The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-09-16
ExPENsIvE wHIMs.


wishes him to open the bridge in
course of erection in Constantinople
in order to let ship from the dock
yard pass through at once
| When this message was delivered
| into the hands of the contractor re-
sponsible for the construction of the
1 bridge he was thunderstruck, says
] London AnSwe,S. He had been work.
| ing on the bridge day and night, and
when the orders for its opening came
from the Sultan it was not half fin-
! ished.
He approached the Ministers Of
| Marine and Finance and said it was
impossible to obey his Majesty's COM
lnand, as he would have to pull every
thing down, and it would take months
to replace the scafolding and pile
driving machines.
''It cannot be helped" replied the
Ministers. "If the Sultan says the
bridge must be opened it must be
done, Dr. we shall lose our places, if
not ou. heads.
So tie bridge was opened, and the
ship cane out of the dockyard at
cost of ever $500 600. 1t afterward
transpired that the Sultan had found
his infant son crying bitterly in the
harem because he could not see the
flag hoisted on his particular ship
from the nursery windows.
To hunor the child's caprice the
Sultan ordered the bridge to be opened
at once and large ironclad to be
brought out of the dockyard and
moored in front of Dolmabagtcheh.
This no doubt pleased the boy. but it
caused enormous inconvenience to the
people of Constantinople, to say moth
ing of the waste of money which had
indirectly come out of their pockets.
The State of Massachusetts lost
So, 900. 900 because a man living in
Bosom left his window open over
night. He was silk grower, and in
the hope of producing new brand of
silk he experimental with some gypsy
moths that had been sent to him from
France.
He left the moths under a glass
shade by All open window one night,
and next morning they had all dis
appeared. The shade had been over
turned and the draft blew the moths
into the street.
Eighteen months later Massachu-
setts was swarming with gypsy moths
and they ate the leaves off every tree
and bush for miles around. The
damage done in two years by the in
sects totaled So, ,ooo, 900, and the State
authorities spent another $75o,oo
trying to exterminate the pests.
One of the worst famines ever
known in lower Egypt was caused
by couple of John Bulls gunboats.
The vessels went up into the marshes
beyond Khartum, to capture slave
traders.
Z The slavers, who had made up their
minds not to be caught easily, made
bold bid for freedom by cutting
channels through the mass of vegeta-
ton which lined the main stream of
the Nile.
The majority of them escaped in
this way, but the channels they cut
in their anxiety to get away brought
ruin and famine to lower Egypt.
The current carried the masses of
loose vegetation down the river, and
so completely blocked it that the Nile
food failed.
United States Senator George L.
Turner of Washington lost his fortune
and poverty stared him in the face.
Turner was lawyer, and one day a
party of miners, we'll known to him,
who had struck a lode up in British
America, near Victoria, came into
his Office and asked him to make out
some papers for them.
"We can't pay you cash for your
services, Mr.. Turner" said one of
the party, after their business had
been transacted, "but we will give
you some stock and call it square.
At first Turner refused to take the
stock, as his clients were old friends
of his and he preferred to do the work
for nothing, but on being pressed he
took the certificates and tucked them
away in his safe.
Two years later Senator Turner
was millionaire through these min
ing shares, and the mine that brought
him the money and made the fortune
of his friends is the famous LIE Roi,
one of the richest in the West.
Two tourists camped on the ridge
of mountain lake near Como, a
mining town in Colorado. While in
want of something to pass the time
one suggested that the other should
dive into the lake and try to discover
the bottom. His friend stripped ard
dived in. He came up half minute
later, saying that he had found the
bottom with his head.
After he put on his clothes he began
| to rub his head with his handker-
chief.
Look at the sand," he said,
laughing, but his friend, who had
been a gold miner, spraug up with
cry of surprise.
George, eshouted, "it'sgold p
And gold it was. The man who
had dived into the lake had struck a
placer gold mine of the richest kind
To-day the little lake near Como !:
the finest placer mine in the whole
West. and perhaps the most remark
ably discovered one on record.-N
| r. Sun.
BANK CASHIER. have over
drawn your account, Madam"
Lovely Lady-"That is just lik'
me Ny husband says I am always
exaggerating everything"
HUsBAND..-"Do you really neet
| n ~,ax1 haf ~