IF I WERE FAIR. {Thon she looked into her mirror."] If 1 were fair! If 1 had little hands and slender fool, If to my cheeks the color rich and sweet Came at a word, and faded at a frown; If I had clinging curls of burnish'd browu; If I had dreamy eyes aglow with smilas And graceful limbs and pretty girlish wiies— If I were fair, Love would not turn aside; Life's paths, so narrow, would be broad and wide, If 1 were fair! If 1 were fair, Perhaps like other maidens I might hold A true heart's store of tried and tested gold f.ove waits on Beauty, though sweet Love alone, It seems to me, for aught might wall atone, But Beauty's charm is strong and Love obey The mystic witchery of her shy ways, If I were fair, my years would suom so few; Life would unfold sweet pictures to If I were fair! my view If I were fair, Perhaps the baby, with a scream of joy, To clasp my neck would throw away its toy, And hide its dimples in my shining hair, Bawilder'd by the maze of glory there! But now--oh! shadow of a young girl's face; Uncolor'd lips that Pain’s cold fingers tn You will not blame the child whose wee close, Not on the blighted bud, but on the re Bo rich and fair, If I were fair, Oh! just a little fair, with some soft tou About my face to glorify it much! If no one shunn'd my presence, or my kiss, Lor My heart would almost break beneath its bliss, "Tis said each pilgrim shall attain hi And perfect light shall flood sonl, & mto When day's lush merge And th And night is here. stars 1 #ball be fair! Edith Rutter, ir A BROKEN COMPACT. 3Y¥ ISABEL HOLMES, y doe She loo) Di 3 wand didn't I prove veriest W un. sled. in't er The 1hie- mtu ever wheedled her Eric had known six months or mor of attention in the mittal fashion which men areapt to fl themselves compromises no f “le good comrades,” he had sai she bad } y frankly, and consented. The {ice in mellow | pleasing, quality broad £ sod deal one us be 1 r ner, fe g i rivon Wim ana given Aix wit} the forehead combed back from it, nose, by its mixture of strength and tenderness You were ild be Kind, vou were not sure but could 1 strength low, and the mecuth which puz sure it con it hw The laughing eves assuring, but the next moment was drawn back and stro rounded chin. Here, you felt, keynote of the ch It was plain esting one to E need a nature the boundaries his relations with The exclamation was an assumption feel the ground The bitterness of his experienc Maude was still rankling, and he felt the need of bracing the insidious sion, Eric one of those large, good hearted fellows, who usually begin life idealizing women, and apt to | cut their wisdom teeth rather painfully, while learning discrimination in regard the inconsistent sex. He was clear- headed on most matters, but he was ob tuse in spiritual perception, in common with a greater number of men than is | commonly suspected. He was, therefore, incapable of understanding the fine shad ings and gradations of feminine chm acter, Eric was making a big blunder at pre- | sent, To use a homely saving he was | putting Maude and Clara in the same peck measure. Maude had been one of | those pretty, bewitching, frivolous crea- | tures, who take a man's heart by storm, and marry him if they will to do so, Claro Raymond, on the contrary, was a strong, womanly character, with many reserves in store to surprise the man who | should be fortunate enough to win a slace in her regard, Eric was attracted } her strongly, yet she seemed some- times to repel him. Lately there had been a falling off in her frank friendli- ness, He advanced in provortion as she seemed to recede, And yet she had no intention of feigning indifference in order to lead him a chase. She was merely fol- lowing th: instinct of self-preservation. Bhe was guarding herself from crossing a safc boundary, Danger was not likely to result to either from over-precipita- tion. As time wore on, Eric began to find that his attachment was of an altogether different nature from that he had felt for Maude. A stogular soothing influence seemed to float out from Clara when he was with her, and enfold him like a gar- ment. Alone and apart from her he tried to analyze his fostingy He put an to the mouth, Was irncter, was an jut ‘ It did nos shrewd observer of hun he had already f good comrade this which begins this stor Fleming ve ry 10 see that 0 8 friend woman of bravado. begun to nider shaky. with himself against approaches of another pas 1 wns who are to had developed in him a stern self -repres- sion, One evening after an hour's solitary reflection on the situation, he sat down and wrote: “Resolved, —That T will not speak of love to Clara Raymond until three years from my first meeting with her have elapsed, If at that period we are still good comrades, I will ask her to marry me,” He enclosed the paper in an eavelope, sealed it, and wrote across the back “‘Compact with myself, to be Kept until Oct. 16, 1800." Two vears had passed. Clara Raymond embargo upon himself, experience returned from a short season on one of the