INTER-PLANETARY MERRIMENT. When you find the people yelling And a-going it like mad, When a chorus wild is telling Of some transitory fad, You are forced to the conclusion-- Let's accept the truth with grace— That this world with its confusion Is a very funny place. When I see the stars that sprinkle Radiance o'er the distant sky When they gaily dance and twl inkle As they strive to catch your eye, It seems that they are chatling In an ecstasy of mirth, Very possibly they're laughing At this funny little earth. Washington Star, A————— sestsimnn WHARARRTARRA AAR 9 SBP PPG FPSO IPTOT OYE i" - ae Srmenperny P sre ere ee NPP EERE REE RR RES ERR RRR (By Helen Forrest Graves.) “If vou please, ma'am,” sald Betsey, the hired help, presenting herself in the doorway with her arms dripping with hot soap-suds, and ber calico skirts festooned about her spare fo in a way which Worth never would have imagined, “there's an insane man in the barn!” I had just settled Myself comfort ably down to my morni ing task of col oring a cluster of slender stemmed plue harebells, which Donald had brought in, a trophy of his before breakfast walk up the mountain. Baby was sweetly sleeping under the pink lace draperies of her crib. Tommy and little Donald were fishing f« min nows in the meadow stream, and 1 was heartily ratulating myself upon the success of my idea of rent ing a mountain “far from the busy haunts of men,” for the sultry summer months, “Where,” quoth 1 myself glanced around the little with its homemade hanging terfly-patterned chintz, screens, and the decor I myself had arranged on shelves and brackets, “in all the du heated city, will you find a nook this, with the scent of giant pine floating in at casement, ar whistling of black-birds filling silence? 1 declare, it {8 enough spire any one! 1 could a novel, or an epic, If it baby, and the children, and my painting, and the tarts, and syllabubs, and frozen custards, that Be be got to comprehend!” Thus, lapped in Elysian dre secure in my own estimation, Be announcement came like a th clap upon my hearing camel's-hair pencil, blankly upon her “A-what?” “An insane sey. “least Gadsley shout yallopin® by down train with the mail good and loud, he's aw quick o° hearin’ “Tell says he, ‘to call the children in an insane Jan the barn! “But Betsey.” cried I. the baby's crib, “it can’t be “That's what Deacon Gadsley sad ma'am, and I'll take my Bible to it,” said Betsey, nodding her head, with a countenance expressive of tire conviction. - “Then, why didn't he come to help?’ 1 exclaimed, hands helplessly. “Pon’t know, ma'am,” said be “unless it was because the mail train, like time and tide, in the spelling book, waits for no man.” “But what are we to do?" 1 sobbed, my courage and mind nearly deserting me, ed to myself the horrible crazy lunatic dancing about hatchets, scythe-blades and ters in the barn. “Don't know, ma'am,” sald Betsey, viewing me with a sort of mild con tempt, as one of the helpless city ladies who become powerless under the pres ence of any sudden emergency, “un- less you call in the boys, and lock the barn doors, jest as quick as possible.” I looked appealingly at Betsey. “Betsey,” said I, “would you locking the baru doors, like a good soul, while I run after and Tomuary 7” Betsey cleared her throat, emphatl ally. rm wr Cong cottage, {to cool, vhich impromptu the fo almost flower stsey can't ams, and tsey's syed unaer and sat aghast countenance 1 gasped. man, ways t said Bet Dea ma'am,” hat's what ed out as he on horseback to cat bag, 1 as are your clutchis ross 3 oath en our wringing ny tsey, almost presence of as I pictur vision of a among the hay-cut mind dear, folks for crazy people. My uncle, was assistant keeper in the Dunks- ville Innatie asylum, and he was choked to death by one of the patients, forty odd years ago. that sort of thing shall family, ma'am, not if I can help it” “Then,” cried 1, driven to sudden resolve, “stay here with the Betsey. Don't leave her, for your life, while I go after the boys. Good heavens! If the wretch should be at- tacking them even now!” With almbst superhuman speed and swiftness, 1 ran down along the edge of the woolle, seized Tommy and Don- ald each bR one hand, and dragged them home, juot even pausing to ex. plain matiefs to thelr bewildered lit- tle ears. “Come, oh “Oh, do mal back to the dren—come!” 1 panted, e hagte! We must get fiouse\immediately,” “But i'vel left Woy fishing hook, mamma.” @leaded § Donald, with a longing, lng ring over his shoul- “Can't walstop in t erled Tomi, “to see ye gent the cosset lamb he promised us? “Children,” sald I, pausing to regain my breath, “at your peril keep away There i8 a crazy man only knows what vio attempt run Heaven he may tun to the house ns last can!’ And, pausing only to see them flying, up the ter I hastened, wildly- and waa raced slopes of the lawn, hlanched and heart, barn, cheeks beating to the outside buttons, before the attention of a broad brigtly-haired ruffian was suf ficiently attracted to induce him to pre sont his mo like of the stable windows, Without and loudly wooden bars and faced, On heed to his frantic gestures shouted words, 1 to the house, and sank, nearly ing, on the chintz with hands clasped over my eyes, “1 declare for't, though, real gritty!” was Betsey's admiring comment, hurried bring the camphor red lavender to rescue, “Mamma, Donald, who clus 1g to Shall I cut off his head with my tin bawled Tommy, the faint sofa, that was as she to and will he wis a me, il us?” timid child and close mamma?’ irrepressible. “Betsey,” | the paramount ing,” place vourself Watch for “I.ike Sister Anne, in ‘Rluebeard.” mamma,” wi polated Donald. “Explain to them our dicament,” I went on. “Su the instant it and, sword, myself to not faint window cried, necessity rousing of at the passers by of inter thi stfully story dreadful pre mmon help appears; above all, casement locked fiend in sore and up Betsey?’ keep every door and and bolted, shape There's that human break 1 old rifle jest should attad an stairs garrett, isn’t here, added, with a “Yes sudden inspiration um,” said Betsy: “but it first-rate workin' order i't either stock lock Tommy isn’ nor chimed in ashes last bullets, ar wth a cent.” the pounder, loaded it with t in pebbles for not fire off wi Wy there's carviug the potato gested Dot I looked It would egrest, ald at husband would re Sunn this was i led neigh wain val the very seldom-trave b from the «¢¢} the sry, and Means so 43 4 Seen mt thers should be no passers-by bis tween that time and this? i this won't hair will turn @ agouy of suspense’ Betsey ilo i with “Betsey,” said belleve my white thiz terribi Ma'am? said “Either you or 1 uttered, “If it must gi distinctly. for very right past mind.” wasn't the sald goin barn deer. 1 wouldn't Bets y “It's fastened “But Betsey,” | pleaded. there wooden buttons pothin',” said Bet he jum them doesn’t amount to uy “Aud only at me? I wus just pose Mw out about to reproas h Bet of the composition, “ey having none of the heroine in Ler when little Donald, who had posted himself in the garret window to watch, came tumbling head the room, with Tommy close behind * they somebody with elements over heels into “Mamma! chorus; oming and we guess it's Deacon Gadsley, horseback. ri di ng “Stop him! 1 ake, stop him'” “He's a-makin’ ma'am.” said stretched the neck further ma man “there's shouted. in on ¢ back from the train.’ gasped-—“for mercy's straight for the barn, Betsey, who had skinny length of her out the window than I dared do. “He's heard that fel ler's hollerin’ He's unbarrin’ the big doors! Land o' lberty!"-—-with a long breath—“there comes the poor, crazy creetur out, with a hop, skip and jump” Wal, if Deacon . Gadsley likes to risk it, I wouldn't.” “I have heard of instances,” 1 said, faintly, “where some one particular in- of to over the mind of the insane, and" At this moment. however, Gadsley himself knocked the door. I made haste to open it. “Be ye all crazy here?’ said the dea: con, with a broad smile upon his sun- burned countenance. “If ye ain't, what, in the name of all creation, possessed ye to shut up my son Hiram “Your son Hiram?" 1 gasped feebly. Hiram? 1-1 thought it was—an insane man?’ “What?” roared Deacon Gadsley, “Betsey sald that you shouted out, as you rode by-—'Tell your mistress to call the children in-—there's an insane man in the barn!" “Good Je-rusalem!” cried the dea- con, slapping his knee, “how folks will get things twisted around! | gever sald no such thing! What I did say was, “There's a tame lamb in the barn, I've promised one to them boys of yours ever since they came up here, aud this mornin’ our Hiram fetched ‘em a reg- dar little cosset. And there he is, munchin’ clover, down there, with Hi- ram holdin’ on to his rope. And ‘you #'posed it was a crazy wan! Ha, ha, ha! Well, that does beat alll Ho, ho, ho!" * The deacon’s cachinnations echoed through my little parlor like the pe berations of a thunderstorm, jouked reproachfully ut Betsey as Be primal cause of all the panic. She, however, evinced no sign of discom- fiture--it was not her way. “Wal” sald Betsey, slowly, “I al- ways was a little hard o'hearin’, every 22 years ago, come September, And 1 s'pose we're all Hable to mistakes.” That was the end of our hour of ter- retired to her