Unacceptable Prayess. I do not like to hear him pray On bended knees about an hour, For grace to spend aright the day, Who knows his neighbor has no flour, I'd rather see him go to mill, And buy the iuckless brother bread, And see his children eat their fill, And laugh beneath their humble shed. I do not like to hear him pray, “Let blessings on the window be," W ho never seeks her home to say, “If want o'ertake you, come to me.’ I hate the prayer, so loud and long, I hat's offered for the orphan’s weal, By Lim who sees him crushed by wrong, Aud only with the lips doth feel 1 do not like to hear her pray, With jeweled ear and silken aress, W hose washerwoman tolls all day, And then is asked to work for less. Such pious shavers I despise; With folded bands and face demure, They lift to heaven their “angel eyes,’ And steel the earnings of the poor. I do not like ruck soulless prayers; If wrong, I hope to be forgiven, Wo angel's wing them upward bears; They've losta million mills from Heaven. THE AUCTIONEERS STORY. This is a strange world! never thought so until my attention my other self with compassion, 1 to wy fellow-beings—more thoughtful of their joys and sorrows—and that counts for something, I reckon. sales in my time, and never thought corumission taken off. But I had never thought of the story sale—of the heartaches, and woman’s tears, to me, who had known the time when of despair, light trinket, in order to carry on a frolic, or help a poorer chap than I was, ment, of the poor creatures that want and misery have driven into old Two to One’s clutches. Thecatyof bb ket for our business, there by one house alone would dis- count any banking, commission or is a splendid mar- same token, the pawnbrokers’ equal us in power and profit, and give us some of our biggest sales. my fate to have a part in the following story. The consigmnent consisted tainly of Zlass and silverware, pictures and bronzes, as Clutchem & Keep were rather first-class in their business, and did not yet condescend to family Bibles; but in pieces of furniture which attracted my attention from the fact of an order from a Western bousg to pick ap all the antiques and oddities afloat, for a bric-a-brac firm. Here were about a doz uncomfortable household articles, in the way of chairs, dressing-glasses and cabinets, and I at once sold, that they might not get into next day’s sale, but be forwarded at once to our Western house. Oue article alone I tention enough to remember afterward. and then only because I struck my hand me stare hard at the cause of it, was an old cedar cabinet, brass-bound and clamped, but rusty and forlorn looking enough in its changed fortunes, day’s sale, as there were two others to then going as crazy for everything old, but parents and friends, as either the West or North, But subsequent events discovered my mistake, Our Saturday sale was a big was bid off lively and quick. The crowd had begun to thin, and I was busily mopping my wet face with a fresh handkerchief —for it was warm work, I can tell you, to cry such sales from ten to one o'clock—when a lady camwe back in the store where I was standing and approached me eagerly, “Are you the proprietor, sir?” she asked, with nervous haste, and [ saw she was trembling. *I am the auctioneer, madam,” I said, wondering what was wrong, will eall the firm, 1f you wish.” “Perhaps you can attend to my busi- ness, [—~]—do~—not— understand these—ma ters—very well,” she fal- tered; and then I saw she was poorly clad, although well bred and timid, I drew an old chair up into the cor- ner, and asked her to sit down, and as she did so gratefully—poor little wo- man!—I took a goud look at her, She was still young and pretty. Behind her hung a long mirror, It had grown dim hanging there, and had a misty shadow over it, and in the two angles of the corner stood a faded old Japanese screen and a tall chest of drawers, The store was now empty, and the fight was leaving it, as the sun was creeping away from the door-sill and mounting ni the roof, as if he had waited for the sale to be over, lady had a face that touched me at once. he. was pale and Ju but ——— ] asked, | a8 if seeking something. she said, eagerly, “Yes, madam.” “You would know the articles sent | here?” { *“Probably.” Sie looked abeut her again, and the color came and went in her face ner- vously, “I have just come from Clutchem & Keep,” she begah ’ in hurried tones, as if ashamed of admitting her knowledge of those gentlemen. “They —had— some—things—I was forced—to—part with—"" Hera she paused for a mo- ment; then looked up at me with a faint smile. **You hear this said so often that I will only weary you.” Bomehow or other, 1t seemed to mo I had only then understood the possibility { of a heart sorrow being attached to the exchange of goods such as I had that day sold, “1 am anxious to help you, madam, *’ And I was. I believe I was growing | superstitious, too; for it seemed to me | as if a ghostly pageant was crossing land re-crossing that dim mirror, and | the old screen shook as if the sighsjor | sobs were coming from it. “Thank you! I am looking for a cedar cabinet,” said the lady, gently, “which was among the articles I parted with to Clutchem & Keep, and am told it was sent here for sale, I wish redeem it at any price—"’ | face change. A cedar cabinet! 1 remembered it at once. The hurt been labeled for that day’s sale. She grew frightened at my hesitation “*Do not say that is gonel” | eried, rising quickly, and grasping my arm.** Oh, God would not so afflict me! Look, look everywhere for it, I beg, I pray you.” Her hands shook so on my arm that { I could feel the quivering of her thin | fingers, it me that there had not been one in the catalogue. Had I made a mistake and sent it | West with the bric-a-brac lot? If so, | it could be recovered, my error, but the poor little woman mistook my silence, and broke down completely, sobbing so pitifully that 1 | knew then that some great cause was hidden beneath her desire to reclaim the old cabinet, ‘1t 1s more to me than life or death,’ i she cried out, passionately, looking straight before her. *“‘It means my | children's honor. Listen, and you will i be influenced by my great need to find this cabinet for me, I believe it con- tains the certificate of my marriage and my children’s baptism, without which I cannot lay claim to my hus- band’s estate in France, It 13 not the but my children shall not be robbed of the right to their father’s name." She paused to look at me, I felt as if a severe tension upon her nerves had given way at last, and, crushed by her fear of the cabinet being lost to her, her silence and reserve had broken down, and that she appealed to me un- consciously in ber need. shadowy pageant passed to an fro across the mirror, and as she wen on pass.onataly with her story, seemed to me 1 saw tha whole sad epi- sode pass in review on the dim surface, “Fifteen years ago my busband de. | serted me. Evil influences led him { astray, and, while for my children’s | sake I would have pardoned him, I never saw him again or heard one word of him until I learned through the i paper that he was dead, and had left ! an ostate to his wife and children. “I could not grieve, except that he | died in his sin; unforgiven by me, I | was poor, for he left me only the house- hold furniture, and have toiled all these years {0 maintain my children. | So, for their sakes, I applied to a law- yer to obtain possession of the estate, **Oh, the shame, the despair, of find- ing another claimant in France to my | children’s name and honor, “I must prove our claim as wife and ! children,’ said the careful French law- yer, *'by the production of the marriage | and baptismal certiticates!™ “And I knew not where they were!" “The minister was dead, the wit- nesses gone [| knew not where,” “1 feit as if my carelessness had dis- { honored my children, and for days { could get no relief from my horrible anxiety, until by a flash, as if from heaven, I remembered that I had placed | the certificate with other papers in the i old cabinet that I had parted with to Clutchem & Keep. I went to them; they had sent it here for sale, and now you" She broke down with a moan of de- spair. It was more than I could stand. That cry and the pitiful story forced me nto action at once, “You shall have back the cabinet, madam," I said, solemuly, as if devot- | ing my Life to its search. The Lhe gratefully, looking at me with beaming ayes, Her face looked at me as if a halo had stood bare-headed before her. -the death of hope and love in this poor woman's life-~the requiem of glad ness and impulse, She left me with a hopefal smile, taking my hand with a pretty grace, and I watched her, in the mirror, go down the shadowy room Ianto the sun- light of the street, and the shadows seemed to fall from her forever, I telegraphed the Western firm, They had the cabinet, and returned it at once; 80 that before many days the lit- tle, nervous fingers were searching, in the presence of the lawyer and myself, for the precious papers. She found them! I shall never for« t her face when she held them up. he kalo was there, as she sald, so softly: ow k God!" And it seems to cling to me still, to make me think how oh our ev passions can fishness and thoughtlessness, and THREE YOUNG LIONS. How the Mother Guards Her Young --- The Boy Cub, the Mother's Favorite. Jennie, the African lloness at the mother and child-en was presented to the reportsr. She was lying motionless her eyes staring fisrcely at the intru- ders, The little shavers were eating She looked dignified and In the adjoining cage lay Paul, the father, and he seemed to fully realize the new responsibility that rested upon him, He would walk to the door of the cage containing the cubs, look in and back out, then quietly laiddown by himself. their arrival he slowly crawled into the cage to see his mate, but he came out with a bound and a yell, for Jennie gave him a “wallop” on the side of the head, that was hint enough that bis in- trusion was unnecessary. Ina few days she picked the boy-lion cub up in her mouth and carried it out and Jad it be- fore her liege lord and master. He calm, to the further end of the cage. “Would you like to take them up?” **Not if it’s necessary to go in there “I'll let them out in the » and, pulling up the door, the male lion bounded out, closely followed by Jennie, the mother, Down slammed the artist and reporter entered the cage and picked up the cubs, The boy cub felt as soft as a ball not over a quarter of an inch long, and his soft hair, as soft as wool. Hiseyes had no lion tierceness, a banquet: 1" at utterance, his legs, and he had four little too full for He and about as sharp. one of the hitter that she carries around in her mouth, holding it by the nape of the neck, as a cat carries her kittens. [Lionesses carry their young from thirteen to fourteen months, and they are not weaned for four or five months, Her diet is now a quart of fresh COW, bone, milk from one such as neck bones of mutton and litter, The died from and this is her fourth others she ate up, or they opposite cage, is nearly eight months old, was mused by Bill Halstead on the a coon that climbs up the bars and drops on Minuie’s back, and rides around the cage In fine style, She 1s as large as a Newfoundland dog. The most noticeable feature about he devotion of the mother, Every few minutes she turned and licked them. Her eyes never left the visitors, whose every motion she noticed, and when she came in from the out-door cage after the cubs had been handled, she bounded in, and, standing in ti door, paused a moment, asif t something is com- ing, and I knew it, went to t! cubs and smelt them all, and appeared sat Feeding-time soon came, but she did not appear ravenous, but, com- ing slowly to the front, Kept looking back at the cubs, and taking her meat back to the rear of the cage,lying down the cubs. When they sleep she ws out and lies with the lion. (Quite in contrast was the conduct of the jaguar, which kas a three months cub in the adjoining cage. While the lioness mother was calm, contentment i open 0 Say, She ie fafland ised, o S would snapped less unrest and snarling. She not suckle her cub, and “She knows it's near feeding time,’ says Stevens, “and will not let the cub self fed. Yet if the cub comes near The lion cubs have none yellow instead of curly, coarse, black hair, The chances are in favor of the ‘They have been turbance whatever suffered to come near the mother, and she appears so quiet and maternal, that there is every reason for belleving that they will be reared. : csi wn THEATRICALS IN CHINA. Tragedy and Comedy as Presented on thie Stage in the Flowery Kingdom. In China, wiuere everytaing is old, the stage is one of the oldest and most popular of institutions. It is recog- nized as a moral agency, and it is kept from backsliding by edicts the most able in quality; its drama fills some thousands of volumes; it has its laws, its conventions, its traditions, its genres, its types, for all the world like the great theatres of the west, As in Japan today, as in the seventeenth cenvury France and Jacobin England, its servants are outchsts and celebrities at once, It is the thing for high-toned mandarins and persons of consideration to have play-bouses of their own (as was the fashion in the Franceof Pompa- dour and Mme. de Maine), and to treat their guests to after-dinner perform. ances by companies specially engaged; while, as for strollers playing for the million, the flowery land may fairly be said to teem with them. It costs little or nothing to manage a traveling theatre, Given a few trestles, a few boards, bamboos for columns, mats for thatch fug, a painted cloth or two for wings and backgroun benches as your #@pace d, as will hold. bv the wa! or j can be run up in a couple of hours, i The demzens of the quarter subscribe, the local mandarin assists, and straight. way the theater is in full working order. Costumes, scenery, app.intments—to all these luxuries the Chinese is He asks no actors; that much is enough for him. As for the actors themselves, is hard to gather whether they are good or bad, delights of strolling as sympathetically as if Le were Banville himself, or had 8AL Albert Glatigny. it is true, that, as in Japan, all female parts are played by the boys; that the dramatist are nine In number—the bachelor, the low comedian or libertine, the old woman, the soubrette, the go-between, the young girl of noble birth, the courtesan and the woman of equivocal virtue. In the Chinese drama there 48 many styles as there are literary epochs in Chinese history, is appropriated to a particular epoch, and has a name of 1ts own. dramas of the Mongol period are known as Joys of Established Peace; those of the Soul dynasty as Diversions of the Quiet Streets; those of the Flower, and so forth, ir} to Tsa-ki plays, wh belong the iC is the Pi-Pa-Ki, or Story of the Lute. Kao-Tong-Kia, a good deal of In the first tableau hero, Tsai-Yong, who lke his and of and leaving young bachelor parents aris, his { i i | HORSE NOTES, will most likely purse races ~-Majolica, 2.15, only be entered in special this season, - Pair expects to lower the double- Phallas, was Case Chief, by J. by I. ~Phallas recently sold Two of the favorites for the ~The horses are galloping at Jerome as much pleased with the new track, Mr, Thomas 8B. Harrison by lung fever, a year-old Frank Work drove Edward a half on ! | examination at wins the prize and therewith the hand of the amiableand accomplished Nicou; that in her society he forgets his father honors by the virtuous Lae that with all Techao; buried virtuous —Ban Fox has retired and Con Cre- g tucky Derby, with Silver Cloud a strong second choice at © to 1. - A, Loudon Snowden writes that from Mr, Parker, of Reading. Goldsmith Alden claims that é heavy rain, —John 8, Clark has sold his standard stallion, Jersey Wilkes, by Wilkes, dam Lady Patchen, to W. P. C. Jefferson, and ~W. W. Bair offers to match Me- wins a precarious livelihood by singing by both his wives, and ceremonies as are their due, There are pretty scenes in the play; but an inordinate amount of talk, The Chinese have invented many A peculiarity of all those pleces - 1 ville, and certain paris are sung. When the actor makes a statement, he makes it in his natural voice; but when he has to point a moral, or express a philosophical idea, he does It in song, Applied to our own stage, tuis practice would have admirable resulis. For instance, the sailor would dash to the rescue of the wjured heroine with | accustomed lion ramp, and the ‘Back, villains! Dastards, come of old time. Then, however, uplifting his manly baritone to music, he would warble forth the well-known moral, and in melody declare that the man who 3 iid lay bis Land upon a woman, ing in the way of kin iness 13s unwor- the name of an Eoglishman. This sxample, and the reflection that in England as in China every actor would be (as it were) his own slow music, may perhaps suffice, - -—— India Wheat, $B 1s oni Worl 1} “India,” said a gentieman, who has recently been traveling in the East, “ranks third among the wheat-growing and while the machinery used in cultivation 1s of the the finest United States, where ma- “*“The Indian farmer an inch wide, and half an inch thick, which is sharpened at the lower end and fixed in a triangular piece of wood attached to the yoke on the necks of the bullocks by a rope of manilla grass, This plow tears up the ground like a harrow and by hard work can be made to go over nearly an acre of land a day. The operation of plowing Is repeated five or six times before each sowing, or about ten times a year, as two crops are raised. After the last plowing the sow. er follows after the machine and care- fully drops the seed into the furrow, “In September, if this is the summer crop, the harvesting begins and is car- ried on by men who, with sickles, cuta handful of grain at a time and tie it up into sheaves as they go along. It is then threshed, or, rather, stamped out by cattle on a hard earthen flour, and the straw as well as the grain Is care- fully saved to be used for fodder for the cattle, After the wheat is threshed it is winnowed by dropping it from an elevated platform to the ground, the wind blowing the chaff away, The Brahmin priests are consulted about each process, and are liberally paid, in fact almost the entire profit of the erop 18 turned over to them, *“The average yleld is about four- teen bushels to the acre, but the poor farmer can seldom afford to eat a loaf of wheaten bread, his diet consisting almost entirely of herbs and fruits, ““In #pite of the obstacles of ignor- ance a Sop erty these farmers raise 240,000,000 bushels of grain a year, ten times the quantity raised the State of Dakota, w ] uarter as much territory devoted to Wheat raising as India.” Hts AI MP «It 18 said that a movement 18 at Shippensburg, to have mile heats, three in five, to harness, over Belmont Course. Mr. Bair has placed in Robert Steel's hands §250 as a forfeit, —Dr Cyrus Wanrer, of Kurtztown, Pa., thinks © vi kd pacer, Ix leading, a at now negotiating of Boston, the present surrounding the grounds, are being ricultural Society. —Willlam Meaney, the jockey who horse Jim McGowan, now Bourke Cochran, has been reinstated. Meanes has been In Australia since his expul- sion. ~~An adjourned meeting of the Board of Review of the Nationa! Trot. ting Association will be held at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, at 7 P. M., May ll. Communications intended the consideration of the Board 3 of id be forwarded to Secretary T. J. f x Veil Frank Bower haa swapped a 5 year-old pacer, a trotter called Gypsy Girl, and the well known bli g. Nigge: Baby, which was the mate to the bik. m. Mollie (at one time this pair was tix rastest double team In Philadelphia), for a black mare from Eli Kendig & Bro., said to trot close to 2.70, ~Kpapsack McCarthy has come to the front, and offers to enter two double teams, one of pacers and one of trotters, give a ys willing and cater for new the “Knap is al always ready to help worth of their money. ~-A despatch from Eatontown, N. ing at the races at Monmouth Park last He was taken to Freehold who Is matched —John Murphy, Club track, on May 135, for $1000, is getting himself into shape for the and a change must be made at the end of each mile. Murphy’s horses will be J. O. Nay, A. L, C., Bluestring, Ghost and De Barry. ~Join E. Turner says the Point Breezs track is as good as any in the country, and he predicts that it will re- main a racetrack for many years to come. He gives his string of trot- ters work over it every good day, and has commenced repeating them. He complains of the backwardness of the season, and says that his horses are all big and fat, but strong. Trinket, he says, goes better than for two years, and he expects to win some money with her this year. The ch. g. win Thorpe, 2.16}, is also looking and acting ‘better than he did last YOar. Billy Button, 2.18}, will trot in the Philadelphia eircait. Overman, 2.10}, will be campaigned this season. He looks better than at any time since coming from California. Dick Organ, 2.24}, has been roaded by his owner, Mr. Peter Foy, since the close of last season's campaign, but he willbe driven for money n this year, start- EE The b. g. ing first at Pou Faro, 2.20}. by brino Gift, dam a thoroughored, is getting sharp work, The little b. g. Matchless, (Mattie Lyle’s colt) record 2 37}, will be cam- and so and ch. m, Lady Alert, 24}, by Mambrino Lance. Vargrave, b. 8. by Woodford Mambrino, dam Virginia, by Alexander's Abdallah, 1s expected to make a trotter. Others in Turner's string are: Frank b. 8. 2.204, by Hermes; Dom Pedro, b. 8, 2% iin a Na i i) \ Ww; Rn by Kentucky Prince, and Jory — Se Sateens multiply In every imports ant phase of progression | ~—DBniliant scarlet has again become | the fashionable eolor for all dresses, —Colored laces will combine with the foulards for stylish summer cos- {| tumes, SLE — Every material has embroidery, | even cotton, and almost all these have { box robes, 1 Bridal slippers | couple of white { ostrich tips well curled where formerly was a spray of orange blossoms, ~All { china or silver on the fashionable din- ner-table are tall and high at present ave oo the decorativa places of glass ~Marvellous are the des summer ball dresses, where black | figures largely as a material and | bead ornamentation 13 exquisite ~High eollars of solid jets are with black costumes, and are very | | coming, ~-Fine embroideries iaces are used with s elle een astrimu r shiacte zis 2 New suace & a rial ana i8 « r blue is ano — White lilac is | among the artificia whic this season beautiful {| more reasonable than ever, —A pretiy pale pongee | dises of gold-colored silk inel ventionalized pansies in shaded Between the discs the ground { with pale viole : - A pretty flowers IDWers, Ore scarf of a VE SEARON'S Sulnmer | whe vel | whal novel embroidery of shade of bl vil Adiid ~-Sashes of ¥ Walereo silk ribbon are worn t lark wool, velvet They are placed the back, and ¥ to the bottom of the oof the younets are made of light, coars v plaited with fine strips of ‘olors, else of pl ps, with binds of gold, whi colored beads. There are also capotes, with crowns forming a network of black, garnet or other bea : * A Or sash, with a full is wore {| with nearly all dresses, Sashes may be of the material, with embro ery or lace, or they may be of sural, | ribbon, silk grenadi or faille, accord ing to the occasion and the goods with (i i whicl . yung girl, in brown 1, has the skirt ar- ranged in Irregular pleats. It has grace- ful over<drapery looped back. The basque has a vest of surah, pleated with velvet on side, Collar cuffs are also of A aiid r aa DULL OT and white homes; cee bs each ana the velvet, sunshades are of glace i ob of two shades of eolor—bilue and garnet red, pale blue and cerise, green and crimson, Liae and gold, seal brown and blue, and so on—with pretty handles of carved olive or orange wood, A wourning novelty is a fine En- crape with applique figures in fine zine or drap d’ete with black silk embroidery. out between the figures and leaves a semi-transpar- ent fabric great effectiveness, It cemes in full-width goods for wraps, ral widths of flouncing for d trimmings. very few fancy fx wats, and those shown vy new features. Some 18° feathers, and some ird-of-paradise feathers in 1 be worn; rds ik, sh glish 1 x YT it 1s cul of LE i} nA e a Ys out | n, with tucks either he latt O88, miler, perpendi 0 however, being only suitable for very slight figures. For ordinary dresses a turned over or standing collar is equal- ly appropriate and turned back cuffs of embroidery are desirable. Small ball pear] buttuns are best for closing the | waist, — Petticoats for dark toilets are made of black or dark colored silk; they are | trimmed with a thick ruche of faille of the same color, pinked at the edges, or | perhaps with several ruches of black | lace. There are also petticoats of moire, | or watered stuff in all colors, adapted | to the dress with which they are to be | worn, a dark petticoat belng worn with | with a light dress, ~The old forms of porcelain have been revived for afternoon tea services and some of them are very gaunt. The favorite colorsare black and goid, pink and gold, brown and coral red. The service consists of teapot, cream and milk jugs, water-kettle, sugar and slop basin, a covered muffin dish and six cups and saucers on a circular tray. —For young ladies, preity walking costumes are made of woolen etamine, and consist of a plaited skirt and tunic of some dark shade or color, trimmed with narrow fancy braid, woven with gold or silver braid. The skirt is ar- ranged in flat treble plaits, and is trimmed with braid, pat on in series of seven, five and three rows. The tunic is open at the top in two large revers, edged with braid, over a plain plastron, striped across with the same. This tunic is arranged into a short drapery in front and limp puff at the back, The belt 1s entirely covered with braid. The sleeves have facings to mateh. ~There are many indications that blues, purples and lavenders are to be much worn this summer. The Parisian correspondent of La Boa Ton, one of the most reliable of French- American fashion publications, says in a recent letter: “From tume to lime we come back to our old idols. For a long perioa back we have not worn any violel, but for this season this charming color will be recalled {rom the exile to which it bas been so long banished. Even now for ball dresses a great many flowers and ribbons in mauve are worn. Charming dresses are made of mauve and straw-colored sik. Is there any- thing more pretty than a of iy funiture af cade or a garniture of over a white or black lace toilet »
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers