Wo nave become the greatest ex porting nation in the world. Henry White, secretary of the Amer ican legation iu London,quotes from a French consular report the statement that one good commercial traveler is worth ten thousand printed circulars iu winning trade. —• We presume that it is not for publi cation, but merely as an evidence of good faith, that the czar supplements his proposals for universal disarma ment with a loan of 3150,000,000 to be expeuded on his artillery. It is becoming more aud more prob able that the British invasion of the Soudan will open up a large aud fer tile region to the cultivation of Egyp tian cotton, and this article is soon to be grown in India on a larger scale than ever before. Heuce lower prices are looked for in England. How far such competition can go before it seri ously aftects the price of American ootton cannot easily be predicted. The greatest gain of all from the departure of the horse will be iu clean lin ess. When he goes, the larger part of the work of the street-cleaners will have coma to an end. The clean ing of the roadbeds will be a very simple matter, and can be doue almost entirely by Hushing them from the water mains. The same electricity which gives us the motor vehicles will give us in steadily increasing measure better lighting of our streets aad bouses, and bettor heating as well. Even the bicycle may return to its for mer favor aud exceed it even, for with good pavements everywhere thousands of men and youths could use it on all pleasant days as their moat enjo3'able and most healthful method of transit to and from their places of occupa tion. There are at the present time seventy eight organizations in different sec tions of the city of Paris, France, composed of the school children who have left the schools. The object of these associations is to keep track of the children after leaving school, to bring them together at stated inter vals for social and intellectual enter tainment, to assist those who may be in distress,in excejitional cases, to en deavor to lind positions for those out of employment, and, in general, to bring the influence of the graduate body to bear upon the present pupils in the schools. Some eight or teu thousand children were within the past year more or less regular attend ants at meetings of these associations, and one of the committees of the city oouncil has recommended that 35000 be appropriated for the expenses of such organization. A repoit on the work of the Agricul tural Experiment stations for the fiscal year has been forwarded to Con gress by the secretary of agriculture. Accordiug to tho report the stations have, as a rule, steadily pursued their investigations, have accomplished much useful work and have increased their facilities for investigations. This has been partly owing to an increase iu the number of officials competent to undertake such investigations. As a result, there has been a gain in the importance and thoroughness of the original inquiries pursued. Arrange ments are beiug made to have iu the future a more practical application of the results of investigations made so that farmers cau be taught to make the bt'st use of discoveries. Aid from the states is found to be necessary for this work, and, as a matter of fact, much encouragement has been afford ed by the liberality displayed by the states. United States Consul Boyle at Liv erpool has communicated to the state department, Washington, some very interesting information respecting the great change that has taken pla-.re in England in the matter of street rail ways. He describes this movement as one feature of the remarkable "mu nicipal socialism" which is taking possession of British cities, verifying the comment of Lord Rosebery that the London common council was con ducting the greatest experiment in practical socialism the world had ever seen. Not content with municipal ownership of street railroads, electric aud gas lighting plants, wa'er supply and telephones in several cities, the municipal corporations built dwellings for workiugmen, ran hotels and oper ated magnificent baths. Recurring to the subject of electric street railways, Mr. Boyle says that the first line was started in Liverpool the other dav,an« describes the equipment. Tho Liver pool line is an overhead trolley, a com mittee of experts claiming to have discovered that the underground con duit system installed in New York, Washington,and Baltimore is a failure. Teacher* of English are doing a fine business in Havana. The Cubans are ■wonderfully eager to learn a nine teenth century language. The town of Pullman, 111., as or ganized and established by its fonnder, whose name it bears, is soon to give up its distinctive character and become in fact as well as in name a port of the municipality of Chicago. Under the supreme court decision the com pany is reported to be preparing to give up its building other than those used strictly for the