29, 1892, ONLY ONE WORD. Only a word may leave a sting To wound some kind and loving heart, It may be but a trifling thing That cuts as deeply as a dart. Only a word may stir up strife And quickly cause a bitter hate, The deepest sorrow make for life, Then may repentance come to late. Only a word may be a blow Of torture keen as any pain, And cloud a bright young life in woe From which It ne'er can rise again. Only a word may be a ray Of sunshine in some dismal room, And help to brighten many a day Which is spent in hours of gloom. Only a word, in it lies Power to change full many a fate How little do we realize : In but one word what may await. Only a word may lead the may : From clouds of darkness to the light, May help some weary one to pray And guide him to the path of right. —Good Housekeeping. — KILLED BY A KISS. My father, Henri Chantal, was the youngest of three brothers. My grand- father had been ehipping merchant in the north of France and had left a large estate. My uncle Jerome, the eldest, went to Paris and married, and thither, somewhat later. Francois, the second brother, followed him, my fathcr re maining in Havre, Henri Chantal was an eccentric man, silent and studious, with a pas- sion for books in fine bindings. He made frequent trips to Paris to attend auction sales, but never permitted me to accompany him. When I was 18 years old he died, by his will appoint- ing Uncle Francois, the guardian of my person and estate. Francois was a remarkably handsome man and very fond of wine, woman, and song. Eith. er through careless investments or riot- ous living--some say both—he wasted his own and my estate too and became a pensioner upon his brother Jerome. When I attained my majority, find- | ing myself toiling for ‘a miserable pit- | tance in a shipping house I resolved to turn my back on France and try my fortunes in the vew world, For more than 20 years I knocked about the United States and Canada, often suc- ceeding in amassing quite a little prop- erty ; but my love of speculation invar- iably swallowed it up, and after an ab- sence of more than 20 years 1 returned to France and hunted up my cousia Gaston, Jerome's son, who had kept his money and was living a quiet, mar- ried lifein the suburbs of Paris. He received me very well, advanced me some money, and assured me that his house was always open to me. But the member of Cousin Gaston’s family who interested me most was a maiden lady well on toward 50 with a face of purest oval, a skin like a young girl's, hair still luxuriant in growth and but slightly flecked with gray. “Who is she Cousin Gaston,” T agk- ed one day. “Come up to the billiard room,’ said he, « where we may be alone, and I] tell you. “Nearly 50 years ago,” he began with a long drawn sigh, © before you were born, we lived at Rouy le Tors, on the fortifications. We had a fine, oll mansion and a garden on the ramparts so high in the air that we used to call it the hanging garden, from the bor. ders of which we could look out for miles across the plain. There was a hidden flight of stone stairs leading from the garden down to the plain, used by the peasants and hucksters as a shortcut to the mansion. One win. ter’s night—ah ! well do I remember that night a blinding snow storm had set in at duck, but we didn’t let that check our gaiety, for it was Twelfth Night, and father and Uncle Francois were entertaining a large party at din- ner. Suddenly from way oat on the plain, came the dull, deep baying of a dog, half howl, half bark. At first no one noticed it, for the merry feast in the dining room was at its height, but as again and again it reached our ears, the howling each time taking a wore piteous tone, some one called out : “ Why, that sounds like Stentor!’ this being the name of a large and ex- tremely intelligent St. Bernard dog, which father had bought during a trip through Switzerland, Er “ ‘It's yery strange !" said my father thoughtfully; then turning to a servant he added: "See if Stentor be 1n the house.’ ; “Word was soon réturned that the animal was nowhere to be found ; and asif to remove all doubt that the bark. ing and howling could possibly * pro- ceed from any other throat than his, Stentor now sent forth such a deep and far reaching rumble, broken by howls almost human ia their pleading, that as if by acclamation the cry went up : “*'Tis Stentor! "Tis our faithful Stentor I’ “Uncle Francois sprang to his feet —you remember what a Hercules he used to be and how unk own to his vocabulary the word fear was—and | calling for his cane and great coat made ready to eally forth into the | storm, which every moment increased | in fury. Baptiste accompanied him | with a lantern. “ Descending from the staircase the two men upon reaching the door open: | Ing at the bottom of the ramparts halted for a moment for Stentor to send forth another of his deep, booming calls for assisance, tnen facing the swirlin clonds of