davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
ABSORPTION AND REFLECTION.
No Matter What Color the Water the
 Foam Win Be White.

No Matter What Color the Water the
 Foam Will Be White.
 No one can have failed to notice that the foam along the shore of the sea or a lake is white. No matter how deep the blue of the water may be there is the same whiteness of the froth at it's edge. For that matter all foam is white, says the Churchman. If the blackest ink in the world is beaten into foam the foam will be as white as the froth of milk The reason for this is that we see all objects by reflected light. If they reflect all the rays they appear white; if they absorb all the rays they seem to be black. The ink absorbs all the light and is black. When it is beaten into froth the little bubbles reflect all the light from their SurfaceS-fOr their extreme thinneSS makes them nothing but surface-and thus they are white. For the same reason any colored stone shows white when it has been ground to powder. Take the blackest marble and reduce it to small grains, and these will ap- pear white, beca SC their surfaces now reflect all the light. If the polished surface of the same marble be only little scratched, as with na il or drill point, the effect will be light-colored streak.
 One of the ways of testing stones and minerals is to observe the color of the streak as compared with the natural surface. If one watches the water falling over the rock at Niagara he may see it of an emerald green near the upper part of the fall. Much the same effect is produced when pillows are just curving into breakers on the beach directly in front of us. A similar tint is seen in blocks of thick ice. The absorption and reflection of light are the same under all these con- ditions. Again, the froth at the foot of the fall and that at the edge of the sea is all of it equally white. So, too, if we pound the ice into small parti- cles, they will be as white as the foam. The same point is illustrated in the appearance of the tiny particles of dew on the spiders web as com pared with the larger drops suspended from the tips of blades of grass. All the more strikingly is the difference seen if the cold has converted dew and water into frost and ice. The frost sparkles from the innumerable faces of it's crystals, while the ice shows uni formly shining surface. Frost and snow are white because of the small ness of their particles and the great number of their refecting surfaces. All the light being reflected, they can be only of this color.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
BRITISH FIRE LADDIEs.
The Appliances They Have and the Cause.
 of Fires.

of Fires.
 In 1891 the population of the city of Liverpool was 517, ,O51 and covered $500 acres. Its buildings are all of stone and brick. Five steam fire engines and there were 256 men on the regular force. Five hundred and seventy-eight fires occurred in 1890, 2S of them from lighted candles, 67 from lights thrown down. 9 from children playing with matches, 30 from smoking tobacco, 23 from children playing with fire and 30 from sparks from fire. Bremen in Liverpool have the title of constable" and have certain police authority.
 The great city of London had, ac- cording to the Chicago Herald, within it's corporate limits in 1891 4, ,231, ,431 per sons, and about 2,O00,OOO in territory immediately contiguous; 557,134 is given as the number of brick and stone buildings in 1891, and the city has no wooden buildings The number of fire alarms gwen in 1891 was alarms, 243 ch himney alarms and 2,892 actual fires; 2,OO0 of these fires were confined to the floors where they originated, and 1S4 extended beyond such floors; only fires extended to ad- joining property, and only 3 extended beyond adjoining property. The Lon don fire department consists of 47 land steam fire engines, 95 land manual fire engines, 9 steam fire engines on barges, steam tugs, 105 hose carts, S6 miles of hose, with ladders, trucks, fire escapes and an abundance of alarms, tele- graphs, telephones, etc., to render the service of it's 7O6 firemen very efficient. Nineteen million gallons of water were used during the year at fires, one-third of which was taken from the river, canals and docks. The causes of the fires are curious: Fifty-nine came from airing linen, 150 from candles, 39 from children playing with fire and 62 from their playing with matches; 61 were caused by swinging gas brackets, 69 from escaping gas, 37 from curtains or blinds coming in contact with lights; 104 originated from hot ashes, 290 from spirit lamps (2O6 of them being from upsetting such lamps); 100 came from sparks of fire and 3S from improperly set stoves.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS.
The Barometer Was Rising But the Sher-
 ry Was Failing.

The Barometer Was Rising But the Sher-
 ry Was Failing.
 On board of rnan-of-war bound home from China was a young mid shipsman named Jones, says the De- troit Free Press. He was favorite with the officers and had in him the talent for the making of fine officer.
 The midshipmen on board stood their watch forward, and every hour it was their duty to come aft and write up the weather columns of the ships log, showing the readings of the barometer, thermometer, and to heave the chip log for her speed.
 The captain, in company with the of ficer of the deck, was walking the weather side of the poop deck convers- ing when Midshipsman J ones came aft to write up the log.
 The barometer, mercurial one, was hung in the captains cabin, and Jones, after having read it, helped himself lberally to the captains sherry on the cabin sideboard In walking the poop the captain happened to glance down the cabin skylight and saw the midshipman's proceedings.
 When Jones came on the poop to heave the log the captain addressed him as follows:
 ''How is the barometer, sir?"
 Jones saluted and said: Steadily rising, sir; steadily rising"
 The captain then asked: "And how is the decanter, sir?"
 Jones was taken aback, but with steady voice replied: Steadily fall ing sir; steadily falling"
 This reply was too much for the cap- tain, and, bursting out laughing, he said:
 ''Young man, your reply has saved you from punishment; but it is a long way to Frisco; so hereafter I beg of you not to consult the decanter as often as you do the barometer"
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
TITLES IN CHINA.
There Are Marked Distinctions Which Are
 Tsigidly Observed.

There Are Marked Distinctions Which Are
 Risidly Observed.
 Each of the nine degrees of nobility, the first five of which are subdivided into three classes, arc hereditary, the first from the first to tho twcnty-sixth generation, the last being only con- fined to one, says the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The honorable titles given to the state officers are also divided into nine classes. with a subdivision of each of these. These titles are entered in all the family records, death no- tices, ancestral trees and tombstones. In many instances they are inscribed on wooden tablets which are suspend ed over the entrance of the house. The patents of nobility are written on long silver rolls with five different colors, with detailed record of the bestowal of the honor in the Mandschu or Chi nese tongue.
 The Chinese kingdom has also quite a number of decorations for it's favorite sons. The highest honor for military services is the yellow riding coat, which can only be worn in the pres ence of the emperor. It bestows upon it's lucky possessor the privilege of riding within the imperial precincts. Gen. Gordon, who suppressed the Taiping insurrection, was permitted to wear the yellow coat. The feather is the usual form of distinction given to meritor1ous government officers. Only noblemen of the highest rank and great generals are accorded the three eyed peacock feather. The double eyed feather is reserved for second-rate officers, while the one-eyed plume is given for any kind of public service. The blue crows feather is worn by every member of the imperial guard.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
LOST ATLANTIS NOT A MYTH.
A Toronto University Professor Believes It Was Really the American Continent.

A Toronto University Professor Believes It Was Really the American Continent.
 Ignatius Donnelly finds supporter of his Atlantis theory in Sir Daniel Wilson, president of the University of Toronto, who declares, after a great deal of search, that the lost Atlantis was not a myth, but that it was really the continent of America. He accounts for it's disappearance from view in diff ferentway, but that is merely incident al. Donnelly's theory, as summarized by the Milwaukee Journal, was that the land was submerged by some great volcanic upheaval and that from those who escaped to the continents of Europe and Asia came the tradition of the deluge. Sir Daniel rejects this explanation as being disproved by the fact that there are no traces of such volcanic action either on the continent or in the ocean bed. He believes that the ancient Egyptians, the most pro- gressive and adventurous people of ancient times, discovered the conti- nent, but that in the decline both of their learning and power it became lost to view and existed at the time our knowledge of Egypt begins mere ly as shadowy tradition. It is his opinion that traces of the Egyptians of those days are to be sought in the ruined cities of Central America whose origin has never been determined or even been made the basis of any reason able theory. Such a discovery would furnish a substantial basis for the legend of the lost Atlantis, and the theory invests those wonderful ruins with a new interest for the anti ouarianS
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
A Bird Romance.

