The morning news., 1894-06-17

the craft, Dlamal Khan, subsequently
came to Egypt. where, during'the closing
da. OF the relgn of Nhedive Ismail, he
too such prominent part in fomenting
anU-European sentiment among the ma
ti1es through the local lodges, that he
was expelled from The country.
Mention OF Egypt recalls TO mind the
fdct that, like Asia. the dark continent
possesses means OF Incredibly rapid Com-
munlcatlOn ana secret intercourse, which
have hitherto remained enshrouded, at
any rate as far as Europeans are con-
cerned, with the most impeuetrable mys-
terry. When khartoIm fell in 1855 | was
In Egypt, and l well remem Der that The
Arabs settled in the neigh borhood of the
pyramids knew all a0out it, as we'll as
ABOUT Gen, Gordon's death, days and days
before the news reached Cairo by tele-
grapn from the Soudanese frontier. Yet
hhartoUm is thousands of mhes distant
from cairo and the telegraph wires from
the frontier were monopoliled by the
government. In the same way these
Arabs had told me twelve months
pre- lously of the defeat of the Egyptian
army under Baker Pacha at Iokar, Civ
ing me not only the news, but also several
parl dlars concerning the rout two full
days bo1ore we received the intelligence
from the lied Sea coast In each case
they proved correct as 10 date, and it was
ooVlous that the reports could not possi-
Oily have been mere guesswork. Yet how
had they received the news it could not
nave been by signal fires, as has been
more than once suggested to me by way
OF explanation of the problem; for these
fires would infallioly have attracted the
attention of the English and
native scouts, and besides, the
character of the country is unpropitious
to any such methods. Then, too,
no system of signal fires, no matter how
elaborate and prearranged, could possibly
have conveyed the news so quickly and in
such de all. The Arabs, therefore, have
lnanlIestly some other means of rapid
communication at their command. One
is Inclined 10 the presumption that they,
like the learned undits Of Northern
india, have knowledge OF the forces of
nature that are as yet hidden from our
most eminent S ientists. | was reading
The other day a lecture delivered by Sir
William Preece, the principa electrician
OF the British so gernment, in which he
describes as an extraordinary and alto
gether new discovery the possibility of
Leiegra phing without wires by means of
the magnetic currents in earth and
water. 1t is not couceiN Nable that
the Arabs of Africa may be
acquainted with these possibilities and
nave been applying IN ir knowledge of
them TO the transmission of news2 This
is, so far as | can see, one of the most
plausible exp anations. There is nothing
new under the sun, not even concerning
electricity; and theory has even now
been put forward that the peculiar cylin-
ders dis overed among the ruins of Nine
veh bearing, not characters, but family
marked lines, may be noGhtng more nor
less than the cylinders OF some ancient
Assyrlan photograph Should this sup
position be proven correct, we may yet
hope not only to read the writings but
even TO hear the voices of those Wise Men
OF The East whose civilization antedates
ours by so many thousand years
Of minor importance, yet likewise of
considerable interest, especially to people
VINO care about trees and flowers, IS the
secret possessed BY the Japanese guild of
gardeners of stun ing the growth of
trees do not think there is any white
man who has ever been able to solve the
mystery which surrounds the methods by
means of which the Japanese arborcultur-
ISIS can dwarf cedar trees ana oaks so
that, gGarled, messy and showing indis-
putable signs of being hundreds OF years
Old, they are not more than two and
three feet IN hight The object of thus
stunting the growth of these
trees is worth while relating The
japanese are passionateiy fond of garden
ing, not as we understand it-that is to
say, beds of towers, etc.--but of the land
scape order and almost every house
holder endeavors to have a garden, no
matter how small, attached to his
residence Now, in the cities and
towns where space is limited
there is nanitestly no room for
landscape gardening of the ordinary
character. The bridges, the ponds. the
hills, the pagodas and the temples and
trees, would take up TOO much room. Ac-
cordingly the in enious gardeners con-
trive everything on a miniature scale. The
river is but rlvulet, the grass covered
hill but lew feet high the temple the
size of dolls house and the pond no big
ger than a Iarge-sized pocket handker-
chief OF course full-si ed trees would
appear incongruous, therefore the gar
deners have managed to dwarf them until
they are in keeping with the miniature
landscape. How it is done no one outside
the guild knows, and the secret is as
jealousy preserved as those of the Masonic
order.
Columns might be written about these
secrets of the Orient which go TO show
that, Notwithstanding all our much
Wanted civilization and scientific re-
search, we are sJill in many respects
hope ,essly inferior in certain branches of
knowledge TO those very races whom we
consider it our divinely imposed mission
to civiliLe and enIighten.