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" THE MOLE AT WORK. ~
Rapidity With Which the Bose Tunnel
Digger Makes the Dirt Fly.
T!>" iriole at work presents an in
Ion .jig sight. His nose sinks into
tlio sail us if it were a‘bradawl with
u half boring, half pushing motion,
and in a twinkling half the crea
ture’s head is buried from view.
Then up comes his powerful right
foot, sliding close along the side of
his nose. The foot, which is a kind
of fine pointed chisel, cuts the earth
vertically until it extends as far
forward as his short reach will per
mit; then with>a rapid motion he
pries the earth sidewise from his
nose and so makes an opening. Very
quickly the left foot performs the
same operation on the other side,
and meanwhile the gimlet pointed
nose has continued to bore.
In a few seconds his body is en
tirely out of sight and only his
queer little tail is visible. In three
minutes, it is said, a mole will tun
nel for a distance of a foot if he be
in the least hurry to go about his
business.
A naturalist once conceived the
notion of ascertaining the amount
of work a mole could accomplish in
a given time. Accordingly the ex
perimenter turned a large specimen
loose in the middle of a five acre
field. Five seconds, it is averred,
after this mole received its free
dom it had burrowed out of sight,
and the observer, with his assist
ants, after driving a stake at the
starting point, retired and left the
little digger hard at work.
The start was made at 11 in the
morning, and the direction taken
was to the east. By 6 o’clock in the
evening this mole is said to have
dug some twenty-three feet in an
irregular course, keeping, however,
in the same general direction and
not attempting any side galleries.
Twenty-four hours after the start
the tunnel had been driven thirty
one feet farther, with a number of
side galleries, and four feet had
been added to the extremity, mak
ing sixty-eight feet of the main line
and thirty-six and one-half feet of
branches, or a total of 104% feet of
tunnels dug in twenty-five hours.
The bottom of the tunnels ran
very evenly about four inches be
low the surface. At certain, points
the hole was elliptical in shape,
measuring one and a half inches in
width by two inches in height, and
sometimes it was triangular, meas
uring two inches each way. The
surface of the ground was usually
cracked and raised about an inch
along the course of the tunnel.—
Harper’s Weekly.
How Life Is Passed.
Sydney Smith once made an elab
orate calculation as to the way peo
ple apportion their time in the
course of a long life. When he was
seventy-two he remarked to a girl
he met: “Do you ever reflect how
you pass your life? If you live to
be my age, which I hope you may,
your life is passed in the following
manner: An hour a day in seventy
two years is three years. This makes
twenty-seven years sleeping, nine
years dressing, nine years walking,
nine years at table, six years play
ing with children, nine years walk
ing, drawing and visiting; six years
shopping and three years quarrel
ing.”
Proof of Hi* Love.
“But,” she asked, “haven’t you
ever told any other girl that you
loved her ?”\
“Yes,” he replied; “I have told a
dozen other girls I loved them. I
thought I did, too, but you are the
first one I have ever really loved. I
know now that I never realized be
fore what real love was.”
“How can you be sure that this is
real love?”
“On each of the other occasions I
was unable to keep from wondering
while I was telling my love how I
would be able to support the girl if
she accepted me, but now I don’t
care.”—Chicago Record-Herald.
Puzzling Question.
"Which would you rather have,
a cow of your own or a reliable city
milkman ?’’
“That depends.”
“Depends on what ?”
“A lot of things. There are two
differences between a cow and a
milkman, and one difference is in
favor of the former and one in favor
of the latter.”
“Explain.”
“First.—A cow gives pure milk.
“Second. — A cow doesn’t give
credit.”—Clevland Plain Dealer.
New Light on Socrates.
The misunderstanding of words
frequently causes strange answers.
■ A child who had been taught that
Socrates had a wife who was un
pleasant to him and that the great
philanthropist drank hemlock, when
asked the cause of his death, re
plied:
“Socrates died from an overdose
of wedlock.”—Strand Magazine.
MILLET’S POVERTY.
Pathetic Incident In the Life of the
Great French Painter.
It seems almost incredible that
Millet, painter of “The Angelus”
and other now world famous pic
tures, should have suffered from
the poverty that forms the basis of
the following story, but it is a fact
that he did: One day, indeed, he
found himself without food in the
house for himself and his family.
In his extremity his friend Diaz of
fered to take two of Millet’s draw
ings to Paris and make an effort to
6ell them. Evening came, the Mil
let family anxiously awaiting their
friend’s return. If he came back
without the drawings it meant
bread; with them, hungry to bed.
Night fell, the family sitting in
darkness because they felt they
could not afford a light.
At last they heard the stamping
of Diaz’s wooden leg as he crossed
the little paved court and his lusty
voice calling out: “Light! Light!
Where is the light?” The family
hurried to light a candle. But even
while the head of the old fashioned
sulphur match was still sputtering
Diaz, who was a Spaniard and noth
ing if not temperamental, slapped
down two loaves of bread on the
table, one after another, in quick
succession. When at last the candle
was burning he drew out 60 francs
($12) in gold, all save one piece,
which he had been obliged to change
in buying the bread. He arranged
the gold pieces in a circle like a
halo around the candle, ending with
the change, of which he made a neat
pile.
“Ah,” sighed Millet as he re
garded the unhoped for treasure,
“if only I could count on a sum like
this every week!”
“Would you turn capitalist?” re
proachfully asked Diaz.
If to suffer is a spur to genius is
it a wonder that these Barbizon men
were great painters?—Exchange.
Not True to Life.
The son of a man who had been
a great philanthropist welcomed a
visitor to his office. The talk turn
ed on the career of the father of
the young man.
‘It was a great blow to every
body—my father’s death,” lamented
the youth. “By the way, here’s the
last portrait painted of him.”
He led the visitor to where hung
on the wall a large portrait of the
dead philanthropist, depicting him
as standing erect with his right
hand in his pocket.
“A fine piece of work,” said the
visitor grimly, “but it’s not true to
life. Nobody ever saw your father
with his hand in his own pocket.”—
Popular Magazine.
Gave His Wife a Vacation.
The hero of this story believed in
vacations, particularly vacations for
his wife. Every time he heard some
body talking about the hardships of
spending the hot summer months
amid the din and dust of the crowd
ed city he had to pay money to his
tailor because he wore out his sleeve
laughing into it. He loved his lit
tle freedom and made no secret of it.
One day a friend asked him:
“Jack, where is your wife ?”
“She’s up in the Thousand is
lands,” he replied lightly, “and I
hope she’ll spend a week on each
one of them!”—Popular Magazine. ,
Paper Money.
Paper money is said to have had
its origin in China in the year 806,
when- the government issued it to
relieve a financial stringency, re
ceiving coin in return, which ena
bled it to pay off outstanding obliga
tions. In the museum of St. John’s
college in Shanghai is a paper bill
worth 1,000 cash, the equivalent of
50 cents American money, which
was issued by the first Ming emperor
(Hungwu A. D., 1368-99). It is
nearly two feet long and one foot
wide, printed on mulberry bark pa
per, and is a dark slate color.
Hard Luck.
A weary and hungry looking
tramp in an English town entered
a shop and bought a pennyworth of
bread. As he was going out he
noticed a tub labeled “Treacle.”
“I’m in luck!” he thought as he
dropped the piece of bread into the
tub. “I’m sorry, guv’ner,” he said
to the shopkeeper who was standing
near, “I’ve dropped my bread in
your treacle.” “Treacle ?” cried the
shopkeeper. “That ain’t treacle—
that’s tar!”
The Ghost and the Meat.
We have all heard of the French
schoolboy who, asked to translate
into English the French of “To be
or not to be,” evolved this, “To
was or not to am.”
Another schoolboy has equaled
this translation, according to the
London Chronicle, in recovering
from German the text, "Tl» spirit
indeed iB willing, but the flesh is
weak,” in the form, “The ghost, of
course, is ready, but the meat is
feeble.”
A. M. Dieringer
Valdez Transfer
Company
General Trucking and Freight
ing to all interior points
LIVERY ard FEED STABLE
STORAGE
Teaming of all kinds'
Positively no coal delivered
unless paid for in advance
PROFESSIONAL
Dr. H. COCKERILLE
--— . Graduatc_of .National University
Washington *b. Cf*
DENTIST
Phone 92 SNFeurteenfyearsTin
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- — — - - *
Meet every Tuesday evening at 8 o’clock In
Eagle (Hall. All members are requested to
ttend. S. McnIECE. Arctic Chief
VALDEZ LODGE NO. 6,I.O.'O. F.
Meets e very iMonday at 8"p. m. in
ODD FELLOWS HALL
Visiting Brothers especially invited
Wm.Thomas, n. g. P. s. Hunt. i». g., Sec
Valdez Lodge
No 168.
Free and Accepted Masons
Regular Communications first Wednesday in
each month in McKinley Hall Visitors always
welcome
James H. Patterson,.W. M
C. C. Reynolds. Sec
■■■■■ 1 ■■ i. .... —
FOE
VALDEZ AERIE No. 1971
Meet every Friday. 8 p. m. Eaerle Hal
PIONEERS OF ALASKA
IGLOO NO. 7.
Meets every first and third Mon
day of each month. All visit
ing Brothers welcome.
E. a. AMES, Secretary.