Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1900-04-24
HOUSE WITHIN A HOUSE.
How Wealthy Woman Will Evade .
 Witch.s Hoodoo.

Washington Star: A palace built literally around a superstition is Wash ingtons newest marvel, and one may safely say that nothing to match it has ever been seen anywhere. Baronial castles, as well as edifices of other l'nf:s cttcn gain resident spooks or aeeefte curses as incidents of their histefy, but it has not been the fashion hitherto to provide in the architects $ plans against such troubles, and the notion of embodying a hoode Q killer i'll the very fabric of a mansion is wholly novel. The owner of this remarkable house, which as yet is not quite half finished, is Mrs. R. H. Townsend of Philadelphia. Before her marriage she was Mary Scott, daughter of the late Col. Tom" Scott, of Pennsylvania railroad fame. Her wealth runs into the millions, and the mansion afore- said will cost her about st80,000. It will be nearly twice the size of the famous Letter house. on Dupont circle, being 125 feet in width and 123 feet in depth. Mrs Townsend is building 1t, she says, for her youngest daughter, now IT years of age, and almost ready to enter society. It will be the scene. doubtless, of some of the most gor- geous entertainments ever given at the national capital. Now, once upon a time-a very proper way to begin such story as this-Mrs. Townsend inter
 viewed a witch. It was remarkably clever witch, and, in revealing the future to her lady patron, she predicted a number of events since realized with astonishing accuracy in Mrs. Town sends life. It was a very bright and cheerful picture she drew, on the whole one may command good deal of brightness and cheerfulness if one pos- sesses millions of dollars-but there was one unpleasant prognostieation. This was that if Mrs. Townsend ever occupied a dwelling which had never been lived in before she would die with in six months after moving in. This prophecy struck Mrs. Townsend as grewsome, to say the least, and up to now she has carefully avoided all risk of incnrring the penalty suggested. Though anxious for some time past to move her residence to Washington and build a home here, she has been restrained from the accomplishment of this desire by the wftehs omfnous vat feination. She had thought of buying 3 hoase, but could And none that was large enough or adequate in other re- spects for her purposes. At length, however, she hft upon an ingenious ting what she wanted at the same time. She decided to purchase the old Hill yer mansion on Massachusetts avenue, and to construct palace around it. This she is doing bn such a manner that while occupying the new mansion, she will actually live in the old Hillyer house, the skeleton of which is re- tained as a middle portion of the re-
 vamped structure. Her bedroom, her dressingroom and bathroom and her boudoir will be in the ancient dwelling, the original floor ioists and framework, as well as the roof, being kept intact. Thus the hoodoo will be defeated in- asmuch as the construction on which the builders are now engaged comes under the head of alterations" tech nieally speaking, and. Mrs. Townsend may consider herself safe against the of the conditional threat re- corded against her in the book of fate
 Judging Machines.
 For registering the results of foot race the human eye and voice seem sometimes painfully inadequate. Close contests of this kind will doubtless end more pleasantly when the new Judging machine" described by the Golden Penny, comes into general use. The machine, which was invented by an Australian, is designed to be piacea at the finish line, and consists of light metal frame partitioned into two .1r more divisions, each about four feet wide. On the top Of the frame stanos q small cabinet containing numbered divisions corresponding to the num- hers of the tracks. The instant the first man passes through his division a shutter falls, disclosing his track number. The other numbers are lm- mediately locked, except when the ma chine is set for final heats In this case a small cylinder is attached to the machine, and a hammer head ytrikes mark on the revolving cylin- der as the men finish. Thus the exact positions Of all the competitors can be told to a nicety. The same Inventor has originated an automatic judging machine for bicycle races. It consists of fine. light metal strips plaeel in small trench about two inches wide, which is sunk across the track at the finish. During the last lap these strips, which are coated with enamel, are
 placed in position by means of lever,