washing Gadsley went his way chuck the children whooping out to the where Hiram, the victim of this misunderstanding, stood broadly, with the tame lamb side, bravely tied up in blue and 1 looked in the mirror, thankful that my hair hadn't Briy ridic jetsey | barn, smiling his all white, as it seems to and a real terror at the time, could look the innocent ithout a curious vaguely 1 had For, nlous it was And 1 never Httle lamb flutter of undergone, —- it ing at my heart, suggestive apprehensions Saturday Night, WHY HE CHOSE JENNIE, She Pleased His Eye, and the Other Wom- en Were Too Ardent, He Thought, Harris Wolf, widow er and althy real at 388 Marsht o years old, a estate owner, liv will fur February we ield avenue, life, wind ing nish a romance in real 11, when he to beautiful Jen (on the belle of the expects poor, bul nie don, a Jewess, Ghetto The with prospective union of poye rey Sweet morsel West far iin wrble Side while is dis tens, announcement, Hi r Wall upon before too fat Wolf the or two “Why was do 3 me ths que passed y (NSD Li sWwWer nn Nay wh Shit “Den you eminently learn to love tue In cot don, Street, Irie Max Go Henr) who was t 1 Jeffers wed Lear to bis nin 0) cling as a go-be tween hen” parents called a pnightwatchmas with a small They had several among ™ Jennie, 17 ys : t her the “schatel Wolf, enlarging the young lady, his position Mr. Wolf scription viewed Mr of upon the as be charms aie 8 Nan was pleased with the de When “Why do you want to didn’t and was asked, marry me?” I love you” “Because | 8 good home, kindly.” replied. “I whether 1 will J you I never saw you before a young man I don't know what he'd turn ofit to be. He might live with me a few years and then run off wit other woman.’ Such to Mr. opened sent for Jennie. she ahe say, “Because know you Mr Wolfs, will give me and treat me doen't know or you If 1 married she we hate an- a practical view Wolf, and negotiations were but there was one ob- stacle. She would not be 18 until Feb- ruary 10. and the elderly who desired to have the arrange- ments concerning the dower settled in a business-like mamsner, declined to al low her to affix her signature to the papers until she had attained her ma- The civil marriage is to come was pleasing LEE suitor, business Jewish ceremony on the In the meantime Mr. Wolf has provisions for his has moved the girl and 12th fiancee and cago Record, Astonished by His Catch, Mr. H. M. Walton, a perfectly re- liable citizen of Wilkes, relates a most remarkable instance as follows: Har- ry, son of Mr, Walton, set out a hook and line on the creek near his home, and left it over night. The next morning he went to his line, and to his great astonishment found a good sized fish on the hook and a large hooting ow! tangled up in the line and floating on the surface of the water. The owl had been drowned, but the fish was alive and still pulling on the line. The fishing line had been wrapped about the owl several times, which placed the night bird completely In the power of the fish, Mr. Walton's theory is that during the night the owl, In seeking food, found the fish fastened on the line and undertook to make a meal of him, In the struggle the fish jumped over the owl, wrapping the line about him, rendering him helpless, and the fre- quent dips into the water by the fish Srovned the bird.—Atlanta Constitu- The miasions ions destroyed in China by Boxers will be rebuilt CULTIVATING CHESTNUTS. FORT SPENT ON IT. The Harvest From the Crafted Trees Is Found in Five Burs. Cultivated chestnuts drive from the market bid fair % in a few to the mountains. They also promise ¥leld a good profit to wideawake farm ers from land not fit for other agricultural purpose. of the the southern counties of and in Maryland, also in certain any Along the sides mountain in Pennsylvania, and to extent sections Delaware and New may already be found groves of grafted chestnut some of which yielded good crops this fall. Many in and Maryland are in the Mountain peach mountain land, of the trees on it were possible of sone of Jersey, trees, those of Pennsylvania famous South belt. It is roughly cleared. which formerly chestnuts, the trees rough Many stood up wherever trunks heing dil and shoots from the these have been used properly grafted for the the cultivated variety ing is the for these tried, There § production of of nuts Graf adopted process commonly Budding be su trees proved not to Are Some groves aestnut rows, frult trees ther from © fre trunks used fi have been going clearing f young tr bene! by following i mized If neglected » worms will in a few years so infes grove as to t nae worthless The cultivated chest $10 to $15 per bushel have not nut that will excel, ot wild aut in Savor Boiled or roasted. the nut is excelient, but many of the * toothsom make the w tific ent varieties, nuts sell Oi The cullivators oducing a equal, raw vet succeeded In pr even the in its state cultivated chest uncooked it lacks ¢ qualities which id nut popular. By si and blending of differ hoped to remedy th . and the price the cultivated nuts will probably be even higher than it is. Even at pres ent market many find chestnuts more profitable than fruit, taking into consideration the un certainty of the of latter and the short life of the trees, Intel ligent horticulturists, howdver, are of the opinion that it would not pay to devote to the cultivation puts land that can be relied upon for fair agri cultural crops. Land that will yield steadily good crops of wheat, corn and grass, they say, will, in a series of en developing however, it is 4 defect of then prices, cultivators Crops the of revenue to the owner, in these crops, than in chestnuts. As a means of turn ing to profitable use land not suited to the growth of other crops, the possibil- ities in the cultivation of chestnuts are considered a highly fortunate discov ery.—Philadelphia Record. Controlling Rivers. voted in Germany to the flow of riv- ers, and an experimental station has been erected at Dresden in connection with the technical school, from which it is belleved results may be derived that will tend to avold great expense on engineering works ‘which some- times prove valueless for the purpose they were intended to serve. The ex- perimental station is under the charge of Professor Engels, and, of course, Is supported by the government, It was established with the idea of bringing scientific methods to bear upon the flow of rivers. The course of a river is followed as closely as possible in the experimental station, and from a tank water is alfowed to flow In any requir od volume so ns to imitate the flow of a river. The trough, which Is made to represent the river bed, is filled with sand, The banks are protected hy «mall bags of shot. The movement of the send shows the erosion and de. posit. The idea seems to be that by a a close study of vhe various rivers in | Germany they could be so regulated as to keep their own channels clear and deep enough without dredging, i while sufficient knowledge would be | obtained to prevent Needle #8 engineer- | 1 Ing experiments being indulged in. | The Dresden rt in the study the flow of rivers exciting some interest outside Germany, as it | Hleved much useful information | gained nat comparatively small The Edinburgh of nre is be may i Da ob! { cost, Soeotsman, IN THE QUEEN'S NAVY. A STORY OF FISH, Caught. “The bigest fish 1 ever eaught)’ be- a scholarly look ing party, who evidently krvew more about school books fiy books “Got away,” Interrupted a thin-faced little man nose like a shingle “I'm no Har,” the story teller flared up. “This is a true and I'm preg to it as in the year we had hottest than with a siory, It w the mired to swenr "89, when | How Its Rulers Administar Justice in Their | Floating Realms. pain British man-of Aboard iE The ca war Own of a i# something of & He of life and but hie ranks court czar ship does not POSYess pow er death over his subordi he can mar a rant make or { Bates, ax War Just and all pleases offi fbove fv }§ y OHiy oy ries tds laid ranks below warrant tain he thinks Two battle deal the 1 sor tribunal At the ship with PUN it fail ad dreadful the captain At the Captain presi table the quarte cers around him fai HR “evel | on norning regulat on patiern, man's previ and there offenders’ w eight wearing and so on character iv a ous is a kind of unwrit law, which most commanding officers. It Jack for by depriving a man or disrating him, a captain cannot only decrease offender's pay but also the be looks forward to as a against old A¢ with the men so with the officers; to stand well with the captain everything to them, i-»r the captain has to make a confidential Concern ing everyone of them, and upon what says in this Jocument officers’ prospects largely depend. Doubtless a surprised sidered tenn first CATTIOS great with # ow is well fui that it is 80 of badges seriously the ry pension pro while serving. which vision age report he the saany people will fearn that good Wr fo The “cat” haz been canings and birchings frequent. Only boys-—young up to eighteen years of age— subjected to this form of correc Brit sh abolished, navy, but are very segmen are tion, Many people, whose opinions of ser vice discipline are obtained from oc caxionally hearing what takes place on a barrack