Here is touching story (if true) of conjugal affection among the birds, taken from the Pester Lloyd: "A few days ago fancier found the dead body of male pigeon lying on the floor of the pigeon house. The female bird, 'das Weibchen, was sorrowing at the sight of the corpse. He threw the dead bird into the yard, and the female i'm mediately flew after it, and took her stand at it's side. He moved the body several times, out of curiosity, and each time he found the widow flew to the spot and kept close to her dead mate. At last he shut up the female, and buried the little corpse. Half an hour afterwards he again set her free, when she flew about restlessly from spot to spot, as if in search of the missing body. For the next four days she left her food untouched, and on the fifth day she died, a striking ex- ample as the writer says, of wife's love among animals"
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
Thumb-Nafl Pictures.

In collections centuries old, to be seen in both China and Japan, are specimens of the most remarkable drawings in the world, pictures of all kinds drawn with the thumb nail. The nails of the thumb on the left hand of the artists of these are allowed to grow to an enormous length, some times to foot or eighteen inches, and are then pared down to a pen-shaped point. Dipping this oddly-constructed pen in beautiful vermilion or sky-blue ink, the only kinds of inks used in these sacred thumb-nail drawings, the artist gracefully outlines his work. Occasionally the bold touches from the studio of a master in this department of "high art" are life size, and are sketched by few sweeps of the artists arm. Like other pictures and sketches of the Orient, these sacred thumb-nail pictures are mounted and rolled up like scrolls.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
One Merit of Epidemics.

A well-known practitioner of medi- cine is quoted by the New York Sun as saying: Probably you have no- ticed the tendency of epidemic diseases to run themselves out even in districts where no precautionary measures are taken. It has been shown in the his tory of every great plague-thc black death,' cholera and the rest, and now it is illustrated in the grip. We have the grip with us again. as you know, and there have been few fatal cases of it; but it is nothing to what it was in it's first and second seasons. Then, you remember, there were instances where it was fatal within twenty-four hours, and it's effects were more severe and more lasting than they have been since. This is regular grip weather, yet the grip is slowly dying out. Dis eases die as well as the people who have them''
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
TRANSFUSlON OF BLOOD.
It Was Known to the Ancient Egyptians Syrians and Persians.

It Was Known to the Ancient Egyptians, Syrians and Persians.
 Transmission of blood as practiced in surgery is by no means a recent devel- opment in science. Medical records show it to have been known to the Egyptians, Syrians and Persians. The Pittsburgh Dispatch regards it as even possible that the ancients were more successful than the physicians of re- cent periods. In the seventeenth cen tury so many attempts were made in France, accompanied by so many fail ures and fatalities, that the parliament of Paris declared against it's legality. The experiments continued, however, calf's blood being substituted for the human. The results were not encour- aging, the physicians not being aware that the blood of animals injected into the veins of another belonging to different species acted as poison. For two hundred years the ex- periments were discontinued, and then one day, some years ago, the story of the death of a young medical student named Romain Le Golf, while trying to save the life of friend with his own blood, created great sensation. A street in Paris, named after Le Golf, commemorates his brave act. By this time the medi- cal men had learned that to be success ful the blood must neither be allowed to coagulate, nor air suffered to enter the veins with it. Dr. Roussel, of Gen. eva, invented an apparatus which over came both the above difficulties. Since that time the experiments have been continued with remarkable success. Many lives have been undoubtedly saved by it. An old employe of the Theater Francais in Paris, named Dupz hitch, has given up his blood several times to those in need of it, for which he has been awarded magnificent gold medal by the French government.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
RELIGIOUS DANCING.
As the Earliest Form of Art. It Is Entitled
 to Respect.


 ''It may create some surprise that we regard the dance as the earliest form of art, or even that we allow it any place among the fine arts," writes President David J. Hill in Popular Science Monthly.
 O''To many it will seem kind of sac rilege to combine in the same category, however broad, such extremes as a dancing savage and a painting of the last judgment; and, if the connection must be made, some would choose to make it along other lines than those of art But, in truth, the dance supplies us with the key, so to speak, of the de- velopment of the fine arts. For light upon the problems of human culture we naturally appeal to the anthropol- ogist.
 "'Dancing,' says Tylor, may seem to us moderns frivolous amusement; but in the infancy of civilization it was full of passionate and solemn mean ing. Savages and barbarians dance their joy and sorrow, their love and rage, even their magic and religion. The forest Indians of Brazil whose sluggish temper few other settlements can stir, rouse themselves at their moonlight gatherings, when, rattle in hand, they stamp in one-two-three time round the great earthern pot of intoxi eating kawi liquor; or men and women dance rude courting dance, advanc- ing in lines with kind of primitive polka step; or the ferocious war dance is performed by armed warriors in paint, marching in ranks hither and thither with growing chant terrific to hear
 ''Tylor proceeds to describe the dance of the Australians and the buff falo dance of the Mandan Indians, who, wearing masks to mark their inn presentations, with rude songs and pantomimic gestures act out the incl dents of an imaginary hunt. And then he adds: All this explains how, in an cient religion, dancing came to be one of the chief acts of worship. Reli- gious processions went with song and dance to the Egyptian temples, and Plato said that all dancing ought to be thus an act of religion.'''
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
AN INTELLIGENT BEETLE.
Would Come a the Sound of Its Captor's
 Voice and Caress Her.

would Come a5 ttie Sound of Its Captor's
 Voice and Caress Her.
 Something over a year since young lady Of my acquaintance, says writer in gcience, had an experience with a beetle which 1 think showed a very marked degree of intelligence in the insect, and as such instances are some what rare l venture to send you an ac- count Of it.
 This beetle was a specimen of Pelid- nota punctata Linn. which was given to her in September. At first she kept it in small box, feeding it with grass, leaves and small pieces of fruits, such as peaches, pears, etc. Occasionally she would give it drop of water to sip. It would sometimes bite a little out of a leaf. would eat the fruits and would take water eagerly.
 From the first she would take the in- sect in her fingers several times day and stroke or caress it, also putting it to her lips and talking to it all the while she handled it. When she put it on her lips it would brush it's antenna over them with gentle, caressing mo- tion
 When she left her room she would shut the ''buggie'' up in it's box. One day about two weeks after she re- ccived it she was called out. suddenly and neglected this precaution. She was absent considerable length of time, and when she returned the in- sect was not in it's box or anywhere to be seen. Fearing that she might in- jure it she stood still and called: ''Buggie! buggie!' when it came crawl ing from it's retreat toward her.
 After this she would frequently leave it free in the room when she went out, and when she returned, if the insect was not in sight, she would call it and it would crawl or fly to her. As this was continued it would more and more frequently fly to her instead of crawl ing, until at last it flew nearly every time it was called. When it came in this way she would put it to her lips or to her nose, and the insect would appear to be pleased, moving it's antenn@ gently over her lips or taking the end of her nose between them and touching it with batting motion.
 She kept 1t in her room in this way, at the hotel where she was spending the summer, until about the 1st of No venber. She then returned to her home, some three hundred miles fur ther south, taking the insect with her. Here she at first kept it in her cham Der, but the nights being sometimes very cool it would become torpid, and not get lively again until afternoon. Thinking it too cool for ''buggie' there she removed it to the kitchen. As it still appeared more or less dormant she put it on a cloth above the hot water boiler. Here it revived some what, but was not very lively, nor did it eat very much.
 About the middle of December it fell to the floor accidentally, by which fall it was evidently injured, as after that time it would eat nothing, and no longer recognized the young lady. About week later it died.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
Meaning of EIanitnha.

