Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-05

about two and a half times greater than
that of the visible moon. while its dis
lance from the earth was only about thirty
thousand miles.
Its influence on our tides wrote Null |
haitian. ION our atmosphere. our crops and
the great storms must be very great and
will in measure account for the cyclones.
tornadoes and hot and cold waves that
sweep over the earth. 1t makes its orbit In
path diagonally between the earth and
sun, In such a position, caused by the suns
powerful attraction, as to be Invisible eX-
cept the upper edge as 1t occasionally skirts
on, horizon during the months of July and
August"
Then the romancer went on to say that
Professor Brdwhistle had telegraphed the
discovery to Professor Swift of the Koch
ester Observatory and Professor John NJ
Klein the noted astronomer OF Kentucky,
and had received a reply from the latter
stating that he had brought his instruments
to bear upon the western horizon at the
indicated point. and that he, too. mad saZcd
upon the invisible moon, thus corroboratlng
Professor Birdwhistle In every particular.
The invisible moon careered visibly through
the newspapers for many days.
Small. but Interesting.
Mr.. Muihattan now turned his attention
to things terrestrial and brought to public
notice an ancient pyramid near Lawrence
burg, Ky. He said it found in enc of
the huge mounds there Astounding and was
luil VI SOiuSu lis anu otH-i "oie'Si III
relics of an extinct race. Later on he got
up another mound sensation. in which he
told how golden calf had been discovered
and tables of stones with inscriptions on
them. 1t was thought that these were
copies of the original ten comn.andmen,s.
He also wrote OF great oil wells discovered
in out-of-the-way places, and the Oil men
of Pennsylvania became half crazy win
excitement. Prospectors were sent out to
the new oil fields, with instructions to lease
land and put up derricks without an IL
Stants delay.
The famous story of the monkeys. told
on j. b. Parkes of Kingston, Ky. was an
Improvement on the cotton-tending geese:
1t was said that Mr.. Parkes had secured
seven immense monkeys from his brother-
in-law in South Africa. and had trained
quired little care in their keeping, and re-
ceived pay, and did their work so we'll
that the farmer discharged all his laborers,
made arrangements to import thousand
more monkeys. and looked forward with
joy and confidence to the time when. owing
to the low cost of his labor, he should OBJ
tain a practical monopoly Of the business
OF growing hemp, and become one OF the
richest men in the south. Then the story
went on to say that the Knights of Labor
of Kentucky had become greatly excited
over the affair; that they had denounced
the importation of monkey labor from
Africa as being infinitely worse than the
importation of pauper labor from Europe.
and that a strike of all the farm hands OF
hentucky WOulQ certainly oCCul, dLo thSiS
might be riots and bloodshed and fncen-
diarism, unless the legislature put stop
to Mr.. Parkes project by prohibiting mon
keys. This story was sent out by press
association. 1t attracted the attention OF
one of the intelligent leader writer's OF me
London Telegraph, who wrote an EDITORIAL
a column long about the influence OF s'man
labor the labor problem.
Next came the remarkable story OF the
lake of hair-dye, that was pubi1shed IN
the summer of 1888 in the Virginia City
Enterprise. Mulhattan discovered that
Mono lake contains one of the greatest nat
ural deposits of hair-dye in the known
world. "All who battle in the waters OF
that lake become blondes. and II the bath
ing is persisted In for any length OF time
they get red-headed. man last spring
rented the Levining ranch on the north side
of the lake. He had three strapping daugh-
tiers. AS soon as the water became warm
lake, taking for their mermaid gambols
time when the men folks were all out on
the ranch at work. When they began tax
ing their dips in the lake the girls were
brown haired. but they soon found them
selves becoming blondes. Next The HAIR
of the girls became fiery red The old man
and his wife tried the baths, and now the
whole family are Titan blondes
The Bird-Eatinx Tree.
Mr.. Mulhattan is credited also with pre-
pairing the dispatch from Chihuahua, Mex
leo, dated April o. 1889, that was published
In the 81. LOUIS 1lODe bcIuOCAde. AhAS '" 80
a story of a tree that devoured birds. To
begin with there was a detailed description
| of how the narrator studied botany, and
used to make long trips into the mountains.
| hunting for specimens. Finally the tree In
question was discovered. 1t was something
| like the weeping willow, but the long,
dropping. whip-like limbs are OF dark ana
| apparently Shiny appearance, and seem pos
| sessed of horrible life-like power OF coll
| Ing and uncoiling." One day the observer
saw a bird settle on the top OF the tree.
| 1.-The branches Immediately began 10 awak
| twisted like snakes about the bird, which
| began to scream. and drew 1t down IN tneir
| fearful embrace until 1 lost sight OF It,
| The rext day the explorer got half dozen
chickens and threw them into the tree.
| '"rhe moment l tossed in the fowls, ne
| SAYS "a violent agitation shook Its branch
es, which swayed to and fro with sinuous
snaky motion. After devouring the fowls.
| these branches fully gorged dropped TO
their former position, and the tree, givang
| no sign of animation, I dared approach II
and take the limbs In my hand iney were
covered with suckers, resembling the ten
| tacles of an octopus. The blood OF the
fowls had been absorbed by the suckers;
| leaving crimson stains on the dark surface.
| The dispatch concluded with an account
| Of how the explorer wrote of the discovery
| to Prof Wordenhaupt Of the University OF
| Heidelburg, who replied that the tree was
the Arbor Diaboli. only two specimens OF
| which had been known to science, one
growing on a peak of the Himalayas ana
the other on the island of Sumatra-
Mulhattan always prided himself upon his
coll stories" and was never so happy as
lust after perpetrating a particularly afro
cious hoax upon some newspaper. AS ne
was constantly going about the country as
commercial traveller. 1t was dlncult ioi
| the unwary editors to keep track OF him. AT
| one time the commercial travellers of the
country talked of nominating him for Pres
ident. This was just before MS retiremeit
| To the mountains, and the supposition Is
that the unexpected honor was too much
| for his modest nature
HOp Picking in England.
| From the Century.
It requires a great many hands and mas