The Dude and the Mouse.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3009, 21 September 1888, Page 2

The Dude and the Mouse.

A Milwaukee dude has been taught a lesson that lie will remember as

long as he lives. He visited a young lady noted for her presence of mind; frequently, and was always alluding' to the Btory that women were mortally afraid of a mouse,' It

seemed to give, liim great pleasure to include that particular young lady among those who would feint away in the presence of a mouse, or scream nine hinds of murder. She was not

built that way, and was not afraid of anything, and decided to teach liim / a lesson. So when sho knew he going to spend the evening with ®-'. she invited in several young peoJft. and had a mouse confined in a t® case on the centre table. The dude, ns.usual, opened on-the subjectof - mice, and- said that" if one should, come into the room the girls would > all jump oh the chairs, and the boys' would have to protect them. "Speak-: ing of mice," said the young lady,' taking up the toilet case and opening it,'" I never thought a mouse was dangerous," and she took the animal !

by Hits tale and - hold it up close totho dude, who turned pale. " Now, for instance," said tho girl, as she walked up close to the dude, "you, a great strong man, cannot be afraid of a little thing like this," and she put it on his shirt collar, holding on to its tail, The dudo gave all tlio symptoms of terror, as the mouse

tried to go .down under his collar, ' and begged tho girl to take it away. " Suppose the tail should break' said he, "or you sliuld loso-yofijr hold on it, you know. This gaVo , her an idea, and she let go.oftlm,uiouse, and it scrambled down tluH dude's neck, Ho yelled murder, and grabbed himself everywhere tho mouse mado its appearance on liia body, and came near fainting away, until tho girl's brother took tho dudo to his room, where he disrobed ami the mouse was discovered in' ono of his stockings, having travelled from Genesis to Revelations too quick. The party laughed themselves half to death over tho antics of the smart, / dude, mid he went homo to take a

itimulant in tlio shape of somo leltzor water, It is tho general loliof that ho will not attempt- to lave any more fun with the girls oil ho mouso question.—Peek's Sun,

) Kite Plying as a Science. A correspondent who called upon 1 Mr Douglas Archibald, F.R, Mot. ! Sec., who has invented tho combination of tho kite-balloon, sends to the Pall Mall Gazetto tho following account of the inventionMr : Archibald stated that experience liadl shown that captivo balloons oan only' 1 bo flown with any success for purposes of observation during, on an 1 average, a third of the year, on account of their extreme sensitiveness' to the action of tho wind, Indeed, a captive balloon cannot bo utilised at' all when tho wind is blowing moro than twenty miles an hour." JBy the invention of the kite-balloon, , not only are these difficulties overcome, but a kite adds immensely to the lifting power of the balloon, and thus economises tho cost of tlie-M em< ployed. : The kite is of silk st*)hed on two transverso roils of bamboo, and is made in proportion to the size of tho balloon, It is fastened to tho sido of tho balloon, almost covering it, and thus protects it from tho wind, With this application captive balloons can be flown during no less- than , about 880 days, as against 100 days without the kite. At a recent trial • before Major Templar, at Chatham, the additional lifting power of the ' kito was fully demonstrated, Alone ft small balloon of 100 cubic feet capacity could only raiso.4lbs; but when attached to ono of the small ; kites in a very light breeze, iMifted 1,000 feet of steel wire (tho earth line) and one of tho soldiers' coats;, oxtemporised for the occasion, weighing lOlbs, a result which the balloon department declared had -never yet !Mm .accomplished with so small.a ■ balloon, Or, to put thi matter in another way, illustrating the valuo' of the kite application as regards economy of space and cost, a balloon of 2,000 cubio feet capacity, with coal gas • plus, a, proportionate Idtn will ■ lift 1801bs say, ma mud of twenty mues an houi, while to lift the same weight by balloon alone, a balloon of 1.800 cubic . - feet capacity-would be Wed. ; Mr Arohibalcl olaims^tlii^

§ utility of his invention for signalling t at sea, where the wind is almost al- . ways too strong for a captivo balloon ~r , : ■ to fly alone; and in combination with Brace's eleotrio light balloons, naval signalling might bo ofteotod with ships below tbo horizon. Mr Archibald has been for years currying on experiments in ancmomolrical observation, under grants from the Jioyal Society, with a system of ldtoflying, Ho raised his kites tandem fashion in very light winds. A small one is first got aloft, which helps up a heavier one, and so on. AVith two small kites he once lifted about 2,500 feet of steel wire, and tbreo 1 anemometers, each weighing H lb., to a vertical height of I,loofeet,"with a wind of a littlo oyer seven miles an hour. And he is now organising a system of kites which will in twenty minutes raise a man sufficiently high; to tako an observation of the enemy j with the wind blowing from twenty I to thirty miles an hour, when no bat-1 loon could possibly bo utilised. j