Evening star., 1896-07-04
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS

coin. Neb. at the Riggs. ''and could not
help Wishing that the writer Of 1t had
met Elias Wilton Of my city. Wilton in
herited considerable property and made
some money, after which he removed to
Lincoln. and lives as an elegant gentle
man of leisure. He loans money at ten per
cent a month, ard has in that way succeed
ed in becoming possessed Of a fine ward
robe. any article Of which. however. he is
perfectly willing to sell at any time. But
| 1t Is not Of this intended to speak. The
meanest thing he ever did, and one that
believe entities him to the title of mean
| est man in the United States, was a few
days before left home. Wilton had fallen
in love with a young lady from Hastings.
who was visiting in Lincoln, and his at
| tentions were favorably received up 20
the time she returned to Hastings. Wilton
concluded to propose. He had no station
cry, and went to a store to get proper
paper and envelopes. They asked him
three cents, at which he was indignant,
remarking that postal card would do as
well. anyway: So on postal card ne
wrote his declaration Of love and proposal
of marriage. The miSsive was answered
by the brother of the young lady In per-
| son. and Wilton will pay full postage on
his next love letter..
Zone would think that all Of the swim
ding lodges had been tried" said Arthur
L. Weed of Peoria, ILL.,, at the Cochran,
but 1 ran across new one In Plttsburg.
In one Of the first-class restaurants sat
at the table with a man who was eating a
full course dinner. He was a very gentle
manly fellow and a charming conversa-
tlonalist 1 don't know when / have en-
joyed a meal as / did the very modest
lunch at the restaurant. Before l was
through he courteously bade me good day
and left.
when 1 picked up my check to liquidate
accounts, I found had a bill Of s5.75 when
l expected one of - cents. After a great
deal Of trouble l succeeded in convincing
the restaurant keeper that l was not re-
sponsible for the other mans dinner or the
exchange of checks. The next day friend
of mine had like experience in another
cafe, and I knew by his description that
the same man had worked the change Of
checks"
Talking about pluck and inventive ge-
MUS said c. E. Hooper of Raleigh at the
National. reminds me of a young fellow
who settled near Tarboro in my state. He
did not have a dollar when he went to the
county. He tried to obtain position as
school teacher, but failed. Something had
to be done, and he rented a small farm
then borrowed a plow, obtained credit for
yoke of oxen. but could not get a wagon
This he made, and 1t was the most remark
able vehicle ever in North Carolina. He
saWed down large tree, four disks off the
larger end made the Wheels the log split
In two formed the bed, and the crosshars
ana tongue he made from the boughs of
the tree with an ak and wedge. his only
TOOLS. he constructed the wagon and IL was
not long before he owned his farm The
wagon Is still good. it will outwear any Of
those manufactured by wagon makers for
the rough mountain country"
Sailing mines is not SO profitable as it
formerly was" said d. H. Barnes of Phoe-
NIX Ariz., at the Metropolitan land the
men who used to be engaged in the occupa-
tlon OF selling dry holes by the judicious
distribution of little paying quartz have
gone into other lines. One of the most
femunerative of these mines is in Arizona
Probably no other state or territory wants
hrst-class mineral springs more than Ari-
zona. 1t seemingly has everything else in
abundance, but it's springs do not compare
with those of New Mexico Lately seyerel
flne medicinal springs have been discover
GU. one OF tneSe was invited to invest in
ana, accompa1 1ied by several others who
were interested, l went to the spring II
was supposed to be as fine as Hunyadi
water. 1t tasted like Hunyadi water We
tcok some of it away and an analysis show
ed 1t to be Of the same properties as Hum
yadi water, and we were about to close the
trade when the chemist began making in
quiries, the result being that he assured MS
such spring in such a place was impos-
slble We took him with us, and ar irfvesti-
cation showed that the spring consisted of
buried barrel of genuine Hunyadi water.
a. pipe from the bottom of the Spring
carrying the water into another barrel SO
1t would not be lost, and a force pump
hidden in cave conveniently located for
the purpose. II was shrewdly arranged.
and had not the chemist been a geolosisf
the spring. Several have already been sold
by similar methods"
Next to the disappearance of the buffalo
for remarkably rapid determination comes
the killing of the alligators," said A. l..
Stephens of jacksonville, Fla at the Eb-
bitt. There are a good many of the
saurlans left in a very few localities, but
they are becoming scarcer every day, and
there will not be wild alligator left in the
United States. except in impossible swamps
like the Everglades. Ten years ago every
stream in Florida and many of those in
Louisiana were filed with the reptiles and
a common recreation for tourists was
shooting alligators. Now the st. Johns
river, that formerly teemed with them, has
not an alligator in it, unless he has hap-
pened to come from one of the creeks. 1
nave not heard Of an alligator having been
seen i'll Louisiana during the past three
years. and 1t is very rare that the tourist
through Florida obtains a glimpse of A
saurian. They are still being industriously
hunted, their hides being valuable and il
cannot take a great while for them to he
entirely exterminated."
THE people Of New Orleans are fearful
as to what course the Mississippi river in
tends to take,' said c. T. Loomis of the
crescent city at the Normandie. Some of
the very best engineers claim that the
father of waters has grown tired of the
route he has Travelled for so many wears
and is very likely to take a short c,.t to
the ocean. OF these there are three. one
by the bayou Teche. another by Lakes
Allemands and Salvador being very much
more direct and with better fall than the
present course Of the river Either route
would leave New Orleans from fifty TO
ore hundred miles from the river and the
prospects for the river breaking through ali
bounds and changing its channel in this
way are growing every year. The old-time
danger Of an inundation of New Orleans
owing to the city being On lower ground
than the river is not nearly SO great as
that the river will desert it and make it an
inland city,
INTERESTS OF THE TWO SEXES.