—————
Bellefonte, Pa., March 6, 1891.
ROBIN, MY SWEETEEART.
Oh, avesingare mine, with the bonnie brown
air,
With eyes so merry:and brow se fair,
‘Tis a year to day since you came to woo,
And never was lover more loving and true,
Robin, my sweetheart.
Yet I wonder, semetimes, as I'fold you fast,
If love like yours cen forever last,
How it will be as ‘the years arertold
When you have grown wiser and I have grown
0
Robin, xy sweetheart.
You barei won my heart by .yeur words and
smiles,
You Rave won my heart by your witching
wiles
And I wish, oh,T wish I could hold for aye
The place in your heart that I hold to-day,
Robin, my sweetheart !
But when I am sadder and far {oss fair,
When the snows .of time are thick in my
air,
When pain has furrowed my cheek :an d brow,
Will you love me then;as you love me now,
Robin, my sweetheart?
You bring to my lips your young life's wine,
And promise, dear, totbe always mine ;
Yet still I wonder howiit will
When you are thirty instead ofithree,
Robin my sweetheart !
But away with doubt !-and fears away !
You are mine to-day, sweetheart, to-day !
So we'll sing and be merry, and dance, care-
Robin, my sweetheart.
—Emma C. Dowd, initheYouth’s Companion.
BRIGITTE'S FORTUNE.
Short, thin, dry. and wrinkled as an
apple that lay withered during a long
winter, such was the good man, Farm-
er Landry. Indeed, he was one of
those close-fisted ald. French peasants of
whom it is graphically said that they
can shave something from an egg shall.
+ Since the death of his wife he had
retired from agricultare and lived
alone in a little house at the end of
the village.
And yet, not ewtirely alone, for he
had with him his eld servant Brigitte.
But:the poor woman counted fer so lit-
tle in the household, a little above the
dog, but not so mmeh as the donkey
that cost a hundred and twenty francs.
She entered his family at the .age of
twelve to guard thewows, and hal been
there ever since. She kmew ne other
family life than this one, and the ex-
ceeding parsimony of the master seem-
ed to her entirely matural. She was
now a:tall, hale woman of fifty, red-fac-
ed, square-shouldered, with feet and
hands that might have been the pride
of a pugilistic trainer. While exact-
ing very little in the way of compensa-
tion, she drudged like a peck horse;
for indeed, she eould mot do otherwise
in Farmer Landry's house. Besides,
in her simple mind existed a canine at-
tachment and real admiration for her
master, who was not ashamed to take
advantage.of her good mature.
Of course,in the service of this miser
Brigitte had rot earned a fortune. But
the honest creature was amply satisfi-
ed when the old peasant, in a patron
izing tone, praised her: “What a
. good, simple creature you are, Brigitte,
are you uot?
Then the good woman's
would open into a loud laugh.
“He! he! he! master! You have
mouth
always your little manner of joking:
hel he! hei”
as not to pay ithe mason, he made a
false step aud fell into the pool just
over the point where the deepest hole
was.
: few moments, calling vainly for help
with all the pawer of his langs. At
last, worn out by his efforts, he was
about to sink from sight, when Brigitte
at last heard nim. The devoted creat-
ure caurageously jumped into the wa-
ter, at the risk of drowning herself.
‘She succeeded in pulling him to the
- bank; he was entirely unconscious,
but she raised him in her strong arms,
as she would a child, put him to bed,
.and with rubbing and remedies recall-
ed him to life.
- of joy.
“Ah, good master, how glad I am
that you are not droweed and buried in
: that hole?” :
The old peasant was glad of it, too,
.although he had one lively regret—the
loss of his trowel, which fell into the
~water at the same time with himself.
However, he had the decency not to ex-
;press the wish that Brigitte should re-
turn and jumpin after that also. In-
«deed, in the first impulse of gratitude
he said to his.servant witk a touch of
«emation :
“It is you who pulled me out of the
hole; I shall mever forget it, my good
girl, you may be assured of that. I
am going to make you a present.”
