tj^ 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



March 



PARSON CHOWNE. 



A Peculiar Character In the Novel of 

 "The Maid of Sker." 



Mr. Blackmore worked into his story 

 the character of a notorious pair of par- 

 sons in tlie same portion of tho county. 

 Parson Chowne actually was rector of 

 Knowstone, and the tradition of his evil 

 ^eeds is by no means faded out of recollec- 

 tion. The people tell still of the manner 

 in which he revenged himself upon any 

 farmer who offended him. He had two 

 methods. One was to invite the mr.n 

 against whom be meditated evil to dine 

 ■with him, when he would ply him with 

 liquor, and when his guest drove away, 

 down a steep and rugged hill, the linch- 

 pin of one of hii wheels would come out 

 and the man be thrown from his trap and 

 break neck or leg or arm. The other way 

 was less severe. He would say before some 

 man whom he could trust, ''I wonder how 

 bad Farmer X. would feel were his rick 

 to be fired?' Next night the rick would 

 be in flames. Chowne never entered into 

 alliance with the savages of Coleridge 

 Nor did he end his days torn to pieces by 

 dogs, as represented in the novel. Several 

 of the tales told of him in "The Maid of 

 Sker" are, however, true, as is that of his 

 having introduced an apple pip into tl-.e 

 eye of a horse that belonged to a baronet 

 to the neighborhood, against whom lie 

 bore a grudge 



The story is told of Parson Chowne that 

 the bishop of Exeter sent word that he 

 would visiti him Chowne had a portion of 

 the road dug up and filled with peat wa- 

 ter and then covered over with sticks and 

 furze and a sprinkling of soil. The bishop's 

 carriage went in, and the bishop was up- 

 set, but Henry of Kxeter wa.s not the man 

 to be stopped by such a matter as a brer.k 

 down — not on the road, but of the road — 

 and he walked forward on foot. 



"Mr. Ch(jwne, " said he. "I've heard 

 strange stories of you." 



"Waal, my lord," answered the rector, 

 "so hev I of you. But, my lord, us be 

 gentlemen, you and I, and us pays no no- 

 tice to the chitte.r chatter of a pars' 1 o 

 fules. " 



Nothing could be brought home to 

 Chowne H^> was far too clever a man to 

 allow himse.f to be caught in his nialpraj 

 tice. Toward the end of his days he i^ 

 signed his living and resided in a Loi.se 

 of his own — Atalanta. 



OMNIPRESENT HYDROGEN. 



remar...i Ji'e i...iii i.i;.t •.. iji!;Ji clemoiist rates 

 the e.\traordjii;.ry abundance with which 

 the element hyurcjgen is diliiised through- 

 out the univers(! It is, of course, one of 

 thecomnioiHv'it i leui.nls of the earth, enter- 

 ing, as it does, into the composition of ev- 

 ery drop of v.r.tcr Hydrogen is also a con- 

 stituent part of a vast number of solid 

 bodies, but the remarkable circumstance 

 for our present purpose is that this same 

 element is found in profusion elsewhere. 

 Surrounding that visual glowing globe of 

 the sun there is an invisible atmosphere, 

 of which hydrogen is one of the most 

 prominent coiiipunents. 



A like conclusion is drawn from the 

 spectra of many of the stars. In the case 

 of certain specially white and brilliant 

 gems, of which Sirius and Vega may be 

 taken as tho types, the chief spectroscopic 

 feature is the extraordinary abundance in 

 which hydriiren is present. Even in the 

 dim and distant nebulae gaseous hydrogen 

 is the constitnent more easily recognized 

 than any other which they may possess 

 Indeed it may be affirmed that we do not 

 know any other substance which is so 

 widely diffused as hydrogen. 



It need hardly be said that this gas is 

 an important constituent in those com- 

 pound bodies with which life is associated. 

 In that somewhat grcwsome exhibition 

 which shows 'the actual quantities of the 

 several elements of which an average hu- 

 man body is composed the bulk of the hy- 

 drogen forms one of the most striking 

 Items, and indeed in connection with all 

 forms of animal and vegetable life hydro- 

 gen is of primary importance. In the ar- 

 gument from analogy for the existence of 

 life in other worlds it is significant to 

 note that an element associated in such an 

 emphatic manner with the manifestation 

 of life here should now be shown to be 

 widespreail through the universe. — Sir 

 Robert Ball in B'ortnightly Review. 



the 



One of the Commonest Elements of 

 Earth and the Universe. 



No result of spectroscopic research 

 among the heavenly bodies has been niore 



Employer and Conapanion. 



Que of the most important secrets of a 

 hunting expedition is this: "Never allow 

 yourselves any luxuries in a 'tight place' 

 which your men have no share in." The 

 English sportsman whose advice we have 

 quoted tells how he was rewarded in the 

 Caucasus for treating his men as comrades 

 and sharing camp comforts with them 

 He says: 



One chilly night among the mountains 

 I awoke at 3 o'clock to find myself warm 

 and snug under two extra native blankets. 

 The owners nf the blankets were squat- 

 ting on their hams, almost in the fire, and 

 talking to pass the long, cold hours until 

 dawn. 



Having rated them for their folly and 

 made them take back their blankets and 