staunch and safe One bright erisp morning she paid a visit to the Art Museum in Copley Square, wanted to inspect some copies through the doors of the museum, but did not see any of her own ac She there was a pensive expression in her Erie had called to see her before. His manner had He had no longer the free, their earlier nc eyes, the evening puzzled her. hearty friendliness of quaintance. He had greeted her with manifest pleasure shining in his eyes, and afterwards made his adieus in a cold, constrained manner. She wondered if embarrassed o the Pacific Was coast in disjointed sentences. He had acted his part bunglin not easy for a big heart to stay it There was a troubled undercurrent lara's thought, as passed through e rooms slowly, lingered n the Egyptian room, amid fragments of and all the civilization, torn by) their re the and she she some 84 uip sacred of relics nist { from hands history { form were th , and I know ly attached to him bevond friendshi He do 1 AWAY. He d anvhody : 18 selfish move IF VOIOeS IGBTS Was Conscious i been planted in ot sympathy, but the intolerable h was an insult to her womanhoo i of Maude Blanc } had litt had not thought she had known hard but the knowledge idle le im Pression : 3 + It had stolen upon her insi usly. fact nly ju the had accep od the compact, But she had st been revealed to hersel He “comradeship,” and she hal He had been fais had failed t« 3 revelation had been a shoe said sie S00 Si fusion. Yes: now she understood his 1 With a tempest in her breast, Clara mechanically among the white figures which still seemed instinet She got out of the building She did not want to encounter Mrs. Mansfield, It was three months later. Eric was sitting in his room, studying Clara's face in the pink radiance. He was trying to fathom the subtle continuing the easy conditions of friend. ship, she had managed to pat an infinite distance between them. She did not seem lovable, as once. A certain hard. ness in speech and manner {frequently jarred upon him. But this hardness melted into geniality, he could see, when she talked with Henry Nash or Fred Roberts, With them sand others she was smiling, radiant, He could not know her struggle. She was stamping out her love slowly but surely, with all the strength of her proud nature, and at the same time striving to save herself from growing bitter, In time she should be able to treat Eric more kindly-~when she had conquered herself, “He might almost sympathize with me,” she thought, ‘since he has been through the same experience.” “I suppose she is heartless as Maude if the truth was known,” Eric thought bitterly, as he put down the picture snd begun to walk off his disturbance, ere was a rap at the door, He There stood Henry Nash, “Good evening.” “Ah, good evening, chair.” “In the doldrums ?" asked Nash, ashe sat down, with a glance at Eric's moody countenance, “Why, ne,” said Ericslowly, resuming his seat, and slipping Clara's picture under a pile of papers, » movement which did not escape the eve of his caller, “I've seen you with na happier phiz,” remarked Nash, as he took up a volume of Shelley's poems and began to turn the Come in; haven " The two young men had been friends from bovhood. It was a union of dis similar temperaments. ‘‘ Well, I have opened it, felt happier in my life-time,” asset ved «May I ask what is this document He took up the envelope and read “(), that's a private matter between returned Erie, reaching his hand for the missive Nash saw that he changed color “I'll wager it's a compact that is better declared about that,” Eric re ‘1 don't know “Does it relate to a woman?" “Ye-on" Nash's eves shone keen enough to sed “Excuse me. Whose picture have got there under the papers “Photograph? O, said Eric carelessly 1¢ drew it from the hiding place “What did i You that's of Clara Ray T 1 nondag, onougn, as out of sight ‘Out of } sight? ‘You are in love mond.” declared Nash, “Who says I am?” time, eo] game from the ‘Then I wish RAY SO feasion radeship was a mask, ¥ . But jut I feared to tr 1t to be to treat sence ist mvs and An true yrobation, ympromised me in pitied ne uigrown friends t a word these r one by suspi went separate separate wavs, tis Two vears ater they soene of death and disaster been a frightful railway accident senger cars were heaped up at the foot if embankment The en e glared through upon the men and women wiggling amid the wreck, and ervin over their dead. i sts ep the star- gloom “ lara was among the uninjured. She wd not been even stunned, and now felt marvellously clear-headed as she walked | sround trying to infuse courage into the | panic-stricken, Suddenly she came upon | Eric Fleming. His face showed white and death-like by the light of that piti less red eye. He was pinned down in the wreck so that he could Bot move a muscle, “We are both here, it seems,” he said with a weak smile, as she stopped before him, “And one of us is a prisoner,” she re joined in a cheerful tome, though her heart was heavy. ‘Can you not move at ali is ‘“No. 1 think my arm is broken, and | cannot breathe easy in this position. Still, I am much better off than many others, If they would oily move these things off, I could." “I am pretty strong,” she interrupted. *‘Perhaps 1 can help you.’ She stopped suddenly with a strange look in her eyes, A fire had kindled from the engine. The flames were already leaping toward her, Clara wonders to this day at the strength which came upon her. Bhe moved the wrecked sections of the car around him, sufficiently to extrieate and drag him to the brookside beyond the reach of danger. By that time ho had fainted from the pain of his shattered arm. She bathed his face with water and he revived presently to see her standing over him, He could feel that strong, soothing influence outflowing from her toward him, as in the long age. It was bracing. It gave iim strength to rise above his pain, “You have saved my life." he sid, “My arm will be all right after a while.” “Yes, but if I might hope that the wall is broken down between us—" he began, wistfully. “You may hope,” she said softly. Ani then they heard the ambulanee coming, — Yunkee Blade, Monster Prehistoric Tides At present the moon is 240,000 miles away from our globe; but that distance away, or, miles away, That time must of 4 neces tity have corresponded to some gen livel however, wus at the time when the The object of this “note” eozoan i i time, but on the powerful effects ow must have had ou this earth, its waters and its atmosphere ilver sister world of the tides the world over is only about three feet; in the far away time alluded to {when the only 4). 00K moon wns as at present, or 68 feet in height, Buck a tide as that would wash St the face of the earth, throw a flood of ses water sixty-one feet high on the Chicage waterworks tower and drown out almost every place of importance in the United States. Three-quarter tide would leave but a few of the tallest chim neys and spires in St. Louis above water and a full tide would run up into the pineries of Canada. jut this would only last for a few hours at a time; it less than five hours the whole of thi flood Not would it leave Missouri and all of the re mainder of the United States high and dry, but would probably he Gull well 8% vas! would have retreated only iin the “But you will suffer a great deal of vain, frst.” he sugwestad, of Mexico and leave a gravel and shel { the M to Cuba and Jama { Id pi dry" hours wou il wou These mighty ti he oi astronomers ng machinery of Who $ can dou ev 8 little value mer up y take the place of now the bui new hant mari ' in this « SUInIry stew [ wood. 1 AR Cspert ship y that ney reign vans Americans rank high as it is quite ! it: i i like found to hie will be be equal in The average life of the ships of otha nations i= given in the table. Those ao France are placed at twenty vears, thi Dutch twenty-two, German twenty-five and British twenty-six How Hiundoos Bathe, An interesting sight at Benares, the sacred city of the Hindoos, is the bath ing ghats, For miles along the left bank of the river are from fifty to a hundred steps or terraces that lead from the Hin doo palaces and temples down into the water. Here every morning at sunrise, summer and winter, are thousands upos thousands of bathers and worshipers They reach the water's edge facing the rising sun, disrobe, pray, bathe, go tions and give many curious signs it worshiping their great gods. All and sincerity, with cocoanut or flaxseed or palm oil put on dry clothing and go with a pot of the sacred water on theb As we ride by boat in the early morning up and down the miles of bathing ghats woe wonder whence came this curiowm custom. But when we remember thw the Egyptians and Assyrians did the same thing over 8,000 years ago; that the old Persians and Peruvians and even the ancient Mexicans did the same, that the Mohammedans do the same, that the Jews immersed in the sacred Jordan, and that our Christian believers use water, either by immersion or sprinkling with the holiest rites, we can but wonder {i the world adopted its religious ceremond als with water from one of the oldes people on earth, the of Ben SUBMARINE CABLES Which They Are Laid, The manufacture has until quite lately never reached a Inrge sesle in any country except England, Some years ngo Mess. ,, Pirelli established factories at Spezzia and Milan, Italy, Tor the purpose of engaging in the manu facture of submarine and : the assistance of the Italian Governms they h ve laid a few short cables int Mediterranean, but they have never hi an opportunity of carrying out any re ally important cable-laving work When, in 18840. the French Government insisted on of the tel phone bought out the Paris Telephone Com pany, the latter, i cables, suming control had begun to dabble in submarine enterprises, decided to invest its in a submarine cable factory which already telegraph calle 1 The « Orn pan ind considerable a full fledged was inaugurated at Ca SUEY has orders for a amount 10 doa nn cable, and expects in future work that 1 French require, In America, marine cables of he (rove great been mn the and A, hop Gutta Percha Ompany Day, short lengths, f« harbor « RILES, To the Percha Company, honor of being the only American has eve r " abroad us have only been in Fs now in Word or two 1s the { iblex 1865 the from which In VY VOssel Ships repaired $0tw Magee, ti and the started on a miss 3 Their terian church on Red R ded their efforts In the latter part of John and Methndist preacher William Dyterian, first labo/s were in a Iver, where tale remark results atte and created intense religious excite: and interest, Muddy a distance came in wagons in the wonds Another meeting held what called the Ridge, which was also attended by great crowds who came from miles around, These were continued and extended, Their next meeting where many families from camped Was cn River, and on was services AN ANIMAL HOSPITAL, { Full-Fledged Retreat for Horses, Dogs, i Cows and Cats. Instead of the marble busts of the { fathers of medicine which ordinarily adorn the corridors of medical colleges is, 8 row of of some of w hich greets the visitor who enters the lyn Veterinary Hospital, This hospital is indeed one of the most interesting places in Brooklyn. It has trect, near Ful Or since iL was or- skulls arc rarely seen, Brook- and hospit the beusts, } 3 poe He wated in Nevios ton, for eighteen Years, The building is not a ture, but it franizeda, tious preten sri is io may be made up and a poor fitted up meet any demands that The : man 's'animal will receive tion there that of a rich except on it Bospital is atten The as much as wiil is free, very kind of lying cri of humani i within it A rans nan tresntment Pp treated room. wt of cach side, 11 sorts of intesty The 5 from va America. rom a few Freaks of the Canaries, st interesting Lan Fortunate Teneriffe, the is sixty miles long 1 the middle of the 1 wn peak. vede. It hest being more cst pearly 10,000 i i ; he peaks for about V.ry near the a great cavern throughout the curious edd in the Can- t wind, which blows P. M., produces a whose lower above the sea, stratum, P i t thick, the lower surface being from 2,000 to 2,500 feet above the level of the sea Between these strata fs a gap of 1,500 to 2000 feet, through which people approaching or le aving the islands may glimpse of the mountains.” is pres vid the summer a yory loud ard ad ¥ is alu ut 4,000 feet this is another distinct obtain a and Methodists directing and them. At one of these meetings in Ken- tucky it is stated there 20,000 people. The Presbyterians gradu ally retired from the field, while the Methodists carried the meetings to all parts of the country. Since then denominations have adopted them. -— [Detroit Free Press, Ninety Milllon Ton: of Rock Salt, A mass of 80,000,000 tons of pure, com- pact rock salt, located on an island 185 feet high, which rises from a miserable sen marsh on the route from Brash ar to New Iberia, La, is one of the natural wonders of the world. How this island ever came into existence in such a locals ity is a matter of conjecture. Vegetation is prolific, the scenery being beauiiful and varied. In the center of the island. which is the only solid spot in the vast expanse of sea marsh, which extends for or in all directions, rises Salt Peak, the largest body of exposed rock salt in the world, Having never been curves, its exact extent is, as yet, nnkno'vn; however, those who have visited the lo- eality say that there is not less than 90, 000,000 tons of pure crystal salt in sight. It is needless to add that the daze clearness of Salt Peak is in striking con- con trast to the somber lagoons, bayous, and salt marshes which surround it on all Nests of Huomming-birds, The nests of humming birds are among the most beautiful examples of avian architecture, They are usually made very compact, most of them cap shaped | or turban shaped, the materials compos. ing them being chiefly plant down, inter. | woven with and strengthened by spiders’ webs, and often ornamented by an ex. ternal mosaic of small lichens, Ordin- | arily the nest is saddied upon a twig, to {which it is firmly bound by spiders’ lwebs, The Hermits, however, fasten | their little houses to the ends of long | Jeaves at the extremities of tree-branches, | #0 that the monkeys cannot get at them. | Other species make nests resembling ting | hammocks, which are most ingenious! attached to the face of cliffs or rocks spiders’ webs, Some humming-birds, which live just below the snow-line of the Andes, hang their nests from ten- drils, and, when one side of the small dwelling proves heavier than the other, a stone or piece of earth is adjusted as a weight to establish a balance. winged pygmies exhibit a high degree of intelligence in concealing their nests, by making them of such forms or materials as will repemble natural excrescences of a such as a knot or ‘a pinecone, The aid are alwa white, Two. Brood are produced in a season. — | Boston Tran So ps | ®
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers