The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1895-02-13

sentenced to be hanged on his own con-
fession.
A Union Pacific train vas wrecked
near CbappelIs Nebraska BY spread
ing rail. The thermometer was thirty
degrees below zero. and the passengers
suffered intensely.
James NJ. Boyd, who has just been
appointed clerk in the bureau of ac-
counts of New York city at salary of
81. 200, was 10 more prosperous years
gone by. the Wall street broker of the
famous Daniel Drew.
The German ambassador, Baron
Saurma, made graceful concession on
Sunday last to the Puritanic side Of
American society at the capital when he
transformed the annual ball in honor Of
the kaiser's birthday into a regular
afternoon tea.
The Tucker family Of Todd county,
Kentucky. is no small potato
affair. Old Levi Tucker weighs 26S
pounds, his wife. 256 pounds, and his
two sylpb like daughters pull the scales
at 234 and 236 pounds, respectively.
A collection of 220 human brains.
carefully prepared and classified by DR..
Luys during his twenty years service
at the Salpe,riere and Charte hospitals,
has been recently presented by him to
the Paris faculty of medicine for the
Dupuytren museum. The collection is
unique; it contains all forms of mental
disease, madness and idiocy, and in
cludes the only preserved brain of
hyuotized subject in existence.
Alexandra Dumas possesses keen
business sense that is not Inherited At
least, his father did Dot have it. A case
in point was his sale of the manuscript
of "L'Afaire C!emeDceau,'' one of his
first novels. A publisher offered him
500 for it, but, rather than sell the
book at that price, Dumas pigeouholed
it. aud eventually realized $4,000 from
it.
The geography Of to-day is full Of
errors, says the Boston Transcript.
The school children of the next gene
ration will scarcely hear of Mount ST
Elias which has hitherto been accepted
as the highest mountain on this CONT
ueut. That error was exploded by
recent surveys. The African Lake
Nyapza, which was imagined to be
larger than Lake Superior, aad alto
gether the bigges: lake 10 the world.
has been reduced by fresh discovery to
a comparatively small size. One of the
funniest delusions was that entertained
by early explorers who, for hundred
years after Columbus, believed that
North America was group of islands,
through which it was possible to get to
China. For two centuries after the
discovery of America uavigators we're
bent ou getting through the continent
Cd boats. When they found the great
lakes they were sure that North
America was an archipelago.
The mirage can be seen nearly every
day 10 the plains of Lower Egypt, and
also to limited extent 10 the plains of
Hungary, aud Southern France, says
Chambers Journal Now and then
something of the kind can be seen in
summer by STOPPING down and looking
along our sandy coast, such as More
cambe bay and the coast of Devonsbire,
or over the Fen district, at that season
dried up BY the summer heat. We
must remember that the mirage of the
desert creates nothing, but merely in
verts bodies that actually exist little
distance off; though in the Sabare. sky
light rays descending are bent upward
by the hot air next the sand, and the
eye is actually deluded by an impress
sion resembling the reflection Of sky
hgh, from water, the illusion being
increased by the hlckeriDg due to con-
vection currents, suggesting the effects
Of a breeze on the water. Many Of the
descriptions given of the mirage are
travellers tales 10 the unccmplimen-
tary sense. Ooe of the most absurdly
extravagaut examples Of this is the fol-
lowing. This treacherous phenome-
non deludes the travellers eye with a
regular succession of beautiful lakes
and shady avenues. and then, again,
with an expause Of waving grass around
picturesque villa; here is presented a
grovs,i towering trees; there a flock
of ing cattle. .