snow and sleet they began to traverse the plain. Alter half an hour’s search they came upon Stentor, He was nearly buried in a drift, but shook himself free and burst forth into ' manifestations of the wildest delight | as he caught sight of the relief party. | The animal was harnessed to a wagon | of mine which father had given me on i my last birthday, the wheels of whic | had stuck fast in the drift asthe faith. ' ful dog was crossing the plain with his load. Without pausing to ascertain ! what was concealed beneath the blan- ' kets which wére firmly lashed over the | body of the little wagon, Uncle Fran- cois and Baptiste, in answer to Sten tor’s loud whining, lent the good dog a helping hand and the party soon reach- ed the door at the foot of the stone stairway. Here, setting Stentor free, Uncle Francois lifted the litile vehicle in his arms and bore it triumphantly amid bursts of laughter and applause and the mad gambols of Stentor into our crowded dining room. “ Judge of our surprise, nay of our wonder and bewilderment, upon draw- ing a beautiful wicker basket from be- neath the blanket and carefully remov- ing the soft silk and woolen wraps which swathed up its contents, to come upon the tiny, rosy body of a female in- fant about 6 months old! Tied to its tiny wrist by a dainty pink ribbon was an envelope containing securities repre- senting 50,000 france. “ ‘Some child of love,” said my father gravely, ‘ whose mother takes this means of entrusting it to the care of a Christian family. Shall we open our house and hearts to it, wife?’ he asked, turning tomy mother. “Yes, yes,’ cried mother joyfully, : Thisis the holy feast ofthe Epiphany. What a tender reminder of the coming Christ-child 1” ‘And thereupon cur interrupted gayety broke out anew with more spirit than ever. The child was chris tened Claire, but from its earliest years it displayed a temper so sweet, a dispo- sition 80 loving, that it earned and re- ceived the pet name of Pearl. Father made a wise investment of the little fortune and by the time Pearl was 16 it had more than doubled. She was now a maiden of rare physical lovliness. Tor several years I had been watching the unfolding of this fair bud, and I had resolved come what may, to make Pearl my wife. My lovefor her was not an ordinary attachment. It was an adoration, a deep and soulfn] yearn- ing. 1 could not put it in words. I was afraid to speak to Pearl. I was afraid I'd frighten her, and so I went about with this thorn in my breast. “ Uncle Francois had ‘died just a year previous to this time, and now father was stricken with apoplexy. I was hastily summoned to his bedside. His speech was thick and broken, but, Oh, God, T understood him only too well, “My dear son—I have long been aware of your love for Pearl!” he gasped, “but it mast not be—I can not tell you all—Pearl—your wite— must not— , With this terrible “ must not” on his lips he relapsed into a stupor and never spoke again. “Pearl was sent to a convent. I married shortly after, and upon moth- er’sdeath my wife and I asked Pearl to make her home with us, and she did, coming to us with that old time smile go sweetly sad, loving and caring for our children—a real pearl in our household. As God lives I thought that love was dead within my heart, but month in and month out I woke to find it still there. Struggle as I might I could not rid myself of it it would not go. Thirty-five years have not killed it. It will never, it will never did, 7’ sobbed my poor cousin piteously. I took his hand and then spoke ‘a few comforting words to him, and then I asked ; “But why did Pearl never marry?" “She did not care to marry, she said,” replied my cousin. “No one suited her exactly, although she had many offers.” Gaston's wife now called us, but his eyes were =o swollen and red that it was impossible for him to go to the draw- ing room. 1 hastily poured a basin of cold water, recommending him to bathe his face and compose himself while I rejoined the family. I need not tell you that Mlle. Pearl aow more than ever awakened? a sym: pathy within me strangely tender and sweet. could not keep my eyes off her, The delicious sadness lurking in her round, blue eyes enthralled me. I followed her from room to room, in- venting excuses to speak her name. I longed with a yearning that oppressed and pained me to look into her heart, to know if she really had loved Gaston so deeply, eo fervently as to say, Thou or no one,” " : At last we were leftalone in Gaston’s workroom, a charming little den, quite shut off from the rest of the house. Never had Pearl seemed more delici- ously gentle and feminine. There was a playful melancholy in her man. ner that drew me toward her’ more strongly than the witchery of a maiden of 18. I must have kissed her hand with more ardor than allowable, for I was aroused from my dream by feeling her tugging to getit away from me and hearing hersay: : “Oh, M. Jules! M. Jules!” “ Ah, Mlle. Pearle,” 1 exclaimed. “If you could have geen Cousin Gas- ton weeping ' this morning! It you could have heard his confession !* She caught her breath, her waxlike face grew whiter and her clear. blue eyes [ost their summer like serenity. ‘Seen him weeping 2’ she repeated in a tone of wonderment, “Yes, yes, said I. “this morning, only a short time ago, upstairs, when we were all alone.” “But why ?” she almost whispered. “What has happened | t AY, Peay) vey replied, taking her hand. still strangely young and girlish, “I koow all. something did happen many years ago. Gaston has tcld me of his love; I'know the secret of his ife 3% But a look at Pearl silenced me. A death-like pallor had overspread her face, her eyes were closed, ehe had risen and was clinging to the back of Gaston's chair, She seemed ready to fall. when that instant Gaston's voice rang ont: * Cousin Jules, Cousin Jules, where are you ?" As he entered his den in order to get by me he was obliged to close the door partially.’ He gave it a little stronger | push than was necessary. It went completely shut with a low click, We | three beings stood there absolutely alone, shut out from the rest of the world. A strange expression, half joy, half pain, had overspread Pearl's face as Gaston's voice sounded in the 1ext room. Their eyes met—hers wet with tears, his red and swollen. I know not how it all happened, so bewildered was I. so entranced at the thought of what might happen, but I heard Gas. ton cry out: “ Pearl, Pearl |’ and saw his arms stretched out to her, saw her throw herself into them with a smoth- ered exclamation of joy, saw their lips meet! Then I looked away. The next moment I was startled by a wild cry of Gaston : ‘ Jules, Jules, come quick. Pearl has fainted !’’ : I wheeled about just in time to be of assistance to him. We laid her on the sofa and I turned to get a glass of water, when un agonizing cry smote my ears, “My God, Jules, Pearl is dead!” When we returned from Pere la Chaise to that desolate house Gaston asked me to follow him into his room. He unlocked a drawer in his desk, took out a miniature of Pearl, an ivory box containing a bunch of silken curls cut from her head when a child, ar.d a large envelope filled with securities repre senting Pearl's fortune, about 20,000 francs. ‘ Here Cousin Jules.” said he, as he entwined his arm tenderly about my neck, these all belong to you.” “Tome?” I replied, drawing back completely mystified. “Yes, Pearl was your sister. — Guy de Maupassant. A ——————— It Was Jim’s Fault. Durn him, he don’t look to be wurth Lis weight in pumkins! said the Taylor township farmer as he pointed to a fad- ed and dejected looking dog which he had just tied to the hind axle of his wag- on with a piece of clothes line. Going to take him home ? I asked. Yes, He does’t look much hikea farm dog. No, but he’ll have to do till I getsum- thin’ better. Durn my son Jim, bat he ought to be made to play dog fur the hull winter! It’s his fault that we lost the best dog in Wayne county last week, How did it happen ? I asked. Wall, mean’ Jim was huskin’ corn 'longside the road fence one afternoon, and our dog was nosin’ about after mice. Talk about dogs! Why, we'd raised him from a pup, and no man’s $50 could abought him! That dog knowed more’n lots of folks I've met, includin’ my son Jim. We was a huskin’ away when one o’ them blamed foreigners came along with one o’ them performin’ bears. The minit Jim sot eyes on them he got up and says: Dad, do you want more'n a bar’l o’ fun in less’'n ,hree minits? What d’ye mean ? says [ We'll put Towser on ‘to that b'ar and ran him seven miles, says he. But mebbe the b’ar won’t run. He’s sartin’ to. Them sort o’ bars hain’t no sand. He'll do some of the all-firedest runnin’ you ever saw in old Wayne county. And so you set the dog on? I asked as he paused to kick at the cur under the wagon. Yes. That is, that infernal dough- head of a Jim did! He didn’t give me time to think it over. The man and the b’ar had got past us when Jim lift. ed the dog over the fence and told him to 20 in. It jest makes me sea sick to think of it. The dog went in ? Of course. That dog would hev tack- led a Bengal tiger nineteen feet high if we had told him to. He got sight o’ that b’ar amblin’ along, and he laid out to surprise him. TI got up on the fence jest as he overtook the bar and rolled him over and over about six times. When he did that Jim hollered so you could hear him a mile, and 1 was so tickled I couldn’t laff. Well ? Well, I wish I hadn’t started in to tell you about it, for it makes me dizzy. The bar finall quit rollin’ and about that time I got over bein’ tickled. Tow- ser had a good grip on him, but that old b’ar riz up like a side-hill, shook him off and then grabbed him to wipe out the insult. How long d’ve s’pose that dog lasted ? Three minutes ? Three turnips! You couldn’t hev counted fifty after he got up atore