The Washington bee., 1910-12-17
Officially IGNORED.

rushed 10 the scene Of the railway
wreck was a newspaper reporter.
The first victim he saw was a man
whose eyes were in mourning and
whose left arm was In a sling. With
his hair full Of dirt, one end Of his
shirt collar flying loose and his coat
ripped up the hack, the victim was
sitting on the grass and sereDely con-
templating the landscape.
"How many people are hurtY' asked
the reporter. hurrying up to him.
~ haven't heard OF anybody being
hurt, young man." said the other.
How did this wreck happen|
"I haven't heard of any wreck"
"You haven'tl Who are you, any.
how?''
81 don't know that it's any of your
business, but I'm the claim agent of
the road. Chicago Tribune.
The Musical Gamut.
Guido, a monk of Arezzo. in Tus-
cany, IN 1909 A. D. was the inventor
Of the gamma "uC." or gamut, and
the six notes ''ut," ''re.'' mi" ia, -
"sol," '1a' These syllabIes were
taken from the first three verses OF the
hymn Of St. John the Baptist. "Ut
uueant laxis," etc. Without the use Of
the gamut a person could not in lit
tie time become perfect master Of
plain song Guido says, In a letter
which be wrote. 81 hope they who
come after US will not forget to pray
for US. for we make a perfect master
OF singing In a year or two. whereas
till now a person could scarce attain
this science, even imperfectly, in ten
years" The gamut is the first note,
but oftener taken as signifying the
whole scale Of music or series OF
sounds. rising or falling toward acute
ness or gravity from any given pitch
or tone.
The Last Straw.
An Atchison man has been married
FIVE years, and three times day for
FIVE years, or, to be exact, 5,475 times,
he has stepped to the dresser to brush
his hair and has had to tip the mirror
back to get a look in. While dressing
for an evening out, his wife would
keep the mirror seesawing back and
forth. she pulling 1t out to see how
her clothes hung In the back and the
man pushing 1t back to adjust his tie
and comb his hair, etc. Finally, in
desperation, he bought chiffOnier for
his own use, but one evening he went
home grouchy and found his chi1Onier
turned around and the mirror tipped
forward; his wife was using them
both. This was too much, and, grab
bing his heavily mounted military
brushes, he slammed one at each mir
ror. muttered a swear word and dis
8ppeared.-Atchison Globe.
The Conjurer Cenfesses.
That 'the hand Is quicker than the
eye" is one Of those accepted sayings
invented by some one who knew moth
ing Of cOnjuring, or. as is more likely,
by some cunning conjurer who aimed
still further to hoodwink guIlible
public. The fact is that the best con-
jurer seldom makes a rapid motion,
for that attracts attention, even though
1t be not understood. The true artist
Ia this line is deliberate in every move
ment. and it is mainly by his actions
that he leads his audience to hook not
where they ought, but in an entirely
different direction. Mr.. David Devant,
who for a number of consecutive years
has entertained London with his in
geniouS tricks, has said: The con-
jurer must be an actor. By the ex-
preston Of his face. by his gestures,
by the tone Of his yoice-in short, by
his acting-he must produce his ef-
fects. st. Nicholas.
How Houses Become Haunted.
Nothing is easier than for a house to
acquire the reputation of being haunt
ed. even in the, absence Of uncanny
manifestations. Dickens shows us the
children Of the street clustering round
the keyhOle cf the Old Curiosity Shop
to look for ''the ghost" within a few
hours Of Quilp's removal of the goods
and the desertiOn OF the house And
correspondent used to live in q
house near the center Of a provincial
town one room Of which was believed
by some TO be haunted solely because
the iron shutter that closed its win
dow on the street side was never
raised The simple explanation was
that this window was bricked up be-
hind the shutter to secure privacy for
the ground floor room in question:
drawing room lighted from the gar
den. on the other side.-London Chron-
icle
What They Lacked.
There is a certain naval officer of the
United States who is very much op-
posed to the use OF profanity by the
officers under his command. Indeed,
he has been known severely to repri-
mand in private officers on his ships
heard to address their men in profane
terms.
The following story is told concern
ing this admiraPs command Of a squad