FOR THE FAIR SEX. If Oalr Mather* Kaew. It only mother* knew, she said, Row hungry children are for lovs. Above each virgin little bed A mother * lip* would prove How sweet are kisses that are given Between a rosy month and heaven. If only my mamma would kneel. As yonr dear mother, every night, Beside her tittle girl, to feel If all the wrepe are folded tight. And hold my bands, her elbow fair Between my ebeeke end her soft heir, And looking in my dreaming eyea A* if she saw some lovely thing. And miiiwg in each fond surprise On all my hopes of life that spring Like flowers beneath her tender gase. 1 could not stray in evil way*. I would not wonnd the gentle breast That held me warm within its fold; My mother's lovs wonld still he bent, However sad, or plain, or did; And even tbongh the world forsake, I'd love her for her love's dear sake. -Helm Hieti. Peebles Males. Bullet-shaped glass buttons are worn with colored dresses. White and gold is the fashionable combination this winter. Bows of gilded pearls, like small oombs, are worn on bonnets. Gloves contrasting with the dress are worn with all the new oolors. Tucks snd Valenciennes trimming are aaed on tho beet nnderolothing. Thebai ii. of fur used for trimming this se&non i.re invariably narrow. Feather trimmings sre embroidered through the center in chain stitch. Pearls are now more fashionable than diamonds, and the price has consequent ly advanced. Tho " Chesterfield," a new coat for street wear, is shsped like sn ulster, bnt has a jacket-back. Plain niching set edge to edge with insertion between, is a pretty trimming for the neck of a dress. Small diamonds set in silver, snd ar ranged in fanciful shapes on bangle rings, are mneh worn. Angola hooda looking almost like swansdown, and costing little moro than plain worsted, are shown for babies. Mixed fabrics should never be need as the foundation of a snit, for they cannot be dyed, and are not worth making over. New oombs, is shell and silver, consist of three pins, which msy be arranged in a straight or carved line or worn sep arately. Belts are very fashionable, and are worn very broad. Some have appeared in Paris of white enameled leather, with steel buckles. Blsck as tin cloaks, lined with satin or old gold silk, and bordered with feather trimming, are the handsomest winter wraps. Absolutely plain black velvet bonnets, with s wreath of pals pink rosea in a row across the top, are in good taste, snd easily made at home. Tfc* JSSSSM* H***rwlf. While the mother is busy si needle and thread, near her may be her dangh ters learning to write or read; perhaps to sew, embroider, make poetry, play on mosiaal instruments, to dance, sing, make tea in ceremonial style, tie np presents, arrange curtains of flowers, or to perform oae of the many duties and accomplishments laid down in the book of "Women's Great Study." Among many others, these comprise lemons in reading, writing, the memorizing and composing of poetry, the entire cere monial and procedure of courtship, be trothal, marriage, wifely and motherly duties, the cutting and making of gar ments, care and ordering of a house hold, complete lady's toilet, moral duties snd precepts, the simples of botany, the birth and rearing of chil dren, oondnet of household affairs, festi val and religious duties, funerals, and of behavior in old age. While the great mass of the children go to school to learn to read, write and oonnt, many are educated at home by their parents or grandparents, older brothers or sisters. Wealthy men employ tutors and govern esses. Nearly all Japanese children can read sod write. If the wife is a gossip or gmd-sbout, she is off snd out, before the lacquered dishes are washed, to the well-curb to exchange the news with the nursery maids, old grannies snd buay-tongued women washing their rice or rinsing their clothes. Then she may air her self for sn boor or two and then per chance go with the bedy to the bath house np the street to indulge in more gossip, hot water and ablations. A visit to the temple either for piety, ex citement or pleasure's sake may finish the morning, and perhaps allow her to arrive home in time to get np s make shift dinner for her hnsband. The chil dren, meanwhile, are neglected, showing more attention from mother earfh than from mother woman. If she be e shrew or e virago, hnsband had better not eomplain, or he will catch something not ID the bill of fare; for a Japanese woman's tongue can distil more than balm or healing oil, when she so wills. The lasy, shirtless, untidy, gossiping wife and careless mother, with her house in disorder, her ehildren neglected, her hnsband henpecked or un helped, her time and her means wasted, her hair un combed. her drees always untidily open, her clothes crumpled, slovenly or soiled, her dirty infent slung or held on her beck, only half supported under her hands, in slipshod sandal or broken dog, is one type of tbe Japanese wo man. The exquisitely neat, tidy, thrifty, diligent wife who orders her honseboiu in beenty with taste end skill, earnest oess, patience and irradiating smile, who is a help and cheer to her hnsbsnd, an affeetiooate, firm and patient mother, with hair and dress sad foci always in order, whoee house snd garden sad table service, or even nursery and sew ing-room, are always fit for a visitor to see, who rears her children in honor snd dignity, whether she be rtoh or poor, is another TYPE of a Jap AD ess woman. I have seen them both.— William Ji. OriffU. Os* W Basse's IsatrkaMs C*r**r. The Boston correspondent of the New Hod ford Mercury writes: Until very recently, there wu an old, bent end wrinkled women to be seen any day on one of onr principal thoroughfares ••down town," curled np behind e mea ger, dyspeptic little handorgan, patient ly grinding ont the most dismal and doleful sounds that ever this democratic instrument was made to yield, and look ing wistfully at the little tin cup which was usually very destitute of pennies, and to whioh silver was an utter stran ger ; but if this poor old creature's his tory had been known, there would have been few passers-by who would not have had a moment, a glance and a dime for this forlorn being, in whose dull brain lurked so many conflicting memories. In her days of youth and beauty, this woman bore a name and a title which her ancestors had celebrated through centuries. She was an acknowledged leader of fashion and wealth in her own sunny Italy ; every wish and oaprioe of a fickle fancy was satisfied ; lovers bow ed at her feet, a#l even royalty itself was not insensible to her fascinations. But unfortunately for this pet of for tune, she was ambitious, and the danger ous political intrigues of that day and country had charms for her which she could not withstand. The party to which she had attached herself had its day -a bright and glorious one—but the night of disaster followed, and all the leaders wore obliged to flee into ex ile to save their lives. From this mo ment fate was unpropitious to the woman who had never known a want or a sorrow. She sank step by step, she wandered from one land to another, un til at last in her lonely and unhappy old ago she drifted to our city, where she fonght death and starvation with her poor little handorgan for a time, but her enemies were too strong for her, nnd she lies now in a pauper's grave. I.adlra Wh* Rait Thtatrlvr ■ On dit, that some of the Iste jewel robberies exist only in the imagination of the fair owners, and that ladies in want of money first pawn theirdiamonds and then aocount for their loss by theft. This reminds me of a story told of a wealthy Manchester stockbroker who, in his " flush " times, made his wife a present of diamonds worth #25,000, with tho ulterior idea of realising upon them should he ever require the money. Hard j times came upon the stockbroker, and he considered that his financial difflcnl tiea justified him in making nsc of his 1 wife's diamonds. Willing to spare her the mortification of parting with his gift, he caused ex- , oellent imitations to be made of the jewels, substituting them for tho real stones, snd took the originals to a pawn broker and asked for an ailvar.ee on them. Tb pawnbroker smiled blandly, and informed the astonished husband that he ahi-ady had the original stones from his w ; fo, who had obtained an ad- : vauee of #IO,OOO upon them; that the diamonds (?) he brought him were simply well execute**! " paste,"—/xm don Letter. College Haxlag. Charles F. Thwing, has an article in Scribner, from whioh we quote: In Older to abolish haxing it is first ne cessary to create a college sentiment which opposes it. The means of creat- , ing this sentiment are as numerous as those by which any change in either public or college opinion is promoted. The exertion of stronger moral and re ligious influences, a more intimate as sociation of professors and students, and a stricter demand for high scholar ship, indicate, in general, the best methods. A more rigid vxecotion of college laws regarding the offense would also tend to abolish haxing. These laws are in their letter sufficiently severe ; either expulsion or suspension is the penalty usually affixed to their infraction. But in their actual execution, college an thonties are proverbially remiss. The student, when in mediae re* of his of fense, feels assured that, if detected, the influence of his friends and his own promises of good behavior will return i him to college. A case has lately come to my notice in which a sophomore was expelled for aiding in tying a freshman to the bell-knob of a bouse of a lady with whom the freshman was acquainted. The sufferer was naked. He could not move to release himself without ringing the bell. For this outrageous offense the culprit was expelled, bnt by the in fluence of his family and family friends the penalty was revoked. To banish basing the governing boards must en force the laws with unconditional se verity. There is, however, a milder method which, properly applied, will nsnally prove more effective and is easier of execution. It is the method that Har vard college adopted in the antumn of 1872. At the opening of that college year the faculty proposed an agreement for the sophomore ami freshmen classes tbst they would abstain from indulging in all those annoyanoes usually included in the term baaing. So far as can be learned, every member of the two classes, over three hundred in number, signed it This simple prooess ended haxing at Gam bridge. The sophomores of 1872-78 did not case, and the sopho mores of the next year, bound by the agreement and not having been based, had no injured honor to vindicate, and the succeeding freshmen were not molested. With the opening of the present col lege year. Tale, too, passed a law which has proved remarkably effective in crashing the anti-freshman proclivities of the sophomores. Any student, the law etataa, who is guilty of haxing, shall withdraw from his own class and enter that immediately below. Already, lam informed, two or three sophomores, in con sequence of breaking ft, have been compelled to enter the freshman class. The method is an excellent one. It strikes at the root of the evil by empha sising the disgrace inherent in it. But either this method or the procedure em ployed by the Cambridge college can, I believe, be need, if applied with discre tion. by every college in the United States; and it would undoubtedly serve to wipe out the annually-recurring A Western paper confidently asserts that a healthy bridegroom, an army mus ket and an onnos of bird-shot, all work ing harmoniously together, will diaoooi age a serenade quicker then a thunder shower. • 4 CAPTAIN PAUL BOYTON. Ilia ASvsatars* All Ovsr Karape-A Mar raw Kara pa an lbs Oaaaba- Wsndsrfsl Niarlra al Hard Hwtma. Oapt. I'aul Bojton, wlios name is familiar the world over as " the Amer ican swimmer and life saver," has re turned to New York. Oapt. Bojton left his native Amer ica between four and five years ago for the purpose of introducing his well known lue-saving costume to the notice of foreign governments, and showing to tnem its efficiency by exhibiting it in person. His first feat abroad was per formed on the night of October 21,1874, when he donned his suit and sprang over the sido of the steamship Queen, off Cape Clear, on the ooast of Ireland. The sea was running furiously, but after struggling with the waves for nine hours Capt. Boy ton finally reached shore "as aoundi as a dollar." He landed among the moat dangerous cliffs on the southern coast of Ireland, and in the midst of a storm so severe that, while it lasted, fifty-six vessels were wrecked upon the coasts of the United Kingdom. Afterward the captain swam across Dublin bay, and after astonishing the Irish with many similar feats he went over to England and prepared for the most difficult task he had yet under taken. This was to swim across the Eng lish channel from England to France. Capt Boyton left Dover on the 10th of April, but wind and tide oonspired against him, and after being in the water fifteen hours and swimming fifty miles to and fro, he was obliged to give up, and was taken into one of the boats which had accompanied him, when with in fonr miles of Cape Qrienex. The captain was not the man to give up on a single trial, however, and on the 28th of the next month he was again in the water, this time determined to win in an attempt to cross the channel from France to England. Starting from Cape Orizuex Capt. Boyton fought the waves continual ly for twenty-fonr hours, and finally landed upon English soil at Mouth Foreland, having accomplished a feat which no ono has yet undertaken to rival. Oapt. Boyton's next long swim was in Ooicber, ln7S. when he traversed the Rhine from Basle to Cologne, a dis tance of 400 miles. Moon after this the captain returned to America, and on January 9, 1875, he Snt on his snit and jumped into the [ississippi river at Alton, 111., bound for Mt. Louis. The latter city was reached in safety after paddling among floating cakes wf ice for twelve honrs. The captain next traversed the same river from Bayou-Gonlato New Orleans, the distance being 100 miles, which he made in twenty-four hours, on Febru ary 24. Captain Boyton turned his at tention to the Ohio river, and on March 10 descended the falls of Louisville. During the summer of 1876, the cap tain sailed for Enrope again, and in August he descended the Danube from Lints to Vienna and Huda-Pcsth—a voyage which lusted eighty-eight hour*. On this trip the bold swimmer came very near inning hia life. Night had come on, and ilie captain waa indulging in a comfortable nap, floating with the current. A loud " smash-smash " awoke him suddenly, and the startled man found himself rushing toward a ponder ous mill-wheel, which waa tnrniug with the swift current It waa too late to esoape, and the captain tnrned over in stantly in order to catch the blows of the paddles on the back of bis inflated dreae. The first paddle that struck him tnrned him over on his back again, and the second paddle struck him hcanly upon his forehead. Captain Bn?ton pass ed under the wheel, and when the sur face waa again leached the blood stream ed over hia face from a long gash the paddle bad made just above the right eye, the scar of which is still plainly visible. The wounded man's erica for aid were responded to by a miller in one , of the boats of the mill, who lifted the ; captain partly out of the water, so that the light of the lantern shone upon his face. The blood upon it, together with ; the captain's strange attire, convinced the milter that be wsa dealing with satan in person, and letting Captain Boy lon drop back into the river he ran for dear life. The diagnsted swimmer floated on with the current until hia cries were beard by less anperstitions persona, and he waa taken ashore at Oamorn fortress, where he fainted from exhaustion and loas of blood. Having fully recovered from the ef fect* of this little incident, Capt, Boy ton's neit long swim of note waa taken in Norember, 1876, on the river Po. He entered the water at Tnriu on the 4th, ami floated along nicely until near the castle Nnovo Bocoa a'Adda, eighty three hours later. Here he was obliged to leave the river in ooneeqnenee of an attack of "flro fever," "which made me," said Capt. Boyton, " as crasy aa a loon before I got over it." The fever staid by the captain for sixteen days, an 1 then the plnckv swimmer went hack to the Po and continued hia trip to Fer rers, which he reached December 3d, having been in the water ninety-six hoars in all, and traversed a distance of 740 kilometers. Oft the 30th of Decern-1 ber the captain swam from Florence to Pisa on the Aran, and a month later be ravaged from Orte to Rome, occnpying thirty-one hours iu doing it This ray sge down the Tiber is one of tbo most memorable tripe Capt Boyton baa taken. He waa received with great enthusiasm all along the trip, bnt when he reached i Rome, on Sunday, he waa greeted with i cbeera from at least 100,000 people, who ; swarmed upon the banks of the river. Bat the compliment most appreciated by the gallant captain waa that paid him by a braaa band which astonished him by playing "Yankee Doodle" with praiseworthy energy as he paddled past their station. The familiar strains of that immortal Yankee tone wen some thing that the captain had never expect ed to bear in Rome. After being dined to his heart's content in Rome, Capt Bovton swam from the island of Capri to Naples, February 16th, and two days la'er was invited to give a private exhi bition of bis life-saving suit to Victor Emannel, for which he waa made a knight of the cross of the crown of March 16th, 1877, Capt, Boyton crossed the straits of Maerina, where he had a"scries of sd ventures which be will never forget Ha struggled through the oonnter-ent rents of Beylla and Charybdia only to paddle into a big school of sharks. One of them attacked the swimmer, who draw a long knife and fought desperately, until the shark -.J** turned tail and gaVe np the contest. But as it turned a vicious flap of its huge tail strnok the captain fnll in the breast, and the latter .finished bis swim with a broken rib. The only serious accident which has occurred stnoe Oapt. Boyton began his swimming voyages was at Lake Trasimene, which he crossed April 14th, 1877. A boat aooompanied him, containing ten men. It was overturned in a sudden squall, and two of the men were drowned. A month later Oapt. Boyton descended the Rhouo from Meyssel to Lyons and Aries, making 400 miles in sixty hours. The captain de scribee the current of the Rhone as something frightfully rapid, and declares that with the aid of his paddle he kept up with a railroad train for several miles. Floating down the Momme from Amiens to Abbeville, in November, 1877, Oapt. Boyton was tranquilly dosing at twilight, when he was startled by 4he report of a gun, and a charge of shot came stinging into his upturned foot. A duck-hunter on the bank had mistaken the foot for a dnck, and when the captain shouted to him he fled in terror. Fortunately, the thick rubber prevented all but two of the shot from entering the foot. On 6 of the longest and moat danger ous of all Capt. Boyton's voyages was that down the Tagns from Toledo to Lisbon. The river rush) s through deep canons, and between high moun tains, with a descent of 3,200 feet in the 1,000 kilometers the captain traversed. Capt. Boyton is the first man who ever made the descent of the Togas, and be carried an American flag the whole distance. Re reached Lisbon eighteen days after leaving Toledo, and during most of the time he saw no human be ings. At Lisbon he was met by 200,- 000 people, who packed the banks until the city looked like a floating island. Thousands of American flags floated on the house-tops, and Capt. Boyton laughed heartily as he told how they were made. The peoplo had a vague idea that there were stars and stripes needed in an American flag, bet each one arranged them to snit his taste, and the result was some very odd com binations. In March, 1878, Cant. Boytc-n crossed the strait of Gibraltar from Tarifa to Taugiere, and he said that the only way to give an idea of the task WHS to say that it was five times harder work than crossing the English channel, " and yon know what a time I had then," he added. The captain's last voyage of note was from Nogent to Fans, down the Heine, in August last, making tho distance in seventy-five honrs. He reached Paris within five minutes of the time he bad calculated the trip would take, and found a multi tude awaiting bim, which the Paris pa pers estimated at not less than s million of people. The Birth ef a lake J >hn Muir writes in Scritmrr, of " I'be Mountain Lakes of California." ! t quote : The Merced river, as a abole, is remarkably like an elm-tree, and it rcouires bnt little effort on the : part of the imagination to picture it standing npright, with all its lakes hanging upon its spreading branches, j the topmost eighty miles in height, I Now add all the other lake-bearing ; rivers of thi Sierra, each in its place, and yon w >ll have a truly glorious spec tacle—an avenue the length and width at the range; the long, slender, gray shafts, the milk way of arebit-g branches, and the moon-like lakes all clearly de- • fluid and shining on the bine aky. How excitedly such an addition to astronomy would be gar-cd at ! Yet these lakeful rivers are still more excitingly, beauti ful and impressive in their natural positions to those who have the eyea to see them as tbey lio imbedded in their meadows and forests and glacier sculptured rock a. When a mountain-lake is bora— when, like a young eye, it firat opens to the light—it is an irregnlar, expression less crescent, inclosed in banks of rock and ice—bare, glaciated rock on the lower side, the nigged anont of a glacier on the upper. In this condition it remains lor man a year, tintil at J length, toward the end of some anspi- j sinus cluster of seasons, the glacier re- < cedes beyond the npper margin, leaving it open from shore to shore for the first time, thousands of years after its con ception beneath the glacier that scooped I its basin. The landscape, cold and , bare, ia reflected in ita pnre depths; the ' winds ruffle its glassy surface, and the snn fills it with throbbing spangles, while ita waves begin to lap and mnr mnr around ita leafless shores—son - spangles and stars ita only flower*, the winds and the snow ita only visi tors. Meanwhile the glacier continues ■o recede, and numerous rills, still { younger than the lake iteelf, bring down glacier mod, sand-grains and I pebbles, giving rise to margin-rings and I plats of aoil. To these fresh soil-beds come many a waiting plant. Firat, a hardy carex, with arching leaves and a I spike of brown flowers; then, aa the *eaon grows warmer, and the ami-beds deeper and wider, other sedges take their appointed places, and these are joined by blue gentians, daisies, dode rath eons, violets, bont yworts and many a lowly moss. Shrubs also hasten in time to the new gardens—kalmia, with its glossy leaves and |mrple flowers, the Arctic willow, making soft woven j carpets, together with the heathy bryanthus and oassiope—the fairest and dearest of them all. Insects now en rich the air, frog* pipe cheerily in the shallows, soon followed by the ousel, which is the first bird to visit a glacier lake, aa the sedge ia the first of plants So the young lake grows in beentr, becoming more and more humanly lovable from oentnry to centory. droves of aspen spring np, and hardy pines, and the Williamson spruce, until richly overshadowed sod empowered. Bnt while its shores are being enriched, the soil beds creep out with incessant growth, contracting its area, while the lighter mud particles deposited on the bottom cause it to grow oonatantly shallower, until at length the last remnant of lbs lake vanishes—claaod forever in ripe and natural old age. And now ita feed ing stream goes winding on through the new gardens and groves that have taken its piece without halting for a moment. There ia no good reason why it should be so, but doll babies are always girls. CHINED BY WOCP-IHMJK. Il*w I'tarlMWarrra NI44aN Hrvkr 111. Arm an Ifcr Komun I'nmpasns. W delisted over black coffee until the lout number of the concert iu the piazza had ended in a flourish of trum pets, and then, without further hcsita tion, we ordered ateedM and a wore we would croaa the campagna at midnight, through fever and damp, apite of the brigands and the sheep-dogs and the black holea that line the solitary road to Rome. It waa twelve midnight when we mounted. The bell of aome convent in the hilla waa calling the monka from aleep to prayer; the piazza waa de aei ted; a few friends who had supped with na atood by ua to the last, and we turned from them aa they atood in tlie warm light of the cafe—the only light visible at that hour—and departed un der a thick shower of benedictions. The long road wound down the hill between high walla and terraoed gar dena. From time to time we paaaeJ the way-aide shrines so common in Oatliolio countries; broad bars of light fell across our path, for there waa ever a lamp lit by some faithful hand and burning brightly at the feet of the Ma donna. The way grew lonely. We set forth with songs, but our voices were lost in the immense, the eternal silence of the vast and vaoant land. It came at last—a low growl, away off in the Slackness of darkness; a long, low, wolfish growl that ended in a sharp and vicious yelp, which was followed by a chorus of howls and barks that chill ed the very marrow in our bones. " Avanti 1" cried our guide, aa be plunged the spnra into his horse's flanks and dashed forward into tbe night. We followed as beat we conld; followed madly, knowing not whither we went, but seeking to keep within sound of the boofs that now thundered njion the road like hail. The wolf-dogs were upon na—mon sters that guard the flocks in the cam pagna and are the terror of all pedes trians, for iu their case escape is impos sible, aud more than one mangled corpse has bocu found by the waysule in the morning, the partially devoured re mains of aome belated pilgrim, whose only memorial is one of the small black crosses that are so frequent in aome parts of Italv, aud mark the spot where Idood has lieeu accidentally or unlaw fully shed. The air was* filled with hideous yelps of the infnristed pack, and the whole campagna seemed alive with monsters clamoring for blood. Weplnnged lDtotbn darkness, reiving | upon the instinct o( otir horses to keep the road. Once off it we mmt fall into one of the ditches that follow it at in terrala, or Lave driven full rpeed against tbe low walla tl>at border aome oil tbe meadow landa, and in either case nor d struct ion waa inevitable. I was' following tbe party, bringing np tbe rear of tbe procession— Indian file— j when snddenly everything went from under me, and in tbe next moment I waa groveling among looae atone*, with my horse vainly striving to regain bia feet at my aide. Tbe whole earth sank at that moment, and out of the chao* that followed came fearful voice* asking if I waa hurt. I thought not, but be fore I oould render this verdict a two edged agony went corkscrew fashion through my arm, from the shoulder to tbe wrist,* and then returned to tbe elbow, where it threw on I a thousand red-hot tendrils and alruck root forever | and ever. Meanwhile a pack of dog*, awakened by tbe clamor, bore down upon our quarter, and we were in danger of being intercepted, but with draperate baste we passed them just as tbey leaped the wayside wall and struck into the road, gnashing their teeth with rage at the very feet of our horses. It was a nar row eaoajie; one poor devil waa struck by tbe flying heels of my borae and . knocked endwise, and theu we saw dim ly the gray shadowy forms slackening the r pace. Gradually tbe whole tribe retreated, the noise subsided, and there came the gratefnllest season of silence that ever crept into my life.— Latter in San Fratfitco Chronicle. >ecdlo- flaking. Needles are made from soft steel wire, which is received from the manufactory to coils. The wire is cut by fixed shear* into lengths sufficient to make two needles. These blanks, being bent, re quire atraigbteuinc. which is done by placing several thousands of them be tween two brosd. besvy rings, snd heat ing them to redness in a furnace. Tbey are then removed and placed, still in positiou within the rings, on s flat iron plate, and by mean* of a curved bar, termed a smooth flic, rolled hack and ! forth until perfectly straight. Each piece is then sharpened at both ends. The workman takes up a numl>er at a time and holda the ends against a grind stone, forming the points. By means of a die and counterdie, two grooves are stamped by a press on each ride of the wire, which Is next pierced under a press with two holes, forming the eyes. A number of pieces are then strung on two floe wires and broken each in two by filing and bending. The rough ness about the heed is removed by fil ings, several at a time being placed'in a •mall viae. During these processes the needle*, having Income somewhat bent, are straightened by rolling on a fiat plate, as before. They are now brought to a red head, and tempered by plung ing tbem into oil. Fifty thousand at a time are then put in a canvas bag with emery, oil. putty-powder and soft soap, and rolled to and fro under pressure until they become bright. The better class of needles have their eyes drilled. The final process is polishing tbe points, which is effected first by arotahng bone, and afterward by a buff-wheel. Of late years machines have been introduced by which needle* are formed from tbe roll of wire without the intervention of hard labor. Widow Mar* Janette Bell ta atUI liv ing at Kankakee, 111. She is 100 years of age. ttiie waa born in 1780, the year of Napoleon'* birth. She tew NanoWn aa " The Little Corporal," knew Bobes pietrc, was surged in the crowd that witnessed the execution of the Hixhmath lands, and remembers when Marie An toinette a blood was spilt Old Mother Bell measures five inches less in bright tbae she did twenty years ago, bet her • tongue hasn't shriveled in the least— AVw York M tea Item* of fa'erest. The man who kicks football throws his whole sole into his boot. A man a character ia like a fence— Yoo auuot strengthen it by whitewash. Ralston, the great California banker, according to a rumor on the Paoiflcooaat, is still alive and living in the south of Europe, the drowned body which waa found having been the corpae of a man so closely resembling Ralston that every one waa deceived, aa it waa planned that they ehould be. " I can stand it well enough," remark ed old man Jaoobs, " to ait and listen to a barber's opinions on finance while he Jilayfnlly flourishes the razor over my ugnlar vein, but when be becomes so ' much absorbed in conversation that he absent-mindedly wipes tbe lather off on my coat sleeve, it sort 'er riles mo. llrynolda Herald. Japan cultivates about 9,000,000 acres, one-tenth of ber entire area, though about one-fourth of ber fertile area. Hbe supports a population of three and one-half persona to every cultivated acre. Most of ber people live on flab and vegetables ; her great lack ia live stock. Milk ia not used as sn article of food, aud what few cows they possess are employed for plowing. AM EItTATB. The following ia taken from the churchyard of Bterling, and ia tbe epitaph of Alexander K. Miffln, chief constable of Stirlingshire : " Our life U but a muter'* day Horn* only breakfast and away; Others to dinner stay and are foil fed . Tbe ot>lest man but sou* and goes to bed. large Is bis debt that angers ont tbe day, lie thai goes aoonest baa the least to pay. Method ia essential, and enable* a larger amount of work to be got through with satisfaction. "Method," said Cecil (afterward Lord Burleigh), "ia like packing things in a box; a good packer will get In half as much again as a trad one." Oecil'a despatch of busi ness waa extraordinary, his nmiie licing, " The shortest way to do many things ia to do only one tiling at oDce." The drunkenness of Edgar Allen Foe was recently under discussion by a Richmond temperance society. A speak er dwelt on the poet's disgraceful death. Dr. Mason, wbo attended him in hi* last illne**, replied : "Re died like a gentleman. For days before his death he utterly refused stimulants of all kinds to allay his nervous excitement, and died a sober man, truly penitent for his past career." Just about this time of year our ex changes with one * coord unite in trotting ont the venerable Joe Miller in various stages of mutilation about a \ mao i f VOI&AQ ) who went to market and told tbe dealer that | | kept boarders and wanted him ftbe market man) to pick out half a doxen of the oldest and toughest { hens ] ■( } he had. Which being done, I turkeys I J she | purchaser replied with a sardonic grin, " I'll take the other lot." These are all the versions we know ; our readers can take their choice.