The Indianapolis journal., 1896-01-29
ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS.

The widow of Sidney Lanier is giving
public readings from her husbands poems.
She has been successful, particularly in the
South.
There is a report to the effect that Mrs.
Frank Leslie is again to venture on the
sea of matrimony. Mrs LesIie's friends are
quite convinced that the report is true, but
Mrs. Leslie has up to date vouchsafed no
information on the subject
1t now leaks out that Alfred Austin, the
new poet laureate, was not an admirer Of
his predecessor Mr.. Tennyson," said he
patronizingly, lis not a great poet, unques-
tiOnably not poet of the first rank at ALL
but unquestionably a poet OF the second
rank
King Prempeh. of Ashantee, who has just
bowed the knee to the English. is something
of humorist in his way. He made only
one condition before his complete surrender
and that was that on occasions of state he
should he allowed to wear the uniform
of an English colonel.
Senator John NJ. Thurston. of Nebraska
says he Is a descendant of that Thorstein
son of Eric the Red. of Scandinavia, who
is said to have MADE an expedition to Vine
land (Nev England In 1865. AT a later
period the family settled in England, and
one of its members was Thurston, twenty
eighth Archbishop of York.
Nine. Modjeska's first visit to America
was made in 1876. when, with her husband,
she took a colony OF Polish refugees to
lands near Los Angeles, Cal. The colony
did not prosper, and Mime. Modjeska re-
turned to the stage to earn enough money
to enable her country people to return to
Europe. Her first engagement In America
was played In San Francisco under the
management of John Mccullough.
Cecil Rhodes has the powerful jaw and
the strong teeth that belong to men of his
type So great has been the luck of this
man that South Africans sometimes ask
him to bite sixpences for luck. A young
Englishman, during recent evening in Bo-
hemia, produced the traditional crooked six
pence from his pocket and told how Cecil
Rhodes had bitten it. The possessor would
not part with 1t for many times its value.
M. Flammarion, in the course Of ex-
periments on the radiation Of spectrum
colors. has made some interesting obser-
vations on sensitive plants. Four plants
sowh the same day and of the same size
were placed under g.ass, excluding re-
spectively all but the red, green and blue
rays, the fourth plant being under ordinary
white glass. AT the end of six weeks the
red plant was twice as high as any of
the others; the green came next, then
the white" while the blue had not grown
the fraction OF a centimeter.
Another side of the story about the exodus
OF farmers from the West and Northwest
to the South is told in the former region.
the last three months more than hundred
carloads of immigrant baggage and farm
ing utensils have been received in Omaha
consigned TO various points in Nebraska by
former residents of the State, who left
some time since for the South and who are
returning and are glad to be able TO get
back This story relates that the farmers
say they have fully satisfied themselves
that the Northwest offers much better op-
portunities than can be found in the South,
all things considered
The black expanse of waters like a shield
And suddenly upon its pallid sheen
A ship was etched in clear-cut stately lines
And seemed to hang. picture in the sky.
The bloomer girl sat on the fence
To take a well-earned rest,
For she had biked from early morn
With unrelenting zest.
MY bloomin' lass, what ails the wheel?"
a passing swain inquired.
And, with a saucy smile. she said:
''Whv-don't you see?-its tired"'
New York World.