Bachelor Brie-a-Brac.
Have ycra over looked loco a bachelor's room
In the gloaming twixt dinner and pipe,
While he lies on the lonnge in a poetio gloom,
And the fruit of bli fanoy 1 ripe t
The Angelos-belli, with their nrasloal clang,
Are appealing in Tain to hli eart
Tia the inmmons to prayer, but he don't care
a bang
The goda that he worships are here.
" In hi chamber the trophiei of battle are stored i
He reckons hli eoara by the aoorej
The mammas he enraptured, the daughters he
bored,
The mittens, and heartaches galore.
There are cushions of satin, and filigreed mats,
With monograms, ever bis own;
There are mouchoir -oases, embroidered cravats,
And frills for his jars of cologne;
There's a tiny slipper he captnred by chance
From the qneen of the ballet stars; ,
Its triumphs are over, a truce to romance
It is sacred to Club House cigars.
Love-letters are lashed to a broken fan
With a ribbon of faded blue,
From Marie, who married the wrong, wrong
man,
And is now a mother or two.
8ome tresses of hair, from raven to gold;
Handfuls of nameless curie;
He may have forgotten the sweethearts of old,
But they're warranted, all of them, girls I
There's a perfumed glove, a fragment of lace,
And the fringe of a silken sash;
Six photographs of a sad, sweet face
The spoils of his latest mash;
There's a flowing girdle of cardinal red,
That is coiled like the canning asp
Oh sonnet unwritten! Oh poem unsaid!
It is clasped with a golden clasp.
Of such Is the bachelor's brio-a-brac;
Need 1 tell you what it is for?
It's his pride as he lies with his heart on the
rack,
Lazily waiting for war.
Prom the waters beneath to the heavens above,
My baoholor hero has found
la the wide, wide world there is nothing but
love,
And there's more than enough to go round.
A Woman's Energy.
In Eizabeth street, not far from
Broome, New York, stands a dingy, old
fashioned bouse, managed by an Eng
lish woman npon the stereotyped Eng
lish lodging-house principle. Tb is house
is owned by, and has for years been the
residence of, a woman whose career pos
sesses some extraordinary features, who
CDmmecced with nothing and amassed a
fortune of $1,000,000 by real estate op
erations, and at seventy years of age is
intending to finish her career in the
world by writing a treatise on religion
and soience. More than fifty years ago
a yonng girl in an interior oonnty in
that State walked thirty mile to engage
the vacant prinoipalship of a village
academy. Although not competent to
pass an examination for the vaoanoy,
the trustees were struck by the indom
itable plack of the yonng rnstio, and
kindly promised her the situation if she
would prepare herself to pass an exam
ination within the two months' vacation
between the spring and fall terms. The
girl went home, shut herself up in a
little garret room, lived on bread and
water, quarreled with her mother about
the housework, and applied herself
night and day to arithmetic, geography
and grammar. Bat when sturdy little
Louisiana St. John reported for exam
ination, at the expiration of the two
months, she answered every question
triumphantly, and entered upon her du
ties as the prinoipal of a village acad
emy. For more than twenty years Miss
St. John pursued the career of a peda
gogue, amassing money dollar by dol
lar, and investing her savings with cir
cumspection, until she thought herself
financially strong enough to abandon
the schoolma'am's desk and remove to
New York. At first her operations in
real estate were small and tentative, the
Englishwoman, then young and active,
acting as her agent But sncoessful ac
cumulation engenders confidence, and
the year 1S73, memorable for its finan
cial crisis, found the adventurous school
ma'am operating on a large scale in
Western land, St. Louis city lots, etc,
and exercising from her little parlor in
Elizabeth street a potent influence on
the market. Her habits are peculiar and
methodical. Rising with the sun, she
lays out the business of the day with
mathematical preoision before break
fast, and issues her instructions to her
trusted lieutenants, giving minute di
rections as to the conduct of each enter
prise, and holding each subordinate to a
military accountability. Altboughjsev
enty years old and suffering from dropsy,
not six months ago this indomitable old
lady journeyed unattended to St. Louis,
and there, week after week, while the
bridge across the river was in progress,
looked after the interests of a large
property likely to be affected by that en
terprise. Beset with sharpers and in
terested parties of all sorts, her woman's
insight rapidly sifts out the false from
the true, and protects her million alike
from the speculative enterprises of the
visionary and from the bubble compa
nies of the professional financier. She
will tell you, nevertheless, with a sigh,
in a moment of confidence, that her
whole life has been a failure, and her
splendid fortune only a trouble to her
for these many years; that she would
give her million for a toddling little
granddaughter, but, in the absence of
the granddaughter, means to leave it to
found any institution that shall in some
way benefit humanity.
A military man, pitching into an op
ponent, exclaimed: 'Why, his pword
was never drawn but once, and that was
in a raffle.'
Cotton Fluor.
The following, Irom an exhaustive pa
per on the natural history of cotton, was
read before the Boston Society of Nat
oral History by Henry O. Kittredge,
whose able reports on wool at the Cen -.
tennial exhibition will be remembered:
The cotton fiber is a hollow, elongated
cylinder, the walla of wbioh are of the
purest and thinnest cellulose, filled with
a sap or protoplasm, more or less glu
tinous, which in the state of maturation
becomes dense by the dissipation of the
volatile parts, causing the filament to
assume a spiral convolution. During
the process of ripening the fiber col
lapses, presenting the appearance of a
fiat ribbon with thickened margins. In
proportion to the abundance of the dry
glutine and the amount of twist in the
fiber, so its strength and pliability, two
of the chief values for manufacturing
purposes.
The glutinous composition gives what
is called the 'body' to the cotton, which
is more copious in rioh cotton as is
grown on rich land, which aooounts for
the superiority in strength of such cot
ton over that grown on poor soil. The
direction of the twist in the fiber is va
riable, and not always complete, there
being quarter, half, three-quarter, full
turns.
Tne number of sinuations to an inoh
differs according to the nature of the
cotton, but seldom exceeding 150; nor
are they uniform throughout the fiber.
The largest number of twists to the inoh
that ever came under my observation
was 160, including half turns. I am
inclined to the opinion that the fineness
and softness of cotton' are dependent
greatly upon relative humidity of the
atmosphere. The fineness of the fibers
averages not far from 1,000 diameters to
the inoh.
The chemical analysis of the seed and
fiber demonstrates the existence of
potash, lime and magnesia as the prin
cipal constituents in various combina
tions. The moBt satisfactory analysis
which I have seen is this: For the ash
of the seed, sixty per cent, phosphate of
lime, thirty per cent, phosphate of pot
ash and ten per cent, of other sub
stances. For the ash of the fiber, thirty
three and one-third per cent, phosphate
of potash, sixteen and two-thirds per
cent, phosphate of lime, twelve and one
half per cent, phosphoric! aoid, and
thirt-Aseven and one-half per cent,
magnesia and other elements. A bale
of lint cotton of 400 pounds, thoroughly
incinerated, woald yield about four
pounds of ash, half of which is made up
of phosphates cf potash and lime.
The seed from which this lint is taken,
etuos 800 pounds, reduced to an qss
would yield about fifty pounds, over
half of which is composed of phosphates
of lime and potash, the lime preponder
ating. Tnese conBtitu -nts, as found in
the seed, are who ly, or nearly so, from
the hull, the kernel famishing but little.
It is well known that the natural color
of cotton is white, reddish or yellow; but
the composition of these colors has never
been satisfactorily explained, any more
than it is thought they are allied with
'some pectine and resinous substances
which can be removed by treatment with
diluted alkaline solutions. ' . -
For the most favorable results the
plant requires a uniform temperature,
a singular adjustment of heat and mois
ture, a peculiar equilibrium in the cli
matic relations between the mountains
and the sea, abundant rains during the
planting season, frequent and gentle
showers while flowering and fruiting,
and a rainless period at maturation and
gathering. It is one of the least ex
haustive of any known crop plants; that
is, if the stalk and the seed are retained
to the soil and nothing but the lint taken
from it. It is said that an average crop
of wheat (ten bushels) takes from an
acre of land about thirty-two pounds of
vegetable food, such as potash, lime,
magnesia and nitrogen; while of these
elements the cotton plant removes in
lint only two and three-quarter pounds
per acre, presuming 450 pounds of seed
cotton to the acre.
The Climate of Leadville.
A traveler in Colorado gives this in
sight into the weather at Leadville, the
town whiob has so marvelonsly sprung
np: This Rocky mouutain weather is a
puzzle to every one from the East. The
days at this season are usually as warm
as can be comfortably endured; but ev
ery night it freezes hard. Our first
morning duty was always to break tl:e
ice in our water-bucket with an axe, for
no lighter instrument would answer. In
the midst of any of these sunny days,
which are almost as warm as they are
having in New York at this season, a
black cloud may suddenly blow np from
the mountains and shower down snow
for an hour and then pass off as sudden
ly, leaving the cfternoon as hot as ever.
With such vicissitudes of weather in
twenty-four hours it is not strange that
all kinds of colds are prevalent and
pneumonia very fatal. I should judge
that every third person that one meets
on the main stteet has his throat swath
ed. A Leadville swell no longer consid
ers himself completely dressed until his
attire is set off by a strip of brilliant
flannel aronnd his neck. It is the fre
quency of these severe and often fatal
colds together with the numerous cases
of lead poisoing among the smelters,
which have given to Leadville its repu
tation for nn healthiness. I cannot dis
cover deaths from other causes are
especially common there, unless it may
be from overdoses of bad whisky.
There has been discovered near Bowles- Owing to the numerous checks which
burg, West Virginia, belonging to Sen- the British government has put npon
ator H. G. Davis, on Cheat river, a the importation of live cattle from this
large body of pnre and solid ice, formed country, as it conflicts with the busi
last winter. Hundreds of people are ness of their butchers, New York mar
daily visiting the epot to view the curi- ketmen have revived the trade of send
obity. The same thing is remembered ing dressed beef, new inventions having
to have occurred in 1800, when it was obviated the difficulty of keeping the
regarded as very curious. meat fresh,
The Art of Bouquet Making
It seems an easy thing to make a bou
quet as one looks over the garden and
sees the beautiful flowers. But after all
it is a difficult matter and one sometimes
forgets that flowers have their affinities
and preferences, as well as the human
race. Above all give them room and not
crowd them. When flowers are massed
neavily together all lose their beauty. I
saw an arrangement of flowers yesterday
where two lovely day lilies that would
have been beautiful if grouped alone in
a slender vase with a few ferns or green
spires, but whose effect was ruined by
being put in the center of a mass of lark
spurs and common garden flowers. The
common flowers only looked the more
oommon in contrast with the lilies, and
the lilies looked as though caught in very
coarse company.
For vases and bouquets of any sort
there should be plenty of white for the
foundation. When stemless flowers are
used, like a tuberose or a single gera
nium, stems can be made by putting the
ends inside of straws and then wiring it
in: when arranged in the bouquet the
straw cannot be seen, but the flowers can
be kept fresh by absorbing the water.
A pretty arrangement is to take a spike
of scarlet gladiolus, with its brilliant
coloring, arrange it with feathery grass
es aud gleams of white feverfew here
and there, and you will have a lovely
spot of coloring for some dark comer.
Again, petunias and morning glories are
difficult to combine with any flower, but
give them a wide-mouthed vase and a
few leaves and they are positively grace
ful. All lilies I think are prettiest if no
other flowers are mixed with them.
For small vases a very good way is to
clip them off and put them in carelessly
as they come, then they will look natural;
too much arrangement often spoils the
looks of a vase of flowers. For either
hand or vase bouquets do not put too
many colors together.
Tom Jackson's Queer Pet.
Tom Jackson, of this city, says the
Virginia (Nev.) Enterprise, has a train
ed horned toad wbioh is quite a curiosi
ty. It is as tame as a kitten and in a
quiet way is fall of fun. Mrs. Jaokson
has trained the little fellow to stand
erect upon his hind feet, to stand on his
head, steadying himself with his fore
paws; to turn over on his back and sham
dead and to do qnite a number of similar
tricks. Tom says he thinks she will soon
have the toad trained to play the jews
harp quite as well as the average Piute
musician. The toad is fed on flies and
similar insects, but is also very fond of
milk, which it drinks from a spoon.
Although always called the horned-toad
or horned-frog in this country, the little
beast is a lizard. Naturalists called it
an iguanian lizard of the genus p?irynos
oma. Our mountaineers, who are often
qnite as close obseivers of every living
thing met with in the wilds as any nat
uralist, speak of a thing characteristic of
the horned-toad that we have never seen
mentioned by any of the scientists. It is
that when the female is teased by a dog
it ejects two small streams or slender
threads of blood at least a red liquid
resembling blood. The liquid is spurted
to the distance of nearly two feet and
with considerable force. The liquid is
evidently provided the little animal as a
means of defense against foxes, wolves
and trnh animals, and whatever may be
its nature it renders a dog very uncom
fortable in the region of the stomach.
One dose of it satisfies his curiosity.
A Woman's Advice.
Make home a home, and make it one
in every sense of the word. My hus
band is a great smoker; he loves to play
cards, dominoes and chess; he is at per
fect liberty to smoke in any ioom in the
house, and I am always ready and will
ing to join him in the different games.
I endeavor in every way to be not only a
helpmate, but a companion to him, and
the result has been that I have and en
joy his society; he prefers spending his
evenings at home with me to seeking
other society. I cannot understand
why women will run the riBk of losing
their husbands' society and love merely
for the sake of gratifying an over-fastidious
taste. If they do not like tobacco,
did they object to bis using it during
the days of courtship? And if they ob
jected then and failed, why did they
marry? If men will not give up such
habits at the solicitation of their sweet
he irts, it is not likely they will be per
suaded out of them by their wives; there
fore I think it unwise for a woman to
risk her happiness by quarreling with
her husband over a venial fault, the ex
istence and extent of which she knew
and perfectly understood before she
took upon herself the duties of a wife.
A Kevada Story.
At Omaha a disgusting exhibition is in
progress in the shape of a rooster,
whioh although having nis head out off,
still lives. His head was out off in Kan
sas four months ago, and the rooster ran
under a house, whence in a day or two
he was taken out alive, having refused
to die. The present proprietor hearing
of it bought it for $50, and he says he
has refused $7,0C0 for it. He claims he
is making a mint of money out of it The
bird is fed in the throat and takes nour
ishment rapidly; is in fat condition, and
stands up and walks around at leisure.
Surgeons explain it by saying that the
head was cut off at the base of the brain
near the end of the spinal column, which
was not broken. The head is prepared in
alcohol.
Canse of the Coolness Between Russia
and Germany.
After keeping the whole diplomatic
world of Europe in one continuous flut
ter for more than a month, the origin of
the cold wave whioh suddenly struck
the Basso-German alliance, blighted its
cordiality, and prevented the Bassian
emperor from being present at his un
ole's golden wedding, has at last been
found out. A certain Major Von Lieg
nitz, attached to the German legation at
St. Petersburg as its military member,
had some time ago the great misfortune
to have, not only his money, but also
his papers stolen from him. The thief
was caught and the money was prompt
ly restored by the police, but the papers
were sent on a trip through the secret
bureaus of the Russian administration,
and here some disagreeable discoveries
were made. The major's criticism was
very free and not so very kind in its
tone. This, however, could properly be
considered and treated as merely a per
sonal affair. But the papers also show
ed that the German government kept
itself posted about everything military
in Russia with a minuteness which look
ed very much like an actual preparation,
and whioh in a striking manner reminded
the Russian government of the startling
familiarity which the Prussian staff de
veloped in 1870-71 with all French mat
ters. The result was that Major Von
Leignitz immediately returned to Ber
lin, though without his papers, and a
few weeks afterward the French ambas
sador, Gen. Chaney, was invited to in
spect one of the new seaports at Kron
stadt, while the German ambassador was
left out in the cold.
Some Interesting Facto.
The air we breathe contains five grains
of water to each cubic foot of its bulk.
The potatoes and turnips which are boil
ed for our dinner, have, in their raw
state, the one 75 per cent., the other
90 per cent, of water. If a man weigh
ing ten stone were squeezed flat in a
hydraulic press, seven and a half stone
of water would run out, and only two
and a half of dry residue remain. A
man is, chemically speaking, forty-five
pounds of carbon and nitrogen diffused
through five and a half pailf uls of water.
In plants we find water thus mingling
no less wonderfully. A sunflower evap
orates one and a quarter pints of water a
day, and a cabbage about the same
quantity. A wheat plant exhales, in 172
days, about 100,000 grains of water. An
acre of growing wheat, on this calcula
tion, draws and passes out about ten tons
of water per day. The sap of plants is
the medium through which this mass of
fluid is conveyed. It forms a delicate
pump, np through which the watery
particles run with the rapidity of a swift
stream. By the action of the sap, various
properties may be commnnioated to the
growing plant timber in France, for
instance, dyed by various colors being
mixed with water, and poured over the
roots of the tree. Dahlias are also col
ored by a similar process.
A Jieeded Improvement.
Some of the Western cities, notably
Pittsburg, Cincinnati and Chicago,
which have been for years hopelessly
begrimed by the burning of soft coal,
are delighted with the proposed plan of
washing the smoke, so that when passing
fiom the chimney it will not, it is said,
soil a white handkerchief. They fear
that this is almost too good to be true,
but they are encouraged to believe that
the present nuisance of thick, black,
perpetual smoke can at least be greatly
abated. Cincinnati has long been nearly
as bad as Pittsburg, and Chios go has
been steadily growing from bad to
worse. St. Louis, Louisville and other
cities where manufactures are increas
ing are suffering from continually fall
ing soot, and the method of getting rid
of it will, if successfully adopted, be a
material blessing. No one who has not
lived in Pittsburg or Cincinnati can have
any idea of the detestableness of the
smoke, which shuts out the sky, de
stroys the purity of the air, soils build
ings, clothes, people, snd renders life
burdensome. When those towns are
purified their best friends will hardly
know them. The advantage will be in
calculable. Poor Girls.
The poorest girls in the world are
those who have never been taught to
work. There are thousands of them.
Bicb parents have petted them ; they
have been taught to despise labor, and
depend upon others for living, and are
perfectly helpless. If misfortune comes
npon their friends, as it often does.their
case is hopeless.
The most forlorn and miserable wo
men upon earth belong to this class. It
belongs to parents to protect their daugh
ters from this deplorable condition.
They do them a great wrong if they neg
lect it Every daughter ought to be
taught to earn her own living. The rioh
as well as the poor require training.
The wheel of fortune rolls swiftly round;
the rich are very likely to become poor,
and the poor rich. Skilled to labor is
no disadvantage to the rich, and is in
dispensable to the poor. Well-to-do
parents must educate their children to
work. No reform is more imperative
than this.
A pair of sparrow-hawks entered the
barn of R. W. Garritt, a farmer of the
town of Ballston, Md., last spring, and
usurped the nesting place of a pair of
doves in which they inenbated and rear
ed their young till near maturity, when
the farmer seized the young hawks,
three in number, which he is raising as
mousers. They are as tame as young
chickens, and their voracious appetites
make them as efficient as a oat in de
stroying mice.
It is easier to forget a favor than an
injury,
FOB THE FARMER'S HOUSEHOLD.
Greea Pens ftnd Oata for Cows.
Fodder-oorn is almost universally
raised to feed cows while on short pas
ture in the fall, and is so valuable an
addition to their food that every dairy
man should raise about one-eighth of an
acre of it for each cow kept; but it
should also be remembered that cows
require a variety. It is not good econ
omy to depend one kind of green food,
and especially one containing so little
albuminoid matter as fodder-corn.
Clover and a mixture of meadow grasses
may be relied npon alone, but corn
should always be fed with some more
nitrogenous food. It does very well
with half pasture, fer the grasses will
supply the albuminoid matter.
There are other green crops that
should be raised to be fed with corn;
and we know of none better than peas
and oats, sown together one third oats
and two-thirds peas three bushels of
the mixed seed per acre, with drill. On
land in good condition a large crop may
be raised, having a value second to no
other. Peas and oats are equal to olover,
and may be raised on a great variety of
soils a most important consideration.
We have raised twelve tons of this green
food to the acre, and this would feed
twenty-four cows ten days without any
other food. The pea is rich in caseine
just what is required to make milk
and the oat is also rioh in the elements
of milk. These two crops grow well to
gether, for the oats hold the peas up and
prevent them from lying too fiat on the
ground. They mature so near together
that they are both ready to cnt at the
same time. Bat the crop should always
be cut when the pea pod is full and the
grain in the milk. It is then very suc
culent and palatable, and will produce
as much milk as any food we know of,
aside from a large variety of pasture
grasses in their most succulent state. If
the dairyman has green fodder-corn also
let him feed the corn, peas and oats to
gether. He need never fear giving too
much variety at once. In an old pas
ture cows find from twenty to fifty varie
ties of grass, to be eaten at the same
time. This is what gives such fine flavor
to the milkers on old pastures; it gath
ers and concentrates the aroma of all
these plants, and it must have a more
delicious flavor than that made from one
kind of food, such as corn or rye, or
even red clover, alone.
Italian Bees.
All who have tried them agree to the
superiority of the Italian bee over the
common blacks. To say that they are
not is like saying that a short-horn is
nowise superior to the lean, long Texas
scrub; or that Essex or Berkshire swine
are no better than the long, lank hazel
splitter, with infinite noses. I have only
space in this artiole to mention some of
their superior qualities. They possess
longer tongues, hence can gather honey
from flowers whioh are useless to the
black bee; they are more active and will
collect more honey; they work earlier
and later, both in the day and season;
they are far better to protect their hives
against robbers; they are almost proof
against the bee moth; the queens are
more prolific; the queen is more readily
found . I would rather undertake to find
three Italian queens than one black. It
is frequently necessary to find the qneen
in a hive, and this advantage alone is of
vast importance. The bees are more
disposed to adhere to the comb. Anoth
er sufficient ground alone, is that the
bees are far more amiable; if they are
treated kindly they can be handled near
ly any time without smoke.
Domestic Notes.
To prevent pib paste from soaking
the liquid contained in the filling of the
pie, glaze the under crust with a beaten
egg.
Fecit Canning. Put a pint of warm
water in a basin, and lay in a flaunel
folded several thicknesses, being careful
that the flannel is larger than the bot
tom of the dish. Place your empty jar
on the flannel, and pour in yoi fruit
boiling hot A large number of cans can
be filled without changing the water,
with no danger of breaking. This simple
method saves much time and trouble.
Based Ego Plant. Cut it into slices
three-fourths of an inch thick and lay in
salt water for an hour or more. Wipe the
pieces dry and dip into beaten egg, then
into bread crumbs or cracker dust; have
the fat hot in your pan, just enough to
prevent sticking and put them into the
oven until done. This will be found a
better way than frying, and they are
very light and delicious. Season to the
taste before cooking.
Iok Cream Without a Freezer.
Beat the yelks of eight eggs very light,
and add thereto four cups sugar and stir
well Add to this, little by little, one
quart rioh milk that has been heated al
most to boiling, beating all the while,
then put in the whites of eight eggs,
beaten to a stiff froth. Then boil the
mixture in a pail set inside another con
taining hot water. Boil about fifteen
minutes, or until it is as thick as a boil
ed custard, stirring steadily meanwhile.
Pour into a bowl to cool. When qnite
cold, beat into it three pints of rich sweet
cream and five teaspoonfuls of vanilla,
or sneh other flavoring as you prefer.
Put it into a pail having a close fitting
cover and pack in pounded ice and salt
rook salt, not the oommon kind. When
packed, before putting the ioe on top of
the cover, beat the custard as you would
batter, for five minutes steady; then put
on the cover, put the ioe and salt over it
and cover the whole with a thick mat,
blanket or carpet, and let it stand for an
hour. Do not let the salt get inside, or it
will spoil the cream. Carefully uncover
and scrape from the bottom and sides of the
pail the thick coating of frozen custard,
making every particle clear, beat again
hard until the custard is a smooth, half
congealed paste. Do this thoroughly.
Pat on the cover, ioe, salt and blanket,
and leave it for five or six hours, replen
ish the ioe and Bait if necessary.
4