ps
i En
POTTY SSS
Deuoreaitc Waly
Bellefonte, Pa., Sept. 30, 1892.
AUTUMN’S THANKSGIVING.
Summer is ended; the fair year is dying ;
Roses and lillies are broken and dead ;
Southward the robins and thrushes are flying;
Music and singing with Summer are sped.
Gone are the soft breezes’ tender caresses—
Gone the long twilights of beautiful hue,
When the sky stopped to catch the earth's
farewell kisses— :
Bose the bright mornings of sunshine and
ew !
Slowly, each day are the crimson leaves {all-
ing—
Each in a few, thrguh the calm, listlessair,
Nothing we hear, save the cricket's voice
calling ; .
Bravely he chirps, through the Autumn is
bare,
Soon will come days of the wind’s dreary
wailing, 5 :
Mingling the sound with the chill Autumn
rain.
This the earth knows, as with hope and life
falling 4
Bravely she waits for the coming of pain.
Yet not a token of fear or of sadness
Jovy the fair earth in these last of life's
ays.
Now seems the time of her tenderest gladness;
These are her hours of thanksgiving and
praise.
No time so sweet in her manifold treasures
As these latest hours of life and joy,
Freely she ofters her bounties unineasured,
Beauties and riches without an alloy.
.
Never was sunliwht so tenderly golden,
Never were flowers so bright end so gay ;
Glittering riches, great wealth anwithholden-
Flame through the land in the sun’s gleam
ing ray.
Thus the earth offers her praise and thanks-
giving—
Praise to the Lord of the earth and the sky ;
Thanks for the joy and the wonder of living,
Beauty and gladness of bright days gone ty.
Spring’s joyous bursting of leaf and of blos-
som,
Birds coming back to their fair northern
home ;
Then will ring outo’er the land the glad
chorus,
“Winter is over, the Summer is come!”
Thanks for the grand trees and bountiful
flowers,
Thanks for the sunlight, the dew and the
rain
Summer's bright, glittering emerald showers.
Falling like sleep on hearts weary with
pain.
Now joy is ended, and Winter is coming:
Cool grows the air with a soft, dreamy haze,
Even the cricket his farewell is humming,
Still for past pleasures the earth utters
praise.
Smiling, the lastof her wealth bravely giving,
Say, “Though Winter is coming, and pain,
Still 1 have known all the great joy of living;
Sometime the Summer will come back
again.”
Summer is over, the fair year is dying
Bravely and tenderly without a fear
Sweet is her face as thus she is lying,
Are we as thankful and brave as the year?
OLD BANJO AND BANJOS BOB
Thie is a story of a horse and a man.
That it possesses in large measure the
demerit of truthfulness is not the fault
of the writer.
“Yuh couldn’t hev him at no price,
pard,” said Gilmer & Salisbury’s super-
intendent, “on’y the comp’ny’s goin’ to
ull off thie route. It seems like sell
‘n’ my own father to sell Ole Banjo,
but yuh kin bev him fer two hundred
even plusks. More'n thet, the game
don’t perceed less’n yuh hire Banjo’s
Bob fer his hostler.”
On the way back from Helena, as
we sat in the cupola of a caboose, look-
ing out over our trainload of horses,
Banjo’s Bob told me of his namesake.
“He ain’t much fer purty, Banjo ain’t
but he’s gosh awful fer good, Fer twen-
ty year now I've hed him in my string,
an’ he ain't a day older in his feelin’s
than he was in 63 down in Kansas.
He's thet proud-sperrited I reckon he'd
_die rightthar ef he felt the whip. Twict
Ole Banjo an’ me hed a race weth In-
jung. Onct down on the Niobrary they
hed my station held up fer twelve hours,
~an’ me a-peckin’ away weth my Sharp's
50-150, an’ minglin’ lead weth their ca-
resses mighty free, an’ then hed to
make a break fer it weth Ole Banjo. I
jest give him the word, an’ he went
through them Comachee’s like a hun-
ters’s teeth through a bufiler hump. I
got this finger shot off, an’ Old Baujo
got a bullet through the tip of his oft
« ear thet makes him look ez though he
wag swaller-forked. TheInjuns chased
us twenty mile, but they couldn’t ketch
Ole Banjo. His head an’ tail was ap,
an’ he jest nachally set the yearth on
fire. 1 sure seta heap o’store by thet
hoss. Another time I was hostler at
“an eatin’ station on the Cheyanne route
to the Black Hills, an’ the Sioux got
“over there on a scalpin’ tower. Ole
Banjo wae nigh led-hoss in a six team
“of the unbustedest broncos thet ever
was strung out ahead of a stage. Well,
gir, one day we heard the cluckety-cluck
of the stage wheels about an Lour be-
‘fore time, an’ we knowed from the way
the clucks was a-comin’ so fre
quent thet somethin’ was the matter.
In another minute here she comes
around a little butte, Ole Banjo jest
a-pawin’ the air on a level trot, an’ all
the broncos on a dead run. They wa'n’t
no driver on the box, but Ole Banjo
.jest started a-circlin’ round the station
:an’ milled ,em till they come to a stop
right in front of the door. Thet’s on
the dead thievin’ square, T hain’t try-
in’ to run no wheezer on yuh, fer'I
learned him thet trick way back in the
sixties, ‘When the coach stopped we
seen the driver in the front boot all
dobbled weth blood. He'd been shot
“in the head from one o’ them rifles the
guvment donates to the Injuns fer sich
amoosement. We jest started to get
him out when round the butte came a
‘hull war party of Sioux, a-yellin’ an’
makin’ medicine most oomusical. We
hustled the team inter the station din-
in’ room an’ begun turnin’ loose on the
Injune. They was mean’ the comp’ny
blacksmith an’ the eatin’-house man
an’ his wife an’ babby an’ Vic Smith,
an ole buffler-huntsr. We made it plen-
ty onpleasant fer the Injuns, an’ Vie he
got his man every time but onct, an’
"then he got the Injun’s cayuse. Bat
the house wan't much protection, an’
ez the Injuns kep’ pervadin’ 'roun we
sorter agreed «thet one on us must go
fer help... Ole Banjo hed jest come. in
fum an: eighteen mileroute, an’ the last
six mile a-keepin’ ahead of a gang of
Injuns, but I knowed he was good fer
forty mile more, an’ begun gitiin’ him
ready, His backbone an’ ribs didn’t
stick out so free in them days, an’ I
jest thought I would go it bar’ back
an’ weth ony a hackamore roun’ his
nose. Yuh see, the hackamore was
on’y a hair rope weth bucsles to jingle.
Well, it come along dark purty soon,
an’ I tore up a pair o'pants an’ wropped |
‘em aroun’ Ole Banjo’s feet so his shoes
wouldn't clink agin the gravel. When
it come plum dark I got on Ole Banjo
in the dinin’-room an’ rode out toward |
Cheyanne. We hadn't gone fur when !
I see an Injun not five foot ahead. He'
hadn’t no idee they was any one on the |
hoss’s back, an’ he jest thought things
was a-comin’ too easy when good stage-
hosses walked into him that-a-way. He
put up his hand to ketch Ole Banjo by
the fore-top, an’ me all the time layin’
along his neck weth my gua three in-
ches ahead of Ole Banjos nose. I
wa'n’t two foot away when I letthe In-
jun hev it right between the eyes. Well,
they ain’t much more to tell. I jest
rode Ole Banjo like the devil a-beatin’
tun-bark fer the forty mile inter Chey-
anne, I started fum the station at jest
nine o'clock, an’ rode inter Cheyanne
at twelve, In half an hour we was on
our way back weth a squad of cavalry,
an’ a little arter four we rodeup on the
station, All the Injuns was gone ‘cep-
tin’ the one I hed located permanent
an’ three others which Vie hed made
good, an’ which the other Injuns hadn’t
kerried off. But I wantyuh to notice
thet Ole Banjo went that eighty mile
in seven hours, an’ never missed his
reg’lar trip over the route neither.
“Banjo’s got a heap more sense than
gome folks has got hay. Lots o'timnes
he has saved a coachful of o'passen-
gers fum goin’ into a washout when the
night was so dark the driver couldn’t
see the leaders. Oae night up in Mon-
tanny it was jest nachully stormin’ pi-
zen, an Ole Banjo was on the Deer Lodge
trail. Of course he was in the lead, but
the driver was a new one, an’ hadn't
been told thet Ole Banjo savvied his
business better’'n ary driver thet ever
pulled reir over him. The road wa'n’t
but eight foot wide in places, weth a
mounting siraight up on oneside an’ a
precipice miles down on theother. The
driver hadn't been over the road but
once, an’ then 1n the dark, and he felt
mighty prayerful when a flash o'light-
nin’ would come an’ letzhim lock down
in the yearth about seven mile. He
sure didn’t feel none gay at the vistas.