square, think that naval offi- | cers are in the habit of bullying. This is quite unnecessary, as the average | naval officer can put more “bite” into a few words than the ordinary man could get into half a day's hard | swearing. «London Mail The Demand for Mickory. Open fireplaces with grates have come to be so popular in the modern house that there has arisen a demand for hickory logs of the old-fashioned sort that one can bulld just the right kind of fire with. Now there are so many other uses for hickory that it is very difficult to get logs of size and sufficiently knotty to sult. Wood yards have fixed a price of $15 a cord for New York State hicksry. But if one wants the sort that is full of knots and gnarls and that will last the whole evening once it Is Hghted, be will find that he has to pay at least one-half more than the quoted nrices, Even at that he will have a heap of inspecting to do before just the right thing is found, though some good stuff is ocean sionally sent down the Hudson River. Other lots come from ss far north as Vermont and Canada. Danteh lighthouses are supplied with oll to pump on the waves in case of an storm. ; of '8é in » know very hot” 1ther-beaten “If all you didn't story teller piled you'd deader tl i *1 didn’t was the suminer HO said a aan straw hast sald the { you and Ax I was summer of '80 a party went to upper Canada on a fish It wasn't hot up there Know “was be flatter than han a mackerel, suying, in the of us ing expedition, a little bit. On cold that the we got there.” “Gosh!” the contr: was 80 night Ary fee froze exclaimed man ith a shingle nose said 5 ga the NeNESH, ght + got to our fish- out the next and I hadn't minutes ought ware I let ing froze the first nl ing but we morning just ground, thy game more than s8Co0tl got if water hadn't was ROIme BOON the sarnest, | and had i it did know the smart, man with up and ould get walked wher I oom.—Washin more breathl Star. Room For the Faklr, hed patur~ tizen- ng his ling up is preac What 2 besutifu fy 3 f11 our streets dally 2 C3 ot Pp ho con our ship! A poor fakir little carts on the string and lett] i TOE i wari £ op ee WwW hay jescribed a diameter, to the the hun » hurrah and Or hreater ie honest did not were a Foran of or) BDOUL eK as circuit {oy jn their curbstone dreds of pedestrians in bustle of our busy in Did any vender wit! un summarily remove his toys snd him self from * Not one. Men and women graciously stepped into the gutter, quite out of the was riage, cart and beetle, being in ¢ fakir was monarch of Surveyed My this by a woman looking the pushed into tempted to pass that in London the entire stock of such a mer- chant would be kicked into the street. Victor Smith, in New York Press. terfere Car and for the time all he attracted to ngaged In neciously 1 at notice was who, « toys the The: y tell me WH ine gutler as Baggage of Two Great Officers. The eight-room house, for campaign purposes, that arrived in China for the Count von Waldersee and staff, was the object of deal of com- ment smong the officers of the allied use of a great who had a fine General One of the Americans, record as an officer under “Well, this is something new in cam- It may do well enough in China. and for a count. but it wouldn't do for Americans. 1 remember what General Grant took with him on his final six days’ campaign below Vicks- burg. He didn't have an orderly, or a or & horse. He didn't even have an overcoat, and he didn't have “Why,” continued the speaker, warm- “he didn’t even I was with him, Yes, sir! General Grants The White House China. In an way. the china in nse at the state banquets at the White House is well worthy of rank among its art treasures. Congress has from time to time made various appropriations ranging in amounts ax high as $3,000 for state dinner services, and these various services are stored away in the big china closets, for no ware bear- ing the special copyrighted White House mark is permitted to leave the executive mansion, save it be broken. As a rule, each new administration se- cures a new set of china. and the old sete are kept for show purposes caly. The Lincoln, Grant, Hayes and Cleve- land sets are thus preserved. The Hayes sot cost about $2,500. Each of the 1,500 pieces is hand-painted, and each of the B00 places of cut glass is engraved with the arms of the United States. There has always been much admiration expressed for the Lincoln set. Woman's Home Companion. The largest library of small books in the world is the properiy of a French- man, who bossis he can pack 700 of hin pocket editions (u a single , mane,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers