Joar-Sightedne**. The following interesting and instruc tive article on " Myopia; or Near-Sight edness," U from the pen of an authority, a Chicago optician: Tins defect ia com paratively easy to detect, especially in the higher grades; yet there arc some phases of it that require extreme cau tion and delicate manipulation to arnve at a complete understanding of their condition. Myopia, or near-sightedness is, more popularly speaking, a disease rather than a structural defect in the eye. This disease, however, lias the effect of caus ing s change in the construction, thus producing tiie same result; it is gener ally conceded to be hereditary, accumu lating in posterity, and when once de veloped, even in a very slight degree, its tendency is to increese and assume a more decided form and higher degree. It constats in a diminution of the far poiut of vision, and the consequent ina bility to perceive aud recognise objects lying lieyuud this distance, which varies more or leas with the grade or degree of the imperfection. In tin* low or medium grades, which art* the •moat numerous, objects lying within this visual distance are seen just as distinctly nud with less straining or exercise of the muscle of accommodation than is experienced by a person having normal or-perfeot visum. But the myopic eye ia largely defici ent in penetration, and requires much stronger illumination, osjHu'ially at night, to render objects distinctly visi ble within the same proportionate dis tance, as compared with the results ob tained froin experiments with normal or perfect vision under the same circum stances. To illustrate ; Assume normal vision in daylight to be represented bv 100, that of a myope iu the same light and upon the same basis to be seventy-five, then try the experiment with weaker illuminations, say at night, and again let ' the aentenes* or penetration of perfect vision be represented by 100, the exjvn ineut will show the sentences of the myope to Ik> diminished to a range of front forty-five to fiftv-flve. This want of acuteness will only prove true, fvr distance, while for near vision the op posite is the rule, the nivopic eye beiug able to see under weak ilinminatiou with less pr\ jxirtionate wear.nes* than is ex perience! in perfect vision. In the mvopic eye, when ocular esti mation of ihstaaoe is to be mavie, the tendency is to over rather than l under estimate it. This has appeared very prominently in estimating the dis tance of lights at night. As applied to railway or vessel management this, when combined with the want of penetration, will prove to be the most serious defect noticed under this phase of imperfect vision. The different forms and degree* of the defects classed under this head the most numerous of all structural or optical imperfections of the eye, and thev have an existence in a low or melmm grade in a very large proportion of the population without there ever be ing a suspicion of their presence. The comparative frequency of near sightedness has been the subject of dis cussion a great many times, and it is found to prevail to a much larger ex tent in the cities than in the country. This difference has been ascribed to a Tariety of causes, among which is the fact that persons living iu cities have but little occasion to relax the muscle of accommodation for infinite distance, they being habituated to using their eyes for comparatively short distances; hence the muscles become accustomed to these shorter distances, thus losing much of their natural power of relaxa tion l>eyond certain points through want of exercise. This is also increased and fostered by the studious habits of the American people generally, and the de fect is undoubtedly acquired in a great number of iustances through the pro longed tension of muscular accommoda tion in studying, by children at school. It will be an interesting as well as im portant fact to notice in this connection some of the resnlts of the examination of a large number of school children. r>rs. Acres and Williams examined the eyes of 1,264 pupils in different depart ments of the Cincinnati pnblic schools, which showed the proportion of near sightedness in the district schools to be 13.3 per cent,; intermediate schools 13.8 per cent.; and in the high schools, 22.8 per cent. These results corre spond with those obtained irom examin ations made in Brooklyn and in the College of the City of Xew York. It may not be uninteresting to notice the fact* that of the large number of eases of color-blindness which I have hail the privilege of examining during the past seven years, a large proportion were found to have a low grade of near sightedness combined with some one of the forms of color-blindness The dan gerous character of the error depending upon this defect for development lies mainly in the general progressive nature of the disease, which at first may be of a low grade, but soon increases and forms a higher grade ; every step in the progre-sion becoming more and more marked as an element susceptible of causing false perceptions and thereby incorrect judgment. Growing out of this is the diminished penetration and over-estimation of distance which attend the defect in both the high and low grades. It might not be out of place in this connection to say that this defect can be almost entirely neutralized by spectacles properly selected and adjusted ; but the diseased oondition nearly always st anding it generally demands some med iCal treatment, especially in the higher grades, before glasses can be properly adapted to the eye. Insuperable objec tions, however, attend the use of specta cles in railway service in many of its branches. Curiauo Discoveries. The old question, where do all the pins go to ? is not near so interesting as this connmdrum: How do things get where they are found ? The poems of Propertius, a Latin poet who lived half a century be fore the Christian Era, were found in a wine-cellar. The discovery was made in the nick of time, for the mildew and the rats had begun their destructive work on the parchment manuscripts. Bat how came these poems in that wine cellar ? Did some bottler, a lover of the muse, carry theni dowu to read during intervals of rest, and then, overcome by the fumes of his own wine, forget to carry ;hem away ? It is said that one of the cantos of Dante's " Inferno" was found, after be ing long mislaid, hidden away beneath a window-Bill. Who hid the precious manuscript ? Did he hope a reward wonld be offered for its recovery ? We can understand how "Luther's Table Talk " came to b£ hidden in the foundations of an old bonse. Pope Gre gory XIII ordered its suppression, and o it became dangerous for anv one to be found in possession of the book. When discovered, it was " lying in a deep obscure hole, wrapped iu strong linen cloth, which was waxed all over with beeswax within and without," The man who hid it was determined that the I took should be*read by somebody when better days had come. .An old cabinet held for time a forgot ten manuscript which the world Is glad the author found. It was the first vol ume of "Waverly." " I had written," says Scott, " the greatest pftrt of the first vol time, and sketched other pas sages, when I mislaid the manuscript, and only "found it by the merest accident, as I the drawer of an old cabinet, and I took the fancy of finish ing it." * The Baobab Tree. A curfous peculiarity of this tree, found in Airica and Madagascar, is tbat scarcely any injury will destroy it. Fire exterior does not impair its vitality. Nor can it be injured from within, as it is qu'te common to find it hollow. .Even cutting down does not exterminate it, for it continues to grow in length "while lying on the ground, and its roots, which reach forty or fifty yards from the trunk, retain their vitality. Although the tree attains aD enormous age, Livingstone having examined one which he judged to be 1,400 years old, it is attacked by a disease which affects its woody structure, so in course of time its own weight causes it to fall in a mass cf rains. "Old Keshlentcr." Ton couldn't call him a sportsman by any strain on your imagination, and vet he was by no means a loafer, though lie did talk with a drawl which indicated that he didn't regard time as a very val uable commodity. He sat on the fence as the train came up to Siegfried's Bridge, with the throe Eastou fancy gunner* alsmrd, whom he was to pilot across the country after quail. His gun having the lock tied on with a string, repotted across his knee*, ami his dog, Uvokitig like the ghost of starvation, re pivsel at his feet, The Hasten meu came up to him. •'Doyon know Abe Ilertaog?" " Y'-n-n s, I know him." " When* can we find lnm?" " R-i-g-h-t liyar, I guess." " Are you Mr. Ilertaog?" " Y-a-a-s! that's what I'm taxed for anyway." " Jimniiny !" said one of the party, soffo loec, " can this l>e the man that Cap told lis was personally acquainted with every quail family iu Allen Town ship ?" "Yon fellers want to go *rter some quails, eh?" " That's what we come for. Do yon kutiw anything about lliem ?" " YY-a-a-1, yaas; 1 can tell one when I see it." " What kind of a gun have you got there!" •• W-a-a-1, ye see, mister, that gnu's an old reaideiiter; biu into onr family ever since the first old Ilertaog move*l np hvar. l'tiat gun's a rifie, mister, and she wools mighty quick. Handle her a little cereful, mister," he continued, as he hande 1 the old thing over for inspec tion; " she has a wav of tumbling aj>art if she's used rough-like." The old rifie had a Iwirrel about as large as a fence rail, with iron enough in it for avon tig Gatliug-guu, and a bore not larger tliau a healthy rye straw, while all the stock it had was absorbed in a brass trap-door leading into a cellar smelling of verdigris ana tilled with grease and little pieces of rags. " How do you kill anything with this; knock it down?" •• W-a-a -I, yes ! sometimes. That's the wav I busted the sUx'k thar a liar the rawhide bamiage air, a-kinx-km' a fellow down what made fun of it." At this jHuut the investigator suddenly lost interest iu the guu, and the party moved off into the country. As they climbed the fifteenth fence, the old man paused on the top rail and waved his hand indefinitely over the fields before them. " Gents, there's quails all about livar and over vander—yaas, and tliar's one on 'em now," he added, as he drew up Old liesideuter aud knocked it over where it sat. " What! do you stioot a bird on the ground? Why, old man, that's infernal potting." "S'thatso?" inquired the old man, hnmbly, as he picked up a piece of his gun-stock that had been jarred off by the shot. Just then a small covey of the birds took wing, and the man who scorned pot-huntiug blazed away with both bar reils of a costly breach-loader and missed. " Whar! whar do you shoot 'em, mister ?" inquired the old man, quietly, as he put his patch and bullet on the muzzle of his rifle, which he held be tween his legs while he rammed the charge home, and then as a stray bird fiew overhead, he raised and dropped it " Is that ar' the way you want it done, mister ?" The objector said nothing, and the gnnniug proceeded; but it soon became evident that the sjxjrtsmeu were doing the gunning and the old man was doing the shooting. The lock tumbled off his guu occasionally, and the barrel had a loose habit of parting company with the stock; bat the old man hat! a pocket full of strings, and as fast as it gave out he tied it up, and made ready to shoot whenever a turd showed, and he occa sionally varied the monotony of the pro ceedings by coolly blazing into the bushes, whereupon his mean-looking dog would rush in and drag oat a dead rabbit. The Easton party hunted faithfully, according to their lights, and shot upon the most scientific principles; but, some how, the old man got the game, as the count showed five quail and a pheasant among the three for the day's work, while Mr. Hertztvg toddled along un der twenty-two quail and fonr rabbits; and, as they sat on the l>oard-pile at the depot bargaining for the old man's lot, he remarked: " Ye see, gents, Old Resideuter be'out much of a gun to look at. She ain't party nor handsome at all. but I tell you she's mighty on the shoot. All yon's got to do is jest to grease the patch right well, and ram the ball down close, and then, if you pint her at a bird aud pull, that bint's got to stop. Leastwise, I allers tind it so. Ye see, gents, where a man has such a awfully party gun his 'tention's kinder taken up a Imirin' of it, like, and the bird goes away after he shoots. Leastwise I allers find it so." Jnst then the lcck dropped off "Old Residenter " for the eleventh time, and, as the old man wasn't going to shoot any more that dav, he pnt it iu his pocket along with his game money, saying: "Thank ye, gent*, thankee. Come np soon again, and I'll take Old Resi denter out any time; we'll be party sure to get something." And he meanders off into the Indian summer liaze.—EOA foa i Pa.) Free Pre**. Homesickness a* a IMsesse. Tho last published volume of the "Diet, de Medecine" ha* an interesting article on nostalgia, by Dr. H. Rey. He regards it as a form of insanity. It is not often observed in childhood nor in advanced age, aud is much lea* frequent in women than in meu. It is most com mop in the yonng conscript drawn from the oonntry, who enters the infantry; the town lad is too much accustomed to change and the bustle of life; while the cavalry soldier is too much occupied to have time to think over his separation from the place where his affections are centered. M. Rey states that the men of Bretagne are most liable to homesick ness, as many cases occurring in those from this district as from the whole of the rest of France pnt together. The symptoms of nostalgia are, that the pa tient becomes sad and taciturn, forbear* to eat, retires to weep alone, and gives himself up to long reveries of home. After a time, if he goes beyond this tlrst stage, he begins to bear the aspect of ill health, and suffers from headache and sleeplessness; and if the disease still advances, delirium, prostration, diar rhea, and marasmus come on, terminat ing in 'death. Sometimes, he says, even old soldiers do not escape the malady. It is in hard times that this occurs, when fighting lias to be done in retreat, and when otheu troubles are added to the bitterness of defeat; when he feels himself forsaken; when he is exposed to cold, is hungry, has to sleep 011 damp soil, and is suffering frightful thirst from his wounds; perhaps is taken pris oner, or droops under the diseases that spriDg from misery—scurvy, typhus, or dysentery; under these circa instances, thff*fcmembrance of the country he has left behind him, of the mother, the wife, or the home, awakens and brings a tear into the eyes of the bravest. Saved for Greatness. Madame de Main tenon, who became the wife of Lonis XIV. of France, and for the Lost thirty years of bis life exer cised a controlling influence over bis opinions and policy, bad a narrow es cajie from premature burial in childhood. Her parents migrated from France to the Isle of Martinique when she was ten years old. On the voyage she was taken ill, and the sickness ended in ap parent death. The fnneral rites were over ; the last look taken of the body about to lie dropped into the sea ; a cannon was loaded to be fired over the corpse; when the mother, ordinarily unloving, insisted on seeing her child once more. To her surprise, she found the heart still beating, and in a delirum of joy, declared that the child was not dead, lint would recover. The hope, born of rapture, proved a true prophecy; and the little girl, so nearly given to burial in the ocean, was spaml to be oome one of the most distinguished women in French history. FOR Till: YOl'SiO I'KOFI.H. VITM. Yon tell me vnnr nerves sre so frafttl*. And prohahiy, l.uoy, voti're right, lint Uiat eeenis s flue way of ssMng You're easily thrown In a fright. Hid net vea make yon shriek with sneh londneu When Carlo's tooth Unused you in play, tVclarv you would have hydrophobia. And cry nearly all tho next day ,* IV nerve* make wu rush for thepltlowa. Whenever a thunderstorm'* near . Aud to|< hs'th your ears witli your Augers Ami act ahmwt frantic with fear ? IV nerve* make you fly from a h fragile . I don't contradict you, my dear , ihit I know a ([ikvl deflmtlou Fur jssiple who won't ecu.pier fear If* t>etter to give a thing, always, fxactly the name It deeerre* , And if one* an out and-out cow aid. I laugh when I hear about " nerve* Alitor •• Ilka*." The old red barn had sUxxl at the end of the lane fiir years, even before the academy had been built at Greenville. It was in ruins now; its dava of useful noes had gone; it ws the home of rats, and sometimes a shelter for stray tramps who might venture down the fane. It had once leeu the Saturday play house of the academy Iniya, as die sidiard with white letters taken its place. The letters were old and faded, aud iic cnptevl all of the opening. The letters looked like this: | ISHPO. | Sow the curiosity of the IH>V* had been excited for a loug tune to discover the meaning of " ishpo," or what other letter* put at the begiuuiug and endiug of " ishpo," could make that outlandish word into anything possible to under stand. Manv times the boys at the academy had pondered over the enigma; even men, in passing through the lane, would look with some curiosity ou the black patch on the old red baru, and as they hurried along into the city would say to themselves: '• I shoo;" and what is tliat, I wonder? Kverv boy in tlie Greeuville Academy had thumbed Webster's Dictionary nearest at hand in search of " Ialipo; ' and left the book no wiser for the search. Kut the mystery of the old red bam was to be unraveled at last. As Year after year went by and the boys liaJ be come used to the strange word, and some of them entirely forgotten it, a new idea occurred to I)ici. He was enjoying a half holiday and was lying on the grass under the trees on a very hot dav, when his eyes hap pened to rest on the mysterious word. It seemed to have a new meaning to the bov, now. Ho hail gazed ou it for years, but he now wondered why he had never thought before to tear off the old patch, and see if there were other letter* with ishpo. Kut how to accomplish that task without l>eiug seen by the owner of the baru, who was a aour-tempenxl old man, he had yet to discover. Going back to the school building* he found his comrades, and confided to them his plan and asked their aid. All readily joiued in the undertaking, and they formed themselves into a society for the express purpose of discovering the ori gin aud meaning of the word "ishpo." They were to wait for a dark night, and then meet at the old laro. where by the united strength of the party, they could tear the old patch from the red boards and examine the side nailed to the barn. That very night was favorable fur the enterprise, for it was dark. ami fo very close an J uncomfortable within the buildings that permission wns given the boys bv the professor to take a stroll dowu the lane, before retiring for the nigbt. Eagerly they all set out for the old ruin, but hail scarcely gained the shelter when the storm that hail beu gathering for hours, burst in all it* fury of wind and lightning, and the loose Ixiarda and trash around the barn were thrown about in great confusion, and the boy* esca|)eil to the open lane. The old red barn was blown down iu the gale! The next morning in the l>eantifnl sunshine the Itoy* hastened to the spot, and there, still nailed to the barn, was the old patch with its mysterious letters. A few minutes anil the old board WHS torn from the door and eagerly examined by the boys. The letter F was found, verv bright from it* long imprisonment, to head the word " ishpo," and the two letters nd ended the mysterious won!. " Nothing but a fishpond," said the boys, as they went back to school for he day.—JVeiv York Tribune. Mlorv ot HO Apron. And of all little aprons that hung upon the line that windy March day, Nainsook was the very proudest. She flaunted her ruffles, flung out her long tie*, dipped, dived and soared higher in the breeze than anv other. , And when bine (iingliam snapped against her she screamed: " Keep away, dinghy; you'll leave a blue mark on me if you don't take care f" " Don't be so proud, Nainsook; I'd rather be myself any day than a poor armless thing like you. it's Nellie aud I that love fun. It's Nellie and I that play in the sand, aud it's Nellie and I that make real make-believo cookies out of flour, too. When she has yon on, yon are 4> stuck up aud afraid your starch will get out, or ruffles initiated, that she has to sit in chairs, and hardly dares to wiggle her toes." " H'm ! Arms are very unstylish for aprons, uud I have raffles instead. As to dirt, my taste don't run to playing in it, and when I come out of the drawer, Nellie is going to have company or go a-visiting." " For my part," said the cambric with the pink buds, " I think Nellie ami I have the beat of times. We are together afternoons after she has been washed up. We play with our dolls then, or build block houses." Then the plain white linen made Home sensible remarks, the calicoes spoke, aud the braided pique, but Nain sook saiil no more, for she WHS very busy. Only think, she had got one clothespin off her shoulder ! if she could only wrench free from the other, what a granil time ! Away from these common aprons, whose company she bated to be seen in ! Off with the breeze to find some little princess who would be glad to see her! A jerk and Rho was free! Floating high for one glad moment, the next cast down into the muddy lane, trampled npon by horses, nosed over by pigs, dirty and miHerable. At last came a boy along who fished her out on the end of a stick, and car ried her home in that way. "What yer got, Jim?" asked his mother. " Er flag of liberty." " Give her to me; she's an apuru an' will do fur one of the gurls; piy she ain't got no sleeves." So it came that very day, as Nellie and Blue Giugbam were chasiug down the lane after a (4rav kitten, they saw a ragged little girl playing in the mud, and on her, all dirty and forlorn, poor Nainsook. " That's my apron," cried Nellie. "'Tain't either," said the girl. " What'll you give for her ?" " What do you want ?" "Would rather have that ptirty bine one; thia suit got no arms." Nellie thought a moment: " Oh, no I if 1 give up my blue ging ham I can't play out of doors, or in the kitchen, ot have auv more fun. I guess you may keep Nannie. Mamma hod company yeMerduv, uud 1 didn't have to In* Axed lip ami sit still 'cause she was gone." Nellie ami Itlnc (hnghaui ran on, and jxxir Nuinsook wished she had not Ixhmi quite so nice or quite so proud. < * Mii|*9i% drr. Witii this nil are somewhat acquaint ed. It is condensed compound which, on the application of heat, spitiois into a large volume of gas (or kiud of air) with great ixiwer. Half a gill of jxiwder will suddenly produce gas enough to fill a barrel, or 'J.IKKI half gills. IViwder in very fine grains burn* so fast Hint ex pands so quickly as to burst a cast iron gun; hence very coarse |xiwler is used for cannon ami large guns. tSuujxiwvler is a mixture of alxuit six ounces of niter (aalt(>etir) with one ounce of sulpluir, ami one ounce of charcoal. The charvvial useil, is mmle of small willows carefully burned or heated in chxte vessels. Ttie inter, sulphur and charcoal, aro ground separately, tlieu together moist, smt after want pressed mU avilnl cakes and dried. These cakie are broken into smalt fragments, which are put into cylinders and kept revolving until tlie sharp coruera are worn off and the sur face of the grams is |xihshed, wbeu they are passed through sieves to assort the o>arae and fine grams the flue being used for small guns, ami the large for cannons, for blasting rocks, etc. The fine dust, if packed in a solid moss so that the flaute can not spread easily through it. burns slowly upon oue side, aud is used for fuses iu bomb-shells ami in blasting, for fire-works, etc. IHditflrrrnhlr llmttllw. It is easy to form a disagreeable habit, but not so easy to drop it agum. Per sisted in. they become a second nature, Stop and think before you allow yourself to form them. There are disagreeable habits of the bodv, like stxiwlmg, wmk rng, twisting the mouth, biting the nails, continually picking ut somethtug, twirl ing a key, or fumbling at a clnun, drum ming with the fingers, screwing ami twisting a choir, or whatever you can lay your hands on. Don't do any of these tilings. Cultivate a calm, quiet manner. Better be a statue than u iniupiug-jock. There are much worse habits than these, to bo sure, but we are speaking only of verv little thing* that ore only annoying wliou |>eraisted in. There are habits of speech, also, such a* lxgiuning every rqvetvh with '• voti ser with rich earth, and plant Tradescantia, or anything wluch will live without drainage. Word* of Mi*don. Truth is simple, requiring ueither at inly nor arL A go>*l man is kinder to his enemy than bad men are to their Irieuda. Sinful pollution i* much easier