NEW-YORK TRIBUNE ILLUSTRATED SIPPLE-VFENT.

GIKTS TO THE MUSEUM OF NATURALHISTORY.

SOME VALUABLE FOSSILS.

ANCIENT LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA—GROUNDSLOTHS. ARMORED ANIMALS AND TIIK

SABRB TOOTHED TIGER.

The department of the American Museum of

Natural History to which fossils of vertebratesbelong has recently been enriched by two im-portant additions. One of them was the gift

of Morris K.Jesup, president of that institution,

and consists of the second part of the famousCope collection of North American material.The other acquisition, also purchased from the

estate of the late Professor Cope, embracesSouth American fossils exclusively. The Mu-seum is Indebted for it to H. O. Havemeyer,

William E. Dodge, D. Willis James, JamesConstable, Adrian Iselin and Henry F. Osborn.

The last named is curator of vertebratepaleontology in the Museum. The South Ameri-can fossils are now being unpacked and pre-pared for exhibition by Dr. W. D. Matthew, as-Bistant curator. One of the most striking objects in the exhibit

Fio.imen of this genus Is to bo shown at the

Museum of Natural History, and is one of themost valuable reaiures of the pampean collec-

tion. Some naturalists call this animal a "lesto-

don," but Dr. Matthew prefers tin- other name.

A still smaller ground sloth, the scelidot herium,

about as big as a Polar bear, is also representedin the recent purchase from the Cbpe estate

The jaws and some of the bones of a toxodon,

an animal something like a rhinoct roa in sizeand hnving the hoof of an ox, constitute a

valuable item in the collection.Of the armored animals, which were contem-

poraries and relatives of the sloths, the glypto-

don is perhaps the most famous. This was anenormous creature, and bore not only a "cara-pace" on Its back, but bony shields on its headand tail also. These monsters remind one ofthe turtle; but the glyjftodon was a mammaland the turtle a reptile, and the latter had nocovering on its head and tail. The glyptodon se-cured for the Museum is not complete, but alarge number of bones have been obtained.

Among the many other specimena purchasedfrom the Cope estate are two curious animalsthat resemble rodents In some particular andthe rhinoceros in others.

A PICTURESQUE WORKER OP THI j^SIDE.

The rag carpet business is not what it -^to be. Any one with an eye for carpets naZInfer so much from the abundance and the k-prices of serviceable carjSets not mad* of r»»to be seen in the housefurnishing stores. Bqtmore direct way of reaching the 3ame conch,sion is from the obvious fact that many of fasexperience In life of to-day hardly kr.'.w whurag carpet is. For the information of suchj!may be as well to say here that a rag c*n» Iis a woven fabric in which the place of yanjt Itaken by narrow strips of rag sewn "X*th»IYour rags may be of wool, of cotton, or of gjkIor mixed. Any oM rags willdo for •-.. purpog»though, to be sure, the material ousjht to ••»strong enough to stand some strain ia tk> Iprocess of weawtag and some hard west aft. fit has been woven. In this way you may bjl.your floor covering a memorial of thf- i»j>anjisplendors of your wardrobe and tread the tjjities of this wicked world under foot.

The veteran weaver of raga who appears a

the illustration is willingto give of his coma,erahle store of reminiscence in connection w»Vthis, to him. lamentable subject. He sits ithiloom in an Kast Side hasemeat, about half »abetween First-aye. and Avenue A, and rteafcthe time when, thirty-three years ago. he can*to N>w-York from Bavaria and found qqhthan a thousand hand weavers of rag earn**.here.

"Some dead, some gone to different places, ortaken up other trades," he answers. Ifyon aAIhim what has bcroase of all these skilled arti-sans "There va.s no work for them any tact*If it was not for the hospitals and tae oUwomen's homes, Iwould n<it have enoutrh workto make a living. There ar<- not more than fl;.teen of us left in New-York now. Ionly kao*of three on the Kast Side."

