es
Bellefonte, Pa., June 1, 1894.
RAIN AND ROBIN.
A robin in the morning,
In the morning early,
Sang a song of warning—
“There'll be rain! There'll be rain!”
Very, very clear! a
From the orchsa
me the gentle horning,
“There'll be rain!
But the hasty farmer
Cut his hay down—
Did not heed the charmer
From the orchard—
And the mower’s clatter
Ceased at noontide,
For with drip and spatter
Down came the rain.
Then the prophet robin,
Hidden in the erab-tree,
Railed upon the farmer:
“J told you so! I told you so I”
As the rain grew stionger,
And his heart grew prouder,
Notes so full and slow
Coming blither{ londer—
“I told you so! I told you so !
told you so!” ;
— Duncan Campbell Scott, in St. Nicholas.
ER STC,
EE ———
THE BROWN WOMAN.
At a distance of about 30 miles from
Harper's Ferry is situated one of the
oldest and quaintest towns in Virginia.
Not only do its historic associations, at-
tract the traveler, but the picturesque
charm of its old time homes induces
him to linger there, hunting curios or
plucking thyme and myrtle from the
garden of some ancient dame. Of all
these homes, none 80 invites the cu-
rious passerby as that of Miss Polly
Waller, ' A stone wall, ivy grown and
discolored, encloses the spaciotis gar-
den in the centre of which stands this
lady’s house. What delights are re-
vealed to those who can roam at will
in this garden on a sunny day! The
inner side of the stone wall is a back-
ground against which one sees a row of
twisted white lilac bushes, the blos-
soms of which in spring fill the whole
neighborhood with their delicious
sweetness. A carefully trimmed and
regularly grown border of box incloses
the flower beds and outlines the well
trodden gravel walks, along the sides
ot which grow roseniary and calacan-
thus, yellow jasmine and syringa, cit-
ron, aloes and damask roses,
One evening in the month of Sep-
tember several ladies were gathered
about a card tablein Miss Polly’s front
parlor. ‘The evening being cool and
windy, the huge fireplace was piled
high with blazing logs. So enticing
did the fire prove that very soon all
the ladies threw down thefr cards and
grouped themselves close to the hearth.
The high wind outside caused an over-
hanging maple bough to lash itself
against the window pane. This excit-
ed the ‘nerves of some of the ladies,
and this with the social and expansive
element which a fire has always the
power to awaken, turned the conversa-
tion upon the weird and fantastic.
“I can tell you a genuine ghost story
and, what's more, every word of it is
true,” said Miss Blunt, a lady who,
though still unwedded, could own to
years and experience sufficient to ex-
pect that her word be accepted.
“Tellus! Tell us!” clamored half
a dozen female voices.
“Well,” began Miss Blunt, who was
a frail, nervous little woman, with
wide open, startled eyes, which one
could easily believe had acquired their
present expression from frequent ob-
« servations of ghosts, Before continu-
ing she drew nearer to the fire, clasped
one knee about with both hands and
continued : “Some years ago I went to
New York on a visit to a relative.
This cousin was descended on the pa-
ternal side from an old Dutch family,
which in days long gone by had built
a great house in Bleecker street and
there for three generations had lived
in the enjoyment of wealth and high
social position. At last, however, evil
days came, the house in Bleecker
street passed into strange hands, and
the old family became scattered.
“This cousin had somewhat regained
the wealth and ‘position which his
family had lost. By a strange freak
he rebought the old house in Bleecker
street, preferring it to an up town resi-
dence. After he had refitted it, it
made a charming home. It was after
he and his family had been living
there for some months that I went to
visit them. When looking out of the
windows, it seemed queer to be in this
part of New York, but when I gave
myself up to the comfort and beauty
of the rooms it was as delightful as
any ‘house I even saw—at least I
thought so, though the family itself
did not seem quite certain concerning
it. ul
“My cousin, I could see, was
charmed with the success of his
scheme and had the satisfied air of a
man who has played a bold game and
wou. The wife and daughter did not
appear to partake ‘of his content.
They were restless at times, and I was
inclined to think them wanting in
gratitude.
“One day I was sitting in my room,
untying some embroidery silks, when
upon looking up I saw standing be-
fore me a little old woman, all dressed
in brown, with a white handkerchief
crossed upon her breast. Her face
was that of a foreigner, and. her eyes
had that pathetic, appealing look in
them which goes straight to the heart.
Finding this strange woman in my
room unannounced, I felt some surprise
and questioned her sharply. She gave
me no reply, but stood there, looking
me through, as it were, with those pa-
thetic eyes. Thinking her some for-
eign sewing woman who was possibly
embarrassed at her inability to use the
English language, I told her to accom:
pany me down stairs, where some one
no doubt could be found who would
understand what she wished.
“We started together out of the
room, [I preceded, but kept her in
sight. Upon the stairs she seemed to
disappear suddenly. I called to her,
I ran back to see if I had been mistak-
en and if she lingered sill in my room.
I did not see her anywhere.
hen. I {
into one of the other rooms, and that I
had better descend and send some one
to seek her. I wentdown into the li-
brary, where my cousin’s wife and
daughters were occupied with their em-
broideries. I told them about the lit-
tle woman, up stairs and requested
that they look after her.. When I had
finished my story, my cousin's wife
shivered & little and remarked in a
strained voice, ‘That is strange.’ She]
rose from ber chair. ‘You said she
had very pathetic eyes?’ she asked.
“Yes, the most pathetic I ever saw,” T
replied. The girls looked down at
their work, but said nothing. Their
mother left the room, bat soon re-
turned saying, ‘It was nothing.’ After
this we settled down te our work, and
the morning, though perceptibly chilled
by my little episode, passed quickly
b J
Ta this point in the varration all
the ladies drew closer together, and
forming a circle about the parrater
urged her to proceed.
“Some nights after this,” continued
Miss Blunt, “I awoke suddenly from
my sleep, and there, standing by my
bed, almost bending over me, 1 saw
clearly by the street light, which fell
directly into my room, this same little
woman, all dressed in brown, with the
white handkerchief crossed upon her
breast, and looking earnestly at me as
she had done some days before. I
sprang up quickly and called to her as
I hastened to light the gas, but she
was not to be seen, nor was there any
sign of any one having entered my
room. Itis not necessary to say that
I bolted my door securely, wrapped
myself in the blankets and eat up the
rest of the night. This time I conclud-
ed that my cousin’s wife had some de-
mented relative or friend confined in
the house, and that she had escaped
accidentally and made these excursions
into my room. I determined to speak
to my cousin in the morning and ob-
tain the truth from him, and thus pro
tect myself against further alarm and
fright. When I descended the next
morning, I was so fortunate as to meet
wy cousin alone in the lower ball.
‘Come into the library and let me
speak with you,’ [ said. He led me
into the room, saying, laughingly,
‘Have you, 100, seen the ghost?" ‘In-
deed I have,’ 1 replied, and thea told
him of what had happened to me.
He seemed annoyed. ‘It’s very strange,’
he said. ‘No one is confined bere in
the house. Soon after we came this
game little brown woman appeared to
my wife. When she told me of it I
laughed at her. ln afew days, how-
ever, the thing repeated itself. Both
of the girls have seen her. I myself
bave not yet been honored. Seriously,
though, I begin to fear that there is a
mystery. Sometime must be done.
My wife and daughters wished to give
up the house a month ago, but I felt
that there must be some mistake, and
I determined to remain and prove to
them that either it was their over-
wrought imaginations or something
which would in time explain itself
naturally.”
“At breakfast my cousin related my
experience to the family. We discuss-
ed the matter seriously. That same
day my cousin’s wife heard low cries of
distress in one of the vacant bedrooms.
Summoned by her, we went into the
room immediately, but found no one.
On the night of that day I was again
awakened from my sleep by the ap-
pearance at my bedside of this same
little, woman as silent and pathetic as
ever.
“On the following day the cries of
distress were again heard in the vacant
bedroom, but no clew to them could be
discovered... Of course the whole
household was aroused and excited,
and there was little rest for any of us.
Had it not been for the ardent feeling
of my cousin concerning the old family
house nothing could have held us
there a day longer. Appreciating his
pride in the matter, we determined to
wait awhile, and with the assistance of
skilled detectives see if the mystery
could be solved.
“A week passed. Detectives came
and went, but they discovered nothing.
In the meantime, however, the little
brown woman appeared twice to me in
my room and as often to my cousin’s
wife. ‘When we called or rang for
some one, she disappeared as suddenly
and as mysteriously as she had come.
“I can give you no idea of the sensa-
tion she produced upon those who saw
ber. Above everything we saw at the
time and recalled afterward those
athetic eyes of hers, looking beseech-
10gly into ours. Whoever she was,
she was a woman of deep sorrow, and
in some way, we all felt, she represent-
ed some terrible tragedy or undying
grief,
“One evening at the end of a week
Mr. Graves, a young detective, called
and acked to see the family, He was
shown into the library, and drawing a
package of papers from his pocket
begged leave to lay before us some in-
formation which he had obtained.
Somewhere in New York, it seems, is
kept a record of all the old houses in
the city. This enterprising young de-
tective, baffled by his investigations at
the bouse, was convinced from what
be had learned that the affair partook
of the supernatural ; cousequently he
had gone into these records and hunt-
ed out that of this old family in
Bleecker street. What he told us con-
tained the only explanation of the little
brown woman which we have ever had
and as my cousin gave up the house
immediately none of us has ever seen
her since.” :
“What was it ?”’ asked in a whisper
the group of women,
‘After this house had passed from my
cousins family,” continued Miss Blunt,
“it was occupied for some years, it |
seems, by a ir, Grovoche, a French
wine merchant. He lived alone in
Bleecker street with his servants and
was supposed to have amassed a large
fortune. When some years had gone
by in this way, hesuddenly disappear-
ed, and for many years no explanation
could be discovered. His mother, a
peasant woman from the Gironde, |
finding him. She spent the remaining
years of her life in the search, and the
- devotion and energy with which she
pursued her purpose made her at one
time a familiar figure to the police of
New York. and especially to the peo-
ple in Bleecker street, where she was
frequently to be seen. The poor wom-
an died without obtaining any clew to
the fate of her son, and soon the whole
matter was lost sight of by those who
had taken an interest in her. A few
years atter her death a man died in
New Jersey who left a confession to
the effect that the house of M. Grovo-
che in Bleecker street had been entered
by him one night with the intent to
rob ; that M. Grovoche had discovered
him concealed in his bedroom and had
attacked him ; that forthwith he re-
turned the attack and murdered M.
Grovoche by a thrast in the side with
a dagger. He knew the house very
well, for in planning the robbery "he
had been familireizing himself for
some months with it. He dragged the
dead body below toa cellar, which
contained a drainage well, into which
he dropped it. He then made his
escape noiselessly, leaving the treas-
ures of the house untouched. When
search was made for the body, which
was said to be buried in the well, it
was readily discovered and identified as
that of M. Grovoche by a silver chain
and crucifix which still hung about the
skeleton’s neck. From that time until
my cousin bought and refitted the
house it had remained vacant, and an
air of mystery had clung about it. I
have no doubt, unless it has been pull-
ed down to make way for stores or
warehouses, it is vacant today and
pointed at as a place where a crime
was enacted.”
As Miss Blunt finished her story a
very handsome and stately lady enter-
ed the room. She threw off her wraps
and drew near the attentive group. As
she did so a blond young girl rose from
her seat and-said to her in a husky
voice ;
“Mother, will you tell these ladies
what yousaw in your room yester-
day 7” }
“Qh, yes,” exclaimed the lady.
“Something so strange, [I must tell
you. Yesterday morning as I was
dressing, when I had just lifted my
face from its bath and was about to
give it its usual rubbing, I saw stand-
ing before me the funniest little old
woman, all clad in brown, with a white
handkerchief crossed upon her breast
and with the most pathetic eyes I ever
beheld. They will haunt me to my
dying day. Just as I spoketo her, de-
manding an explanation of this sudden
intrusion, she disappeared, and my
daughter there was awakened by my
running about the room calling;
‘Where is she ? Where is she ?’ ”’
Miss Blunt gave a scream of terror,
accompanied by the cry, “She has
followed me here !”
Every one turned toward her in
fright. With her face buried in ber
hands she fell forward, sobbing convul-
sively.—N. B. Winston in Romance.
A Kabyle Marriage.
The Ceremony is Complicated and Winds up
With an Exciting Incident,
The wedding ceremony among the
Kabyles is interesting because of its
comparative resemblance to the customs
of the old Greeks and Romans and even
to those which still prevail in sequestered
parts of France. Hereit is the girl's
father who exacts a wedding portion, a
sum of about £8, for which the bride-
groom has generally to rely upon the
advances of his friends. Often, too, the
young man has not a house for his
bride, in which case his friends set to
work and build one, no very difficult
matter.
On the wedding day the bride is led
through the villages in the neighbor- |"
hood, mounted on a mule and escorted
by friends and relations, who shout and
fire guns again and again. The various
householders hasten forth to offer her a
sieveful of beans, nuts or dried figs. Cf
these she takes a handful, which she
kisses and then replaces in the sieve. All
the offerings are collected in sacks by
the old women of the procession as con-
tributions to the young people's larder.
At the bridegroom’s house the girl's
hands are washed with liquid butter.
Then they give her some fresh eggs,
which she breaks on the mule’s head
and inside the unhappy animal’s ears,
thereby, it is believed,cou .teracting any
evil designs against her and her hus-
band’s happiness. Before entering the
house she drinks milk, fresh and sour,
and also water, and scatters over her
shoulder a handful of barley, wheat and
salt for the good of the family.
The husband then approaches her and
fires a pistol above her head to signify
that thenceforward he has the power of
life and death over her. Not infre-
quently he makes the symbol even more
emphatic by firing into her headdress
and setting her aflame. This done, lit-
tle remains except for the youth to lift
the lady in his arms and carry her bodily
into bis house.
——Of thirty-six women who un-
der the leadership of Miss Aunetie
Daisy made a run into Cherokee Strip
when it was opened last September,
twenty-two have proven steadfast in
spite of the difficulties of the undertak-
ing, and are busily engaged in making
a home without help or hinderance
{from meo. They are hauling the tim:
ber themselves tor a house of fifteen
rooms, which they will occupy, and
are prepared to do their own plough-
ing, planting, etc., in the well-watered
timber section of 480 acres which they
hold. They already have three teams,
cows, chickens and other stock, and
veatly dressed in short skirts that
come just below the knee and are met
by heavy woolen leggins that cover
the legs from knee to ankle, they look
well able to hold their own and carry
out their independent plan.
—~——An electric door mat has been
invented which rings the bell as soon as
any one steps on it.
——Spring lambs and spring beds are
concluded that she had disappeared came to this country in the hope of in demand.
The Lesser Antilles. {
1
Through the Serpent's Mouth Into the Spanish |
Main.—Tobago as Crusoe’s Island.—A Few
Facts About the Leeward Islands the Wind-
ward Islands, the Virgins, the Caribbees and
the Rest of Them.
: —
To begin with, I have an especial fa- |
vor to ask, viz: That you will geta |
map of the west Indies and keep it be-
fore you while reading these leiters, as
otherwise their principal value would
be lost. ‘Neither you nor I nor no-
body knows,’ as the children’s game
ungrammatically runs—at least nobody
realizes until his attention has been
called to it and pinned down upon it—
the vast extent of land and sea that
stretches off the eastern coast of the
hyppen which conneets the two Ameri-
cas. We have a dim idea in our heads
that Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti and the
Barbadoes are considerable islands ; but
we have almost no knouwiedge of the
hundreds of others that comprise the
enormous archipelago which Columbus,
knowing nothing of the magnitude of
his find, named the ‘“ West Indies,” be-,
cause he hoped that through them he
nad discovered a new route to India
Search in that cobweb corner of the
brain where you keep packed away,
among other dry facts gleaned long ago
from school geographies, bring to light
and dust off a memory of the following
figures: The surface of the West Tndia
Islands, all told comprises at least 100,-
000 square miles. Set in the shape of a
rude are, they stretch from Florida and
Yucatan in North America to Venezu-
ela in South America, forming a con-
tinuous barrier which shuts off the
mighty Atlantic, with its 84,804,000
miles of water and average depth of
2134 fathoms, from the smaller basins of
the Carribean Sea and the Gulf of
Mexico—the former with its 1,675,000
cubic miles of water and mean depth of
1267 fathoms ; the latter with 628,000
cubic miles and depth of 772 fathoms.
GEOGRAPHICAL GROUPS.
You dimly recall, too, how they are
variously spoken of as the Columbian
Archipelago, the Greater Antilles, the
Lesser Antilles, the Lucayos Islands,
the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, the
Bermudas, the Windward Islands, the
Leeward Islands—until your head is in
a whirl. And now the map comes in to
untangle the maze. Beginning at the
northern end of the system, with the
map in view, you see that the Bahamas,
or Lucayos Islands (which to us seem
of least interest, perhaps, because near-
est home), straggle half-way up the
coast of Florida and are separated from
that peninsula by the Florida Strait and
the Great Bahama Bank. They, alone,
number more than 500 —all claimed by
Great Britain—and their collective pop-
ulation is estimated at 27,000. The
Greater Antilles, comprising only the
four big islands—Cuba, Porto Rico
Spsojss.) Jamaica (British) and the in-
ependent Republic of Haiti, or San
Domingo, with all the smaller islands
along their coast, occupy an area of
about 83,000 square miles and havea
area of about 83.000 square miles and
combined population of nearly 3,000,-
000.
THE LESSERA NTILLES.
The Lesser Antilles--disposed in the
form of a crescent with the convex side
facing the east—are divided into two
chains, the eastern, commonly called
the Caribbee Islands, trending around
Porto Rico to the Gulf of Praia, which
separates Trinidad from Venezuela, and
the other stretching along the northern
coast of South America as far as Lake
Maracaibo, in a direction nearly parallel
with the Greater Antilles. The early
navigators called these the ‘‘Leeward
Islands,” and the eastern chain the
“Windward,” but nowadays, on all
modern charts except the Spanish, the
“Leeward Islands” are those lying
north of the fifteenth degree of north
latitude, and all those south of that
parallel are marked the ‘Wind-
ward.” ’
OUTLYING ISLANDS.
Besides these three great groups, there
are hundreds of smaller islands lying
slong the cost of Central and South
America, and a vast nuraber of rocky
islets, unnamed and uncounted, scat-
tered all over the Archipelago, Scientists
believe them to be the remains of a
mountain range which at some remote
period connected North and South
America, like the continuous chain of
the Andes, Sierra Madres and Rockies
on the other side of the hemisphere ;
and Ignatius Donnelly, you remember,
raters to them as proofs of the former ex-
istence of Atlantic, the mid-ocean con-
tinent whose sudden collapse, as told by
Plato and Solon, gave rise to the tradi-
tion of the flood, in which Noah figured
as the earliest navigator. The group of
Virgin Islands, where the lovely legend
of St. Ursula and her legion of attend-
ants is brought to mind, number up-
wards of 50, besides the dozen or so
that are named and divided between the
Danish, Spanish and British Govern-
ments.
LEEWARD AND WINDWARD.
The early Spanish navigators were
strictly logical in their classification of
the West Indies according to exposure
to the prevailing trade winds. In the
records of their discoveries, and for a
couple of centuries afterwards, the en-
tire group of Lesser Antilles, from St.
Thomas to Trinidad, were marked as
Windward Islands, while ouly the four
largest Antilles were known as the Lee-
ward. The present classification is
purely artificial, having been ordered
for administrative purposes. Now the
“Leeward” group includes all Virgins
and away up to Dominica ; while St.
Vincent, Grenada and the little Grena-
dines ure officially included among the
“Windward.” Barbadoes = which lies
more to the windward thar any of the
others, is not counted in this group, be-
cause it has a Governor of its own and
a distinct administrativesystem. Toba- |
go and Trinidad, also, (both British pos-
sessions and united in colonial govern-
ment,) are now excluded from their
Windward neighbors. The old Spanish
system of nomenclature sppears to have
heen equally simple, for whenever new
land was discovered, or a city founded, '
the calendar was piously consulted and
named for the saint whose ‘day’ it
chanzed to be ; and so the modern trav-
eler in these waters, however anti-
Catholic his religious views may be, re-
poate a perpetual litany to the taint as
e sails. The general name, “Antilles,”
was bestowed under a misapprehension,
because Columbus, when he found them,
was supposad to have reached Antilla, a
fabled country farto the westward of
the Azores (was it Plato’s *Atlantis ?)
which had a vague and uncertain place
on the charts of those early’ geographies.
Years after the great poi had fin-
isbed his voyaging in this world, Peter
Martyr wrote a book about ‘Antille,”
which be said Columbus had touched
upon ; and for half a century thereafier
Cuba and Haiti were known as such be-
fore a single link in the Caribbean chain
was discovered.
THROUGH THE SERPENT’S MOUTH.
As to our routes, not caring to un-
necessarily risk the gales of the open
Atlantic in a yacht we came up to Para
in the regular steamer ; and from that
Amazonian city sailed past the great
delta of the Orinoco River, through the
celebrated ‘Dragon’s Mouth” into the
Gulf of Paria, and thence through .the
“‘Serpent’s Mouth’’ into the Caribbean
Sea. Having visited the Island of Trin-
idad and its wonderful aspbalt lake so
little while ago, we did notland this ;
time, but contented ourselves with
cruising around its shores. Nowhere in
the world can pleasanter voyaging be
found than here, after the foul stripe of
bottlegreen water with which the
Orinoco stains the Atlantic for many
wiles is past and the placid land-locked
Paria Gulf is entered. The scenery,
through bold and picturesque always,
eminently restful—the mountains dark
green, with verdure from base to top
except where flushed 1n places with
crimson canopies of the ‘bois immor-
telle.” Between the mountains, fertile
valleys unfold, and the conspicuous sea
now dashes noiselessly against the cav-
erned limestone chffs, and now ripples
softly around the feet of cocoanut paims
that fringe the bay.
IN THE DRAGON'S MOUTH.
At Boca de Monos (monkey’s mouth)
—one of the three narrow entrances to
the Paria Gulf—the Venezuelan Moun-
tains of Cumana loom up so near that
they seem to bar the channel by an im-
passable wall. So much do these
heights resemble the crowding islands
all around that it is difficult to believe
that they are part of the mainland.
The scene in the Dragon’s Mouth is
equally striking—towering mountain,
cliffs clothed to the water’s edge with
wild, dark forests, and silent islands
bordered with palms and mangroves,
paradise of plover, boobies and tropic
birds, asleep in the sunshine; and, as if
the passage were not narrow enough, a
tiny islet, tufted with cacti and dra
with convolvuli, occupies the center of
it. But weslipped safely past, out into
that region of romance and beauty, the
Spanish Main, where the crowding is-
lands are clustered hills, standing out in
intense clearness of green and purple
and blue ; where the skies are absc-
lutely cloudless by day, and by night il-
lumined by unfamiliar constellations
and three times as many stars as are
ever seen at home ; where the Southern
Cross is the mariner’s guide in lieu of
the North Star, and the “golden” moon
of the tropics seems to swing nearer the
earth than elsewhere.
TINY TOBAGO.
Our first stop was at Tobago, one of
the Windward Islands, only 18 miles
northeast of Trinidad. The tiny domain,
which France ceded to Great Britain in
1764, is only 82 miles long by 10 or 12
broad, its area being officially stated at
78 818 acres. Columbus christened it
Assumption when he found it in 1498.
but the name was change by the first
Europeans who came this way, on ac-
count of the inordinate use of the na-
tives of an indiganous weed, which they
called tobago--the same which we now
call tobacco. It has been spoken of in
romance and history as ‘tLe Melancholy
Isle,” because of its gloomy-looking
mountains, abrupt precipives and dense
forests. ' Conical hilis and spurs are all
over it, connected by a central ridge,
200, feet high, lke a huge backbone
with branching ribs. Deep narrow ra-
vines extending from the ridge broaden
toward the sea into alluvial valleys be-
tween towering precipices, mostly still
coverec, with primeval forests. Sailing
around’its borders, you can hardly find
a break in the serried ranks of magnifi-
cent trees, except where here and there
tiny patches have been cleared for culti-
vation. Scarborough, its chief town
which contains some 1200 inbabitants,is
pleasantly situated on Rockley Bay ;
but for reasons unknown passengers
from the Royal mail steamers are al-
ways landed at Plymouth, an insignifi-
cant little hamlet on the leeward shore,
six miles away. Just back of Scarbor-
ough and directly overlooking 1t isa
conical hill, 430 feet high crowned by
the now aismantled Fort King George.
Below it another hill-spur slopes gently
toward the water, ending in a steep
bank, fringed with thickets of wild bam-
boo, behind which are grouped some
gray-gabled houses. Toward the left are
canefields stretching away over the bil-
lowing foothills far back to the forests,
their pale gold against the darker green
‘wonderfully brightening the sombre
landscape.
HIGH HILLS AND HOT AIR.
You can see everything of interest in
Scarborough within a short balf hour,
and I recommend you to plan your excur-
sion in the early morning or late in the
‘afternoon, for the hills are steep and
many, and the temperature eternally
skylarking between 80 and 95 degrees.
The Government House is prettily sit-
uated on an elevation some distance
back of the village ; and, notwithstand-
ing its scanty population, there are no
fewer than 18 churches—nine Episcopal |
six Wesleyan and three Moravian. The |
whole island. contains less than 10,000
people—mostly a highly ‘colored’ mix-
ture of African and Carib, with hardly
a white citizen among them, But they
are remarkably industrious, peaceable
and pious set, compared with the ma-
jority of the West India blacks ; proba-
bly owing to their preponderance of
Carib blood ; and it is said that at least
one third of them bas some degree of
education, gained in the several excel-
lent schools of the island. Taken all
together, England bas many a worse de-
pendency than this, A great deal of
sugar, molasses and rum is produced,
which, with coffee, cocoanut, indigo and
pimento, bring up the exports to the re-
spectable average of $400,000 per an-
num. The island is ruled by a resident
Lieutenant Governor, who acts as vice
to the Governor of Barbadoes, assisted
by a Council and a local Legislature of
16 elected members. —- Fannie B. Ward.
For and About Women,
Miss Julie R. Jenney, a daughter of
Colonel E. 8S. Jenney, one of the best-
known lawyers of Central New York,
has been admitted to the bar at the gen-
eral term, in Syracuse. Miss Jenney
was a member of a class of 12 students,
all young men except herself, who was
examined at the same time. Theexam-
iners say that she was splendidly suc-
cessful, and prediets for her a brilliant
career.
Sashes appear in two or three forms.
the inost convenient shape for everyday
wear is broad, tying at one side in front
thus the bow does not interfere with the
set of the coat. For evening wear
graceful sashes are made by a double
band of ribbon passed around the waist,
fastening at back beneath two rosettes,
with long ends reaching to the hem of
the skirt. The stout woman should
wear her sash in the form of a point in
the front, and setting it just an inch be-
low the waist. There it may be drawn
through a buckle and fastened at the
back with a short bow, a small bone on
either side being of value.
This is a season when shirt studs are
at a premium. Those of white enamel,
studded with emerald stars, are the late-
est. Gold studs flecked with black ena-
mel, are also a novelty. Pale blue and
pink enamel studs are being much worn
with stiff white chemisettes. Frequent-
ly the studs match in design and color
the cuff buttons. The link buttons are
used almost entirely. The most beauti-
ful pair the season has displayed are
‘oval in shape, of turquoise blue enamel,
studded with tiny diamonds.
The sailor hat has appeared again,
but this season the correct model has a
highecrown and a rim not nearly so
wide as those noticed in former years.
The all black ones with a veil of gauze
to match, are considered very smart.
English walking hats are seen and are
generally put up in stiff, prim fashion,
boasting large buckels, close eoques’
plumes and firm clusters of small flow-
ers resembling rosettes.
Ladies wishing a smooth skin made
without harm can obtain it by purchas-
ing 10 cents worth of tincture of ben-
zoin. Dissolve it in a pint of wine and
use on the face at night. The face
should first be washed with pure and
fine soap, and then rinsed off in clear
cold water. The banzoin can be dis-
solved in water, but wine is preferable.
For a rough or sunburn skin, uss two
ounces of distilled water, one of glyce-
rine, one of alcohol, and half an ounce
of tincture of benzoin. Without the
water, and with the addition of two
ounces of prepared chalk, free from bis-
muth, it makes a fine cosmetic for whit-
ening the face, and is not injurious, like
the expensive ‘‘balms’’ or ‘blooms’ so
bighly advertised.
Boil a small piece of green benzoin in
spirits of wine untilit becomes a rich
tincture. Fifteen drops of this poured
into a glass of water will produce a
liquid that looks like milk, and emits a
most agreeable perfume. This wash,
while an excellent remedy for spots,
pimples and eruptions, renders the skin
clear and brilliant and the cheeks a rosy
color.
The very small girls who are too
young to be miniature pictures of their
mammas are wearing the dearest little
dresses that the shops have seen for ma-
ny a day. Of course the gowns are all
pure white.
One favorite design is made of sheer
muslin with a short empire waist and a
full plain skirt. Tiny tucks are the sole
decoration of the skirts. Short balioon
puffs form the sleeves. They are unlin-
ed and the baby arm is visible beneath.
A deep collar of fine embroidery or lace
falls over the front of the waist and the
shoulders. Just above the waist line
the muslin is shirred with a band,
through which aribbon- is run. This
may be of any delicate color, though
pure white is preferred. :
Miss Dawson has been chcsen by the
Methodists of Hastings, England, asa
delegate to the Wesleyan Conference.
It is thought that she will not be allow-
ed to take her seat because of her sex.
Sleeves, they say, were never bigger
in Paris than at present. They show
no signs of getting smaller here.
Cool ecru linens came into such favor
last summer that they promise to he
very generally worn again in coat and
jacket suits of various kinds: Young
women of wealth who seek something
new are buying these linens in import-
ed suits made after a rather fanciful
fashion, when one considers the simple
fabric. Thus they havea round waist
of brown linen, with jacket fronts open-
ing on a full blouse front of ecru gui-
pure lace laid on white satin, A high
collar of the guipure and a black satin
or moire ribbon completes the waist.
Gigot sleeves of moderate size have
small cuffs of guipure edged with a nar-
row band of black satin ribbon. The
short skirt, escaping the ground all
around, is trimmed with several narrow
folds like pipings of black satin ribbon
set around it at wide intervals. A sail-
or hat trimmed with white rosettes and
light pearl colored gloves, accompanied
such a gown worn by that stylish
young matron, Mrs. George Gould,
when driving about in a hansom on a
round of shopping on a May morning
lately that was warm enough for a June
day.
{| A pretty dinner gown is made in the
| Empire styie of black silk, with cream-
colored lace punels on either side, a
| deep belt of cream lace across the bust
{ and a full front and sleeves of accor-
! deon-pluited chiffon. It is not the
| slightest use protesting against accor-
“ceon plaiting. Itisand will be—irre-
| vocable facts, which adverse opinion
cannot alter. Other gowns which al-
' ways look well are tailor made tweeds
when not in too large a check. The
basques of all these are cut very full
and rather short this season. It would
| not be impossible by the aid of a clever
' maid to make a last year’s dress, if fresh
and pretty, quite up to date by adding a
very full, short, bais cut basque of moire
with full collar and perhaps revers to
natch,
I