Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1896-11-12
SOLITUDE AND SILENCE,
A Peculiar Charm Possessed by South Al.
rican Scenery.

Tlc8n scenery
A peculiar charm which South Afri-
can scenery possesses is that Of primeval
solitude and silence. 1t is o charm
which is differently felt by different
minds There arc many who find the
presence of what Homer calls '+the rich
works Of men" essential to the perfec-
ton Of a landscape. Cultivated fields,
gardens and orchards, farmhouses dot
ted here and there, indications in one
form or another Of human life and Ia
Dor, do not merely give greater variety
to every prospect, but also impart an
element which evokes the sense of SYM
pathy with our fellow men and excites
a whole group Of emotions which the
contemplation Of nature, taken by it.
self, does not arouse.
No one is insensible to these things,
and some find little delight in any scene
from which they are absent. Yet there
arc other minds to which there is some-
thing specially solemn and impressive
in the untouched and primitive SIM
plicity Of country which stands now
just as it came from the hands Of the
Creator. The self sufficientness Of ma
ture, the insignifcance Of man, tho
mystery Of q universe which does not
exist, as our ancestors fondly thought,
for the sake of man, but for other pur-
poses hidden from us and forever und4s-
coverable-thcse things are moro fully
realized and more deeply felt when one
traverses an immense wilderness which
seems to have known no change since
the remote ages when hill and plain and
valley We're nodded into the forms we
see today.
Feelings Of this kind powerfully af.
feet tho mind of the traveller in South
Africa. They affect him in the Karroo,
where the slender line Of rails, along
which his train crceps all day and all
night across long stretches of brown
desert and under the crests of stern,
dark hills. seems to heighten by con.
trast the sense Of solitudc-a vast and
barren solitude interposcd between the
busy haunts of men which he has left
behind on the shores Of the ocean and
those still buster haunts whittier he is
bent, where the pick and hammer sound
upon the Witwatcrsrand and the palpi-
tating engine drags masses Of orc from
the depths Of the crowded mine. They
affect him still more III the breezy high
lands Of Matabclcland where the eye
ranges over an apparently endless sue.
cession of undulations clothed with tall
grass or waving wood, till they sink in
the blue distance toward the plain
through which the great Zambezi takes
it's seward course Professor James
Bryce NJ. p. III Century.
What Ilata Weigh.
"Do you know the actual weight Of o
hat?" qucricd the spruce salesman rs he
handed out several ''new styles"
"Pcople don't generally. l asked a
nnn that question yesterday, and he
guessed II ounces on that hat, which
weighs exactly AZ; an ordinary silk
hat weighs only :.
IL looked up the matter recently, and
SO know precisely. A 'sillker' is al
most the heaviest hat made. though
hunting hats weigh more from their
having an inner lining of great stiffness
aud strength to ave u man if he should
be thrown on his head. The hunting top
hats weigh 10 Ounces and the hunting
derbys 8. y winter derby weighs 5 d
ounces, varying Il quarter ounce either
way for size, and summer soft felt 81
ounces.
When it comes to wOmen's hcadgear,
there are ali sorts Of weights, though
seldom docs wc,nan's hat of any kind
run more than ounces. 1t depends on
the kind of trimming and fallals. Some
ribbons are heavy, and so are some arti-
fetal flowers. jet is heavy too. The av-
erage little bonnet weighs 2 ounces to
az, Il trimmed sailor 80 and Sen
nett (the kind that have brims stitfencd
with gluc) Az. New York Herald.