His allusion to the hospitals and homes la wplained by the custom of employing old and fee-ble women, who are past almost all oth^r kia<4of work, to cut and sew together the strips ,jrags for making these carpets. Th-ise '

Pasj»brought to the weaver in large balls and anwound on the ehwtttea by aaeaaa of an inrha.|spinning wheel. The carpets, once woven, im^warm, noiseless, economical floor coverings-^hospitals and such places. Given tht- balls <grags, all properly sewn, the weaver charss konly about 30 cents a yard for making the es>i

THE RAG WEAVER,

MISKKAKI.K CAUAVANSAKIKS WHKKK THt) NKKI'Y

CAN RAT AND HL.KKI'.

Paris correspondence of The Pall Mall OazetteThe municipal authorities are taking special

measures to (ope with the suffering caused bythe present intense coML Owing to the facts thatthe workhouse system does not exist in Franceand that there is no exact equivalent in Paristo the coinrnofi lodging house* ol London, £*-shifts or the outcast population to provide thafD>selves with a muhr's shelter are v» ry differentin the two capitals.

For such of the destitute a-s DOSSesa a f'-vvsous th.re are two principal resorts. Thluxurious is the Algle d*Or, a sort of beggarscaravansary, installed, by the Irony of Ithe spacious and ancient building thai was oncethe mansion oj De la RaynJe, who in his life-time was the SWOrn enemy and t> rror of allvagabonds. This establishment la kept l>y a wellknown character, M Andre Betval « h«. is fearedby his clients on account of his herculeanstrength, but liked for his good nature, whichoften leads him to give credit to i11 customers.

For fourpeiic. a night M. Belval provl leicomer with a bed lo himself an appreciableluxury. The ground Boot is strictly reservedfor the old arid infirm, and is known to thehabitues ;is "The Senate

"It is preceded, curi-

ously enough, by a courtyard, known from timeimmemorial as the "Hitrh Court." M Belval isrenowned for the strictness with which hekeeps order. No quarrelling is allowed in thedormitories. At the first signs ol a disturbancethe giant proprietor is on the spot, and thecelerity with which he evicts recalcitrant cus-tomers is said to be a si^ht to witness.

A still more famous establishment is that ofFradin in the line Saint Denis. In a threestoried house, supplemented by two baseinearly a thousand ragged and r..ilorn individ-uals are accommodated every night in winterThey pay four sous, or twopence, for either abowl of soup, a cup of coffee or a irlass of beer.and the riu'ht to sleep as best they can, huddledtogether at the tables or stretched on th-Those who visit this inferno in the course of astumming expedition through Paris carry awaj

with them the recollection of an odor that itmay be hop.-.I has no known equivalent. Thebusiness done by Fradin, who is proud of refer-ring to the big dowry he proposes to give hisdaughter, is most profitable, and it is surprisingthat there should be practically no rival estab-lishment The oft described "Pete Lunette'used to be conducted on much the same lines.but it has wreath fallen In prosperity, if notin reputation

—which would be difficult—and has

degenerated into a mere cafe of the lowest class.

RKSORTB FOR PARIS POOR.

aware whether this were the rase or not, a." h»"was away from Helsingfors at the time.It is by such methods by a continuous sys-

tem of nagging and spying that their life Umade a burden to the Finnish people, and it isby this means that th>- Governor Oeaerad hopesto provoke a resistance which could have butone ending.

THE SABRE TOOTHED TIGER.An extinct monster of the South American pampiis.

(Copyright, IH~7. by the American Museum of Natural History.*

MEGATHERIUM. OR GROUND SLOTH.A colossal vegetarian of the now extinct race.

(Copyright. ISB4. by the American Museum of Natural H I

pet, and it is a yard wide. The work is harden;perhaps, than the weaving of threads, howeverthick; but to judge of the raftsm- n by thisone specimen they are a sturdy b* 'h-rhoo4This one is about sixty years old. an \ thonshunder middle height, he looks as if he coulieasily put down the average wrestler or" twentj-five. In his own particular craft of \u25a0 stlinfwith a substantial loom, his stint cf work foran hour Is not much under a yard, ami he caaweave from t> o'clock in the morning to S tlthe evening, or lonarer. at a pinch.