Bat all at once Ole Banjo stopped, an,
the rest o’the team knew enough aot
to make ro bluff when Banjo acked fer
a show down. The driver done his
best tuh git the team tuh move, but
they all waited to see Banjo's hard.
Finally the driver waked up a passen-
ger who was sleepin’ in the front boot
on the mail-sack, an’ give him the rib-
rong to hold while he went ahead to
spy out the trouble. He found a plen-
ty, fer he was almost touchin’ a big
grizzly bar when a flash o'lightnin’
showed him his mistake. Well, yuh
see, the driver hadn’t lost no bar, and
the man a-holt o’ the lines swore he
never touched but one high place tell
he jumped on the box. The driver told
me he all to once weighed three ounces
lighter'z a straw hat, an’ jest flew over
the team. They wa'n’t no chance tuh
turn the team, er the coach an’ the
hull outfit hed tuh stay thar an’ shiver
tell it was light enough to see. Then
they shot the bar an’ found it had bus-
ted an inside surcingle or somethin’ a-
tamblin’ down the mounting. But all
the same, I want yuh to notice thet ary
other hoss in the lead would a-jack-
knifed the team, an’ carried the hull
outfit to kingdom come down the preci-
pice. He's a good hoss, an’ the man
thet ever throws silk inter him er treats
him bad hez got tuh make some medi-
cine weth me, Joe Bush. He ain't nev-
er been outclassed in ary team he was
ary into, He's worked in teams where
yuh had to go up on one side weth a
broad-axe an’ down the other weth a
shovel a-knockin’ ’em intuh the collar,
but you bet yuh, Ole Banjo wa’n’t nev-
er hita clip. His tugs was allus a-draw-
in.!
Oue bitter cold day in January word
came up the line that Ole Banjo was
dead. I jumped up.on thedown coach
and as I dismounted at Cave Hills sta-
tion it was with a feeling of surprise
‘rather than anger that Baujo’s Bob
was not at hand to grasp the bits of
the led team. But this feeling changed
wholly to one of griet as I saw on the
sunny side of the station a rude mound
surmounted by a headstone of rough
boards, With harness dressing for
paint, and his finger for a brush, Ban-
Jo’s Bob had inscrived the following ep-
itaph :
HEAR LIES OLE BANJO.
The best stage hoss That ever
Looked thrue A
Collar.
Murdered Jan. 3 1885 by Cheyann Bill
Throwin’ the silk into him.
I bastened into the station, half ex-
pecting to see the dead body of Banjo’s
Bob swinging from a rafter. But he
was made of different stuff. He had
used the boards of his bunk for the
headstone of Banjo's grave and burned
his supply fuel in thawing the clods
which he bad blasted out with dyna-
mite to make a grave for his name-
sake.
“Howdy, boss ? I'm goin’ to quit yuh.
I like yuh all right, but I haio’t got
nothin’ to live fer now bui tuh make
medicine with Cheyann Bill. If yuh’ll
jest give me my time, I'll go up to Me-
dory an’ git my stuff an’ start after him.
Monday night a week the swing team
come in lame, an’ I had to send out a
four team weth Cheyann Bill. I knowed
he was too free weth the silk, an’ 1 tole
him not to throw it inter Ole Banjo,
not on no account whatever, Well, sir,
he drove inter Middle Grand weth a
spike team, My pore Ole Eanjo was
a-lyin’ dead three mile back. They
was a rattler in the road thet Ole Ban:
jo must ’a ’saw, an’ he crowded over
to the off side. Cheyanne Bill didn't
take no notice 'ceptin’ thet Banjo was
out 'o hne, an’ he raised his whip an’
throwed the silk inter him. It ain't
much to most bosses, an’ ain’t nothin’
to eI, it was murder to my one
hoss, He hadn't never felt the sting
o’ the silk, an’ he knowed as well as a
human thet he didn’t ought to feel it.
It broke bis heart right thur. He jest
give a spring in the air an’ come down
in a heap. He didn’t suffer none ’cep-
tin’ fer the one lick thet murdered him.