he had killed Towser and flung his carcass into the ditch! Jim and I both heard the bones crack. And what was the man doing all this time ? Oh, he wassittin’ down to light his pipe, and when we get up to him he wanted to know if we didn’t want to ‘turn the rest of the dogs loose ! And that was all ? Party nigh all. I run Jim over a mile through the woods, but he gotaway and hasn’t dastcome home since. Look at that cantankerous cur I'm a takin’ home in place of a $50 bull dog! Git along thar! Stand over and shet up or I'll be the death of you in less'n two minits ! ——An exchange has the following : Goodness is the highest possible attain- ment. Titles, honors, wealth, position, popularity, gifts, skill, knowledge, all these are nothing in comparison with goodness, A good conscience, a pure heart, and upright life are more to be desired than all things else. Yet noth. | ing is more neglected than goodness. Not only base and wicked man, but business men and politicians who have a code of morals of their own to which they adhere with great tenacity; smile at the proposition to introduce the princi- ples of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount into the common affairs of life, claiming that these would make success impossible. But that gain which is secured at the expense of one of these principles is the heaviest loss. By the terms of the will of Mary Macras Stuart, who died a. few nights ago in New York city, upward of $4, C00,000 of ber estateis left to various colleges and charities of the Presby- terian Church. The Lenox Library receives her magnificent library and | collection of art works in addition to $300,000. | The Story of the Hudson Bay Company. were not the first hunters and fur-trad- ers in British America, ancient as was their foundation. The French from the Canadas, preceded them no one knows how many years, though it is said it was as early as 1627 that Louis XIII. char- tered a company of the same sort and for the same aims as the English com pany. What ever came of that corpor- ation 1 do not know, but by the time the Englishmen established themselves on Hudson Bay, individual Frenchmen and half-breeds had penetrated the coun- try still farther west They were of hardy, adventurous stock, and they lov- ed the free roving life of the trapper and hunter. Fitted out by the merchants of Canada, they would pursue the water. in every direction, their canoes ladened with goods to tempt the savages and their guns or traps forming part of their burden. They would be gone the greater part of a year, and always re- turned with a store of furs to be convert. ed into money, which was in turn, dis- sipated in the cities with devil-may-care jollity. These were the courriers du bois and theirs was the stock from which came the voyageurs of the next era, and the half- breeds, who joined the service of the rival fur companies, and who by- the-way, reddened the history of the Northwest territories with ‘the little bloodshed that mars it, Charles the IT. of England was made to believe that wonders in the way cof discovery and trade would result from a grant of the Hudson Bay territory to cer- tain friends and petitioners. An experi- mental voyage was made with good re- sults in 1668, and in 1672 the King granted the charter to what he styled “the Governor and Company of adven- Bay, one body corporate and politique, in deed and in name, really and tully forever, for Us, Our heirs, and Succes- sors.” It wasindeed a royal and a wholesale charter, for the King declared, “We have given, granted and confirmed unto said Governor and Company sole trade and commerce of those Seas, Streights, Bavs, Rivers, Lakes, Creeks and Sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the Streights the Seas, ete.,—-not already possessed by possessed by the subjects of any other ing of all sorts of Fish, Whales, Stur- geons, and all other Royal Fishes, upon the coasts within the limits afore- said, and all Mines Royal, as well dis- covered as not discovered, of Gold, Sil- ver, Gems, and Precious stones,——and that the said lands be henceforth reck- oned and reputed as one of our Planta- pire the corporation was to pay yearly two elks and two black beavers when- ever and as often as he, his heirs or his successors ‘‘shall happen to enter into thesaid countries.” The company was ate un armed torce for security and de- people that were not Christians, and to seize any British or other subject who it was in his honor that the new terri tory got its name of Rupert’s Land. In the company were the Duke of Al»emarle, Earl Craven, Lords Arling- tonand Ashley, and several knights and baronets, Sir Philip Carteret among them. There were alsofive esquires, or gentlemen, and John Portman, “citizen and goldsmith.” They adopted the witty sentence, “Pro pelle cutem’ (A skin for a skin), as their motto, and es- tablished as their cont of armsa fox se- jant as the crest, and