purposes of car building, which means that it must give up its control over the town of Pullman. A German editor has been sentenced to more-tkau four years imprisonment for lese-majeste against the Emperor's second son, a small boy iu knicker bockers. Yet the offending article, which iu itself was nothing, was pub lished in the absence aud without the knowledge of the editor. Convictions lese-majeste under the Emperor Wil liam have excelled anything ever known before in Europe, whether in medieval or ancient times, aud ouo wonders why the German people tol erate them so quietly. The largost sailing vessel afloat,just iaunc.ked at Camden, Me., was chris tened, not by smashing a bottle of wise, bnt by throwing roses over her bow m she slid down the ways. This is a pretty innovation that will not only please the ardent opponents of wine, but will appeal to the love of the picturesquely beautiful. Au American ship, built of American ma terial, by American labor, in au Amer ican yard, could have no more auspi cious beginuiug of its service in the Americau carrying trade tbau this peaceful and decorative garlanding at the hand of au American maiden. A girl in England recently drowned herself because some "professor of palmistry" had "read the lines of her hand," aud had predicted trouble for her. She was scared into self-murder by his reckless prophecy. Then her father, deploring her "silly faith" in what he declared was idle folly, tried to find her body by throwing into the pond a loaf of bread ballasted with quicksilver, believing that the loaf would "jump around" when it floated over the where she lay. Super stition!! di 6 hard. This was a case of the kettle calling the pot black. How is it with those who regard this unfor tunate girl aud her ignorant father with pitying scorn? How many of all the soldiers would object to sitting down with thirteen at the table? Reports from Fall River, says the Dry Goods Economist, show the year 1898 to have been a hard one with cot ton manufacturers iu thatoeutre. The previous year, it had beeu thought, was bad euougb, the average dividend yielded on a capital of iieai ly *,OOO-,- 000 amounting to but 3.38 per cent., against 8.18 per cent, iu 1895. Last year, howevtr, the average earning* on the sane capital amounted to 'J.22 per cent. This gradual decrease in dividends is not surprising when we learn that little money has been spent ou new equipments during the year. Experiments are, however, going ou with new weaving machinery, aud, as a result, of the receut agreement be tween a number of the factories, mill stocks have advanced and prices have improved. Hence it may be that Fall River, having begun to sell its pro duct with more intelligence, may within the next twelve months have the nerve to putin modern machinery capable of producing the very highest grades of cotton goods, and thus ouce more provide for itself a basis for sub stantial prosperity. The salvage system of the Salvation Army is to be introduced iuto Sau Francisco. This is auidea of Geueral Booth, the basic principle beiug that idleaess leads to evil, and that the man whose material wants are satis fied is more amenable to spiritual in fluence. The system is in operation in three cities iu this country, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. In the last named city teu large wagous are in constant service collecting waste, while a large number of men are em ployed in sorting the material for the market, audi& repairing such broken articles of household furniture as cau be made of use to poor people. Many women are also engaged in rescuing from the waste, articles of clothing which can be made serviceable by mending. The repaired articles nre sold for a few ceats each, the money thus received going to the one who made the repairs. There are many possibilities in the development of the idea, one addition in San Fraucisco being an arrangement with the news paper publishers to cleau out the of fice* in return for the waste paper- OUR BROKEN WALLS. Over a winding, wayside wall, Oh, for the kindness that oiings and twines Bagged and rough and gray. Over life's broken wall, There orept a tender and clinging vine. That blossoms above the soars of pain, Tirelessly day by day. Striving to hide them all! At last Its mantle of softest tint Oh. for the helpful, ministering hands, Covered each jagged seam. Beneficent, willing feet, The straggling wail, half broken down. That spread rich mantles of tender thought Became, with that leufy, tinted crown, O'er life's hard places,till Time has wrought Fair as an artist's dream. Its healing—divine, complete. —Lnnta Wilson Smith, in Youth's Companion. M.A A JI.JLJI. JLAJLA AA A 3 THE PURPLE EGG. i J It Omened an Emperor and Created a Sulcido. J 4 BY ANATOLE FRANCE. frvw v- v v v yyyyyryyyy v v ¥¥vini The other night, while with a num ber of friends, I heard a story of a woman who had been driven to a straugo suicide by terror