Russ Wilsou, foreman of the Eb outfit,
come along next mornin’ an’ I hired a
mule team of him fer eight dollars a
day to haul my ole hoss back to the sta-
tion. Russ was mighty uppity about
lettin’ me hev the team at any price.
But when 1 tole him it was to bury
Ole Banjo, he jest let me hev two teams
fer nothin’, an’ sent one of his cow
punchers to Deadwood to buy dynamie
fer blastin’ out the grave, More'n thet,
he come all the way over from E6, an’
brought every one of his boys, to give
a military funeral to my ole hoss. The
obs’'quies was accordin’ to Hoyle, you
bet, an’ the boys all fired a salute over
the grave weth all tha cartridges in
their six-shooters. But I cain’t stay
uo longerin sight of his grave weth !
Cheyanne Bill on top of ground. It’ud
drive me locced in a week, I've got
enough stuff comin’ to strike Bill's
trail, an’ I'll never leave it tell I've
made medicine weth him. I hear he
didn’t dast stop at the end of his run,
but kep' a-goin®, and left the coach in
the Bad Lands, an’ struck across coun-
try for Mingusville. He'll sure make
Las first stop in Hele-naw, an’ I may
ketch vp with him thar. Anyways,
I'll foller him till I find him, Ef
I don’t find him in this world I'll go to
hell to find him in the next, an’ I'll
squirt coal oil on him, an’ watch him
squirm while it's burnin.’ I bain’t got
nothin’ to live fer "ceptin’ on'y jest that.”
Yesterday, more than seven years
after Old Banjo's death, I opened a pa-
per sent me from Las Vegas, New
Mexico. Huge black }ines smelling of
harness diessing were drawn about the
following article :
‘Cheyenne Bill was shot and instant.
ly killed in the Maverick saloon yester-
day by a man ‘calling himself Banjos
Bob. The coroner's jury acquitted the
prisoner, as it was shown that Chey-
enne Bill had pulled his gun, and turned
loose at him as soon as he entered the
door.”
In defiance of Uncle Sam’s postal
laws there was scrawled immediately
under the black lines:
“i ged i wuld wake Medecin weth
Cheyann an i done it.—Harper's Week-
ly. Baxgo’s Bos.”
Sn rE AOI
The Railroad of the Future
Recent statistics tell us that there
are now running in the United States
alone, says the electrical magazine,
nearly 4,000 electrical street cars upon
over 2,000 miles of track with as much
more similar plant in course of con-
struction. These cars run faster, more
cheaply and under far more control
than do their predecessors, the horse
cars. In America this system of pro-
pulsion is commercially but four or
five years old, and is barely out of its
experimental stage; yet it is a magni
ficent practical success—with more
than $50,000,000 invested in it,—and
this under some of the worst conditions
possible for railroad work. Some of
these conditions consist of very narrow,
wheel flanges, rough tracks, obstruct-
ed with water, snow, mud, gravel and
foreign vehicles; curves as sharp as
thirty feet radius, grades as steep as
12 per cent. ete. A service more near-
resembling that of our present steam
roads is that performed by the City
and South London railroad, which is
practically the first underground elec-
tric railroad in the world, and is al-
ready a great success, having during
the eighteen mouths of its existence
carried wore than 7,000,000 people,
with a run of over 500,000 train miles.
Although not entirely perfected, a road
lilze this forms one of the notoble ob-
ject lessons by which we -are learning
to travel.
In the light of such experiences there
is no question whatever about the suc-
cess of either a subterranean or an
elevated electric road, if properly de-
signed to meet the new conditions in-
volved—and the running may be at
any speed which can be made safe.
We may, therefore, in our further
study of the ideal railway, positively
leave out of the question the steam lo-
comotive. Great ashave been the per-
formances of this wonderful and beau-
tiful monster, he not only refuses to
climb ‘very steep grades, but he has
utterly failed, in the matter of speed, to
keep pace with his improved behavior
in other respects. In proof of this we
have records of English engines going
at the rate of 75 miles an hour forty
years ago, and that is the maximum
work of our present machines, although
they may have occasionally touch-
ed a 90 mile rate as a phenomenon.
Why He Was A Gereral.
At a court sitting in Texas Gen. Smith
was called upon to testify,
‘“ Whatis your name ? he’’ was asked
“Gen. Smith.,” was the reply.
“Were you in the late war ?”’
¢t No, sir.”
“Were you in the Mexican war ?”’
“No, sir,”
‘Were you ever commander of mil-
itia ?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you ever hold a military ap-
pi tment ?”
*No, sir.”
“Then,” asked the lawyer, with a
sneer, “how did you get to be a gen-
eral 7” :
“I gotinto the habit of extending a
general invitation to the crowd to step
up and have something, and pretty soon
I was called general.,— Texas Siftings.
Found Guilty of Murder.
Mount HoLLy, N.J., September 20.
The coroner’s jury to-day found that W.
Warner was guilty of the wilful murder
of Lizzie Peak, whose throat he cut on
Saturday night last while the girl, with
friends, was walking along a lonely road.
—The coupling of cars on the Bell’s
Gap Railroad caused spinal disease to de-
velope in Mrs, Sallie McClogky, of Em-
porium, and on Friday she rocovered |
$6,000 damages from the company.
About Precious Stones.
Some Interesting Legends from the Distant Post.
A writer in the Paris Figaro says:
The father of jewelry was Prometheus.
When he was cut loose by Hercules
from the chains that fastened him to
Mount Caucasus he made a ring out of
one of the links of his fetters, and in
the bezel of it he fixed a portion of the
rock. According to Pliny, that was the
first ring and the first stone. Hebrew
traditivn says that the tablets of Moses
were of sapphire, In Hebrew the word
sappir means the most beautiful. It
symbolizes loyalty, justice, beauty, and
nobility. The emerala is mentioned by
St. John in his Apocalypse. An emer-
ald of inestimable value ornamented the
bezel of the ring of Polycrates, King of
Samos. The monarch, having been all
his life favored by fortane, determined
to put his luck to a severe test. He
threw the ring into the sea.
The next day he went fishing. The
record of that day’s sport still remains
unbroken. His majesty caught a fine
fish and in the inside of the fish he
found his ring. That happened in the
year 230 of the foundation of Rome, and
the ring, considered as a talisman, was
placed among the Royal treasures of the
Temple of Concord. Emeralds from
India, Persia, and Peru are the most
valuable. According to their tints and
the lustre they are classed as Prosines,
Nearonianes and Domitianes. Accord-
ing to Suetonius, Nero used to look at
the fighting gladiators in his emerald.
The stone is the emblem of charity,
hope, joy and abundance. It had the
reputation of curing epilepsy by appli-
cation and of being an all-around pain-
killer. .
The diamond has always been regard-
ed as the most preciousstone. Tt resists
the hardest bodies. The Pontiff. Aaron
wore a diamond of astonishing virtues.
It became obscure, almost black, when
the Hebrews were in a state of mortal
sin. If the guilty deserved death it be-
came red, but in the presence of inno-
cence it came back to its original purity
and brilliancy. Rues assures us that
diamonds breed, and that a certain
Princess of the House of Luxumburg
had two which had a family in the
course of a reasonable time. The same
interesting assertion is also made by
Boethins. The diamond was reputed
as a preserver against epidemics and
poisons. It calms anger and foments
conjugal love. The ancients called it
“the stone of reconciliation.” It sym-
bolizes, constancy, strength, and inno-
cence.
The name of the precious stone in the
ring of Gyges has not been handed down
to us, but it is probable that it was the
topaz whose wonders Philostrates re-
counts in the life of Apollonius. An
attribute of the sun anda of fire, the an-
cients called it the gold magnet, as it
was credited with the power of attract-
ing that metal, indieating its veins, and
discovering treasures. Heliodorus, in
his story of Theagenes and Caricles,
says that the topaz saves from fire all
those who wear it, and that Charicles
was preserved by a topaz from the fiery
vengeance of Arsaces, Queen of Kthio-
pia. This stone was one of the first tal-
ismans that Theagenes possessed in
Egypt. The topaz at present symbol-
izes Christian virtues, faith, justice, tem-
perance, gentleness, clemency.
One of the rarest and most precious
stones is the carbuncle, which is some-
times confounded with the ruby, from
which it differs by the intensity of its
fires, produced by an internal lustre of
gold, while under the purple of the ruby
there only appear dottings of azure or
lacquer. Kthiopia produced the most
precious ancient carbuncles. The Chal-
deans regarded the stone as a powerful
talisman. Legend makes the eyes of
dragons out of carbuncles. Garcias ab
Horto, physician of one of the Viceroys
of India, speaks of carbuncles which he
saw in the palace of that prince which
were so extraordinary in their brilliancy
that they seems ‘‘like red-hot coals in
the midst of darkness.” = Louis Verto
man reports that the King of Pegn wore
an enormous one, which at night ap-
peared to be lighted up with sunbeams,
The virtue of the carbuncle are resis-
tance to fire, preservation of the eyes,
promotion of pleasant dreams, creation
of happy illusions, and an! antidote
against impure air.
The ruby is valued highest when it
contains the least azure. The largest
ruby that history speaks of belonged to
Elizabeth of Austria, the wife of
Charles IX. It was almost as big as a
hen’s egg. The virtues attributed to
rubies are to banish sadness, to repress
luxury, and to drive away annoying
thoughts. At the same timeit symbol-
ized cruelty, anger and carnage, as well
as boldness and bravery. A change in
its color announces a calamity, but when
the trouble is over it regains ‘its primi-
tive lustre. The amethyst, so called
from the Greek Amethystos, meaning
“not drunk’’ was a favoiite stone among
the Roman ladies. Its principal virtue
was to draw away the vapors of ine-
briety from the brain. It also drove
away evil thoughts and attracted to its
possessor the favors of princes.
- The opal, fallen from its ancient splen-
dor, is to-day called an unlucky stone,
evel by those who laugh at old super-
stitions, but it once held a high rank
among pracious stones. The belief that
it attracted misfortune was founded on a
Russian legend which found its way in-
to France, The Empress Eugenie had
a horror of an opal. At sight of one in
the Tuileries she manifested terror,
That had the effect of lowering the
price of the stone.
The turquoise is considered as a talis-
man in Persia, its native soil. It pre-
serves its possessor from accident and in-
sures constancy in affections. The val-
ue of the turquoise Jepends on its shade
and its size, especially its thickness,
Those classed as belonging’ to the old
rock are valued very highly. Emblem
of youth, of sentiment, and tender re-
collections, the turquoise may be called
the forget-me-not of stone. It breaks
on the death of its. proprietor, and it
changes when heis ill. This last ob-
servation is perfectly true, and is certi-
fied to by all lapidaries. The same
thing has been remarked of coral. “Not
only do precious stones live,” says Jer-
ome Cardan, ‘‘but they are liable to get
sick, to suffer from the infirmities of old
age, and at last to die.”
- The most precious of all stones, accor-
ding to Dr. de Lignieres, is the jade, ‘on
account of its rarity, its extraordinary
qualities, and the mystery of its cutting.
It was regarded as a sacred stone, and no- |
body had a right to possess it except a
prince of imperial blood.
Argerius Clu- |
tius, a famous physician in Amsterdam |
at the time of the Renaissance, published |
a work on the jade, or nephritic stone,
as it was then called, on account of its
action on the renal system. At thesame
period Italian authors spoke of the jade
as osiada, and discussed .its wonderful
powers for healing sciatica. The leg-
ends surrounding this stone abound in
history. Good specimens of jade are ex-
tremely rare, and the world is ata loss
to know how the Chinese managed to
cut it, because itis so extremely hard
that nothing can make an impression
upon it. Splendid specimens of gray
and green jade can be seen in the mu-
seum of the Trocadoro.
In conclusion Dr. de Lignieres admits
the possibility of the soundnessof the
theory that precious stones may have
healing properties. High scientific au-
thority, he says, has established beyond
dispute the reality of an action vis, vir-
tus, or vita, exercised by a great num-
ber of precious stones, leaving out of the
question the influence of imagination
and al! the phenomena of auto-sugges-
tion.
Interesting Facts.
The mean height of land above sea
level is 2250 feet.
Chinese physicians prescribe cat's
meat as a remedy for lung diseases.
An adult laboring man uses up five
ounces of bis muscle in the course of a
day.
No British sovereign has vetoed a
Parliamentary bill during the past 185
years.
An oil painting constantly hung in a
dark place loses some of itz vividness
and therefore depreciates in value;
The biggest of freshwater fish, the
“arapaimi’’ of the Amazons in South
American, grows to six feet in length.
Tobacco was taken to Europe by the
Spaniards early in the sixteenth century
was introduced into England by Ra-
leigh in 1555.
A plant for the "manufacture of hand
grenades has been erected in connection
with the Natiogal Artillery foundry of
Mexico.
Checkers or draughts were known to
the ancient Egyptians, ard pictures
4000 years old represent a quarrel over
the game.
James Runciman is said to have writ-
ten his “Dream of the North Sea,”
which contains 70,000 words, in eight
days and with one pen.
‘When a child dies in Greenland the
native parents bury a living dog with it,
the dog to be used by the child as a
guide to the other world.
The elevation of Denver, Col., being
5370 feet—over one mile—above sea
level, makes the atmosphere rare, dry
and clear, there being on an average
less than six days each year without
sunshine.
The largest sum ever asked or offered
for a single diamond was $2,150,000,
which the Prince of Hyderabad, in In-
din, agreed to give the jeweler who
then owned the Imperial, which is con-
sidered the finest stone in the world.
It was on Friday that Columbus set
sailed from Palos. Friday he saw the
new world. Friday he reached Palos
on his return, the 400th anniversary of
the discovery falls on Friday and on
Friday this country was christened after
Americus Vespucius, the Florentine
discoverer.
It is stated that a long first joint of
the thumb shows will power; a long
second joint indicates strong logieal or
reasoning power ; a thick wide thumb
indicates a person of marked individual-
ity, while a broad knob at the ead of
the thumb is a sure indication of obsti-
nacy. .
The British museum possesses a cup
of almost fabulous velue. It is of gold
and edamuel, is adorned with subjects
from the life of St. Agnes, and costs for-
ty thousand. The cup derives most of
its interest and value from the fact that
it was given to Charles VI. of France,
in 1891, by his uncle Jean, Duke of
Berri. :
If twelve persons were to agree to
dine together every day, but never sit
exactly in the same order ropnd the ta-
ble, it would take them 13,000,000 years
at the rate of one dinner a day, and
they would have to eat more than 479,-
000,000 dinners before they could get
through all the possible arrangements
in which they could place themselves.
Among the Slovaks of North Hun-
gary the coffin of a young girl is red.
In Spain the poorer class useno coffins.
A mule, with the dead body thrown
across it, or often two corpses, may be
frequently met on the way to burial,
and, though to us such a funeral seems
insulting to the departed, the natives
reverently uncover their heads as it
passes. a
The Gospel of St. Mark, printed on
raised letters at Philadelphia in Nov-
ember, 1833, was the stepping stone to
the education of the blind. It was
printed in the old French type, invent-
ed by Hauy, but now Roman letters
(without capitals, to save space) are used
and the Bible is printed in eight volumes
each a little larger than Wepster's un-
abridged dictionary.
A Clever Woman and her Age.
A level headed woman who has bid-
den goodby tc the first bloom of her
youth, but is making out extremely
well on the aftermath, has successfully
solved the problem of quenching other
women’s inquiries with regard to her
age. :
“Whenever a woman has the cheek
to ask me what my age is,”’ she ex-
plained, “I always beam upon her and
immediately exclaim, ‘Oh, my dear girl
I am a great deal older than you are—a
whole year at least.’ And then,
before she can find time cr breath an-
other question, I add, ‘And by the way,
what is your exact age, dear. The wo-
man, taken by surprise lies heroically
of course, and consequently makes me
‘out at least five years younger than I
| would have dared to make myself.”
RE
“Listed,” as the broker says, at
¢100 Doses One Dollar,”” Hood’s Sarsa-
" parilla is alway a fair equivalent for the
price.
The World of Women.
“Green’s forsaken.
Yellow’s forsworn ;
Blue's the color
That must be worn,’,
Long and short feather beas again,
Large plaid velvets for dress access-
ories.
“Storm” serge in black, blue, tan and
gray.
Square crowned English walking hats
of felt.
Long ulsters having triple and re-
movable capes,
Boston has a woman undertaker, and
so has Philadelphia,
Foumenne
Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith writes
that 1,000 American girls are now
studying art in Paris. =~ o-oo ooo
w TEAS
“There are 1,900 Red Cross Sisters in
Russia, says the St. Petersbure Little
Father, and there are besides these a
considerable number in reserve, so that
in case of war there would be plenty of
nurses available foractive work, Nine-
ty of those on ths force are Sisters of
Charity.
Miss Mary Pierson Eddy, the daugh.
ter of the Rev. William Eddy, the Syr-
ian missionary, has resolved to return
to Syria, where she was born, to devote
herself to the little children of the coun-
try and to use all precautionary mea-
sures so save their eyes from the diseases
brought about by the climate. She is
now studying medicine and fitting her-
self to bean eye and ear specialist. The
well-known oculist Dr. Knapp, is her
instructor and she will be fitted to be-
gin her work at the mission after anoth-
er year’s study.
One of the new sleeves—the Floren-
tine—is tight from the wrist to several
inches above the elbow. The upper
part is a full, deep puff, banded at the
lower edge. The sleeves and the puff
are very often of two contrasting fabrics
and colors. The leg-o’-mutton style ap-
pears upon some of the handsomest
French gowns. The cavalier cuff of
velvet trims many of the sleeves of tail-
or-made costumes, and a new coat
sleeves has a jabot drapery on the back
of the arm from shoulder to elbow, and
again is made slightly flaring at the
wrist to show a tiny undersleeve in the
shape of a puff. This daintily-finished
model is copied from some beautiful art
toilets made for ladies of the court.
The undersleeve, to suit various dresses,
is made severally of lace, net, velvet,
chiffon, dotted silk tulle and India
mull.
Among famous women who were
mothers of small families comes Eliza-
beth Barrett Browning, who had only
one son. Mrs. Somerville, the mathe-
matician, had two daughters and one
son only, though she was twice married.
Mme George Sands had two children, a
son and a daughter; so had Lady Mary
Montagu, whose “letters” are so admir-
ed in literature, and Mme: de Sevigne,
writter of equally famous ‘letter’ in
French. Mme. de Stael bad three chil-
dren in her early married life; when 48
years old she married a second time and
then had another son. George Eliot
(Mrs. Cross) was childless, and so was
Mrs. Craik, the author of “John Hali-
fax.” Mrs. Barbauld, whose prose and
poetry were both much admired in the
last century, had ro children, and the
same was the case with her equally
praised contemporary, Mrs. Ople.
Short skirts, itis said, are growing
narrower at the bottom and wider at top
The proportions given by me last week
were those of the summer skirt. I have
obtained the following .proportions of
the skirt for autumn: It is composed of
a front and a back, the front slightly
the narrower, the seams of the back and
front edges gored equally, and gored at
an angle of from 15 to 20 degrees.
These proportions are important to the
hang of the skirt, and also, in case of
striped material, permit the stripes to
meet, The back is straight, or else is
gored at the same angle as the side.
The extra fullness in the back is gather-
ed under the two large pleats. There
are four short gores on each side, but
the front being narrower the third gore
comes in the seam and the fourth in the
back breadth. Another advantage of
this cut is that it allows striped mater-
ial to run vertically instead of diagon-
ally in the back. :
Women are all anxious about their
new gowns, winter hats and etceteras
especially suitable for the cold weather
months that are coming. Every one of
us will have a jacket—not an outside
garment, mark you, but a little Figaro,
Toreador or Bolero in our best Sunday-
go-to-meeting gown. A genuine Tore-
ador costume that would not be at all
safe at a bull-fight, yet wonderfully
picturesque, is of shaggy cloth, rich in
all the tints of the outumn foliage. The
little jacket is of vivid scarlet embroid-
ered in Persian effects with rich glhtter-
ing beads. You will likewise have a
buckle on your new hat or you can put
one on your old one, but their must be
a buckle somewhere, or you will not be
carrying about with you the hall mark
of imported millinery, The bow-knot
chatelaine is doomed--for which let us
render thanks—and our watches are
now attached to chains of tiny golden
links, set at interval with whole pearls
Isn’t that richness for you ?
‘Women who have large wardrobes
depend to a great ‘extent on garments
made since spring for the autumn demi-
season, but for the fresh gowns one
must have the two following model are
given: Scotch tweed in mixed brown
makes the first.
This fabric will be very much ‘used
for street and promenade gowns, the
handmade being first choice but too cost-
ly for the average purse. The skirt is
made after the directions given below.
There is a shoulder cape with a wide
collar of some eight inches, that turns
down up. ' With this in worn a silk
skirt of cream ground barred with
brown and cardinal. The skirt and
cape may be bordered with a silk ruche.
The hat is a brown felt with a flat
crown of cream guipure lace and a
brown velvet Alsatian bow in: front
The second dress isa short skirt and
garcon jacket with a flaring Directoire,
bordered with black revers, ‘worn with
a skirt of c.eam and black, and a black
cravat. The hat is ablack felt.