News comes from Texcapa, Mexico, a small town inhabited by Indians and Mastisos (half-breeds), that ten persons were burned there as heretics by order of the the auxiliary town judge. The judge claims he was acting according to the will of God, manifested to him in an extraordinary vision, accompanied by certain indications of divine wrath against heretics and people leading immoral lives. The whole population of Texcapa seems gone mad. All believe the judge was commissioned by the Almighty and the saints to destroy evil-doers. They point to the pile of bones on which they profess to see miraculously traced outline forms of the saints who, on advising the judge to burn the heretics left their images. Twenty-one arrests have been made.

In certain parts of Holland when a young man thinks he loves a girl he asks her for a match to light his cigar at the door of the beloved one’s home. This is done to let the parents know that something is intended, and if the visit is repeated and the same thing occurs no doubt is left in the minds of the girl’s parents, and they immediately proceed to investigate the young man’s character and antecedents. When he calls a third time they are prepared to give him an answer. If his suit is looked upon favorably he is given a match. If refused, he produces his own match, lights his cigar and walks away. If a favorable answer is given he steps forward and joins hands with the girl. While the engagement is by no means a settled fact even at this important stage, it is stated as a truth that if, on the occasion of the young man’s third visit, his inamorata offers him a second cigar and he smokes it in the house the engagement is never canceled.

The Mississippi valley, from the headwaters to the gulf, was roughly shaken up by an earthquake shock, which, while it did no serious damage, was quite severe in many places. At New Albany, Ind., a church wall fell in and crushed in an organ causing a loss of $2,000. In the vicinity of Gadsden, Ala., several persons were bruised by being thrown from their beds and several houses were partially wrecked. Near Charlestown, Mo., hundreds of chimneys were toppled down and windows in store fronts broken. The brick Methodist church there was also badly shattered and the plastering knocked from the walls of many dwellings. At Louisville, Ky., three severe shocks were felt and all the tall buildings are reported to have swayed like reeds. In Cincinnati the buildings shook as from a great explosion, and many people were flung from their beds. St. Louis, Mo., people were so badly scared that they left their homes and remained in the open air until numbed with cold. The public library building in Cairo, Ill., was badly damaged, and many chimneys were shaken down. A swaying of buildings and a loud rumbling noise were perceived in Cleveland. Cracks a foot wide were made in the walls of the capitol building in Jackson, Miss. Noises resembling thunder were heard in Nashville, Tenn., when the vibrations ceased. Michigan felt only a brief rocking with an almost imperceptible rumble, but not damage was done beyond the breaking of a few dishes. Reports show that the seismic disturbance was manifest in various other parts of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

Though “missing word” contests were declared illegal six months or a year ago in England and were supposed to have been definitely stopped, they are still being carried on. Unfortunately it is only the fraudulent ones that are now in existence. The “missing word contest” was so popular for many months after it was introduced that it has been kept up even against the law. It never attained any great popularity in this country. A sentence was printed with one word left blank, and the first person who supplied the missing word by mail got the chief prize, other awards being made up to a considerable sum. Each competitor sent in something like a shilling as entrance fee, and the total amount received in this way, generally an enormous sum, was distributed among the winners. That was the way the competition went when it was managed fairly. But the most of the the missing word games, if not all of them, are now running, are managed on no such principle. The periodicals now conducting them are generally printed somewhere on the continent, and are scattered broadcast on British soil. In many cases they are not periodicals at all, but merely circulars sealed up as letters giving the terms of the competition and the sentence to be completed. An instance of how one of these swindles works is that of a working man who sent three shillings abroad to a contest. A few days later he received in reply a letter marked “Private,” ostensibly from an employe of the foreign concern which offered in “revenge” to supply the missing word secretly for twenty shillings, or about $5. The deluded mechanic sent on the money and received the word. Shortly afterwards he got a letter from the company, saying that he had won, and that there were several hundred dollars standing to his credit. The only trouble was, so the letter ran, that another competitor had lodged a complaint and claimed two pounds. If he was willing to buy the man out, sending two pounds by postal, the prize money would be forwarded to him in full.

The working man started to pawn clothing in order to raise the money, when a friend suggested to him to have the company send the prize money minus the two pounds. He wrote to that effect. In answer came a letter stating that he need not send the money, as it had all been settled. But they had a charge on their books against him for “notarial and other costs of currency,” amounting to five shillings. Would he send that over immediately for expenses. Confidingly he did so, and never heard from the company afterwards.

The management of the Grand Opera House announces the engagement for three nights only. Nov. 11, 12 and 13, of Santanelle, the master of hypnotism, and the most talked about man of the day. His long successful series of entertainments in Detroit, covering 28 performances, caused the liveliest commotion rmoung men of learning, the newpapers particularly, and medical profession generally. Santanelli’s endorsement signed by 75 of 26 medical students from the Detroit College of Medicine and the Michigan College, pronounce him a man of honesty of purpose and thoroughness in all his claims. He is a mystifier of the deepest skill; many physicians and scientific men and women attend his interesting exhibitions, soley for what they may be able to gain in the study of hypnotism.

On the broad, brown salt meadows that skirt the Housatonic river just above its mouth is a vast colony of marsh wrens. In the acres of tangled tules and cat-tails they have built nests innumerable, prettily woven affairs of reed and cat-tail leaves. The nests, which are as large as one’s head, are so compactly constructed and so thoroughly thatched as to be entirely weather-tight. As a rule, the thrifty little chattering wrens prefer not to occupy a last year’s nest, so there are eery season hundreds of empty ones. They are not allowed to remain vacant long, however, for there are too many creatures seeking just such snug shelters.

One species of field or meadow mice, take possession of a great many of them, and the old mice can be seen at all times of the day nimbly running up and down the reeds, coming to an going from their cosy homes. Like most squatters, they are not the most desirable settlers, and, sad to say, frequently repay their open-hearted landlords by eating all the pink eggs in the near-by wrens’ nests. If caught in the act, a dozen of the excited birds will organize a vigilance committee, trail the thief to his home and drive him and his family from the nest, tearing it to pieces to prevent any return.

Big spiders, too, love to nest in the abandoned basket-like abodes, and live for many seasons in them.

The most desirable tenants of all are the big black and white hornets. By fare the greater number of the old nests are inhabited by these fiery fellows, and, odd to relate, they are best of friends with the landlords. As if by agreement with the wrens, they keep a perpetual guard over the new nests, as well as those where they live. Let a dog, an unconscious rail or snipe shooter, a bird’s-egging boy, or any creature whatever approach the nests within a few yards, and, suddenly, without warning, a cohort of winged warriors will fall on the intruder, and flight is the only safe course. To fight would mean death, for the hornets would soon be reinforced by other nestfuls until they would cover the victim and sting him to death.

The wrens seem fully conscious of the value of such sentinels, for they take care to build their new nests always very near the old. The birds are themselves very defenseless, and, their nests being easily located on account of size and the noise made by the wrens, they have been in some localities entirely wiped out by egg-collectors. The boys have learned to give this colony a wide berth, however, and the Housatonic marsh-wrens are fast increasing in numbers, and, unless the hornets shift their quarters, are likely to sing happily there in the reeds and raise many a brood of young in years to come.

• There is a man in Missouri whose feet are so large that he has to put his trousers on over his head.¹

• A Kentucky Shoemaker, for the sake of economy, has his sign painted thus:

           E
  BROWN’SHO—
           P
  

• A West Virginia man is so peculiarly affected by riding on a train that he has to chain himself to a seat to prevent his jumping out of the car window.²

• People in Madison county, Ky., who have paid their taxes are entitled to be married free by the sheriff.

• An Illinois farmer owns a hen which lays twin eggs every day.

• Geigersville, Ky., is the birthplace of a boy who was an inveterate tobacco chewer before he was a year old.

• An Alabama father has taught all his children to read with their books upside down.

• A Mississippi woman, who chews tobacco and drinks whisky, thinks that women have all the “rights” they need.

• A Minnesota girl of 15 can distinguish no color, everything being white to her, and she is compelled to wear dark glasses to protect her eyes from the glare.

• Young Darling killed a man in Washington county, Ky., the other day, and Love Divine stole a wagon load of tools in Fayette county.

• The servants in a school for girls in Connecticut, while cleaning up the rooms after school closed, discovered 3,678 wads of chewing gum stuck about in various places.³

• A Florida negro is growing fat on snake steaks.

• One county in Pennsylvania has contributed two members to congress, two to the state senate and two convicts to the penitentiary.⁴

• A Mississippi river steamboat roustabout drinks a half gallon of whisky every day.

• A South Carolina widow became her own mother-in-law recently. That is to say, she is now the wife of her husband’s father.⁵

• A New Hampshire girl of 23 never tasted hot bread until three weeks ago, when she stopped with friends at a Boston hotel.⁶

• A dude in Philadelphia was turned out of the club to which he belonged because he paid his tailor’s bill two days after he got his clothes.⁷

• An Idaho school teacher enforces obedience with a revolver.

• A Baptist preacher in Georgia refuses to baptize except in running water.

• An Arkansas hunter has a hound that will catch his tail in his teeth and roll down a hill faster than any other hound in the pack can run.⁸

• A Maine mother has an old slipper, still in use, which has spanked six generations of her family.⁹

• Michigan has a man who is so fat that he can’t fall down hard enough to hurt himself. He is known as the human spheroid.

• A Delaware peach grower has found an apple with fuzz on it growing on a peach tree.

• An Indiana calf, now two months old, has hoofs like a horse.

• A Chicago man paid his first visit to St. Louis in July, and he liked it so well that he has gone there to live.¹⁰

• A Texas preacher threw a Bible at a deacon who started to run away with the collection, and knocked him down the front steps of the church, breaking his leg in two places.¹¹

1. Oh really![back]
2. Wonder what he’d think about airplanes?[back]
3. They counted them all?![back]
4. These days, they’d be the same two people.[back]
5. At least she’s not her own grammaw.[back]
6. Didn’t they have ovens in New Hampshire?[back]
7. Can’t have any responsible parties here![back]
8. I’d like to see that.[back]
9. I wonder if it’s still in use?[back]
10. This is news?[back]
11. That was some throw![back]

Information: In Turkestan, on the right bank of the Amou Diara, in a chain of rocky hills, near the Bokharan town of Karaki, are a number of large caves which, upon examination, were found to lead to an underground city, built apparently long before the Christian era. According to effigies, inscriptions and designs upon the gold and sliver money unearthed from among the ruins, the existence of the town dates back to some two centuries before the birth of Christ.

The underground Bokharan city is about two versts long and is composed of an enormous labyrinth of corridors, streets and squares, surrounded by houses and other buildings two or three stories high. The edifices contain all kinds of domestic utensils, pots, urns, vases and so forth. In some of the streets falls of earth and rock have obstructed the passages, but generally the visitor can walk about freely without lowering his head. The high degree of civilization attained by the inhabitants of the city is shown by the fact that they built in several stories, by the symmetry of the streets and square, and by the beauty of the clay and metal utensils and of the ornaments and coins.