Smoke And Powder

It is always pleasant to read of in tance in which would-be practical jokers hare had a chance to sample their own wares. In "Life in California," Alfred Robinson tells of a Señor Lugo, who often amused the travelers ty his stories and eccentricities, and one evening attempted a practical Joke, ■with the following result: He had loaded a paper cigar with gunpowder and placed it among his cigarros. During his visit with mè he repeatedly asked me to smoke, but I fortunately missed the cigar he had prepared, until finally, trom the lateness of the hour, he withdrew. In the course of the night he awoke, and feeling a desire to smoke, eelected from his bundie, quite forgetful of the evening's amusement, the very cigar he had prepared for me. Having lighted it, he returned to bed. The cigar was about half consumed and he more than half asleep, when a eudden explosión carried away the better part of his mustache, and so thoroughly frightened his poor wife that I venture to say the event will never be forgotten.