“Oh. master, indeed, there ig no need
.of that!”
“Bat I tell you.I will give you some-
thing; don’t doubt 1t!”
And really, the same evening, after
a thousand hesitations. he drew forth
his long leathe: purse and called Bri-
gitte to him. While making a grimace
like one having a tooth drawn, he se-
lected a silver piece of twenty cents.
“Here, Brigitte, is your present. It
shall not be counted in your wages,
you know. Do not be extravagant
with it; that would be a sin.”
For the service rendered it was not
unbridled generosity on the part of the
giver, and the former had some dim |
intimation of the fact, for he added (as
if to enhance its value):
“It is just the price of a lottery tick-
et. Buy one, my girl, and you may
win twenty thousand.”
It was the first time in his life that
the poor man aliowed himself to be
liberal, so the thought of it haunted
him for a long time; he was constant-
ly wondering about the fate of his bright
silver piece. He often asked the ser-
vant if she had yet bought her lottery
ticket.
_ “Not yet, master,” was her unvary-
ing answer,
But at length she decided to end this |
constant questioning by pacifying him,
He splashed wildly about for a
1 On seeing him open;
his eyes, the good Brigitte shed tears
1 So one day she replied:
“Yes, master, I have bought one.”
“Indeed! What number?”
“@h, the number is 34.”
“¥ery good!” said her master, re-
peating the number to impress iit on
his mind. Be careful not to lose it!”
“Never fear, master.” uh
“Because if you do fear sometimes
to dose it—"" : > =
“Eh, master?
“Well, you need only give it'to me
and I will hide 1t in my bureaun.”
“Qh, I shall certainly not lose it.!"
The habits - of daily life in the little
household, disturbed by these events,
soon settled into their regular course ;
eating sparely, very temperate drink-
ing, few hours for sleeping and many
for work.
‘Farmer Landry was almost consoled
for his forced prodigality, when one
morning, in the barber's shop, where
he went from time to time to read gratis
the Gazette, a terrible emotion struck
him. He read the result of the lottery
‘drawing and at the head these words
like lines of fire, flashed befcre the daz-
led spectacles of the good man :
“The number thirty-four has won
the great prize of 100,000 francs.” The
old gentleman gave such a sudden cry
that the startled barber, in turning to-
wards him, almost clipped a corner
from the ear of the schoolmaster,
free, | whom he was shaving.
Nor dream of the time when you may not be
“What's the matter, Father Lan-
dry 2” he asked.
“Ob, nothing, nothing,” answered
the farmer, who quickly recovered his
calmness.
Rearranging his spectacles, he read
again slowly, spelling each syllable to
“make assurance doubly sure.”
There was no mistake ; the number
34, Brigitte's ticket, had won, He
dropped the journal and started off in
great agitation towards his house.
Brigitte bad prepared her master’s fru-
gal breakfast of nuts and cheese. He
placed himee!f at the table,butihe conld
not eat, for his emotion seemed to
.eiinch his throat and prevent him from
swallowing.
“What is the matter, master?’’ anx-
iously asked Brigitte.
“Nothing at all.”
“You are:not ill ?”’
“No, I tell you,” he answered an-
grily.
During several days he secretly ob-
served the .poor woman. Did she
know that she had woa 100,000 france?
No indeed! Entirely ignorant that
she was the object of such close scruti-
ny, she performed her daily tasks with
her usual good humor, while her mas-
ter was in a fever of unrest.
‘One day he dared to asked her,
trembling while doing so:
“Is there any news, my good girl?”
“Nothing, master, except that one
of the hens has the pip.”
Very good! She knew nothing about
her good fortune. As for announcing
seemed to him monstrous that another
should profit by this marvellons wind-
fall of a hundred thousand francs,
produced by his piece of twenty sous—
his own bright, silver bit! Time was
lengthened from days to weeks. A no-
tice in the journal (he really bought a
copy of the one containing the an-
nouncment) formally stated that after
a delay of three months the unclaimed
prizes weuld be employed for a new
| capital.
One day while Farmer Landry was,
himself replastering his garden wall, so,
The poor man had no more appetite
for eating or drinking, or power to
sleep; he was dying of uneasiness.
Twenty times he was. on the point of
speaking of the ticket to Brigitte ; and
tengue. Oue word only might put his
servant in the way to learn her good
fortune.
©ne morning, after an unusally sleep-
less night he rose with a smile on
his thin lips, He had found the key
to the problem. He commenced by
ordering Brigitte to kill the plumpest
chicken, and to cook it in the oven
with & good piece of pork. And finally
he gave his servant mones to buy cof-
fee and sugar.
Brigitte asked herself if her master
had gone mad?
Surely some demon hasitaken pos-
session of his mind!" she thought with
a thrill of fear.
It seemed a fearful increase of the
malady when the old gentleman, after
having ordered her to lay the table for
two asked her to.take her place as his
vis-a vis. :
‘Dh, master, I should never, never
dare to do that!”
“Sit down there, I tell you foolish
woman 1”
Brigitte had heard that one must
not oppose the wishes of maniacs.
So, without answering, she seated
herself in great embarrassment on the
edge of the chair.
“Come, eat and drink, Brigitte, my
girl,” he said, filling her plate gener-
ously.
However, this was not the last sur-
prise for Brigitte. When the coffee
was served the old gentleman suddenly
said :
“You see, my good Brigitte, this
ried !”
“Indeed, master, itis not yet too
late ; if you are old, you are still hale
and well,” answered the simple servant
approvingly.
“Since that is your view, if you like,
we will marry each other.”
After the roast chicken and pork,
and the coffee and sugar, Brigitte ex-
pected to hear almost anyastrange
thing on the part of her master. But
that! Oh, not that!
“You are joking me, master!”
Not at all,” answered the old peas-
ant. He explained that he was grow-
ing old, was without children or family,
and did not wish to die alone like a
dog. Beside he was grateful! He
could not forget that Brigitte had sav-
ed his life—his faithful Brigitte. One
must not be forgetful of such a service.
Finally, the worthy woman, whose
head was turned by this stroke of good
fortune, believed in his sincerity. She,
a humble servant, marey her master?
Think of it! It was, indeed, some-
thing to turn one’s brain.
The bans were published, and the
marriage followed. The couple were
greeted at the church by the good na-
tured smiles of the whole village.
After the ceremony thenew husband |
hurriedly conducted his wife home. |
Having crossed the threshold he |
hastily demaned in a joyful voice, while
‘energetically rubbing his hands:
“Brigitte, my girl, where have you
put your ticket?’
“What ticket?”
“Your lottery ticket, No. 342"
“What lottery ?"
patiently. “The one you bought with
my twenty-sou piece, that I gave you!”
The bride began to laugh stupidly.
“Ah! the twenty sous! Listen,
Master. One seldom wins in those lot-
tories. It was very cold last winter,
very cold.”
“Well, well?” interrogated Landry,
who began to grow very yellow.
“Oh, indeed,” she concluded, “I did
not buy the ticket. With the money
I bougnt me some good fur-lined slip-
pers, which I was sure would do me
good. Yes, indeed.”— From the French,
in American Cultivator.
a
The Porcupine.
The Micmac or shore Indians are very
partial to the porcupine as an article of
food, the Abenakis not esteeming it so
highly, much preterring the flesh of the
muskrat, which the iormer Indians do
not care about, indeed the Micmacs call
the Abenakis (of St. Jonn River at any
rate) muskrat or musquash Indians.
The Indians make use of the quills of
the porcupine, which they dye to orna-
ment their birch bark boxes with. Some
of this work is very pretty. When the
white hunters of our forests find a por-
cupine they very often make use of his
flesh for food. The black cat or fisher
1s very partial to the flesh of the porcu-
pine, and will dare all the dangers of his
quills to secure one ; and the hunter of-
‘ten finds that the fisher which he has
captured carries some of these quills in
his hide.
The porcupine is very fond of fat or
grease of any kind. It frequents old
it to her—that was entirely too much
for his nature and long life habit. It
twenty times he bit the tip of his
means that I am going to get mar-
camps, and one almost always sees some
{ part of the deacon-seat on which grease
! has been spilled gnawed away by the
psharp teeth of this animal.
I I admit that the porcupine does eat the
bark of trees. I do not think, however,
that he girdles them so that they die.
His chief food in winter seems to be the
leaves and small boughs of the sapling
hemlock. He is a good climber, but
slow in fact, he isa very slow walker
and his movements are far from grace-
ful. As Mr. Flower says, the porcupine
can strike quick and dextrous blows
with his tail. I have cut a piece of
beech and stirred up a porcuping in his
den by means of it and on withdrawing
the stick found the hard wood filled with
quills which had been driven it by the
animal’s tail.
With Mr. Flower I admit the damage
which one of these animals can do toa
field of buckwheat, but I do not
think that they are especially notorious
, for trespassing on man’s domain, chiefly
confining themselves to the forest. They
‘are very fond of making their dens
among loose rocks. The interior of
Nova Scotia, which is very rocky and
"has little soil, is the best ground which I
have ever seen for porcupines.—-Forest
and Stream.
It’s a Way They Have in Russia.
The Veritzins were nobles of enor-
mous wealth and power. Paul held his
high office in court. One night, glit-
tering with jewels and orders, the young
prince, who was one of the handsomest
men in Russia, danced in a gnadrille op-
posite the empress. As she passed him
'in the dance she fancied that his eyes
scanned her gross figure with covert
amusment. After the quadrille she
beckoned to him, and with a smile
handed him her tiny ivory tablets, con-
taining seven pages, one for each day
in the week. On the first was written :
The imperial ball room, St. Petersburg.”
On the last, ‘the mines, Siberia.”
He read it ; his face grew gray as that
of a corpse, he bowed low, kissed her
band and withdrew, ‘taking’ says the
old chronicle, ‘his wife, the beautiful
Princess Ivanovna, with him.”’ He was
h-ard to say, as he left the ball room,
“My minutes are numbered ; let us not
lose one.” Fhight or resistance was
impossible. The hold of Catherine on
her victims was inexorable as death.
Prince Veritzin was forced to remain
passive in his palace, while each day
the power, the wealth and the happi-
ness that life had given him were strip-
ped from hiin.
First he was degraded from all his of-
fices at court; next, his estates were con-
fiscated by the crown ; his friends were
forbidden to hold any communication
with him ; his very name, one of the
noblest in Russia, was taken from him ;
and he was given that of a serf. Then
his wife and children were driven out of
the palace to herd with beggars. “On
the last day,” says the record, ‘Paul
Veritzin, in rags and barefoot, chained
to a conviet, bade an eternal farewell to
his home and departed to the dark and
icy north. He was seen of men no
more.”
A Mexican Farm.
“On one farm in Mexico I saw
enough of the luxuries of life produced
to make any man happy,” remarked
C. F. Wood. of El Paso, Texas. “The
farm was not large as some farms go
in Mexico; it was, to use a slang
phrase, a ‘stunner.’ I don’t think the
mind of man could imagine a vegeta-
ble product that could not he produced
on that farm. Atanyrate [ saw grow-
ing there coffee, sugar, rice, potatoes,
rye, wheat, oats, corn, berries, cabbage,
tomatoes, apples, bananas, cocoa, figs,
On the upper end of this farm you
could find gold, silver, sapphires, onyx,
and other precious stones, Some of
these * articles were not produced in
quautities large enough to pay to mark-
et them, but they were all found there,
and all at the service ofthe owner of
the land. Oh, | suppose the farm con-
tained 10,000 or 20,000 acres of land,
but it extended through all tempera-
tures and all elevations,"”— Kansas City
Times.
“You know very well,” he cried, im- |
cochineal, and a dozen other products.
