A DANGEROUS DESCENT.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 372, 25 June 1903, Page 3

A DANGEROUS DESCENT.

BWHkMdr Undertaking' of Two Dav> toff Workmen on «k® Ntagaura Bridge. Backless daring is so oft by workmen whose daily labors place th‘em in positions of danger that those who have to deal with them are astonished at no feat of bravado. Mr. Frank Skinner gives in McClure’s Magazine am instance of this daring bn the part of men who were engaged in replacing the Niagara suspension bridge. It happened that so many valuable tools were dropped from the bridge that some of the more careless losers were discharged. Consequently, when one day a man dropped a wrench 200 feet to the water’s edge, he foolishlystarted to recover it by descending - hand over hand on a steeply inclined, thin wire cable nearly 500 feet long. He had no sooner started on his insane exploit than a rival, but of sheer bravado, essayed to descend an adjacent rope. After going a feW feet they both realized the almost impossible nature of the journey they had undertaken, and tried to return. It could not be done, and the only chance of safety lay in continuing their descent. ions that human muscles could not en-“ dure the increasing strain of that long passage downward. The foreman, shouted instructions, interspersed with violent abuse, the object ofwhlok was to divert them from the fright that added to their danger.. By what seemed almost a miracle both men held on until they had crossed the water. Then one of themdropped safely into a tree top. The other finally gave out, and fell a co ty> siderable distance to the ground. Both, however, escaped practically unburt. .-. * PHENOMENAL MEMORIES, i A. Noted Soicnttat Who Oonld at QMt Resell the Namei of 36,000 Ptante. Many of the greatest men have had ! phenomenal memories. Caesar knew ■ the names of thousands of soldiers In his legions. A man of science often has memory ff>£r-'special terminology. - Prof. Gray assured, me. aays Prof. E. S. Holden, in - Harper’s Magazine, that, ho could at 6>ice recall theF.names of something like 25*000 plants,} Prof. Theodora Gill can .do the same for Ashes.. Our memory .for mere word* is it self, much more exteiiijiye than i» generally -adipitted.,. The ' average well-toido child ipf'.two years -of age haX -a tTObajiulary of some 509 wqr&s. alia its father may have'the coni mand of 20,000 more. The 10,000 verses of the have for 3,000 years been accurately preserved is the memories of Brahmins. Not one Brahmin alone, but thousandi, can to-day recite it word for- word. Thousands of Mohammedans, likewise, know the Koran by heart, as all ’ learned Chinese know their classic hooks. The chiefs of Polynesia can and do repeat hundreds of thousand* of words in their genealogies—taking days and even weeks for the recitation. Hundreds of pianists can play" all day, and many days, by memory, and I have myself seen Yon Buclow conduct Beethoven’s fifth symphony without a score. Chess players have a visualizing memory, arithmetical prodigies may have any one of the three or a combination of aii. Dried banana meal finds a ready sale in Europe, owing to its great nutritive power. • c It is reported that the prune busd-o ness has been overdone in Sant* Clara valley, California. The new state census of Maryland makes the population 664,656, but th*. federal census of 1900 gave 681,093. On an average there are 950 accidents in British mines and quarries ilk a year, causing a loss of 1,000 lives. Servia is described as a kingdom of peasants. Austria buys over 88 per cent, of her farm products and live stock. Almost exactly half the coal exporter, ed from Great Britain in the last ate months went to the four France, Germany, Spain and Italy*