Russia has the most rapidly increase
iug population of any country on the
globe.
Eeports froui China say that the
women of that country are rapidly ac
quiring the bicycle habit. Oriental
progress has evidently been fitted out
with pneumatic tires.
The governmental report that only
one person in fifteen was able to earn
a living last year in Alaska ought to
have a deterring effect upon people
contemplating going to that country
in the spring. The gold craze will
probably prove too strong, and thou
sands will go there, only to find un
timely graves or to return home
broken in health and purse.
The twenty-second annual report cf
President, Arthur Von Briesen, of the
Legal Aid society of New York city,
tells of legal assistance given during
1897 to 5350 persons, of $35,979 actu
ally collected iu the office of the so
ciety, and §30,839 recovered by settle
ment outside the office. At least 3000
other applications received attention,
but did not require actual legal ser
vice, and were not recorded. The
society's business is to give legal as
sistance to persons too poor to engage
counsel. It undertakes many cases
where the claims would cost private
counsel more to collect than they are
worth. The recovery of a sewing
girl's four dollars, or an artisan's five
or six dollars, honestly earned but
withheld, comes within the scope of
society's good offices.
It lias come to be the habit to give
the whole name of a benefactor to a
university. We have Johns Hopkins,
Leland Stanford, Jr., and now the
John B. Stetson university of l)e
Land, Florida. On February 10th,
which was presentation day, President
Harper of Chicago university, and the
Hon. J. L. M. Curry of the Peabody
aud Slater funds, were present, and
gifts were announced for a new chapel
and library, erected by Mr. Stetson
at an expense of 850,003, provided
with valuable organ and a collection
for a museum of natural history by
Mrs. Monroe Heath. The announce
ment was made of SIOO,OOO additional
endowment, half of it having been
conditional, given by Mr. Stetson,
who also transferred real estate to the
value of $15,000 to the trustees. The
day thus added something like
SIBO,OOO to the property of the col
lege.
Nature seems to be able to regulate
the births of males and females with
out the help of German savants, as
serts the New York Times. It may
be remembered that Buckle found
that the average birth rate the world
over was twenty-one boys to twenty
girls, thus giving every Jill a chance
for a Jack, after allowing for the
greater death rate among males. The
Springfield Republican is authority
for the assertion that in Massachu
setts for forty years the male birth
rate relative to the female has not
noticeably changed, the number of
male births to each 1000 female birth?
iu the last twenty years being 1053 as
compared with 1059 for the preceding
twenty years. In Europe, observa
tions covering ten years indicate an
average of 10G0 males born to every
1000 females, England being at one
extreme, with 1038, and Italy at the
other, with 1071.
A corn convention held in Chicago
recently developed several schemes
for extending the use of the great
American grain. It was resolved, re
ports the Atlanta Journal, to make
elaborate exhibits of corn and the
many forms iu which it is prepared
for i'ood uses at the Omaha exposition,
the Buffalo exposition and the Paris
exposition of 1900. The present high
price of wheat has done much to im
* prove the prospects of corn as a food
product. Already a large proportion
of the flour used in this country is
made largely of corn. This flour is
cheaper than pure wheat flour and
quite as nutritious. More corn is
being consumed as food in this coun
try than ever before and the quantity
•will increase. Our corn is also be
coming more popular in Europe. The
prejudice against it among the masses
of Europe is being destroyed. They
are learning by actual experience that
corn is good as well as cheap; that it
may be prepared in many palatable
forms, and that it has excellent quali
ties as a food substance. This is the
main reason why our exports of corn
have increased so rapidly. Corn is
already our greatest crop both in size
and value, aud will continue to hold
the supremacy. The movement to
extend its use in foreign countries is
timely, and will conduce to the inter
est of nearly every section of the
country.
Great Britain controls twenty-on<
out of every 100 square miles of the
earth's surface.
Only twenty per cent, of the mur
ders committed yearly in America and
Europe are ever found out.
The funniest story of the result ol
paying bounties for animals' scalps
comes from Kansas. Sumner county
offered three cents for every rabbit's
scalp brought in. The farmers loaded
up their double-barreled howitzers,
sallied forth, killed 158,514 rabbits,
and broke the county.
One hundred and sixteen thousand,
four hundred and ninety humming
birds were sold at a recent sale in
England, and a corresponding num
ber of other birds. With regard to
the lyre-bird an eminent ornithologist
says,"This wonderful bird will soon
become a thing of the past, and with
it will disappear the sole survivor of a
very ancient race before even its
habits and structure are wholly
known."
There has been a great and general
improvement within fifteen years in
the phrasing of obituary resolutions,
maintains Harper's Weekly. Persons,
still pitiably young, may remember
when almost all the obituary resolu
tions that appeared in the newspapers
began: "Whereas it has pleased an
inscrutable Providence to remove our
late neighbor, James Smith, Resolved,
that we submit," etc. This form
seems no longer to be in general use.
The resolutions of the day take some
things for granted, and are a good
deal more tersely and simply con
trived.
In a western town the other day a
man committed suicide on being ap
prehended in the act of stealing a
dictionary from a street bookstall.
He had just purchased a bottle of
laudanum, presumably for the tooth
ache. He drained the bottle before a
hand was raised to save him. What
makes the tragedy more pitiful is the
fact that the dictionary was a Latin
lexicon. It is hard to find an expla
nation for his rash act; possibly he
knew the people with whom he had to
deal, and feared the mad-house more
thau the prison cell. He might have
been a stranded wanderer from Bos
ton.
The following surprising story is
told—as illustrative of one phase of
the character of the Russian peasant
—in a recent magazine: During the
last Russo-Turkish war, a Russian
regiment marching from Philippopolis
to Adrianople overtook the Turkish
refugees; whereupon the terrified
Turkish women threw down their in
fants in their flight. The Russian
soldiers, while pressing on as rapidly
as possible, stooped and picked up the
babies, until nearly every man in the
regiment was carrying a child, and
the general was absolutely obliged to
stop the march aud find carts and men
to transfer the children to a place of
safety.
The New York Tribune estimates
that our pension list exceeds all Ger
many's army costs by more than $40,-
000,000 a year, and is $30,000,000 more
than that of France. Only Russin's
military expenditures upon her giant
army, patrolling Europe and Asia
from the Baltic to the Yellow sea and
the Indian ocean, exceed the sum
which, thirty years after the close of
the war, we still annually pay over to
our pensioners. Russia's military
burden, all told, is $176,942,600; our
pension list is not quite equal to this,
but, with the cost of our small army
of 25,000 men added, the aggregate
exceeds it. Our military expenditures
are thus greater than those of any
country in the world."
An interesting exhibit at the Ten
nessee Centennial was a library of
five thousand volumes writteu exclu
sively by women of every country
where there is a literature. There
were four books written by a Chinese
woman, A. D. 25. They were sent
by the empress of China. The Chinese
woman wrote about the manners and
customs of women, and recommended
obedience to husbands. The emperor
of Japan sent one hundred and
twenty-six books written by the
women of his realm. There wore
twelve modern Greek books sent by
Queen Olga. There were books from
Armenia, Persia, Hungary, Roumania,
Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Aus
tria, Portugal, Spain, England, Ire
land, Scotland, Norway and Sweden.
All of the South American countries
were represented. Many of these
books were the only ones by women
ever published in the country
from which they were sent. This
was the case with the volumes from
Honduras and Guatemala.
EASTER FLOWERS.
I Tho roses were the first to bear—
The roses trelllsed to the tomb;
lMng roses—bide the marks of spear
And cruel nails that sealed His doom
The lilies were the first to see—
The lilies on that Easter morn;
Bring lilies—crowned with blossoms be
The head so lately orowned with thorn.
The roses were the first to hear:
Ere yet the dark bad dreamed of dawn,
The faintest rustle reached their ear;
They heard the napkin downward
drawn;
They listenod to His breathing low;
His feet upon the threshold fall.
Bring roses—sweetest buds that blow,
His love the perfume of them all.
The lilies were the first to see:
They, watching in the morning gray,
Saw augels oome so silently
And roll the mighty stone away;
They saw Him pass the portal's gloom;
He brushed their leaves—oh, happy
dowerl
Bring lilies—purest buds that bloom,
His face reflected in each flower.
The roses were the first to hear.
The lilies were the first to see;
Bring fragrant flowers from far and noar
To match tbe Easter melody!
"Rabbonl!" be ou every tongue.
And every heart the rapture share
Of Mary, as she kneels among
The roseß and the lilies fair!
—Clarence Urmy, In the Century.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooos
| MARIAN'S §
| EASTER LILY. |
O BY MARY E. CL'LLINANE. X
00900000000000000000000000
THEBE, mamma,
I've lost the
prize!" said Mar
,"K ian ]3 11 woo d ,
bursting into the
sitting-room one
V\ i, bright sunny af
. Vd-Lr / \|/|,// ternoon in Oct-
U Jli/ oher - "A lice
(MM IM; Bobbins won it,
and I will never
forgive her, be
cause she told me last week I may as
well give up the contests as she was
sure I wouldn't obtain the prize. I
know Mary Brown of the senior class
must have helped her, and that was
not honorable, as tho teacher said we
were not to receive help from any
body ou our essays."
The contest in question was for tlie
best written essay on "Nature," and
was to be entirely origiual. The prize
to bo given was a volume of Long
fellow's poems, a much coveted book
by Marian, as she was very foud of
reading "Evangeline," and now to
see it slip from her was indeed too
much, really exasperating. Always
having received a high mark for her
essays, Marian was confident in this
case that her work excelled any she
had previously writteu. Alioe Bob
bins, too, was also a good essayist,
and the contest had been supposed to
be a tie between them. But the
judge iu the matter had prononnced
in favor of Alice. All this was very
humiliating to Marian, who was fully
conscious of her own ability, and who
declared that evening that she would
be even with Alice yet.
Her mother, on the contrary, tried
to instil into her little daughter's mind
how beautiful it was to forgive and
forget, aud how much better it was to
have that little inner voice telling her,
"You have done your best," rather
than have it constantly repeating,
"You have been dishonest, Marian,
aud your essay belonged to somebody
else, not to you."
But Marian could not or would not
overcome her chagrin, and went to bed
that night in anything but an enviable
frame of mind, declaring to herself
over and over again that she would
never again speak to Alice Bobbins.
The next day she went to school,
her ill-humor liavingin noway abated,
and at recess obstinately refused to
speak to Alice, who, to the surprise of
Marian, did not seem to be elated with
her prize as it would naturally be sup
posed she would be under tho circum
stances.
The winter passed on and Easter
was fast approaching.
To meet it the girls were planning
for an entertainment to be held at the
school on Easter Monday night, to
which parents aud friends were to be
invited. In the preparation the girls
were having a merry time, but one
thing alone jarred on their thoughts,
and that was the difficulty between
Alice and Marian. These two girls
were the two most accomplished ones
in the class and to get along without
them the rest could not. But finally
at last'an excellent scheme was deci
ded on, tho effect of which, it was
hoped, would be a reconciliation be
tween the friends, and it was deter
mined to try it the very next day.
Therefore it was that the following
morning the girls, eager to execute
"LISTENING TO THE CHur.cn BELLS.'
their well laid plan, entered the school
room chatting merrily. In their midsf
was Marian, and they also expected
to find Alice in the room; but lo!
Alice, who was usually very punotual,
was not in her accustomed place when
the bell rang.
All the morning the girls wondered
what had happened to Alice. At last
word came to the teacher that she was
very ill with diphtheria. It was very
prevalent in the neighborhood and
great oonsternation prevailed among
the girls at the announcement, for
Alice, with all her short-comings, was
beloved by every scholar.
But how had Marian taken this
startling piece of news? Did a voice
whisper, "Now you are revenged; she
cannot eolipse you now at the enter
tainment?"
No, the better nature of Marian as
serted itself on the instant, and a
great wave of sympathy stole over her,
and she uttered a short prayer for
Alice's recovery. Then she vowed to
herself that if Alice were to be able to
come to the entertainment she, Mar
ian, would procure for the occasion
the handsomest Easter lily to be
found, and present it to her in atone
ment for her past harshness. At home
she entreated of her mother to be
allowed togo to see Alice, saying that
she feared her dear companion might
die and spend her Easter in heaven.
To this her mother sternly objected,
pointing out the risks her darling
would run of getting sick herself.
"I think, though, you might write.,
her a nice letter," her mother said,
"and ask her to forgive you."
And the next morning Marian did,
after listening to the church bells
from her open window, and how
happy Alice was when she received
the glad message. Crying with joy,
she made the resolution when she
ended its reading that she would con
fess all, and give up the prize which
she hail so dishonestly won, and give
it to Marian.
"Two days more, and it will be
Easter Monday. How happy I am,"
exclaimed Marian Ellwood excitedly,
as she waved a small envelope over
her head. "I have just received this
note from Alice Bobbins, and she
says the doctor told her yesterday
that she would be well enough to
come to our eutertainment."
Alice and Marian had at last become
fast friends. The old love for. each
had returned once more. Alice had
confessed everything; she had told
how Mary Brown, being in a senior
class, had written her essay for her.
Sweet presence of our rls<n Lord,
I Brood over us to-duy.
And let us feel tho living word
Thy wondering disciples hottrd
Along Emmaus's way.
and that she in turn had copied it,
and passed it onto the teacher as her
own. For all this she begged of
Marian to take the book. It was her
due, she said, but Marian was too
loyal to her friend to hear of such
a think. Both attended the enter
tainment together and it passed off
pleasantly. After it was over Marian
presented Alice with a magnificent
Easter lily. It was a token of love
and forgiveness, she said, and it
proved, as the years went on, a sym
bol of pure, true friendship, which, it
is safe to sny, will last with each for
tho other until death.—Boston Bou
quet.
Hot Cross-Buns.
In England, especially in London,
small spiced and sweetened cakes are
sold during Lent. These are the
famous "hot cross-buns," the best of
which are made at Chelsea. Each one
is marked with across, henceitsname.
Old-fashioned people used to eat noth
ing the latter days of Lent except a
cup of coffee and a hot cross-bun each
morning; and a certain number of these
were always laid away carefully, to be
used for various illnesses throughout
the year. They were said to bring
special blessings. On Good Friday
morning this cry may bo heard far and
wide:
Two a penny buns,
One a penny buns,
t One a penny, two a penny.
Hot cro9s-buus.
Knster Vast In Asia Minor.
In Asia Minor a fast is kept through
the whole of passion week, terminating
•Easter morning, when all goto churoh
and listen to a long service. The
voung men meet outside the church
and make a great noise firing off their
rifles and pistols. They then make a
large bonfire, at which an image repre
senting Judas Iscariot is nailed to a
cross and bnrned. After this they re
turn to their homes and breakfast, the
principal dish being red-colored eggs,
which they exchange with the words:
"Christ is risen."
EASTER TIDE.
Oh, rare ns tho splendor of lilies.
And sweet us the violet's breath,
Comes the jubilnut morning of Easter,
A triumph of life over death;
For fresh from tho earth's quickened bosom
Full baskets of flowers wo bring,
And scatter tholr satin soft petals
To carpet u path tor our King.
In the countless green blades of tho
meadow.
The sheen of the daffodil's gold,
In the tremulous bluo on the mountains,
The opaline mist on the wold;
In the tinkle of brooks through the pasture.
The river's strong sweep to the sea,
Are signs of tho day that 19 hasting
In gladness to you and to me.
So dawn In thy splendor of lilies,
Thy fluttering violet breath,
O jubilant morning of Easter,
Thou triumph of life over death!
For fresh from the earth's quickened bosom
Full baskets of flowers we bring,
And scatter their satin soft petals
To carpet a path for our King.
—Marcaret E. Saasster.
EASTER EGGS IN MANY FORMS.
Dainty and Amusing Trifles With Whlcli
to Celebrate.
Easter has become almost equally
with Christmas in many families a day
of gladness and gift giving, and while
the custom should never be allowed to
become a cause of expense ill to be
borne, it is quite possible for every
body, high and low, to bring a little
good feeling into the household by
simple remembrances all around.
Countless are the conceits and none
are elaborate. In the simpler forms
the eggs are swiftly colored in rain
bow hues with aniline dyes, then
THE SAOE AND THE DUNCE.
daintily etched with a sharp-pointed
knife; or they are coated with metallic
paints; or they are frosted with dia
mond dust. For decorating by what
ever method the eggs are either hard
boiled or the contents are blown by
means of a tiny hole at either end, and
then finished with narrow ribbons for
hanging.
But it is egg caricatures that delight
and amaze the little ones. The egg is
blown and the shell cleansed and
rubbed with benzine.
Figure 1 BIIOWB the general style
and features of two extremes—a sage
and a dunce. Huccess depends upon
the markings in sepia, which are few,
but striking. The eyes are either blue
Iloceptive hearts give Thou to each,
Nor let our eyes bo blind
To find the lessons Thou wouldst teach
On Life's rough highway, in our reach,
And take them as we find.
—Jennie Thomson-H* . s.
or brown. The lips and ears are red.
The hair and beard are of fine cotton
glued in position. A cord tied to a
splint, slipped through the hole
through which tho egg was blown,
suspends these curious heads.
A nameless bird is seen in figure 2.
The egg shell body is tinted brown.
Tbe neck and head are of pasteboard
glued to the body aud likewise tinted.
Bright beads are glned onto serve ns
eyes. Tho feet are of bent wire. The
wings must be of sufficient length to
A NAMELESS BIRD.
insure a firm support. A wonderful
comb, tail and wings are of gorgeous
feathers glued in place. The feathers
are brightened with touches of gold
and silver paint. This bird always
proves a great success.
Figure 3 shows a mischievous Dame
Grundy. The head is an egg shell
properly marked. The body is an
English walnnt 011 which the head is
made to rest by menns of sealing wax
or drippiuga from a wax candle. The
arms and skirt are of stiff paper.
The little gossiping dame is gowned
and capped iu tissue paper. She may
be made to staud by spreading the
stiff underskirt, or she may be sus
pended by a string running from the
body through the head.
A right jolly little fellow can be
modeled from figure 4. llis body aud
head are egg shells. These are joined
OLD DAME GBUNDY.
by slipping the splint with a string in
to the body shell and extending the
cord up through the head. Features
are painted in grotesque expression.
The hair is of cotton,* arms aud limbs
of pasteboard. The whole is painted
a brilliant red with trimmings in gold.
Pen wipers for older children ara
. made by decorating ordinary eggshells
, like heads. Effectivemod3lsaretllo.se
, of a sweet faced nun, a pretty student,
, with characteristic "mortar board"
oap, or a dear, smiling baby in lace
frilled cap. The shell head is secures
ly glued to a support of several layer
of chamois or flannel.
A I'ro<licy In Spelling.
Buffalo, N. Y., has a newly-discov
ered prodigy who can spell any word
he xuows backward as readily as ho
does forward.
The boy is Charley Collins, aged
thirteen, the son of Michael Collins, a
day laborer living on the East side,
and the grandson of the "Sago of In
ness," County Clare, Ireland, from
whom he is supposed to have inherit
ed all his mental faculties. He was
able to talk when a year old and at
fifteen months he could frame long
sentences. But ho fell in witli idle
boys when he was sent to school
and after awhile was sent to Dr.
Baker's reformatory.
He did not stay there long, how
ever, and when he returned to school
he began study in earnest and soon
was far in advance of his classmates.
One day he astonished his teacher by
spelling all the words backward just
as glibly as he did forward, reversing
eight-syllabled "incomprehensibility"
as readily as he could spell it in the
usual way.
He says that he does not know how
the feat is performed. He simply
made the discovery by accident that
he could spell all words backward. He
appears to be developed almost ab
normally as to brain and looks much
older than one of his years.—New
York Press.
An Easter Ciistom Abroad.
In Bavaria aud the German Catholic
countries there is a custom similar to
that of Italy of taking baskets of food
to the churches to receive the priestly
benediction. The bottom of the basket
is covered with a white linen cloth on
which are laid a freshly boiled smoked
ham, some hard-boiled colored eggs, a
piece of horseradish, salt, pepper,
etc. The servant girl or the daughter
of the house carries this to the church
to be blessed by the priest during
early mass. On their return the
breakfast table is laid with the con
tents of the basket and the family par
take of aliearty breakfast,eating first a
small piece of horseradish to stimulate
the appetite. No other food is touched
until that which has been consecrated
is all eaten, not a crumb being allowed
to be wasted—even tlie eggshells are
conscientiously burned. Many are
superstitious enough to believe that
eggs laid on Monday and Thursday
have certain healing qualities.
The Ist* of Ammonia. .
Nothing is more injurious to paiut
and varnish than ammonia, and if it
fs used to remove some especially
stubborn spot the surface should be
quickly wiped with a clean cloth wet
with clear water. For linoleum am
monia is equally bad uuless it is quickly
rinsed. It is this little knowledge of her
cleaning drugs that makes them 30
dangerous in the bands of the aver
age housemaid. One who used a
cloth dipped in crude oil to wipe over
the surface of a stained floor saw 110
reason why the same should not be
applied to the highly polished surface
of an old mahogany table. The result,
naturally, was disastrous to its finish,
and recourse to the services of a cabi
net maker was necessary.—New York
World.
Easter Games.
Iu some parts of England boys go
about begging eggs to play with. The
game consists in two boys holding one
egg each in the palm of the right hand
and striking them together. To the
boy holding the egg that resists the
shock belongs the spoils.
A game familiar to Americans with
the Easter eggs is the egg-rolling sport
on the lawn at the White House in
Washington.
In the Tyrolese Mountains bands of
children go about singing Easter
hymns and receiving in return for
their music baskets of eggs.
A Substitute For Kaster KKC».
Iu Germany sometimes instead of
eggs at Easter an emblematical print
is occasionally presented. One of
these is preserved iu the print room
of the British Museum. Three hens
are represented as upholding a basket,
in which are placed three eggs orna
mented with representations illustra
tive of the Resurrection; over the
center egg the "Agnus Dei, ' with a
chalice representing faith; the other
eggs bearing the emblem of charity
and hope.
President Kroger 011 Ofl'.ce'Seekinj.
A good story of Fresident Kruger i»
told in an article on "Milling and IV
tics in the Transvaal," in the Natio
Review. Some of the Presidei
young relations applied to him
office. He considered awhile,
said:
"I can do nothing; for tn
offices of the State are iu firm
and for the little clerkships
too stupid."
Thelri* li Prefix "Ogia."
The prefix "O" before so r
the names of Irish families
breviation of the "ogha "
grandchild.
An Eulcr .Tin'
With Mts ol stlok and '
made a little nest;
I'vo chosen from my Eas'
that I lilce best;
And now I'll get the ol''
her on all six.
So she'll hatch out sot
pink and yello"
—Harriet Brewster
Nicholas.