"EQUAL IN THE GRAVE,
©Creesus is dead ; remove his obe
And strip him of hisgold ;
The reaper grim has come for him,
His form is still and cold.
The crimson stream has ceased to flow,
The haughty head is lying low, |
He’s done with worldly pomp and show,
Hererests his'pulseless mold.
Upon you bier a per les,
His soul*has taken flight ;
His seneless clay wears no display—
Ah, ’tis a sorry sight.
His unsuccessful course is run,
With tribulation he is done,
His perfect rest is just begun—
‘I'he rest of death’s long night.
Lay this one in his marble tomb
nd you one in the ground :
O’er this a stately shaft uprear
O’er thata simple mound,
But which shall sleep the sweeter sleep—
Which first shall break the silence deep ?
Ah! they are equal in dsath’s keep,
Till Gabriel’s trump shall sound.
—Frank B. Welch in Buffalo Express.
An Awkward Mistake.
A clubman relates at his own expense
the following reminiscence of his visit to
London last summer. Wishing to take
advantage of the alleged cheapness of
clothing in London he carried with him
no more than he actually needed for the
voyage, and on his arrival posted up to
London in his steamer dress, to flnd an
important dinner engagement awaiting
him, only a few days off. It was an ex-
tremely hot day and he was tired, but
he went at once to the establishment of
a tailor who had been recommended, and
asked to see the proprietor, Mr. X.
That gentleman appeared and the fol-
lowing conversation took place :
“You are Mr. X 7?” the American
asked.
“Yes,” was the laconic reply.
“Well,” continued the American, “I
met your customer, Mr. A., on the
steamer I've just landed from, and he
advised me to come and see you before
looking anywhere else.”
“But really, my man,” the tailor said,
looking the dusty, travel-stained visitor
over from head to foot, “I am awfully
sorry not to oblige Mr. A., you know,
but really we don’t need any more help
at present.”
The American is neither vain nor
lacking in a sense of the ludicrous, so
that instead of becoming mortally of-
fended, as many might have done, he
simply laughed and explained that he
wanted some work done himself, and on
this footing he was at once treated with
a consideration designed to atone for so
awkward a mistake.
Insurance Agent’s Profits.
First class life insurance agents who
can approach what the companies cail
“big fish” earn almost tabulous
amounts of money. A gentleman who
represented one of the big New York
companies in this city for a number of
years, and who never ‘‘touched” a man
for less than a $10,000 life policy, was
| wont to boat that his annual income
never fell below $30,000. He was tell-
ing the truth, tuo. Mr. Gildendigit
was a great success as solicitor. His
company transferred him to New York,
where he had a wide field of work.
There he was as successful as he was
in Cincinnati, and he flaunted in every
cafe and bar in Broadway, between
Union square and the Gilsey house the
certified cneck for his commission. The
check was for $30,000 and he boasted
that he had ‘landed his fish”’ in one
month.
This accomplished life insurance so-
licitor was sent to Berlin by his com-
pany, and reports from the German
capital on the banks of the Spree are
to the effect that there he is doing quite
as well as the getleman who kept the
hotel. This man was “self made” in
all that the term implies, for when he
first came to Cincinnati, he worked asa
common laborer in a yeast manufactory
here. He was ostentatiously liberal,
offensively so at times, but it was a
part of his business.
The Head and Hair of Infants.
The heads of infants should not be
washed in brandy, whisky, spirits of
hartshorn, or other stimulating washes.
They do no good, cause pain, and may
so irritate the tender scalp as to cause
disease.
For cleaning the head, soap and wa-
ter, or water and a little borax in it, is
all that is needed. After washing the
scalp, a soft hair brush should be used.
This will remove any dirt or dandruff,
and will not irritate the skin as a comb
would be likely to do.
The hair of both boys and girls should
be kept short till eight or nine years of
age. This will conduce to cleanliness ;
prevent a great deal of trouble 1n comb-
ing and washing ; will leave no harbor
for the abominable creepers to which
children are exposed ; and, by keeping
the head cool will render children less
liable to the inflammatory affections of
the brain—to which they are strongly
predisposed at their time of life. Thus
managed the hair will be smooth and
glossy ; sores and disgusting accumt.la-
tions on the scalp will be prevented ;
trouble will be saved ; and the health,
comfort and happiness of mother and
child greatly promoted.
The custom of putting caps on infants
having been abolished by all well in-
formed people, it is hardly necessary to
say that the practice should be aban-
doned by all, as the head is warm
enough without the cap, is very likely
to be too warm with it, and in tLis way
causing the brain affections to which
children are so prone.
Language of the World.
Whiie the lingual cranks are getting
ready to impose anew tongue on the
glcbe,commerce, invention and other re-
sults of brain and brawn are rapidly
forestalling the superserviceable enter-
prise of the cranks. The English lan-
guage is now the world’s language in a
sense and to an extent that can be truth-
fully affirmed of noother tongue. Eng-
lish is not only the language of Great
Britain, Canada and the United States,
but you hear English plentifully in
Gibralter, Malta, and Cypress, in the
British provinces of East and West In-
dia, Australia and South Africa; that is,
in large parts of five continents. On
the continent of Europe, English is as
necessary as French in the schools.
English is the language of commerce,
and that means that eventually it is
likely to forestall Volapuk.
Lincoln’s Advice to a Naval Hero.
Among the inmates of the National
Soldiers’ Home at Togus, Me., is Rich-
ard Rowley, who was captain of the
guns on the Kearsace when she sunk
the Alabama off the harbor of Cher-
bourg, France and performed an act of
bravery which probably saved his ship
and her crew. The battle had raged for
over an hour and a half, when a 100-
pound rifle shell from the Alabama
struck the gun which Rowley was sight-
ing and fell on the deck, with the fuse
still burning. In an instant Rowley
picked it up and threw it into the sea,
where it exploded just as it touched jthe
water. The sailor's mustache and
beard were burned off by the fuse, but
he stepped back to his gun and sent a
shot into the sinking Alabama. Capt.
Winslow at once gave the order to man
the rigging and give three cheers for
Quarter-master Rowley.
The latter was greatly lionized after
his return to this country. Congress
voted bim a gold medal, he received
other valuable gifts, and President Lin-
coln personally thanked him. For sev-
eral days before his irterview with the
President, Rowley had accepted fre-
quent invitations to drink champagn®,
and probably showed the effects. As
he aroseto go Mr. Lincoln gave him
$100, saying: ’
‘Now, don’t drink too much liquor;
drink just a little, but not too much.
I know you old sailors all like a little
grog, but be careful and not drink too
much.”
SHE'S A CrUEL COREATURE.—The
comedian on the stage had brought a
laugh by some allusion to a boy’s first
shaving encounter with a barber, when
the young man leaned over his girl and
whispered :
“That’s true to life, I can tell you.”
shaw do you know?” inquired the
girl.
“How do IT know ?”’ he repeated in a
whisper, “why, by experience, of course
that was the way with me when Ifirst
got shaved.”
“When was that?’ she asked innn-
cently.
“Oh! before I raised my musta che,”
he returned, moving uneasily.
“What mustache?’ she inquired, a
little surprised.
“What mustache do you suppose ?”
he retorted, turning red.
‘Why, Charlie,” whispered the girl,
“I neversaw any mustache. Do you
mean—"’
“Never-mind what I mean,” hissed
the young man through his teeth, and
became silent. There was lots of fun
in the play, but Charlie never lauched
again. He took the young woman
home, but on the following Sunday
night he went to see another girl.
Southern Negro Superstitions.
Women in the North have trouble
enough over theservant girl question,but
their waysare paths of pleasantness com-
pared with those of Southern women
except that the southern woman is less
disturbed over the more serivussituation.
When a Virginia woman wants to
change girls she is compelled to go at
least three days without any girl at all.
The kitchen help is black, of course,a nd
superstitions. No colored girl will go
into a house until three days after the
retiring belp has vanished, for fear of
being “tricked,” — in other words,
hoodooded, placed under a spell —by the
dismissed help. Whatever the colored
person doesn’t understand he fears. He
is full of of superstition, believes in good
luck from the rabbit foot when in his
own possession and in bad Inck when it
is “put on him” Not long ago a large
number of negroes were on a Virgima
Railroad platform waiting for a train to
take them to a picnic ground. A Bos-
ton drummer, with a face as serious as a
parson’s, took a piece of chalk and a
rabbit foot and in the most business-like
way began to make crosses on the backs
of the negroes and touch them with the
rabbit foot, The crowd broke for the
woods in a panic and there was no pic-
nic thav day.
Threatened Strike of Pennsylvania Rail-
road Employes.
A difference in regard to wages
threatens to bring about a strike on the
entire railroad system. The company
baving refused to comply with the de-
mands of the men, a despatch from Pitts-
burg, dated 25th inst., says: Forty en-
gineers, representing the brotherhood of
engineers of all the Pennsylvania rail-
road organizations, have decided to act
with the other orders in their efforts to
secure higher wages. This action was
declared at the engineers’ conference to-
day. The conference has been in ses-
ston since Monday and concluded its
work this afternoon. This decisio” was
received with the utmost satisfaction by
the members of the other organizations.
It means now that the engineers, fire-
men, conductors, trainmen and switch-
men of the entire system concentrated,
act as unt. The engineers authorize
the statement that the work of equaliza-
tion of a part of th- company is equiva-
lent to cutting down at one point‘and
filling up at another and will not be
satisfactory.
THE WAY PAVED FOR A STRIKE.—
“Anything wreng with the coffee
this morning, John?”
“No, it’s good enough.”
“Biscuits all right ?”
“J haven't any fault to tind with the
biscuits.”
«Steak cooked all right ?”
“I don’t see anything wrong with the
steak.”
“No complaint to make about any-
thing 2”
** No.
“John, I wish you would let me have
fifty cents to buy some ribbons:
MiLk As A SUMMER Dikr.—A v rv
important element of summer diet is
milk, but it must be taken in modera-
tion and carefully. Drink it slowly in
small mouthfals, and if there be any
! tendency to dyspepsia beat the milk a
few moments to break the butter glob-
ules and render it easier of digestion.
Skimmed milk and fresh buttermilk are
infinitely preferable to ice water as cool-
Ing and refreshing summer drinks. Ice-
water dyspepsia is a complaint which is
very general, though its cause is very
Iittle understood.
How They Make Slate Pencils.
In the northwestern part of the town
of Castleton, Rutland Vt, is the only
manufactory in the United States of
slate pencils. The stone as it comes from
the quarry is first sawed into blocks from
four to 7 inches wide, according to the
length desired for the pencils. These
are split quite easily into little slabs a
little thicker than the finished pencils—
say 5-16 of an inch. These are passed
through a planing machine and over an
emery belt to make them flat, smooth
and of a uniform thickness of about 3-16
of an inch. Next they are pushed into
the jaws of a “crocodile,” which consists
of a pair of steel plates, inthe under
one of which are six rows of curved
knives, each set so as to cut a little
deeper than the one that went before it.
These plow out parallee grooves half
way through the slab, which a man then
turns and lays on a steel plate, having
ridges which just fit these grooves.
This slides back under the six rows of
teeth of a second crocodile lying in wait
alongside, which puts the grooves on the
other side, and leaves the pencils side by
side. Lastly they are broken and rolled
off for an instant, to point them, upon
an emergy belt. A man can give this.
last touch to about 8,000 in a day. The
average daily output is about 30,000,
and the mill gives employment to some
thirty-five hands. The old plan was to
saw out square pencils from the slab one
by one. These were boxed and distri-
buted among poor families, who whittled
them round by hand at from a quarter
to a dollar per theusand.
In a New State.
Driving over the prairie, yesterday,
I came across an old man sowing his
wheat. It is no offense to introduce
yourself here—the people are sociable.
I stopped him when he got to the end
of his row, and asked him how long
he'd been in Dakota.
“I ben in Dakoty,” he said, ‘goin’ on.
eight year.”
“Where did you come from ?"’
“I was born in Vermont, but I kim
here from Wisconsin.”
“How much land do you own ?”’
“Jest one square mile.”
“How much did you own in Wis-
consiu ?”’
“Two lots in a buryin’ patch.”
“How much wheat did you raise:
last year 777
“Air you buyin’ wheat ?”’
“No, but 1'd hke to know, if you
don’t mind telling.”
“Tain’t no secret. I raised a crop of
two thousand six hundred bushels.”
“What'll you sell yeur farm for ?”
“Air you buying’ property ?”’
“No, bu—"’
“Oh, T got my price. Anybody whe.
pays me fifteen thousand dollars down
kin hev my farm.”
“How much money did you have
when you came here 77’
“1 hed my things to setup house-
keepin’ with and fifty dollars in money
which I borried. I didn’t sell my lots
in the buryin® groun’.”
Down With Trusts-
The Indiana Senate knows how to
talk about trusts. It has passed a bill
making a!l combinations to decrease
outputs, control prices or limit produc-
tion, criminal conspiracies to defraud,
punishable hy $1,000 to $5000 fine and
two to five years imprisonment. Every
stockholder is to re such criminal and
fraudulent conspirator, the charter is
t. be torteited, and civil damages to
the amount of dpub'e the injury in-
flicted by a trust on a citizen's busi-
ness ean be recovered. Public opinion
likes and will sanction just such mailed
hand blows at trusts as thi=. The peo-
ple are tired of the way these great
grasping concerns crush out the small
producer with one hand and squeeze
the consumer with the other.
A Finavcran Discussion. — Old
Man Moneybags (facetiouly)—“Come,
my dear, aren’t you going to advise me?
Here’s a man that wants me to lend him
$10,000 on his Atchison stock. Now
what do you advise me to do ?”’
Young Wife—“Why, you know that
I don’t know anything about money.”
Old Man Moneybays—“Don’t know
anything about money! That’s pretty
good, when you made as much in one
day as I have made in all my life.’,
Young Wife — “Why, when was
that ?”’
Old Man Moneybags (uproariously)
—“When you married me.”
Young wife —“Yes, but all my friends
have told me that I couldn’t bave made
a worse bargain.”
Many a man bas broken his back
and lost his heart on a poor farm which
he has suffered to run down by bad man-
agement. He has spread his labor and
capital over 100 acres, when by confin-
ing himself to twenty-five or thirty he
might have become happy and rich.
The way to repair such an error is to be-
gin with one field and get that into
good condition, and let the rest lie, and
$0 20 on through the farm. One rich
field will then make i* easy to enrich
another or two; and while the begin-
ning is slow, it is down hill work, and
as the end is nearly reached progress is
fast and easy.
-—One pint of flour, two teaspoon-
fuls of baking powder, one-half tea-
spoonful of salt. Rub in a generous ta-
blespoonful of butter. Beat one egg
light and add to it three-fourths of a cup
of milk. Mix with the flour and other
ingredients into dough. Pour the mix-
ture into shallow pans and spread half
an inch thick. Stick into the dough
three rows of one-eigth sections of ap-
ples and bake half an hour. Serve with
sugar and cream orsauce, or it can be
eaten as a toa cake It is recommended:
as excellent.
TiME FoR BUDDING. —-Pears on pear
stocks are usually budded in July; on
quince in the first half of September.
Plums are in the best shape for ths
operation from the later part of July
until the middle of Aun cust, and apples
from the first to the middle of August ;
cherries on mazzard stocks about the
first of August, and on mabale about a’
month later. Peaches are usually bud-
ded in the nurseries the same season the
seeds are planted and about the first ot
September.
.
«a