davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
FOREST MONSTERS.
SOME of the Giant Trees That Are Found
In California.

In the national parks and forest pre-
serves of California the big trees are by
far the most interesting and greatest
natural features. There are two vari-
eties-namely Sequoia sempervirens,
ordinarily known as the redwood,
the tree which has furnished most of
the redwood lumber of commerce, and
the Sequoia gigantea, from which n
comparatively small amount of similar
lumber has also been made. The for
mer is the smaller variety and grows
on the foothills along the coast. The
latter attains n considerably larger
growth, is, more strictly speaking, the
big tree" Of California, and is seldom
found at lower altitude than 5000
feet
Scattered along the extent of the Sier-
IA Nevadas from north to south are
many distinct md separate groups or
groves of Sequoia gigantea. These are
generally known by names significant
of locality, as, for instance, "Calaver-
as, "Tuolumne, "Mariposa" and
Fresno" names of the counties in
which the groves so called are situated.
The Tuolumne grove is in the Yosemite
park, and the Mariposa near by. This
latter is the one most frequently visited
by tourists and contains the "Wawona"
"a tree with hole burned in its base,
through which the stage road runs and
| four horse stages are driven without
| difficulty-and the Grizzly Giant, +"
one of the largest trees in the world.
The stately grandeur of these enor-
nous and lofty trees is so impressive
J that it seems quite fit and natural that
some of the larger ones should have been
individualized and honored with distin-
guished titles. Nearly every state in
the Union and every distinguished gen.
eral of the civil war has namesake
among them. The General Grant" in
the General Grant park, and the "Gen'
eral Sheridan" of the "Giant forest
(situated in the Sequoia park are indi
viduals of the largest size. 1t is difficult
to determine just which of the big trees
is the largest, but these two and the
"Grizzly Giant gnarly base o.
any one of which will exceed 30 feet IL
diameter-are probably the biggest trees
yet discovered.
The trees often grow in such inacces
sible mountain retreats that some of TIT
territory covered by them has never ye
been thoroughly and Systematically ex
plored. Outside the lands reserved b.
the government California lumbe
company owns several thousand acre
Of these trees-enough TO last 40 years
cutting many millions of feet per year
-Harper's Weekly.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
st. Paurs In shakespeare's Time.

John Benefits serial story of the time
of Shakespeare, Master Skylark, in St.
Nicholas, gives these pictures of old Eng
lish life and scenes:
People passed them like shadows in the
mist, and all the houses were n blur until
they came into wide, open place where
the wind blew free above wall with
many great gates.
In the middle of this open place huge
gray building stood, staring out over the
house tops-a great cathedral, wonderful
and old. Its walls were dark with time
and smoke and damp, and the lofty tower
that rose above it was in part but hol-
low shell split by lightning and blackened
by fire, but crowded between its massive
buttresses were booths and chapmen's
stalls Against its hoary side small
church leaned like a child against a moth
er's breast, and in and around about 1t
eddied throng of men like ants upon
busy hill.
All around the outer square were shops
with gilded fronts and most amazing
signs; golden angels with outstretched
wings, tiger heads, bears, brazen serpents
and silver cranes, and in and out of the
shop doors darted apprentices with new
bound books and fresh printed slips, for
this was old st. Paul's. the meeting place
of London town, and in Pauls yard the
printers and the bookmen dealt
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
THE HUSTLING DRUMMER.
Some of the Conundrums He Perpetrates
on Hotel Registers.

The modern drummer is hustler, or,
If he isn't he pretends TO be- he hasn't
time to write the name of his town out in
full on the hotel register. No, indeed. He
strides up to the desk, grabs the pen and
dashes off "John Smith, Ch'go," or
"James Brown, Is 'fo, +" or Henry Blank,
Coils" Then he strolls off to an easy
seat and spends an hour or so over cigar
and the Sunday paper. Were there drum
mers In Chaucers day or did old Godfrey
have the gift of prophecy when he perpe-
trated that delicious bit of quaint sarcasm,
nowhere was found so besy man as he,
and yet he seemed besier than he wasp
But it is hardly fair to put it all off on
the much abused travelling men. This
habit of abbreyiating has become we'll
nigh universal A Windy City man would
as soon think of writing Chicago" in
full after his name as he would of putting
ellis" on the envelope when he writes
home. 1t is presumably the same princi-
pie which leads him TO regard it as a
deadly insult to the dignity of his native
town if you put Cook county" in the
address when writing TO him. Many abb
breviations are, of course, natural. IN.
Y" and "Phila." and "Balto." and
"Cin'ti" come easy. But BIO" and
al 'bg" and "Col's" have "a strange look
at first.
The small towns have caught the habit
too. Wig is often seen on Pittsburg
registers. Some Greensburg people like TO
sign themselves from &c Big, " though one
would think they would better not risk it
| very far from home, unless they wish TO
puzzle people. Some succeed in doing this
as it is. A certain man, who shall be
namcless out of respect for his nerve, put
| himself down in city hotel register the
other day as coming from "L'bg." Now
where on earth al bg' may be was a
| stumper. At least even the omniscient
| clerk had to confess his ignorance. There
! was suspicion that a certain little town
| up on the Kiskiminetas river answered the
| description, but as the clerk remarked,
"If he comes from Leechburg, why in
| thunder doesn't he say so like mang"-
| Pittsburg Dispatch.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
PoMPeY's PILLAR.
Ovisi~slly an Obeiisk, 1t Had Been Pared
Down and Fluted.

Professor Mahaffy's speculations on
Pompey's pillar in Cosmopolis are novel
He believes that the pillar was originally
an obelisk and hR been pared down and
futed, and so converted into column.
AS grounds for this hypothesis, Professor
Mahaffy cites Pliny, who at the end OF
the first century A. ID. describes great
obelisk in Alexandria which had been set
up by the second Ptolemy. To Pliny we
grant truthfulness and observation, so had
there been a column when he was in Alex
andria he would certainly have taken note
Of It, AS there was then an obelisk, &C
cording to Pliny, what has become of itY
Where the cleverness of Professor Ma
haffy's argument is evident seems TO us 70
be of the material kind, and in arch@o-
logical research that is all important. The
granite of the column Is the same as that
of which obelsks are made Then, again,
the monument as IL now stands shows evil
dences of having been rehandled by no
very skillful workmen. The shaft Is not
true, the rounding being VERY imperfect
ly and unevenly done" The capital Is of
a different colored granite, and, as archi-
tects have often declared, too large, or out
of proportion to the shaft.
One curious matter which has not es-
CdpCu bne ODseTNdGlOu VI Il IOlSSSoi Ah"-
baffy, Is 1.-THE presence of large flaw run
ming some 25 feet up the pillar on the
southwest face" 1t looks, then, as If
this fault in the stone came out when the
obelisk was worked down into a pillar,
for, had the split been visible in the rough
block, say at the quarry, 1T is probable
that the stone would have been rejected.
Then the conclusion seems to be that
the obelisk Pliny saw and described Is
that pillar which we call today Pompey S
pillar, though it had nothing to do with
| Pompey The idea of associating the
pillar with Pompey originated, or took
form, about the middle of the seventeenth
century, when Henry Blount printed that
the monument marked the place where
the ashes of the great Pompey were laid. y
Obelisks have been taken from Egypt
and transplanted. We have fair one In
New York. All obelisks have, however,
been traced, but the one Pliny describes
has not yet been found and for good
reason. The Greco Romans carried out O
kind of prestopass business and turned the
obelisk into a pillar, and it looks as II
Professor Mahaffy had at last got to the
bottom of mysterious disappearance ant
magical eappearance.-New York Times
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
LIFE IN THE POLAR SEAS.
Plenty of Bears, Birds and Narwhals.
Millions of Fiddlers and Fleas.

1t is evident, according to Nansen,
that the waters of the polar seas are far
from being deserted by living creatures.
Wherever the sea is open or partially so
seals. narwhals and birds abound and
Oh the heaps OF ice near the edge Oh the
water the bears are numerous. Under
the ice marine animals are not wanting.
The explorers found in abundance little
crustaceans whose discovery was the
result of an accident
One day the cook sunk piece OF
meat in q hole which he had cut in the
ice with view of thawing it out. That
is q method often resortod to for the
purpose of sparing the fuel. Forty eight
hours afterward, while taking out the
meat. the cook was astonished to find
an immense number of little animals
that dropped upon the surface OF the ice
and commenced to jump about ike
fieas. hansen, who is a professor OF
zoology, had no trouble in recognizing
those little crustaceans, which may be
seen jumping in the sand, and which
are called sand fleas. He was delighted
Mt the discovery, because the creatures
are good to eat, although they contain
but little nourishment.
A few months later on, when in 20
or 80 degrees north latitude, III Octo-
ber-that is to say, at the beginning OF
the long winter night-he fished up in
little net with close meshes quantity
of little crustaceans. This proves that
life is by no means suspended under the
ice; OH the contrary, it is very active
In the mud Of the bottom, where the
water is shallow there are numerous
starfish, mollusks, worms, sponges ano
several species of crustacea. journal
des Debats.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
The Roman Fisherman.

A traveller in Rome tells Of citizen
who was evidently too lazy to sit Oh
the bank of the Tiber and fish after the
manner of the ordinary fisherman, but
instead arranged his apparatus IN the
form Of automatic nets, which are made
to revolve by the aid Of weights ana
The current Of the stream, so that 1t Is
not necessary for him to visit the spot
oftener than once day. With the AID
of pneumatic tube to shoot the hsn
from the bank to his house it would
seem to be unnecessary for him to DO
even this. Nothing would be lacking
then to complete his happiness but an
electric broiler and possibly an auto
matio bone extractor. Buffalo Com
mercial.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
SOUTH AFRICAN BAeooNs.
They Are Merciiess Freebooters and the
Terror of the Farmers.

They Are Merciless Freebooters and the
Terror of the Farmers.
While poison is most effectively used OH
South African farms against burrowing
creatures Of the iackal kind, balloons are
best dealt with in open warfare with the
rifle, and large baboon hunting parties are
often formed among neighboring farmers.
A short description of one of these baboon
hunts may be of interest TO readers in the
mother country, and will give them an
idea of some of the outdoor experiences of
their colonial cousins in farming districts
between Cape Town and the Vaal river.
The special character of baboon hunting Is
derived from the fact that balloons are
generally found in large troops, number
ing up to so or 100 or more. In some of
the karroo farms of the Sneeuwberg and
Compassberg ranges in the midland dis
tricts of the colony, for instance, the rocky
krantZes and kopjes covered with bush and
bowlder are often infested by such troops.
So long as they are left undisturbed in
their strongholds, so long must the farmer
be content to see the tale of his losses in
stock grow bigger every day. Single hand
ed not much can be done, for balloons are
difficult to approach and If surprised at
close quarters they have a good idea of de-
Tending themselves with large stones. 1t
Is one of the farmers most tantalizing ex-
periences to stand at the door of his home
stead, gun in hand, and see the balloons
Just out of range on the rocky sky line a
few hundred yards away-now springing
on all tours like large dog, now squat
ting on their launches like Bushman-
and to know that the cunning beasts are
Just watching till his back is turned that
they may seize their opportunity to swoop
down and raid his flocks. Their predatory
methods, too, are revoltingly cruel, and
"baboon handled stock can always be
| recognized at glance. They will attack
! cattle, tearing the udders away with their
| long, powerful hands, and sheep and goats
are often found by the herdsman with
| their headquarters stripped of the flesh
| right to the bone, and left to die in slow
| torture.
Moreover, the baboon is no respecter OF
persons, and the costly imported 'long
wool" or the priceless Angora may fall q
victim no less than the common Cape
chanel" or "capater, which would only
| fetch a half sovereign or so at the market
| in Cradock or Graatf Reinet.
| These facts are mentioned to show thai
| the farmer has little cause to love balloons
| and that it is to the interest of those whC
| suffer from the raids of these merciles
freebooters to combine i'm force, so as t.
kill off as many of the common enemy a
each coup de main as possible. chambers
| journal.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
Cinderella.

The wicked sister however. could not
wear the golden slipper
Eyes. " answered the father reluctantly,
when the prince asked him II he had an.
other daughter, and then Cinderella came
from the kitchen
She wore the golden slipper very com
fortably, and the prince made her his
wife.
1t Is not known precisely what this leg.
.nd Is designed to expound. Possibly it
Is the fact that the girl who marries usu.
ally has to go and put her foot in 1t; or
else the fact that the girl who doesn T..
simply can't Detroit Journal
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
iNSTRUM ENTS.

The rugged cliff that faced the main
Cherished a pine against its breast,
Whereon the wind woke many "a strain,
As 'twcre violin caressed,
And souls that heard, although in pain,
We're soothed and lulled to peace and rest
A people strove TO break their chains,
And many bled, and strife was long,
Until n minstrel voiced their pains
And woke the world with echoing song,
And even the tyTant heard the strains
And hastened to redress the wrong.
The souls Of men were dried like dew,
And earth cried ont with bitter need,
Until one said, II dare be true"
And followed up the word with deed.
Then heaven and earth were born anew,
And one mans name became creed.
Charles Crandall in Century.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
Get Your Title.

Gas the law at present stands, any man
can assume with IMMUNITY some presum-
ably extinct or dominant baronetcy created
to 1888" This remark was made in an
interview recently by A. q. Nj. Hesil-
rigee, the editor of "Debrett's Peerage. !"
This revelation appears TO open up great
field of opportunities for Americans OF a
certain class. 1t is well known that they
now spend great deal of time and money
in hunting up coats of arms and in tracing
more or less fanciful connections with no
BILE English families. An official OF the
Heralds' college stated recently in an arti-
Gle that large part Of the business of that
institution consisted in finding coats or
arms and genealogies for opulent Ameri-
cans. Why should not these people supply
themselves with titles instead of content
ing themselves with mere heraldic decora-
tons? They can in many cases do SO with
ease and security. The only requisites in
order to make plausible claim are Eng
lish descent and the same family name
as one of the innumerable extinct bar
onetcies.
Sir Bernard Burke has published work
entitled Extinct and Dormant Baronet-
cies." He states that more than ZOO OF
these titles have lapscd between the orig
inal creation of the order in 1911 and the
present day. OF these the majority became
extinct or dormant before 1888. In the
list of these former baronets may be found
large number of the commonest English
family names. An American possessing
one of these names can make plausible
claim to an English baronetcy, and 1T will
give his narrative an air of verisimilitude
If he can make out out that his ancestors
came from the same part of England as
the original holders of the title.-Sar
Francisco Argonaut.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
A THRILLING EXPERIENCE
Showing What Shotgun Can Do In a
Load of Hay.


Load of Hay.
"What was the most exciting expert
ence | ever had?" repeated Clarence
Haight at the Olympic Gun club. Il
think it occurred last summer, when l
was hunting doves up in Sonoma coun-
ty. Now, shooting doves is not par
ticularly exciting or perilous, but
this was one of the hottest experiences l
ever had.
II had been travelling all day with a
big bag, and was pretty well tired out
when | struck the country road and
started for home. It was a good four
miles walk, and l was pretty well
pleased TO see big wagon load of hay
approaching The rancher gave me per-
mission to ride, so L scrambled up ON
top, lay down on the sweet, new mown
hay and went swaying and swinging
down the road. l was just doing of
when bang! went my shotgun. l had
forgotten to take the cartridges out of it,
and something had pressed the trigger.
The horses gave jump, and the driver
rolled off into the ditch.
'Ihen L discovered tnau my gun Huo'
set fire to the hay, and l thought it was
about time for me to escape. The horses
were tearing along the road as hard as
they could run, but clambered for the
side of the load and slid for the road.
The tail of my stout hunting coat
caught ON the top of sharp standard,
and there hung to the careening wag-
on that threatened to upset and dump
load of burning hay on me at every
turn of the road.
1.-The fire was cracking and burning
fiercely, and already l could feel the
flames. Still the horses ran, and still
nv coat held me fast to that seethine
mass of flames. My trousers commenced
getting hot, and then / found my coat
was on fire. The next moment the loose
cartridges in my pockets commenced ex
ploding from the heat, and then
smelled my doves broiling
IL had just made up my mind tina
all was over, when the tail of my Goa
burned off and l was thrown into
ditch full of water beside the road.
did not stop to see what became OF TIT
hay and the horses, nor Of the rancher
but cut straight across that field 10
home. That, gentlemen, was the mos
thrilling experience of my life. New
| York Press.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
ELEPHANT NOT CLEVER.
The Popular Belief Contradicted bv AN
English Writer

The elephant possesses very charm
ing characteristics and makes a very
Pheasant companion. For one thing he
Is not easily mislaid and he is very
obedient to the slightest hint given by
his mahout
In speed he is ssaggely a record break
or, bu6 he can get over the ground i'm
ms shufffing way at the rate of Is
miles an hour, when he likes.
There is one thing that he is not-he
Is not a really clever animal, in spite
of all the tales in the story books to the
contrary; otherwise he would not suffer
himself to be so easily captured in the
kheddahs, the huge forest Enclosures in
to which the hunters drive the herds OF
elephants for the purpose of capture.
All the actions which are apparently
spontaneous on the part of the working
elephant are really performed at the
bidding of the mahout. The driver ON
his neck directs every movement by
pressure of the knee, and as the mans
knees are concealed under the elephant
ears 1T is very easy to imagine that the
elephant thinks for himself.
When the mahout elects for change,
to sit on the saddle, or pad, he drives
with his feet, and the dullest eye can
detect how a rub of the heel ON the
right shoulder turns the elephant to the
left, and vice versa.
After his tractability his gentleness il
the elephants most marked characteris-
tic. The mahout takes cruel advantage
OF his disposition sometimes, thrashing
him on the toe nail with billet OF
wood, or-if free from risk Of discovery
by his European master-pricking his
trunk with spear till blood flows.
An elephant has rarely been known
to retaliate save when it must. Wher
that curious madness comes OH him, ne
one dares approach him in his pickets
If he be taken in must, and the fact es
cape notice, the consequences are likely
| to be awkward at least.
In suburb of Rangun an elephant
belonging to firm of rice merchant
was one afternoon taken down to tn,
river for his usual bath after work. II,
had, the mahout said, been dull" al
day and seemed out of sorts. He was il
must. He signified the fact by seizinl
his mahout and tossing the astonishet
man into the water; then he ran int,
the "go down" close by and, with ON
squeal, dismissed some 900 coolies a
work there.
The go down was a huge palisad
shed, covering over an acre and was full
of loose paddy (unhusked rice) ant
stacks of bags and grain. For two night
and two days that elephant enjoye
himself among those stacks. Spearmen
posted round the palisade wall, KEEP
him in, and one might have supposed A
elephants bent on mischief had bee
there instead of one mad one. At las
he was made prisoner with the aid c
two big tuskers and chained up unit
such time as he should recover himself
London Sketch.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
Swindled.

First Street Loafer-It's shame,
Bill, to think that any one would swim
die a poor hard working man in that
way.
Second Street Loafer-Why, what's
your troubleP
First Street Loafer-Here l worked
hard for half day painting up spar
row into a redheaded Belgian canary,
and am blowed il the fellow l sold II
to didn't give me bad half crown fol
it.-London Spare Moments.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
A Measure of Distance.

Glow far is it from here to Brush
burg?" asked tourist of an old fellow
who was hoeing weeds in field OF
sickly corn "down south. =" Is IL iart /.
"Waal, it hain't so very fer nor IL
hain't SO very nigh. If you go raound
NV the big road, it's ferder nor it Is
nigh, but If you cut acrost country us
ni0her nor 1t is fer. an II you keep right
straight ahead it's kinder betwixt nign
an fer. but it's considerable OF 5a'nt
from byar no matter how you git thar :"
-Harper's Bazaar.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
Silenced.

"what did you mean by starting the
story that was an unbeliever in the Scrip
tures?" asked the deacon in great wrath.
"well, deekin," said the man who had
originated the report, "you know you told
me that all you said about that boss l
bought was as true as gospill. An you
know how true 1t was"
"Er-ah," said the deacon.-Indian-
apolis Journal.
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14
Poor Brooklyni

Mrs. Schermerhorn (of Brooklyn, regret
fully)-My husband feels averse TO doing
the marketing, now that Brooklyn is n
part of Greater New York.
Mrs. Boerum Place (of Brooklyn, sigh
night has made great change In Her
bert too He objects to wheeling baby. out
In her carriage himself any more, and, for
the first time in five years, he has begun
to neglect sweeping off the front walk be-
fore going to business In the morning.
BROOKLYN Eagle
The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-14

The town in England best provided
with places of worship is the ancient
one of Rochdale, where there are lao
churches and chapels. Fifty belong to
the church of England and 90 to the
nonconformists The church OF Eng
land accommodates "a, 449 and the non
conformists 81 $50 persons in sittings.