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A DEBT WEJME CHINAMany of Oar Parlor Gamed Come

From That Country.

Instead of bishops and knights, Chi-nese chess has a general, secretaries, ele-phants, horses, chariots, cannon and sol-diers. There is also a river between theopposing forces. But otherwise the gameis very similar to its distant and—accord-ing to Chinese ideas—degenerate descend-ant played by ourselves. There are six-ty-four squares on the board and sixteenpieces on each side. Chess originated inChina, B. C. 1120.

Kites in China, says Answers, are gen-erally square-shaped. They are the uni-versal amusement of all ages and classes.Our kite flyers might take many hintsin kite flying from Chinese boys. Thelight silk string and the reel to wind iton are much ahead of our rough cordpulled in by hand. Kite flying comeshere as a spring amusement, a customapparently direct from China, where anyone flying a kite at another season wouldbe laughed at.

Pegtop schoolboys owe to Chinese in-len tors. But Chinese boys always playtop in winter on frozen ground or on ice.Many tops are beautifully finished andcarved. Humming tops are known as"thunder tops." The origin of the Chi-nese tops dates back to the mythical pe-riod of Chinese history 3000 to 5000 B. C.

No game has crossed to us from the fareast less altered than backgammon. Chi-nese backgammon men, boards and diceare almost identical with those used byourselves. The Chinese name for back-gammon, literally translated, is bottlechess.

Why the Chinese should call dominoes"foreign tablets" is a mystery, seeing thatthey and the Koreans have played gameswith dominoes for ten or twelve centuriespast. In numerals and size Chinese domi-noes are similar to those used in Europeand America. The only difference is thatthe dots are a little differently arranged,and the number of pieces is not quite thesame. A set consists of twenty-one pieces,eleven of which are duplicated, makingthirty-two in the complete set. The Chi-nese have more domino games than our-selves, including a curious one called"tortoise." There seems little doubt thatdominoes came to us from the east, in-stead of being, as claimed, the inventionof two French monks.

SLATE PENCILSTln-y Are Xo Longer Cut From

Solid Slate.

Slate pencils were formerly all cut fromsolid slate, just as it is dug from theearth, but pencils so made were objectedto on account of the grit which they con-tain, and which would scratch the slate.To overcome this difficulty, an ingeniousprocess has been devised by which theslate is ground to a very fine powder,all grit and foreign substances removedand the powder bolted through silk clothin much the same manner in which flouris bolted. The powder is then made intoa dough, and hydraulic pressure, whichpresses the pencil out the required shapeand diameter, but in length of about threefeet. While yet soft the pencils are cutinto the desired lengths and set out to dryin the open air. After they are thoroughlydry, the pencils are placed in steam bak-ing kilns, where they receive the propertemper. Pencils made in this manner arenot only free from all grit and of uniformhardness, but are stronger than those cutout of solid slate. For these reasons theyhave superseded the old kind. Over 25,---000,000 of these pencils were made andsold in 1899 by one American concern inChattanooga.

THE EARTH'S CHANGES.Boston Globe.

Until Dec. 18, 1811, the eastern part ofCraighead county, Arkansas, was one ofthe most beautiful and fertile stretches ofprairie imaginable, interspersed withtracts of lovely woodland. Pretty riversran between high clay banks, and thecountry was rapidly settling. On themorning*of Dec. 19, in place of rivers androlling prairie, a great lake rippled in thesunlight. In the night the whole region,120 miles long and 60 wide, had sunk 20to 40 feet. To-day the weird lakes ofthe Arkansas sunk lands offer the mostbeautiful scenery and some of the bestsport in all the southern states.

PAY AT BOTH ENDS.China has still the old-fashioned system

of letter carrying. Letter shops are to befound in every town. If he has a letterto send, the Chinaman goes to a lettershop and bargains with the keeper there-of. He pays two-thirds of the cost, leav-ing the receiver, to pay the rest on deliv-ery.

AN INSECT ALL APPETITE.The locust is one of the greatest pests

man has to deal with. He is always hun-gry and lays waste every place he travelsover. Of the 53,000,000 square miles cov-ering the surface of the earth, 40,000,000are more or less subject to the scourge ofthis insect with the giant appetite.

OLD GUNS RECOVERED.On the Northumberland coast fishermen

have just recovered two guns from avessel wrecked seventy years ago. Theguns were coated with shells and themetal had become quite soft.

TURNS RED EVERY TEN YEARS.Lake Morat, in Switzerland, has the cu-

rious property of turning red every tenyears, owing to the presence of certainaquatic plants which are not known inany other lake in the world.

A BIRD OF GREAT STRENGTH.The golden eagle has great strength. It

lifts and carries off with ease a weight of

\u25a0 WE JOURNAL JUNIOR, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1901.

And when two children at the feastEach for the wishbone cried

The Wishbone said" I told you so"And oh,he swelled with pride.

They took him each one by a footAs children often do,

Then each one §aye a sudden tu§And broke him right in two.

SARDINES SQUEAKThe Moment They Are Takes

From Water.The sardine fishing season commences

early in May and lasts until late in theautumn. When the fish are plentiful Inthe nets quantities of scales appear openthe surface of the water. The neta arethen lifted, and the contents are dumpedby the fishermen Into their boats. Thefish make a little squeak when taken fromthe water and die almost instantly. Aaordinary catch of sardines gives to each,boat anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000 fish.the price of which is about J1.25 per I,QQQ,according to the quantity of fish that arebeing caught.

Arriving at the packing house the fishare carefully cleaned. This operation overthey are sorted according to size and car-ried into another part of the establish?*ment, where they are put into pickle.

The length of title required by this op-eration varies according to the size ofthe fish. After this the fish are washedand placed with care upon wire nets,called "grills," on which they are sentto the drying-room, where they are driedby means of large fans or ventilators runby powerful machinery. When dry andwhile still upon the grills the fish arecooked by plunging them into tanks con-taining olive oil.

After this cooking the sardines, stillupon the grills, are left to cool, and whencold the work of placing them in cansfilled with olive oil is begun. This done,the tins are sealed with solder and areready to be put in cases holding 100 cansfor the market.

ANTS USEJHUTTLES »Larvae Are Actually Used as

Spinning Machines.E. G. Green, government entomologist

at the botanic gardens at Peradenlya,Ceylon, tells a most curious story aboutthe red ant. Desiring to confirm the re-ported web-spinning habits of these ants,he separated some leaves that had beenrecently fastened together by them. Theants quickly drew the edges of the leavestogether, and in about an hour afterwardhe noticed that small white grubs werebeing passed backward and forward acrossthe gaps. Two ants held each a grubin its mouth and directed its movementsas required, while from the mouth of thelarvae a continuous thread of silk pro-ceeded and was used to repair the damage—the larvae were actually used as spin-ning machines. There were no larva*in the disturbed enclosure. They weremost likely obtained from a nest a shortdistance away, and this, no doubt, ac-counts for the length of time that passedbefore the rent was repaired.

THINGS YOU_CAN'T DOThey Look: Simple, l»nt in Real-

ity Are Not.You can't stand for five minutes with-

out moving if you are blindfolded.You can't stand at the side of a room

with both of your feet touching the wain-scoting lengthwise.

You can't get out of a chair withoutbending your body forward or puttingyour feet under it, that is, if you aresitting squarely on the chair and noton the edge of it.

You can't crush an egg when placedlengthwise between your hands, that is,it the- egg is sound and has the ordinaryshell of a hen's egg.

You can't break a match if the matchis laid across the nail of the middle fingerof either hand and pressed upon by thefirst and third fingers of that hand, de-spite its seeming so easy at first sighL

A STREET THROUGH A CHURCH.One of the best known instances of

church with streets through them is thatof St. John the Baptist church in Bris-tol, Eng. The church is situated rightover the ancient gateway into the city onthe Avon, and the towering spire stand-ing high above the neighboring housesand streets, is a remarkable sight, as onesurveys it from the roadway below.

A MELODIOUS TOWN.There is more melody in Andersburg, *

Prussia, in the Hartz mountains than ioany other town in the world. There 250,---000 canaries are annually reared, andfour-fifths of them are sent to the UnitedStates. "Professor birds," perfect sing-ers, are placed among the young birds, sothat the latter may imitate the trills ofthe experienced warblers.

A TOUR OP THE ESCURIAL.It requires about four days to make an

investigation of the Escurial, the greatSpanish palace, there being such a mußi-tude of rooms and apartments. To trav-erse all the halls, chambers, corridors,lengths and depths of the great palacewould require a tour amounting to overa hundred miles.

DIED ON THE FOURTH.Three of the presidents of the United

States died on the anniversary of thesigning of the declaration of indepen-dence. Jefferson and John Adams diedon the same day, July 4, 1826, and onlyan hour apart. James Monroe died on the4th of July, 1831.

ROARS NEAR THE GROUND.Naturalists say a lion always places ita

head near the ground when roaring. Thebeasts probably do so on the principle thatthe earth, being & conductor of sound, th«other lion or animal he is roaring at can-not fail to hear him.

AN INDO-CHINESE VENICE.Bangkok is a city of waters. It is an

Indo-Chinese Venice. More people live infloating homes on the Menam, "the Nil*«f Siarn," and the many canals than iapermanent buildings.

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! The Proud Wishbone II

: The wishbone was a haughtyI And hi§h he held his head; •;// „_[ The Win§ twins were but f'common*trash*! „ And Drumsticks-too, he said.,| Its just as plain as anything a

I "That this is so" quoth he, /\ For there are two of each of them I

1 "Bui only one of Me." ' p|

]

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