a shield showing cross of St. George, the by two stags. The “adventurers” quickly establish- ed forts on the shores of Hudson Bay, and began trading with the Indians, that they made from twenty-five to they exhibited all of that which capital is ever said to They were nothing like as enterprising as the French courniers du bois. In a timidity the country than al first, excepting as they extended their little system of forts or ‘factories’ up and down and on eith- er side of Hudson and James bays. In view of their profits, perhaps this lack of enterprise is not to be wondered at. On the other hand; their charter was given as a reward for the efforts they had made, and were to make, to find the ‘Northwest passage to the Southern Seas,” and in this quest they made less of a trial than in the getting But the company had no lack of brave cers and men at the factories were near- ly all from the Orkney Islands, and those islands remained until recent times the recruiting source for this ser- vice. This was because the Orkney men were inured to a rigorous climate, and to a diet largely composed of fish. They were subject to less of a change in the company’s service than must have been endured by men from almost any part of England. A The attitude of the company toward discovery suggests a Dogberry at its head, bidding his servants to ‘‘compre- hend’’ the Northwest passage but should they fail, to thank God they were rid of a villain. In truth they were traders | pure and simple, and were making great | profits with little trouble and expense. | * They brought from England about | £4000 worth of powder, shot, guns, fire ! | steels, flints, gun-worms, powder-horns, { pistols, hatches, sword blades, ice-chisels, files, kettles, fish-hooks, net lines, burn- ing, glasses, looking-glasses, tobacco, brandy. goggles, gloves, hats, lace, need- [ les, thread, thimbles, breeches, vermil- | ion, worsted sashes, blankets, flannels, | red feathers, buttons, beads, and “shirts, shoes and stockens.” They spent, in | keeping ip their posts and ships, about £15,000, and in return they brought to England castorum. whale fins, whale oil, deer horns, ooose quils, bed feathers, and skins-—in all of a value of about £26,000 per annum. I have taken the The Hudson Bay Company’s agents | commonly called Hudson's, together | with all the Lands, Countries and Ter- ritories upon the coasts and confines of | or granted to any of our subjects, or! Christian Prince or State, with the fish- | together with the Royalty of the Sea | tions or Colonies in America called Ru- | pert’s Land.” For this gift of an em- | to the King, his heirs and successors, | empowered to man ships of war, to cre- | fence, to make peace or war with any | traded in their territory. The Ring named his cousin, Prince Rupert, Duke | of Cumberland, to be first Governor,and | four beavers in the quarters, and the whole upheld | with such success that it was rumored | fifty per cent profit each year. But. possess. hundred years they were no deeper: in | of furs ; how much less we shail ‘cee. | and hardy followers, At first the offi- | , average for several vears in that period | of the company’s history, and it is in | our money as if they spent $90,000 and | got back $180,000, and this 1s their own { showing under such circumstances as to , make it the source of wisdom not to ; boast of their profits. They had three | times trebled their stock and otherwise | increased it, so that having been 10,500 | shares at the outset, it was now 103,950 shares. — From ¢4 Skin for Skin,” by i Julian Ralph, in Harper's Magazine Sor February. ET E———" Railway of the World, United States. The first locomotive was built and made its successfull trial tripin Eng- i land, but America was quick to adopt anb nearly all the rest of the world com- bined in its use. The Railway Age has just published an interesting diagram, showing the railway mileage of each state Jan 1, 1892, and the combined railway mileage of the world. By this table it | 8pears that the total railway mileage of i the world is 383, 500 miles, of which | the United States alone have 171,000. or | 45 per cent. of total, and North America , 187,500, or nearly one half, Europe has { 141,000 miles, or 80,000 less than the i United States alone; Asia, 20,000; South | America 16,000; Australasia, 18.000, and | Afric a,6,000 miles. A striking feature of our own railway development is its wonderful rapidity. When the rebellion broke out in 1861 the total railway mileage of the country was 82,000 miles. In thirty years it has grown to 181,000 miles. Another strik- ing feature is the railwav developement in new states. South Dakota, only admit- ted as a states Nov. 8, 1889, has 2,665 turers of England trading into Hudson’s | miles, or more than either Florida, South | Carolina, Mississippi or Arkansas, and i North Dakota, admitted at the same | time, 2,218 miles, or more than either | New Jersey, Mass chuetts, Louisiana or | West Virginia. Little Rhode Island is “lowest on the | peach-growing | with 316 miles. {The boundless west has distanced the east and south in railway building. Tili- nois stands first, with 10,235 miles. and while it is true that Pennsylvania stands Delaware comes next Texas with 8 854, Towa with 8,444 and ' Ohio with 8,152 miles, all lead New York, which is credited with only 7,- 920. Of the Southern states Missouri stands first with 6,188 miles, Georgia second with 4.828, Alabama third with ' 8,601, Virginia fourth with 3,556, North Carolina sixth, with 8,284, while Ken- | tucky aud Tennessee follow close with 12,976 and 2,971 respectively. Califor- nia leads the Pacific states with 4,484 ‘miles and Massachusetts the Eastern | states with 2,105. New Mexico stands first among the territories with 1,405 miles, Utah second with 1,347 and In- dian Territory third with 1,276.— Phila- delphia Times. —————— Failing Rapidly. Cabin.” The gifted aunthoress of Uncle ' Tom's Cabin,” now eighty years ot age, | is said 10 be failing rapidly. A gentle- man who recently visited her home at Hartford tells a New York Mail and Express reporter that she has failed | very much of late and her mind is so | clouded that she cannot taik consecu- ' tively on any subject. She is not con- fined to her room and does not require a physician's care, but her friends are apprehensive that the end is not far A great many letters still come to her, but these she does not see. She ig constantly ander surveillance. Her last days are madeas pleasant as wealth | and kind friends can make them, but she seems to know nothing ot what is going on about her, and indeed, is al- | most as helpless as a child. All the world is familiar with her 1 literary work, but it is not generally’ known that her first venture as a writer was in the shape of an epitaph placed on a slab over the grave of a pet cat. LIt way written when she was exght ‘years of age. It seems that poor pus, | ¢f whom the child was very fond, had rafitand acted so badly that Ler father shot it. There was a flood of tears, of i course, and then came the cat's funer- al. Tne next duy the futnre great auth: oress wrote these lines . . Here lies p or kit, Who had a fit And acted queer, Killed with a gun, Her race is run, And she lies here! i There is not much sentiment. ex- | pressed, but the facts seem to be all | straight. For days after the funeral the child visited the grave and wept | copiously at the untimely end of puss. Mrs. Stowe’s books still’ sell well. { And she will go down into history with the great distinction of having done as | much as, if not more than, any one !'single person to break the shackles and | make millions of men and women free. | She needs no other, monument. | I ————— | Not the Merrimac; hut-the Virginia. I" There never was a confederate iror- c'ad or any other ironclad named Merri- mac. The Confederate ram was the | Virginia always. She was constructed {upon the bulk of an old United States frigate called the Merrimac. Why peo- ple should go on calling the Virginia the Merrimac we cannot see. History and fact--not always synonymous —- agree in this case. The Confederate ironclad was the Virginia, not the Mer- rimac.— Norfolk Landmark. A very cute “booby prize given at a party was a cabbage, tied with a pink ribbon. When it was untied the top was lifted up and the inside contain - ed fingicandy, The centre of the cab- bage had been hollowed out, then lined + with tissue paper, filled with the sweets, the tap put buck and tied on. It creat. ed much merriment. --Good Houseleep- uy. Se — Constipaticn is caused by loss of the peristaltic action of the bowels. Hood's Pills restore this action and in- vigorate the liver, \ The Wonderful Development That Is Seen in the ' list with 228 miles, and | second with 8,978, Kansas with 8,991, | The Last Dawn of the Author of ** Uncle Tom's | The World of Women. Violet ink is considered the most fash- ionable shade at present. The present fashionable bodice nearly seamless as possible. Biue Canton china is again coming into great favor on the best tables, “Ice blue’ isa new name for a pale shade of that ever popular color Miss Mary Chenowith, the chief apostle of Christian science, is said to be worth $8,000,000 and lives in a house with 100 rooms. The latest novelty in dining-room floral decoration is a single long stem- { med flower drooping over a cut glass vase, placed on the dining table itself or on the mantle. ~A woman in Manchester, N, Hn, earns her living in a blacksmith shop. She works from morning till night in her husband’s shop, and car do ever thing except shoe a horse. The statement is made that in Massa- chusetts there are 38,295 partners in eighty-three industries, of whom 1,760: are women, and that out of 43,981 stock- holders in that State 11,722 are also wo- men, A novelty, in the way of dining- room furniture. is called the pigskin set in which the chairs are covered with | embossed pigskin, a fabric extremely ornamental, and which naturally wears exceedingly well. In falling into the prevailing fashion ot putting one long stemmed flower in a vase, if the spiral be not Very narrow at the base, a small specimen glass can he arranged inside, and the same held in place by a little moss, Kate Field knows a thing or two, and proves it when she declares that a wo- men to be agreeable must listen. “Keep & man wound up,” she says, look as though you were banging on his lips, and he’ll think you charming.” Fanny Edwards is a bright and at. | tractive Louisville girl of 15 who has taken to preaching and is delivering | stirring sermons to the mountaineer of’ | Tennessee, who come miles to heat the per- | suasively earnest and eloquent talks, [A well informed mother never ailows | a color to be put on her boy baby, It is an unwritten law in the nursery of | swelldom 0 proclaim the sex in the out. i fit White and pink, or baby blue for | the Ruths of creation, but pure white | for the John Jacob Astors every time. Miss Gentry, an American girl, has | obtained permission to listen to the lec- | tures on Mathematics at the University | of Berlin. It is rare that women are al- {lowed to attend courses in a German { Universities and they are never al- lowed to graduate. Miss Gentry has | been somewhat annoyed, it is said, by the students and may not remain in the university long. “The best protection a young woman can have in New York city.” said a big policeman on the broadway squad, “is one of those little crosses that the King’s Daughters wear. I've noticed that now adays the professional masher will look first at the bosom ofa woman’s dress, and if that little cross is dangling from a buttonhole he passes her by without even a stare,’ Linen cuffs are certainly an improve- ment to a tallor made dress. The new- est are gauntlet shape and are worn out side the sleeves. They are plain white linen and fully six inches deep. This revival of linen means new cuff buttons, and silver, with the heads of ancient and famous men, take precedenee over the costly designs in Etruscan gold in faney stone settings. There is one thing evident to the ob- server of women’s feet nowadays, and that is the fact that there are fewer stumpy toes than formerly. Women almost all wear shoes of greater length, It is rare now now to see a row of bent toes, restrained from lying out longitu- dinally flat in th. shoe. By adding one letter of width to many of these feet no great violence would be done to appear- ance, and the foot that has secured length of toe would find perfect comfort in a little side spead too. A picturesque turnout started from one of the upper Fifth avenue hotels on a recent morning. It was a double is as nodding white plumes; three’ white horses, harnessed abreast drew it ; the coachman and foot man were in white liveries with brass buttons, and the two ladies, who were the sleigh’s occupants, wore white cloth costumes with white fur toques, capes and muffs, The mud- dy highway of the avenue was in rath- er painful contrast as the party set off, but when the snowy drives of the Park, with the background of the evergreeens, were reached, the really beautiful estab- lishment received 1ts appropriatesetting. TEA GOWNS. There is an endless diversity in the shape and. trimming of tea gowns: They seem to get more elaborate and beautiful every season. There aro ethereal tea gowns, nothing but gauze and lace ; msthetic tea gowns. made of crupe woolen stuffs, with flowing drap- eries ; handsome tea gowns composed only of rich brocades and velvets, and ten gowns of nun’s cloth and soft silk that are merely pretty. The severe tea- gown is generally made of self colored silk trimmed with * passementeries. Cashmere is just as popular a material as ever. An eccentric gown was made of pale yellow cushmere veiled in front with white lace and ornamented with flost- ing ends of brown velvet falling in stripes from the neck to the hem of the skirt. The ribbons were held in place at the waist by a girdle. A gorgeous French model was of vel- vet in one of the new intermediate shades of brown, with a broad panel of palest blue and gold brocade on each side. It had an immense collar and a long train set in plaits just below the waist. The front was cut in a new style with long narrow ends like a mantle, and fringed with iridescent beads. The The most beautiful gowns are generally made of diaphanous fabrics. One in peach colored crape—enough to make any woman -‘enthuse’’—had the front composed of a careless mass of yel.ow guaze and lace. The back was adorned with a cascide of the same ma- teriais, and the sleeves were draped with lace at the top and finished at the wrist with a ganze ruffles, Most of the new models have leng sleeves. falling low over the hands. Russian sleigh painted white, with tall -