The evening times., 1898-12-21
NOTES OF THE DAY.

Porous pIasters saved part of James
Woods money Wednesday evening.
Wood came to Chicago from Montana.
He had heard OF the daring thieves in
the city, and he concealed few $40 gold
pieces beneath the piasters which he
stuck to his back. He had S12O more than
he could hide, however. and soon after
his arrival, he says this was stolen by
Emma Ford and John Hinch, whom he
met in State Street. They were arrested,
and yesterday Justice Martin held them
to the grand jury.
Some curious examples OF blunders in
speech are given in Cornhill- TWO old
students of politics came together one
morning upon the street. Its bad
state of affairs, said whitebeard No. /.
gloomily ''As bad as ii can be, agreed
No. > with alacrity. There must be
war" quoth one. ''Ah, you're right. We
can never escape this time" croaked the
other. Let me see said No. J. working
a tremulous hand toward his coat tail
pocket 'let me see what the daily pa
per procrastinates.
Experiments to reproduce dead men
features from their skulls are being
made in Germany. The method pursued
is that proposed by the late Prof His of
Leipsic to reconstruct the face of John
Sebastian Bach. AT the University of
Graz the skulls of criminals who have
been executed are used. Casts of these
will be taken in plaster and given to
different persons TO treat according to
the rules laid down. The results will then
be compared with one another and with
photographs of the original owners of the
skulls taken either before or after DEATH
There is a curious soul fretting at Will
loughby, near Sydney who would de-
light the soul of Mark Twain. He sits
all day long on a log composing vi flying
sentences against the local autf orty
which he nails up at night upon h s cot
tage walls. One poster says: Our foot
paths are composed of cinder Stag ard
clnker. made by antedeluvian dunder-
headed dervishes to grind the hoofs of
the ratepayers." Another runs: Our
council is Gorgon stalking HYDRA
headed through the land, gobling- up
ratepayers, while the victim surrenders
with asinine servility.''
One of the most remarkable features of
Japanese gardening is the way in which
every plant and tree in a famous garden
will be reproduced in miniature by sys-
tenn of dwarfing which has been handed
down from many generations back Ev-
cry characteristic of a large tree will be
preserved, the foliage, the color and the
texture of the branches. and yet the
miniature copy will often be not more
than from one to three feet high Prof.
c. E. Bessey tells of case in this coun-
try in which nature has eclipsed the art
of the Japanese. While climbing Green
Mountain. near Bowlder, Col. Prof Bes-
sey found growing from a crevice in one
of the rocks at the summit small pine
tree, about five and three-quarter inches
high and barely an inch in diameter 1t
was unbranched and bore single tuft of
leaves. The tiny tree had made a good
fight for existence amid the inciemencies
of its exposed situation, for when it was
carefully examined twenty-five distinct
annual rings were discovered
Last winter a club in Moscow gave an
amateur performance of a comedy by
Count Tolstoy. who had promised to be
present at the last rehearsal A police
man was stationed at ne door of the club
house with orders to admit no one but
the count. Presently peasant dressed in
sheepskin came along, passed the police
man unceremonously and proceeded up
the steps. He was told to halt, but paid
no attention to the command. This was
too much for the policeman, who ran aft
er him, seized him by the collar and land
ed him in a heap of snow. Then the
count told him who he was. and the po-
liceman with apologies allowed him to
enter. 1t so happened that in the COM
edy to be performed a peasant is shown
to the door by his master. The part of
the master was not played to the salts
facion of the count, who said the actor
did not properly, enter into the spirit of
his part. II know what / am talking
about he added, "for / have just been
thrown downstairs myself Whereupon
he related the incident, to the amusement
of the club members.