When Manitoba is pronounced Indian fashion, with an explosive accent on the last syllable, it is plainly enough in part an onomatopeia, or word ex- pressing it's sense by it's sound. It means ''breath of God" ''Manitou" being Cod, and ''ba" breath. As prop erly pronounced the last syllable is simply sudden expulsion of breath, such as must have seemed to the say ages. who first employed the name, as accurately expressive of their meaning.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
PETRIFIED SNAKES.
Wonderful Discovery in a Mining Camp
 Near RocI1vale, Col.

One of the most startling finds ever made in this section was unearthed the other day at Rockvale, small mining camp nine miles northeast of here.
 The Santa Fe Coal company, which has large mining interests at that point, was excavating in the bottom of a gulch for the purpose of putting in a new track when peculiar formation was run into. The worlmen stopped to examine, and on digging around the spot the strange thing was found to be a perfectly formed snake twelve feet in length, says the Denver News. )
 This find caused so much excitement that the excavation was continued, and at little distance another reptile was uncovered, and on being dug out was found to be twenty-four feet in length and as thick through as a mans body and perfectly Petrifed.
 This find caused still greater excite ment, and all work was stopped to dig for snakes. Another was soon struck and is not yet uncovered. The reptiles were found at a depth of three feet. Details are but meager so far, but a large number of persons have visited the find and say facts as stated are true. No one can tell how many of the petrifed monsters will be found, but no doubt there is a nest of them.
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
A WESTERN WAITRESS.
She Rides Her BronchO and Appears Like
 a Society Belle.


 ''The contrasts between western and eastern life are growing less marked as civilization pushes its way into the region once known as the frontier" said well-known explorer of our own country to reporter of the Washing ton News
 ''While I wasriding through mining district in southern Colorado last sum- mer, however, saw an example of pure feminine democracy that reminded me of the days that we read about in fic- tion dealing with American life fifteen years ago.
 Ut was at . log cabin hotel was watching some cow punchers and pros pectors who were swapping lies when my attention was attracted by young girl mounted on a broncho. who rode up to the door, sprang lightly to the ground and vanished in the cabin.
 ''She was neatly and tastefully dressed. Her riding habit must have been cut in London or New York There was an air about her that was altogether foreign to the surroundings. l wondered who she could be. One of the COW punchers led her pony to the corral and my thoughts took another turn.
 Supper was announced couple of hours later. 1 accompanied the clean but curiously dressed westerners into the rudely furnished apartments, where a bOuntiful and really well cooked meal was served. There was but one waitress, a good looking girl, with figure well qualified to compete with model Venus.
 ''She wore a spotless white apron over a close-ftting cloth dress. She reminded me of some society girl play ing maid at a charity affair. I glanced at her face and was somewhat sur prised, used as I am to the unusual in the west, to recognize the young lady as the same who had returned from pleasant ride in the afternoon.
 ''I afterward inquired about her and learned that she was the regular hired girl or waitress. She did her work thoroughly, and when she was through with it she took advantage of the pos abilities that the surroundings offered and enjoyed herself thoroughly.
 S"The pony was her own-nothing strange in that-yOu can get a pony for thirty-fve dollars in Colorado.
 But it does seem little queer to eastern notions to be waited upon by 8 swell equestrienne. does it not?'
The St. Johns herald., 1894-01-25
Equal to the Emerge ncy.

An anecdote, showing that the pres ence of mind of lady of the last cen- tury was quite equal to that of the pres ent day, is told of the celebrated Frau von Stein. While entertaining some guests at dinner a servant entered the room bearing aloft in magnificent style the piece de resistance,a a fine saddle of venison. Owing, however, to some lack of dexterity on the fellows part, the meat, greatly to the consternation of all present, slipped off the platter from it's elevated position and fell up on the floor. But the lady of the house, the least disconcerted of all, calmly re- marked: Take it away and bring in the other piece" When the "other piece," which, as may be sur missed, was the same redecorated, ap- peared, and the duke of Weimer, one of the guests, was asked if he might be served to some, he was unable to refrain from the joke, and replied: No thank you. prefer some of the other piece" How the quick-witted hostess met this blow is not stated by the chronicler.