AN EX-CARDINAL.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1521, 26 February 1886, Page 4

AN EX-CARDINAL.

A New York correspondent of the St. Louis Republican writes ;he following gossip to that paper : I was crossing Sixth avenue at Twenty-third street with a friend iast Saturday night, and just under the station of the elevated railroad we encountered a well-dressed man, to whom my friend bowed, saying, as he did so, 44 Good evening, count." The stranger replied in German. We paused a moment, and I regarded him attentively. His erect figure, jannty air and generally young get-up gave him the appearance of a mau ot forty; but there were wrinkles on bis face and a tired look in his eyes wh'ch showed him to be at least a dozen years older. His clothes were new and well made, and his face clean-shaved, except for a sandy moustache. He wore a shiny silk hat and carried a light cane. " Did you notice that man I spoke tar" inquired my friend, as soon-we were out of hearing. " I did. What of him ?" " What would you take him to be r" Does he look like a professional man or a merchant r—or what ?"

" Well," I replied carelessly," I heard you call him Count and address hitn in German ; so it's possible that he's a barber. He milht be a head waiter if it were not for bis mustache. He looks to me like a man with pronounced ■porting proclivities." - That is about what he is now," said my friend. 'I should call him in the slang of the day, a rounder, but he has not spent all of his life in Sixth avenue by any means. He has had a varied career. I remember him when he wai a Cardinal in Home.''

I was naturally surprised to learn this, for an ex-Cardinal is a much rarer bird than an ex King, and there have been very few of the latter iu New Vorfe since Manhattan Island was first settled. At my friend's suggestion 1 called on an Austrian of his acquaintance and learned from him the following facts in regard to the man who is, fco iar as 1 know, the oniv excardinal who has ever sought refuge iu this country. Count B—, as he is caled bv his few intimates, is a member of an influent ial Austrian family. His grand uncle, whese name he bears, was a famous soldier iu bis day, and one of the generals in command of the Austrian forces at Lodi. Twenty-five years ago the then young Count was a Captain in the Austrian Army, pursuing a career of recklefs protligaiy which eveutuallv led to his dismissal from the service. He had, however, a warm friend in the person ot the Emperor, Francis Joseph, who remembered the services rendered to the house of Hapsburgh by the brave old General in the da>k days of the Napoleonic invasion. Through his influence the Count was made a member of the College of the Cardinals at Rome and duly invested with the insignia of his office. For some time he held the high poeition ot Prince of the Chuxcb, until a scandal, in which be figured and which was the European

sensation of its day, brought about his expulsion. After this disgrace he disappeared frotn public view, and was not heard of for some lima Then he horrified his family and friends by turning up in Switzerland as the hero—if the word may be used in such a connection—of another scandal fully as descreditahlo as the first. He inveigled a young French girl of good family into a mock marriage, in which his servant officiated as a priest The unfortunate young woman lost her reason when she discovered the deceit which had been practised on her, and is to-day an inmate of an insane asylum. His family, who keenly fett the disgrace brought upon them, settled an annuity of *2,500 on the Count, upon the condition that he should leave Europe. rnrne to New a few ypgrc •> - -.H has been living here quieih ever since among people who knew nothing of his former history. i

Verily. New York offers to the student of human nature many strange phases of life, but I know nothing stranger than that which I stumbled against last Saturday—an ex-cardinal —standing on the corner of Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street ; the head which had worn the biretta, row covered with a shiny si'k hat; the purple mantle replaced by a cut away coat. —S. F. Bulletin.

SCORPION AN D CENTII'KDK. A full-grown scorpion is from two to two and one-half inches long, and his colour is a sort of ashv grav. Hp hns eioht legs, upon all of which minute hairs grow, and his tail is much longer than there is any necessity for, considering the size of his body. The tail, is in fact, only a continuation of his body and I have included that in measuring his length. It is at th» cad of his tail that he carries his venomous stirg, and when he curls up bis body into n semicircle, and brings that lively end of his tail to boar upon an enemy, the enemy cannot drop him Iti»o soon. His body 1 is nowhere as thick as a lead pencil,, but at the bead it branches out into claws, or horns or additional legs, whichever you like to call thorn ; so that in shape he is something like a hammer-headed shark, only hammerheaded sharks are not familiar enough in Northern waters to serve for an illustration. lie is a creature of mold and slime like the snail. Let an old box lie on the ground, particularly in a moist place, till the bottom boards begin to decay, and your scorpion-trap is ready. When you want your game lift up your box and there is your scorpion. But be careful to take hold of the box near the top, and not get your finders in his way, for the scorpion is very rapid in his motions, and he will sive you a sting before vou know it. When he strikes you with the end of his tail like a wasp, he exudes a venom- 1 ous liquid, and a man might better , hold a red-hot iron in his hand than get the tenth p»rt of a drop of this liquid in his blood. It is not necessarily fatal, particularly in the Bahamas ; j but it condenses the heat of forty furnaces. In some parts of South Amer- j ica scorpion-bites are frequently fatal, I but I have not heard of any one hav-1 ing been killed by them iu Nassau. This is easily accounted for. The ! scorpion likes to feed on decaying wood. In South Annrica, where dye-woods and other poisonous woods abound, the scorpions feed upon them, and thus work into themselves a ' good supply of outside poison, which, taken together with his naturally poi-1 sonous liquid, doe? its work for whoeverjis unfortunate enough to be stunc. But in Nassau such poisonous woods are few, and the scorpions have to fatten themselves on pine, cedar aud mahogany They never attack anybody 1 unless disturbed.

The centipede is much larger than the scorpion, and I think even more to be dreaded .11- grows sometimes* to be six or eight inches long, but is slim and ( rather Hat. He, too. travels very fast j (he ought to, he has legs enough), and j he scratches rather than bites, leaving an ugly mark wherever he nets in one i of his numberless claws Like the i scorpion, he lives under boards or j stones, or at the bottom of old walls. I He is made uo, all in joints, like a] tapeworm, and each joint has either two or four legs. I never examined one closely enoujh to see exactly which, for, even after they are all cut into bit-*, the pieces have an unpleasant habit of wiggling themselves about. They say about them here that a centipede will n< t cie before dark no matter how much you cu k him up ; but that story will do to go with the yam about snakes having the same bad habit. I have cut up a few m z-'ns of them with hoes here in N'assin that I am sure died before I was through with them. When I sav in Nassau, 1 mean here at \\ aterloo, which is a mile and a half out of town. These insects are rarely seen in the city, and American visitors often complain that they have to go home withoht a sight of any of them. The centipede's poison lies in his daws There is a bent and very ; sharp claw at the end of each leg, which sticks into the flesh, and if he gets one of these clat's into you he quickly pulls himself up upon your band, or whatever part of you he has : hold of and sets in the rest I have talked with people who bave been poisoned by centipedes, and they describe the sensation as anything but pleasant. Ho has not, of course, 100 legs, but he has a great many, and and makes them all count. —Naatau Corr, N, X> Timet,