What affords boom relief t.> his sorrow for ta» jdecay of his trade and regrets because hitfather would not let him be a blacksmith, litehis brother, who rode through two . .irs assquadron farrier in th« Prinz Otto Cuirassier*is his mirth provoking memory of a visit to therural districts of Sullivan County. Tl \u25a0\u25a0 peopltof those regions, as everybody knows, are large-ly of Dutch extraction, and rag carpets are,or were lately, stili in vogw there. But th»Sullivan County idea of a rafl carpet— a thinfthat would not last you a year— and the Sulli-van County looms and their workmanship are. Iaccording to this authority, so comical to I

judge of rag carpets that he had to do violenceto himself during his stay there to rostrain h!Jlaughter for the sake of courtesy. Itseems tla

The naturalist is interested in the earlierforma of life not simply for what they were, but

also because of their differences from existingforms. It Is thus possible often to trace outlines of evolution that would otherwise be ob-scure. How, in the pampas of South Americathere were two (lasses of animals that weremore closely related to each other than theirpresent representatives are. These were theground sloths and the armored creatures whosemodern type is found in the armadillo.

The sloth of to-day is a moderately small ani-mal, that lives in the branches of trees alto-gether, and hangs from them by his huge

curved claws. He is a strut v >getarian. H-*ats foliage. The ancestral sloth of SouthAmerica subsisted on the same diet, but hadharder work to obtain his food. He lived on thesurface of the earth, from which circumstancehe is known as the ground sloth. However, hewas a gigantic creature. The biggest memberof the family, called the megatherium byOuvier, was undoubtedly eighteen or twenty

feel long, including a short but stout tail that

served much as a kangaroo's does, as a means•f support when th< animal sat on his haunchesa»ul reached upward. This is really the charac-teristic attitude of the megatherium, althoughsome specimens have been mounted in a hori-zontal position. The bones of this animal areheavier than those of an elephant. The thighbones are so s t"Ut that the length is scarcelymore than thrice their thickness. The ridges onthem, for the attachment of muscles, further il-lustrate the tremendous strength of the animal.which was exerted, no doubt, In mighty wrestlesWith trees in order to uproot or break them offWithout some such effort the foliage would haveremained inaccessible.

Another ground sloth almost equal in size tothe megatherium was the mylodon. A nne

These latter specimens were included in threedifferent collections, the Ameghino, the Lar-roque and Brachet, sent from the Argentine Re-public to the Paris Exposition of IN7H. Pro-fessor Cope was so captivated with them thathe purchased them outright and brought themto this country. Although in fairly good condi-tion, and almost fit for mounting withoutfurther attention, they have remained packedaway out of sight for over twenty years. Theanimals whose petrified bones these fossils areonce lived in the pampas, from which fact thecollection is designated by the adjective "pam-pean." They belong to a very recent period geo-logically, the Pleistocene; but they date backto or beyond the time when a vast ice sheetcovered a large portion of North America.

This field has never before be -n well repre-sented inthe handsome edifice in West Seventy-seventh-st. But nothing superior to it can nowbe found anywhere else in the world, exceptpossibly in the Argentine Republic. The manystudents of natural history who visit the insti-tution which Hanks Central Park on the westare to be congratulated upon the opportunitiessoon to be afforded them for obtaining informa-tion about the extinct monsters of South Amer-laa.

Mr. Hayrix -Heow much do yew charge forpullin'a tooth?

Dentist— One dollar with gas— so cents with-out.

Mr. Hayrix—Say, young feller, don't yew trynone o' yer bunco games on me. Mebby Idewlook kind o* green, but Ireckon Iain't goin' tergive up no 50 cents extry for gas when it's broaddaylight.

WOT TO BM BVJfCOED,From The Chicago News.

though it is still shown to ingenuous tourists aaa typical "dosshouse."

The official arrangements for giving a night'sshelter- to the absolutely penniless are very In-adequate. There are only four night refugesmaintained out of the public funds. Those,however, who are able to obtain admittance arewell treated, as they are given a good bowl ofsoup and a bed similar to that of the Frenchsoldier. A bath is obligatory on all applicantsfor shelter, and they are given a son of uni-form to wear while their clothes are disinfected.To supplement these refuges the authoritiesare issuing gratuitous lodging tickets, the re-cipients of which are quartered in the low classhotels The flaming brasiers which were a pict-uresque feature of the populous districts ofParis on winter nights are to be suppressed thisseason, the municipality having decided. f.>rreasons that are not very apparent, that theyd.> little good. This did not seem to be theopinion of the shivering unfortunates who usedto crowd round them.

NAGGING ESPIONAGE IS FINLAND.Helsingfors correspondence of The London

Chronicle.Now, if th. re be one system which appears toan Englishman more despicable than any other,

it is that of agent provocateur, and it is uponthis syst.-m that General Bobrikofl is relying tostil UP •>• revolt in Finland, which would atonce become the ex< use for a complete wipingout of the nation For the furtherance and de-Bired carrying out of the plan, the GovernorGeneral has overrun the country with a largenumber uf "gendarmes" or secret police agents,whose work is of a purely political nature, andwho are in fact nothing but spies. The gendar-merie Is a body which is much employed inRussia, where it is all powerful, but until re-cently such an institution was unknown in Fin-land.

Let me give an idea of the way in which thisforce is employed t<. aggravate the people byus espionage. The Governor Genera] has unitelately commanded the Senate to forward to theBishop's Chapti r a dcinniciati.ni of severalclerics of the I.nth. ran faith because that "incertain Lutheran churches unsuitable reflec-tions, not appertaining to a Christian sermonand having reference to the present politicalBtate ol Finland, have been mad.-" One min-ister to whom the indictment referred had thetemerity to reply that he was not answerableto the Govi rnor General for the contents of hissermons, and that when a charge was muleagainst him he possessed the right to know inspecific terms in what manner he bad offendedand to be furnished with the name of his ac-cuser.

Everybody in Finland of any social standingor importance is to-day subjected to a strictsurveillance, and all thai he ur she may say ordo is duly reported to General Bobrikofl by hisfaithful gendarmerie, and it is in this way' thatthey try to the utmost the tempers of a peoplehitherto accustomed to an untrammelled free-dom ofspeech and act ion. Iquote yet another in-stance of those acts uf petty tyranny and annoy-ance which ar«- now of almost daily occurrence.A bank manager in Helsingfors was surprisednot long ago by a visit from one of Bobrikoff'sagents. "It is my duty to ask yen whether itis true thai the Hag over your hank was Byingat the half mast yesterday?" began the banker'sunwt [come guest. "1 believe so." was the reply,"and as a sign of respect t.. the memory of the

\u25a0lead l'risi.i. Nt <.f the House of Burghers." Theagent then cam.- t,, business. "We have infor-mation that the flag was not at the half maston the o< < asion of th \u25a0 death i.f the Grand Duku."The banker could only reply that he was not

about to be made is a skeleton of the sabretoothed tii,rcr. This animal was not peculiar toSouth America. It has been found all the wayfrom the tip of Patagonia up to Alaska, andthence across Asia to Northern Europe. Theparticular genus found in the pampas is theMachserodus necator. It was about as large asa grizzly bear, though much more axile. Itsmost striking characteristic was a pair of tusksthat projected from the upper Jaw and attaineda length ofseven inches. Wolfs fine drawing ofthis animal, presented to the Museum byProfessor Daniel Blliott,of the Field ColumbianMuseum, of Chicago, nearly or quite equals inexcellence the restorations which have wonCharles- Knight, of this city, such a high reputa-tion. It is reproduced in The Tribune to-day.The illustration of the megatherium, by Smith,is a water color which for some time has beenth.- property of the Institution in Seventy-sev-enth-st.

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