The Topeka state journal., 1908-01-09

| wish that could know once more
| The joys I used to feel
In watching for old Santa Claus
| And knowing he was real.
NY stockings filled with toys;
I wish that. could backward go
| Unto the land of boys.
I'd like to be a little tad,
A little, doubling tot:
| To lie awake and try to catch
Old Santa by the cot
All, ,rh. these & were golden. happy days.
| I'd like to live them DER again,
Dear neishbor, wouldn't you?
Detroit Free Press.
| Paper Material From Africa.
North Africa. and particularly AL
geria, is supplying annually increas-
ing quantities of alfa grass and aioes
both Of which are used in the manu-
facture of paper. Alta grass is now
quoted at about francs a 100 kilos
($1.16 a 200 pounds) on dock at Oran,
while aloes arye quoted at from Is to
go francs a 100 kilos ($14.47 to $15.44
Tor 22O pounds at Marseilles. Alta
! grass is used in France for the manu-
| per, while aloes, seven or eight times
| more expensive, are absorbed by
| manufacturers of high grade paper
Aha grass grows more or less through
|
annual, cut and harvested like hay
1t is said that practically an unlimit-
] ed supply is available and that 1t Is
expected to furnish the print paper or
the future in France. A leading Lon
! don daily, it is said, has for some years
been printed on aifa paper. There is
| an extensive and increasing exporta>
| ton of this material from Algeria TO
| England. Oran dealers in alfa are
able to ship from $4,000 to 100000
| |.
gerian ports can furnish considerable
quantities. The business is now car
ried on most extensively at Oran.
| English manufacturers have been
| the first to interest themselves in this
| article, and have made rapid advances
| in converting 1t into paper. The
French government Is also interesting
itself in the subject, because of the
there is talk Of establishing at the
sources of supply, in Algeria, and pos
sibly Tunis, mills for the manufacture
of pulp.-Daily Consular Reports.
The Fear of Cats.
! The report from Gladstone, Mich,
of a tramp cat discovered sucking the
breath of a farmers infant child
| points to the survival of a superstition
which has endured as persisently as
| the belief that the moons rays cause
lunacy. Not unlikely the cat. seeking
refuge on the child's breast, interfered
by its weight with the infants breath
ing.
The superstition is no doubt a form
Of the temperamental antipathy to cats
| which exists with hysrerical mani
festations in many persons. DR.. Weir
| Mitchell in his investigation Of cat
/ fear found whole families subject to
it. In it's more serious attacks cat
fear causes nausea, lockjaw, and ner-
| vous collapse. It is accompanied by
| a supersensitiveness which makes the
presence Of cat known to the suf-
| ferer when unseen and unheard. In
| contrast with tha affection of many
celebrated persons for cazs-Dr. john
| son, Victor Hugo, Ruskin, Theophile
Gautier-Napoleon disliked them, as
Lord Roberts is said to do. Henry III
of France could not stay in a room
| with a cat.
What the pathological causes of
cat antipathy are science confesses its
inability to say. Whatever first gave
pussy her reputation for treachery, it
has never been outgrown. Certain few
maternal minds are free from a firm
belief In the malevolent designs of
cats On sleeping babies.-New York
| World.
| A Dangerous Dramatic Role.
"One of the most difficult of dramatic
| roles to fill properly is that of a blind
person. said an old player. "It is q
| terrible physical strain. I know an ac-
tor who for many months played the
same part in a popular melodrama
Last week he resigned from the com
pany and took a small role in another
play. He either had to get out of thai
play or go blind. He acted the part OF
blind man, and the constant strain
on the muscles of the eyes came very
near destroying his sight in earnest. He
might have compromised, 1 suppose, by
| wearing glasses or reSOrting to some
| other stage device denoting blindness
but the stage manager wouldn't allow
that. He insisted upon the actor as
Suming that tense, sightleSs stare OF
1.-THE blind. The man stood 1t for months
but when oculiStS assured him thai
there was nothing on earth so likely tC
produce real blindness as the simula.
lted affiiction, he thought 1t time tt
quit. New York Sun.
High Prices in Klondfke
High prices continue to prevail ir
Dawson" said T. F. Ryan, of Portland
Ore, at the Utopia, (which is probably
the most expensive town in the world
1t Is a thriving place with population
over 8,000 with warehouses, churches
banks, electric lights, wholesale and re-
tail stores, and two up-to-date news
papers. The newspapers themselves are
worthy Of consideration in the light OF
expense, for they cost 26 cents copy
At this time of the year three eggs or.
| dered in q restaurant cost 81. so, while
, a caribou steak costs 81. Beer is worth
81 per bottle, and champagne, $10.50 g
quart 1t costs 30 cents to get shaved
and 81 for hair cut. A glass of beel
r.