Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-11-10
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS

The most interesting experiments
know Of now being conducted are those
of telephoning without wires" said j. T.
Marbury Of Nashville at the Howard. mo
mention Of it has as yet been made in the
papers. but to my mind the scheme gives
every premise of being successful. A
friend of mine, by the name of 7. A. Ed
wards. who has been telegraph operator
for a good many years, conceived the idea
that the ground currents of electricity
had long been used in Place of the old
tine return wires, they could be used for
the entire circuit. He experimental for
several years with teIegraphing without
wires. achieving partial success He then
ie Earned that other men were investigating
the same subject, and abandoned The plan,
substituting telephoning for teleSraphfnS.
In this he will be success sful. 1 have used
1t for a distance of a quarter of mic,
and 1t was entirely satisfactory. l am not
an electrician and my friend has not yet
completed his apparatus, so l will not at
tempt to describe it,
''Travelers give long and interesting ac
counts of mirages in eastern countries,
said L. P. Long Of Marquette at the Ar
li1gton, but the fact that equally fine
phenomena of that nature can be witness
ed in at least two sections of the United
States seems not to be generally known.
have witnessed mirages in the panhandle
OF Texas and on the shores of Lake SUI
perior. Those in Texas are especially in
teresting. A very common sight in the
vicinity CT Amarillo is 20 see suspended
4 lake, and 1t is So natural that strangers
nave started for 1t to enjoy sail. there
being sail boats on it. No lake exists with
in two hundred miles of the place. At one
Time i saw an ocean steamer in distress,
and 1t sank before the mirage disappear
ed. The views i'll the clouds of Lake Su-
perior are not common, but frequently
vessels can be seen inverted in the air
several hours before they reach port"
THE age of the earth puzzles all geolo-
sists," said l.. c. Cummings of Galveston
at Wizards. Il am a contractor for ar
tcsian wells and lad an expel iente with
one in Galveston that gives food for
great deal of scientific reflection. l have
never found a geologist who could salts
factorily explain 1t. Galveston Island is
an immense sand bar, but it is not OF re-
cert construction as Is known. 1 put tine
well 1 speak of down over 5000 feet, and
v hen l reached the =. 100 foot level my
drill which had been passing through
sand all the way. struck a large log. 1t is
impossible to tell whether we bored into
the log straight or not, hence it may not
have been as large as indicated. but the
drill passed through twelve feet of wood.
in a good state Of preservation, which
would make it supposedly twelve feet in
diameter. Now. how long did it take the
sand to drift over it to the depth of over
1000 feet?"
THE school life of men does not usually
indicate what they will become said H.
Q. Davis of Indianapolis at the Riggs TT
Is SAID that Indiana's favorite statesman,
Oliver p Morton. was a very dull boy at
school. But what called the subject to
my mind was that certain candidate for
state office. VINO / see vas elected. was
a schoomate of mine. He was the butt
of ridicuie then, slovenly, uncouth, lazy
and stupid. He went into the practice of
law. has achieved distinction a lawyer.
and prominence as a politician. l have
just heard of the brightest boy in The
school / attended, and he has developed
into an all-around loafer and dead beat.
1t set me to thinking. and taking the aver
ages of my classmates the half below the
average have succeeded far better than
those above
Il have never heard but one explana ton.
and that an unsatisfactory one, of a phe-
nomenon near the town live in" said A.
B. Corning of Harrisburg. Conn, at the
Ebbitt. Il refer to what Is called the Sing
ing grove 1t is composed Of about a hun
dred trees, and when there is any breeze 1t
gives forth peculiar, whistling rhythm.
Occasionally l have heard the wind make
precisely the same noise when whistling
around the corners, as 1t is termed. but in
the grove l mention this whiStling Is con-
slant and quite musical Birds have bored
great many holes in the trees. and have
never seen place where there were so
many woodpeckers, and the peculiar singing
Of the trees is usually attributed to these
holes; blu. while this is the only explana-
ton, it does not seem to satisfy curiosity,
and, to my mind, the phenomenon has
never been fully explained"
South Americans, as a rule will under
go more trouble and hardships to secure
music than any other people in the world"
said L. c. Arnot of Bogota, Colombia, at
the National. I'm Colombia, Chile Peru
and Bolivia the people are all unsteady in
cl1ned Until few years ago string in
struments were the only ones used, but 1t
IS the custom of the wealthy people to edu-
cate their sons in Europe. There they be-
come acquainted with pianos. and now few
families of any social distinct are with
out such instruments. This Is remarkable
only because Of the fact that pianos must
be carried for hundreds of miles across the
high mountains by donkeys and in manv
places they must be taken off the donkeys
and transported by men over almost i'm.
passable mountain paths. In Bogota there
must be fifty pianos, and they were all car
ried in this way for seven hundred miles"
"A snake story that has the advantage of
being true comes from my town." said T.
r. Tenney of Strasburg. Va, at the Metro
politan Some time ago the tra,nmen on
the one train that runs on the branch of
the Southern railroad of which Strasburg
is the terminus brought in a snake aboi,t
five feet long that was pure white, with
pink eyes In shape and size it was a
black snake, and experts pronounced 1t an
alb!no of that species. 1t was exhibited at
the depot for several days, and large
crowd constantly gathered around it. | do
not know what finally became of the rem
tile, but the fact that purely white black
snake was killed can be substantiatcd by
any citizen of Strasburg or by the train
men, who come into Washington every
Gay.
Men think it necessary to feed their
horses or cattle and not let them forage
upon their neighbors' fields" said d. r.
Porter OF Hagerstown, Md, at the st.
James, but they provide no sustenaace for
their hees. 1t is a fact that bees DESTROY
great deal Of fruit, and this year 1 had an
unusually disastrous illustration of the ne
cessity for lnen who keep bees planting
something they can feed upon. 1 have two
orchards. one near the boundary line be-
tween my farm and my neighbours There
has never been any difference in the way
they bore fruit This year for the first time