LIFE'S MYSTERY. We live, and love, and die: And if we question why The weal, the woe, And to what end, a sigh Bears Nature's sole reply: We live, and love, and die Ere we may know. Stickney in Lippincott, JACKIE'S BURGLAR. The garret was squalid to a degree It was dark, dirty and wretched, and the thir streaks of light which filtered in through the tiny, dust-choked sky- light only to heighten the dar increase the ry of the square Yoom, — Mary E. seemed kness and mise small, iture, place, WAS a f1 irn 1K ¢ n chairs, with no a of br broken j excej t agrimy table, case, and it fit for habita floor three n turned lay but and couple and a seemed a place scarcely tion. Yet the COArse straw of them, Weary up to the skylight ahove, a boy. He was only a small boy, his face like an old man's, his limbs were shrunken and dwarfed and thin. He lay looking up into the face of a man who bent over him. “1 shall be all right by and by, dad,” he said, in a weak i shall be all right soon sun creeps up a bit and I Don’t worry, dad. P'r’aps able to do something soon. could make s« if 1 1 sit ack ing on were mattresses, and « one with his face dismal Was voloe, as the can get out, hall } I shall be me | could Two man's hand. he, tion, prou in Pe rt] 3; mouthed, blue skie eyes recal i I too, in the droop of minded him of them last, with shame for her gaunt man, whose heart black with erime, who had resisted the overtures of missionaries and sneered at prison chaplaing, found himself suddenly by a 10-year-old boy who was dying of starvation in a miserable garret, He scoffed and swore at himself as he did it, but it became a regular thing for him to bring oranges and sometimes grapes on his return to the garret at night. And John Endleton hated it. resented it fiercely, and shrank back when Jem Brooker approached the bed and looked down at Jackie's face. As the winter passed into the spring Jackie seemed to grow weaker instead of stronger, and at last, with a solitary shilling in his pocket, John Endleton wet off in desperation for a doctor. If anything would have nothing to live for, and the thought seemed to choke him, But nething, re- the little lips he had been dying And the big, } na had BRO. ners when she seen was Overcome He i | i out success. The doctor was busy-—too about it, and Jackie lay in a half fever, moaving snd tossing restlessly from him with rage at his heart and found of the hands, | halt drunken fashion into the garret, ho sitting by the side with his face in his moon sent shaft of light sleeping boy's face, and it white and drawn and cold, as if already [ the shadow of death lay upon it drunken si Irprise, his face He hand wildly in speak, but his with brandy, boy and his father by the dozen words—indis gloss: nnd, ed down himself Endleton | mattress on looked un Jem stopped in A stupid stared and waved the air. He tried hoarse sed his to prin cron Was and figures of the his eyes the danced before He tingul ollan muttered some shable and meanin yv, he tnmbl huddled sleep, awoke a gr Ly peeping slowly rth thie of glass in the roof, nthe dingy sing sudden] attress and nken on his m together in a dru When he dawn was " nall SUAre and every thing 1 real and hifel ared un bed mrret appe I'he boy on the to breathe " f 1msedd seemed soar Jem ral looked roun of the last on his elbow and d, and remembrance night's scene began to pass through his mind. He looked, and it him John Endleton had The moonlig ght ha i gone ud idieton was ip the buried in his hands lis self with a somo to never moved, from the boy's face, and the dawn h come instead; but John Ei still sitting there, 8 face himself and stretched him seemed huddled mn floor with hi Jem lifted slowly from maiiress, big yawn. i i! il, and } ecided the wrath of the law. **Now, then," said Hartly, “none of that. On with cuffs. And Boaith, yon and take his arm.” Jem looked from one to in something like dismay. “I ain't done nothing,” lated. “Well, we'll said the detec. tive; ‘“‘and you'll remember, if any- thing is found on you, there are three years off that last job that you've got to finish.” Jem’'s face grew e MR movement as if severely, the hand- come here the other he expostu- gee," dark. His hands fidgeted strangely under his hand- cuffs, and if it hadn't been that he was 8 hardened, hopeless criminal, one might almost have fancied that his under lip trembled. “Well, I'm blowed if I ever tries ter | cheat th’ gallows