and remorse. Sho was highly bred and cultured. Suspected of complicity in a crime of which she had been n mute witness, in despair at her irreparable coward ice, tormeutod by a perpetual night mare that showed her her husband pointing her out with his rotting fin ger to tho magistrates, sho became tho helpless prey of her overwrought, nerves. A trifling circumstance de termined her fate. Her little nephew was living with her. One morning, as usual, he was learning his lesson in the dining room; she was sitting near by. The child began to translate, word for word, some verses from Sophocles. He said over tho Greek and French terms as he wrote them out: "Kara teion, the divine heud; lokastos.of Yocasta; letneked, is dead . . . . Sposa konuen, tearing her hair; kalei, she culls; Laion nekron, dead Lais. . . . Eisedomen, we saw; ten gunaika kreinasten, the woman hanged." He wound up with a flourish of his pen, stuck out his tongue violet with ink and sang: "Hanged! hanged! hanged!" The wrotched woman, her will-power ut terly destroyed, obeyed the sugges tion of the thrice-heard word. She rose without a word, without a glance, aud hastened to her room. A few hours lator the commissary of police, called into investigate her violent end, made this reflection: "I have seeu rnauy a woman who has com mitted suicide. This is the first one I've known to hang herself." This case recuiled a similar one to mv mind, that of my unfortunate com rade aud friend, Alexandre Mansel. In tho foregoing story the heroine was killed by a verse of Sophocles; my friend's life was brought to an eud by a sentence of Lumprides. Mansel, who was a schoolmr.le of mine at the Lycee of AvrnneUes, was different from all other boys. He seemed both older and younger than he r-eally was. Small aud slight,at tifteeu he was afraid of all the bugaboos that terrify children of five. He had a hor ror of the dark. Wc were not fond of him; he would have become our butt if he had not impressed us by. a eer tuiu fierce pride and his record us n clever scholar. Though he worked spasmodically, lie often stood at the head of his class. They used to say that he talked at uight iu tiie dormi tory and walked in his sleep. None of us could swoar to it, for we never woke after our heads once touched the pillow. For a long time I was more curious about him thau fond of him. We sud denly grew great friends on an excur sion that we all took together to the abbey of Mont St. Michel. We had wulked barefooted along the shingle, carrying our shoes and our luncheon on the end of our sticks, nil singing at tho top of our voices. Wo crossed the drawbridge and sat down side by aide on one of the old cannon, rusted by five centuries of lain and spray. Lookiug with his dim eyes from the old stones to tho sky, swinging his bare feet, Alexandre abruptly spoke to me: "I should like to have been a knight iu tho old wars. I would have taken a hundred cauuon. I would have fought single-handed on the ramparts, aud the Archangel St, Michael would have stood over my head like a white cloild." From that day on I understood far better thau before my schoolmate's character. I discovered that it was founded on an immense pride that I had not suspected. I need not tell you that, at tifteeu I was not a pro found psychologist, and Mansel's prido was too subtle to be at first evi dent. It extended itself to vague chimeras and had 110 tangible form. Yet it inspired all my friend's senti ments and gave a sort of uuity to his whimsical, incoherent, ideas. During tho vacation following our excursi-jn to Mont St. Michel, Mansel invited me to spend a duy at his parents' homo at St. Julien. Secur ing my mother's rather unwilling con sent, I started off, iu a white vest aud blue tie, early one Sunday morning. Aleratidre, smiling like a happy child, was waiting for me o:i the thresh old. He led me by the hand into the "best room." Though the house— half rustic, half bourgeoise - was neitlior poor nor disorderly, I was op pressed on entering it, so silent and sad it was. Near the window, whose slightly parted curtains denoted a cer tain curiosity, was seated a woman to nil appearances old—perhaps not so aid as she looked. She was thin and aallow; her eyes glittere I in their dark aockets under their reddened lids. In spite of tho warm summer day she was swathed, head and all, in black garments. But the strangest thing about her was the metal circlet that jlasped her brow like a diadem. "Here is my mother; she has her neuralgia." Mine. Mansel mnde me welcome in a faint voice aud, observing my puz eled look, said, smiling: "AJy young sir, what you take for a crown is a magnetic circle I wear to cure my heartaches." Mansel leil mo into the garden, where we caught sight of a little bald man gliding down the path like a phantom. He was so frail and slight that ho looked as if the wind would blow him away. His uncertain gait, his long, thin neck craned forward, his head no bigger thau your list, his sidewise glances, his hopping steps, his short arms raised like wings, gave him quite the appearance of some new sort of fowl. My companion told me that it was his father, but that we must let him goto the poultry yard, which he infinitely preferred to all the rest of his domain; he lived among his hens and had almost lost the habit of talking with human beings. The odd little figure at this moment vanished, and loud cackling rose in the air. During the short stroll we took in the garden, Mansel told me that at din ner I would meet his grandmother; that she was a good old soul, but that 1 must not pay much attention to what she said, as she was often a little out of her miud. The bell rang for dinner. M. Man sel followed us into the house, carry ing a basket of eggs. "Eighteen to day," he said, in a clucking voice. A delicious omelet appeared. I was seated between Mute. Mansel, sighing under her diadem, and her mother, a round-cheeked, toothless, old Normandy woman, who smiled with her eyes. She seemed delight ful to me. While we were eating our roast duck and creamed chicken the old lady told us amusing stories that showed no signs of weakeuiug facul j ties. On the contrary, she appeared j the merriest and sanest member of the I family. After dinner we went into a parlor furnished in black walnut and yellow Utrecht velvet. Under the globe of the gilt, clock on the mantel lay a purple egg that at once drew my at tention. With a child's iuoxplicable curiosity I could not take my oyes off it. But I must add that the egg was of a strangi aud spleudid color—a royal put pie, not in tho slightest man lier recalling tho wine-colored Easter eggs, dipped in beet-juice, that de light the children at all the fruit stands. I could not resist making a remark about it. M. Mansel replied by an admiring cackle: "My young sir, that is not a dyed egg, as you seem to think. It was laid just as you see it there by a Cingalese hen of mine. It is a phe nomenal egg." "You must not forget to add, my dear," sighed Miue. Mansel, "that it WHS laid the very day our Alexandre was born." "Just so," returned tho father. The old grandmother, in the mean time, looked at mo with mocking eyes, and with an expressive movement of her lips betrayed hor skepticism. "Hum!" she murmured, "hens some times hatch what they haven't ■ laid, and if some mischievous neighbor should happen to slip into their nest a " "Don't listen to her!" broko in her grandson, violently. "You know what I told you! Don't listen to her!" "It's a fact," repeated M. Mansel, tiling his round eye on the purple egg. Not long after I lost sight of Alex andre. My mother sent mo to Paris to finish my studies. I entered the School of Medicine. About the time that I was preparing my doctor's the sis, I received a letter from my mother, iu which she told me that my friend had been very ill; he had had some strange seizure, on recovering from which he had become exceeding ly tiuiid and suspicious; but he was quite harmless, and, in spite of his troubled health aud reason,he showed a remarkable gift for mathen.atics. This news did not surprise me. Many a time, while studying diseases of the aorve-centres, I had called up men tally my poor fi iond from St. Julien aud, in spite of myself, had made a prognosis of general paralysis threat ening this son of a neuralgic mother aud a microcephalic,rheumatic father. At. first I seemed to be on the wrong scent. Alexandre Mansel, on reaching manhood, regained normal health and gave unmistakable proofs of hts fine intellectual gilts. He car ried on extensive mathematical studies; ho even seut to the Academy of Sci ences the solution of several difficult equations. Absorbed in these and kindred subjects,he rarely found time to write me. His letters were clear, friendly, well composed; nothing could be found in them to attract tho attention of tho most suspicious neu rologist. Soon, however, our corre spondence came to an end, and for ten years I did not get a word from him. 1 was greatlv suprised last, year when my servant handed me Alexan dre Mansel's card, saying that the gentleman was waiting for me in the antechamber. I was iu my office dis cussing a professional question of some importance witn a colleague. Excusing myself for a moment, I has tened to greet my old school-fellow. 1 found him much aged,bald,haggard, fearfully emaciated. 1 took him bj the arm and led him into the drawing room. "1 am delighted to see yon one# more," he said, "and I have a great deal to tell you. lam a victim of un heard of persecutions. But lam brave, I shall tight to the end, I shall triumph over my enemies!" These words alarmed me, as they would have alarmed any neurologist. In them I traced a symptom of the af fection by which my fridad was threat ened according to every law of hered ity and which had appeared dormant till now. "My dear fellow," I said to him, "you shall tell me all this later. Stay bore a moment. lam settling a little matter in my office. Take u book to kill time till I join you." I have a great many books in my drawing room—there must bo (5000 volumes in the three bookcases. Why was it that my unlucky friend picked up tho very one that could harm him and opened it at the fatal page? I talked for about 20 minutes loneer with my colleague; having ushered him out I returned to tho drawing room where I had left Mansel. I found the unfortunate fellow in an alarming state. He was showering blows on a book open before him that 1 at onoo recognized us n translation of the "History of Augustus." In a loud voice he kept repeating this sen tence of Larnprides: "On the day when Alexander Severus was born, a hen belongiug to the father of the babe laid a red esrg, a presage of tho imperial purplo which the child was to assume." His excitement rose to fury. He foamed at the mouth. Ho shouted: "The egg, tho egg that was laid on my birthday! I am an emperor! I know you want to kill me! Don't come near me, wretch!" He paced rapidly up and down. Then coming back toward me, with his arms spread wide, he said; "My friend, my old comrade, what do you want me to give you? Emperor!— emperor!—my father was right —the purple egg—emperor I shall aud must be—scoundrel! why did you hide that book from me? I will punish you for high treason —emperor!—em- peror!— I must be it!—yes, it is my duty!" He rushed out. I vainly tried to stop him. He escaped from me. The rest is well known. All the papers told how on leaving my house he bought a revolver aud blew out tho brains of the sentinel who barred tho gate of the Elvsee palace against him. Thus a phrase written in the fourth century by a Latin historian causes 1500 years later the death of au un lucky French soldier. Who will ever unravel the skein of cause and effect? Who can be sure of saying, "I know what I ant doing," as he performs some trifling act? This is all there is to tell. The rest concerns only medical statistics i and can be summed up in a few J words. Mansel, placed in a private 1 asylum, remained there a fortnight in | a state of violent madness. Then he ; lapsed into utter imbecility, during j which his gluttony led him to eating ! tho wax used for polishing the floors. He choked to death,three mouths ago, Bwallowing a sponge.—Argonaut. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. Tame snakes ate used in Morocco to clear houses of rats and mice. A Sicilian tribunal sentenced a noted forger to imprisonment for 189 years. Tavelara is the smallest republic as to population, having only oil men, ■ women and children. It is 12 miles j from Sardinia. j Besides the rinderpest, South Afri t ca's worst plague consists in the j myriads of grasshoppers, which are ; sometimes so dense that they stop ! railway trains. j There is a creature known as the hagtish, or myxine, which is in tho i habit of getting inside cod aud sitn j ilar fish and devouring the interior until - only the skin and the skeleton ; are left, ! Giles de Retz of France, the orig : inal "Blue Beard," was executed on j Christmas Day, 1440, in atonement for | a multitude of sins, which included I the killing ol' six wives, from which ! the popular nursery story is derived. There is a plant in Jamaica called the life plant, because it is almost iin i possible to kill it, or any portiou of it. | When a leaf is cut oil'and hung up by | a string, it sends out white, thread like roots, gathers moisture from the air, and begins to grow new leaves. The seven principal Bibles in the world are tho Koran of tho Mohain j medaus, the Eddas of the Seandina | viaus. the T'ripifikes of the Buddhists, i tho Five Kings of the Chinese, the i Three Vedas of the Hindoos, the Zetula vesta, and tho Scriptures of the Chris j tians. ! A peculiar style of advertising re j sorted to in China is effective and iu ; expensive. When a Chinaman has a ! daughter closely approaching mar- I liugeable ago an inverted jar on the roof of his house aunounces that fact. When she has attained the proper age the jar is laid on its side, with the top I toward the street. Tli«» Coi»t!le»t Upnn on Knrth. It is not generally known that the ; vanilla bean is the costliest beau on | earth. Jt - rows wild and is gathered : by (lie natives in i'apnutia and Mis i cnutia, Mexico. When brought from i the forests these beans are sold at the rate of 312 per 1000, but when dried and cured they cost about SI2 per | pound. Thev aie mainly used by druggists, and last year over 90,000,- 0(H) were imported into the United Stataa. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. Nearly all skin diseases are sup posed to be caused by microscopic insects. The heart of an adult horse beats 30 to 40 times a minute, of au ox 45 to 50, of a pig 70 to 80, and of a sheep 70 to 80 times. An inch of rain falling upon an area of one square mile is equivalent to nearly 17,000,000 gallons, weighing 145,'250,000 pounds, or (>4,844 tons. Chemists liavo extracted from coal tar sixteen shades of blue, sixteen ol yellow, twelve of orange, nine of violet, besides shades of other colors too numerous to mention. Professor Richet of Pari*, France, has found that the mind can act as many as a thousand times a second; for instance that it can distinguish that number of separate touches upon the skin. The tongues of the cat family are covered with recurving spines. In t'ue common domestic cat thes.i are small, but sufficiently ">ve 11 develojiod to give the a feeling of rough* lies*. But in the lion and tiger tiie spines are strong enough toeuable tlie animal to tear away the skin ol a mu-Ts hand merely by licking it. By meuus of a photograph mado with a vibrating lens, Mr. F. H. Glow of London has calculated the time of a ligtniug-tlash. It comes out oue nineieeuth of a second. The calcula tion is based upon the multiple image in the photographs and the rate of vibration of the lens. The time ap plies, of course, only to the particular flash that was photographed. A STUDY OF BRAINS. Their W«iglit Boar* No l*elxition to the P«»te*i»ot*'ft Ability. And now a scientist stands ready to prove to us that the weight of the brain bears little or no relation to the ability of its possessor. The brains of two idiots weighel respectively 57.5 and 5?.5 ounces, while thase of (iain betta weighed loss than that of the average boy of seven. A weak-minded man had a brain weighing 70.5. while a dwarfed Indian squaw }Jossessed one of 73. ti ouuees. To the present generation these statements may be more or less mat ters of indiiierence, but the writer of this paragraph remembers when one of the greatest arguments used against the higher education of women was based ou the fact that their brains weighed less than those of men. A brain of little weight was not consid ered worth cultivating. Its very light ness proved it to be unequal to the physical task of acquiring knowledge mastered by men whose brains weighed more. It was like expecting puny muscles to perforin feats accomplished by athletic giants. These arguments were considered unanswerable in their day. Every skeptical and fortunate young man quoted them to every ambitious and hampered young woman. They meant, alas, the self-depreciation of many it woman who gave up the struggle. And possibly it was just because the vali ant promoters of higher education made no attempt to answer them, but went quietly and silently to work »loug the lines of their own beliefs, doing without argument the things which their opponents were arguing so ably against, that womeu of to day enjoy manifold privileges denied to their elders. Everything and noth ing can be proved by argument; the unanswerable fact lies alone in accom plishment. The heaviest brains are found in cold northern countries, the highest average is obtained in Scotland, so that between the weight of the brain and the question of nationality a very decided relation may be said to exist. —Harper's Bazar. The I'rofensio t; 1 !*i r^lur. The professional burglars belong to a special class, stereotyped and exclu sive, forming a community of their own. These men take a peculiar pride in their "profession," and a ci rtaiu 4 lountof union exists between its members, if a burglar is in trouble his friends will pay for his defence, though they are uot above betraying each other occasionally if circum stances require it. The receiver of stolen goods works hand in hand with these men, and without them the profits of the robberies would be small. It is difficult to state as to how far the love of excitement aud ad venture instigates the burglar to crime, but that it plays an important part of this there can be no doubt. To creep aloug housetops in the dark, to mouut ladders and lay wire traps for the upsettiug of inmates should they run out to give au alarm, to screw up the doors of dressing rooms aud tam per with domestics—all these pur suits doubtless have thei." fascination for the criminal mind.—Geutleman's Magazine. Fought a Wildcut In Wsler, Billv Sweet man of lied Rock, a noted fisherman and hunter, while crossing the Susquehanna river in a boat a few days ago, saw a wildcat swimming across the rifts ahead of him. With out stopping to think, Hweetman cast a line toward the animal, but tlio next instant he regretted it. The hook caught iu the animal's ears, and it at once turned and swam toward the boat. Sweetman paddled away, but the cat proceeded to climb in. Sweet man knocked the animal on the head with the paddle, and the movement capsized the boat. There was abi i#f fight in the water. The fisherman de fended himself so well with the paddle that he was able k> reach the chore. The wildcat followed, but a few well directed blows finished it. Sweetman lost his fishing outfit. The skin of the wildcat will bring him litty cents. — York Press.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers