |
| am not interested cent personally in
the question, but as matter of cold |
fact, based on my experiments, believe
that IA In can be produced at will. The
region IN Texas Where We conducted our |
experiments was a most arid one. The
earth was parched and not tree was in
sight. We produced the first grass
rain in eighteen months. | have no
doubt that rainmaking will be carried
m ii tertiohs of tie country as prac-
teal thing. 1t will be cheaper than
building dams for irrigating purposes"
A DECIDEDLY new departure in postage /
stamps has just been made by Belgium
This novelty is Sunday or non-Sunday
stamp, with tag separated from the
main part of the stamp by the Usual per-
forations and qnnqnpcing in two lah-
ghages French and Dutch, the fact
that the letter bearing it is not to be
delivered on Sunday. If the persons
using these stamps have no religious
scruples against their letters being de-
livered on Sunday all they have to do is
to tear off the tag containing the order
and place the upper portion Of the sta p
Upon the envelope 1t is the Intention
6f the Belgian government to get cut
full series Of these Sunday stamps.
There are nine Varieties Of these values
One, two; FIVE, ten, twenty! twenty
i've and fifty confines, and one and two
francs. The same design appears on all,
but the coors are different. The profile
on the stamp is that of X ug Leopold II.
The Sunday stamp Idea, it Is said, orig
mated with T. Vandenpeeveboon, Min
lister of Railways, Telegraph, and Posts
of Belgium. He is an extremely re-
ligious man, and while he cannot stop
the collection and delivery Of mails on
Sunday he has adopted this postage stamp
scheme hoping to educate the people up
to his own ideas,
THE work of keeping the channel of
the Missouri for 1, 649 miles above Sioux
City, Ia., clear for navigation, is no light
undertaking. Two Government snag
boats, the steamer Gen. Mcpherson and
the stegi sccw standan,. Dire Engaged all
through the open season in pulling snags ,
out of the river bed and clearing away
the driftwood. The steamer is a curiosity I
In her way, being stern wheeler equipped {
with compound engines placed on
each side of the boat, like ordinary high
pressure steamboat cylinders, and having
4 Scotch marine boiler, air pumps, and !