agen,” was his vague | and ungrammatical remark, and then | they marched on to the police station. here, inside the bare room, with | its wooden benches and square desks, with the dingy green ledgers and! musty papers, Detective Hartly pro- ceeded to turn out the unhappy Jem's | pockets, As he did so bis eyes first | epened In astonishment, then screwed looked as if he had suddenly been | confronted with the idle vt the Out of the depths of Jem's capacious | { chicken, a tin of soup, some eg, 8 packet of sweets, a sticky piece of but not least, a bottle of port, “* What's the the detective, sharply, that trick was being played upon him, ** Whatisit? A picnie, party, Apparently 1% new 20h stole this 7" said feeling vaunely meaning of BOe a card what ? vou're line. nN or you," said Jem sullenly, “I've ‘em all And after that he made He sat at the stone floor, his o« hands ped tog the handeufls, and with a most baffled, ex pres I'l] tell yer wot, t uddenly, ark, with HO remit staring Arse cla strange, nl nee sion on his anid "11 i "he ris 3 head “if yer'll er ar this an 1 swear a ing Snait { Yl detec for a moment, $ the ea Coppers I'he slience Jem omething about o struck him as peculiar It Jem to eatables when better things were to got with the same risk, and he de to kyow what it m So with a fine disre and of prisor inaled into a steal be felt a 4 was not like Brooker ire eant the rules her Majesty's Jem id Snaith another police gard of re galatio he ba ab, and with they were Ns nt man on the box, nall and filthy conrt a short « A yme little t Pointed Rep'y. ser Wi nt Se was present at the y Kai ime Ag enroe € Te eruits for of the Guards, He walked al the lines, ‘speaking aword here, asking a question there, One recruit was asked “What would yon do if you sentry duty and many people near you?" ‘‘Ishould ask them to go away at once, your Majesty.” “That's all very well,” said the Kaiser, “but suppose one man stays behind and makes himwelf a nuisance to you, what would yon say then?” [I should say, ‘Don’t make yourself mg are on crowd f a nuisance,’ The Emperor roared and said: “Well, I don't to make myself a muisance,’ 80 passed on to another visitor. - Figaro, .ean and - London The Longest Railroad Bridge The longest railroad bridge in the world is that recently completed at Czernovoda, Boumania. It crosses the Danube and thus shortens the railroad journey from London to Con- stantinople about sixteen hours. The length of this structure is 13,325 feet, There | is one span, in the middle of the river, 620 feet long, and four more each hav: ing a length of 445 feet. The other spans are still shorter. The chief rivals of this structure are the Tay bridge, in Scotland and the Mississ. ippi bridge, at Cairo. The length of | the former is 10,725 feet and that of CUSTER'S LAST FIGHT. s— STORIC BATTLE OF LITTLE BIC HORN, HE HI THE Chief Call's Account of How the Brave Fellows of the Seventh Cavalry Were Overcome by an Indian Horde—Callant Defense. Twenty-one years ago occurred the battle of the Little Horn, which General George A. Custer his men of the 7th Cavalry welé In the Cheyennes and famons Nig in and bras aesncred by The Nioux Sloux he Bull, Wie nzatnst Sitting and others, Terry, men, starting Dakota men campaign under Cinll reneranl tile hos Crazy Harse, ected r 4 General O00 from (ieneral from Fort nd General Terry 400 infantry, 1 Lincoln, Dakota lished a supply Powder river n whose command of the Big Horn. countered a the join Gibbon's by a circuit the (ten 600 cavalry and Fort Al rauan Terry from General ental p at June 9, "Tan and there came in communi with (#ibbon, the mouth General Crook force of Sioux 17 on bud. Terry decided to force, but sent to the cntion wis at large Rose en June hie cavalry U pper Re and mebud, where whit 2 Me ii idren were where the 1 Sons % an nped. Tl he ( were and t heyenes Cus weame mized up caught the them iarged back checked him and drove him into the timber. The soldiers tied their horses to trees and came oat and fought on foot. As soon as teno was beaten and driven back across the river the whole foree turn ed upon ( and fought him until they destroyed him. ( did but was held half a mile up the ravine, now called Reno creek. They fought the s {ers and beat them back step by step until all were killed.” From his story it is evident that the Indians were in the coulees behind and in front of Custer as he moved up the ridge to take position. The first two companies (Keogh and Calhoun) dismounted and fought on foot. then all 1 The women and children bucks to m and ol mnt ‘nster ‘neter not reach the nivor, about sold until forced back to the ridge, where all finally perished. down in line where they stood statement seems borne {This company were found together), warriors directed a special fire against i i the others fought. blankets and yelling the horses were stampeded, which made it impossible | for the soldiers to escave. ‘“‘After- ward the soldiers fought desperately i i | | [and Lard, and never surrendered. As the men fell the horses were | herded and driven toward the squaws and old men, who gathered them in | When Reno attempted to find Custer | by throwing out a skirmish line, Cus | ter and all with him were dead. When the skirmishers reached a high point overlooking Custer's field, the Indians were fust as galloping around and over the | wonnded, dying dead, popping { bullets and arrows them Wi Reno made his attack at the upper end he killed my two squaws and children, wh bad. tomahawk and into 1en my heart my course, mutation ran out of ly of cartridges of their « then inde with of soldirs ich n fought Imenns, ter ammunition i the (JUuawWs killed on Re: dian fe orty-three Ind inded iin AWAY altogether, but a wo #8 the great many one ver and die the and * CRINEG ACT ri rushes ran river, killed. JOUus, trie and oldiers got down a ravine, crossed the el And Mi Uncappa, all came back again We had Ogalallas, Brules, and the Ve n in the air do nnecon Sioux u rH, Chevennes, Araphoes When the big wi (Crron tres dust Caine ing Terry and Gib} dges and went Wheels That Cround the Powder. ‘ f Engl nght to this War, run. the A ish a i ri Civil if not in cele brated eruis der her pre tection Angusta, they wonld a, certainly F un then taken to ’ wan supposed he 1s way of any yankee invaders, and of the plant of the famous 1 at that place, ground the powder that was used s hearts of edence were it entirely o1 ney (a where of the formed part confederate powder mil and to send many bullets into the It is good away of animosities en- gendered by the war that now those who loved and honored the blue and those who loved and honorad the gray are both interested in these ponderous relies of the lost cause. —St. Louis Globe Democrat, Power of Modern Rifles. The modern army rifle has a smaller bore than the older one but uses smokeless powder and hasa higher carrying power. The possibilities of the French guns were recently iline- trated in the vicinity of a large town. A large bull escaped from its herd, and their caretaker, baing unable to eapture it, besought some soldiers to kill the animal. The first shot missed altogether, but the second bullet went Union soldiers, ey of the passing a stantly. The weapon employed is known as a Lebel rifle, | 1HE JOKERS’ BUDGET, Jests and Yarns Made and Told by Funny Wen of the Press. USUALLY 80 ‘Wadaleigh says be pever makes mise takes” “iim m! hats one of em.” coun THE WIDOW, ““Bomebody dow." ATING must be cull wi Yeu? ‘Anyway, ber weeds «1 i never Johnsber L. pars ner." turties, and high-flying Mice devel ped into ats into tige wilde rs i ¥ some method ¢ and some hairless ransf fn of the Apes finally A hairless ape playing with flints accidently kindled a fire by striking them With the fire thus obtained he cooked food, and the eating of food thus prepared made him more strong and intellectual than his fellow ape BRire, were aj bor: two together increasing Use for Steel Since the disrup tion of the steel rail pool orders for steel rails have reached astounding figures, The largest single order given was that received by the Carnegie Steel Works from the Cana dian Pacific Railway Company, amounting to 65,000 tons. The ag- gregate of all orders, as stated by the Railroad Gazette, is no less than 839,. 355 tons, Some years ago, when the price of steel rails fell to 830 a ton, it was stated as a remarkable fact that a ton of new steel rails could be purchased in exchange for four tons of old iron rails. But the ratio of value between old iron rails and new steel rails is vary much closer. In fact, this is one of the most remarkable circumstances connected with the development of the steel rail industry. Old iron rails are now quoted at about $15 a ton, and new steel rails have been sold at less than $20 a ton.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers