iIMKLY TOPIC*. Russian salad is made by cutting up raw apples and every kind of available vegetable into small slioes and laying them in a shallow dish with salt, a little vinegar and pepper, and the beat oil. The dressing mnst thoroughly saturate the mixture for at least twelve hours, and then the effect is aaid to be found very agreeable. A fanciful geniua baa suggested to the /Menti/lo American that it ia now time to oelebrate the completion of the first cubio mile of humanity, and gives a cal culation to ahow that the bodies of all mankind, from the first Adam down to the present, if closely packed without diminution of volume, would exactly fill that space ; the aggregate weight of all mankind to date is estimated at 4,212 million tons. A manufactory of paper bricks has been opened somewhere in Wisconsin. The bricks are said to be exceedingly durable and moisture-proof. They are also larger than the clay article. Paper is now alao uaed for making barrels. Straw pulp is run into a mold made in the shape of a half barrel, ont vertically. The ends are of paper, bnt are protected by wood. The barrels are lighter and two-thirds cheaper than those of wood, and flour will not sift out of them while in transit. The staves are three-eighths of an inch thick. When it become?, known in the neigh borhood of Charles Pixsola's aanaage factory, in San Franeiaoo, that he waa buying cats, the exoitement waa intense. The story went that the boys had cap tured dosens of cats for him, and that, whenever one waa sold to him, he cut off its tail with a cleaver, stuck the stump into a pail of salt, and then turned the maimed brute into a room, from which it never came out alive. A oat with its tail cut off is believed to fatten quickly; so the conclusion waa that Pizzola was fattening cats for aanaage. He was arrested on a charge of cruelty and fined 25; bnt he proved that he had bought only four cats, and had put them to •catohing rata in his factory. William J. Wilson, the oolored man who founded the Freedman's bank, haa just died at Washington. He waa a man of energy and activity, and well educat ed, and started a freedman's bank in the oellar of a building in the central part of Washington, to which speedily the colored intrusted their savings. Boon he moved into more pretentions quarters and might have got along nioely had he not listened to friends who urged him to apply to Congress for u charter for the hank and power to start branch institu tions. From the first the bank grew, until there were at leaat 100 branches in the different Southern cities. When the bank went down all of Wilson's pro perty went down with it His daughter, • who had led oolored fashionable society in Washington, got a situation as teach- i r, and Wilson obtained a clerkship in the postoffloe. He was fiftv nine at the time of his death, and an LL. D. of an ■Ohio college. Nix Charlie Res ia the Field. Although four years anu a naif have j passed since the kidnapping of Charlie Rosa, the father avers he baa never given np the search. At the present time he is engaged in looking np six different dew*. One of them is in Ana- i tralia. and be ia daily expecting a letter detailing the history of the diaooverv of the boy. There are two more in Eng land, and a fourth in the mountain fast nesses of Wales. That the interest of the pnblic in the case is not abated is manifested in tbe numerous letter*, which Mr. Ross continues to receive. On an average be gets a letter every day from some person who ia oertain he | has seen a child living nnder suspicions circumstance*, or resembling the por traits of Charlie. In the course of his journeying Mr. i Roes aays he has found that a majority of these ohildren are the offspring of people who have separated through domestic troables, and have been placed in some out-of-the-way place by either mother or father in revenge. The boy found in Bradford oonnty, supposed to have been Charlie, waa taken from his mother in Vermont. Mr. Roes has almost arrived at tbe condnaion that his boy ia not secreted in tbe country. He thinks, if be is alive, it is moat likely that he ia in New York, in some crowded tenement house, where the people are used to seeing children rnn around without parents. He said that he knew of one case where an Italian had a child living on tbe fifth floor of a tenement that none of the other 1 u ma tea had ever seen. He haa not given np all hope, and saya that every case presented to him, hav ing the least aign of probability, will be carefully investigated. Rradtng iPa,) Eag!*. Bpaalsk Agriculture. la moat of the little fields the soil tu being turned np for the reception of seed by s method quite novel to me; s laborious. but a moat thorough one. The implement was at wo- pronged a tea] fork. The prong* were over two feet loog and six inches apart, and joined together with a square shoulder, from which a straight wooden handle three three feet in length extended. These tools weighed altogether from ten to fifteen pounds, snd were strongly made. Tha operation is as follows: The dig gers, generally fire in number, stand in a row eloae together, working book ward. Simultaneously they raise their forks perpendicularly np, as high as possible, and then bring them down with all their foroe, driving the sharp prongs eighteen inches more or less into the bard ground; then, taking hold of the ex trami ties of the bandies with their two bands, to get the utmost leverage, they throw themselves backward, each prising np a fangs chunk of soil. Two ■other laborers follow in front, and, armed with heavy hoes, break all extra arge chunks to pieoea with smart blows. Seven men so working get over the ground astonishingly quick, and tarn it up in a most effective manner. A heavy wooden barrow, of primitive oon atraotion, drawn by a yoke of oxen, finishes the preps ration of the soil.— On Foot throuffh Spain. There are about fi,000.000 plows in nee throughout the United States. ."•v I Thrilling Incident of n Flood. Daring the heavy flood nt Paterson, N. J., an exciting iooident oocarred: The hill where the Paaaaio fella are aitu ated wae thronged with visitors through oat the day. Juat almve tbo river had stretched aorona the meadow*, catting ofT the road, and forming an immenae pond. Oat of thin the water poured into the rooky gorge which form* the approach to the fall, and auoh waa it* volume that the chaam into which the fall tnmblea, seventy feet in depth, waa filled ball up with the flood, which roar ed ao aa to be heard a mile away, and aent oat a spray that fell for many yards around like a heavy rain. At this point in the afternoon an inci dent occurred that startled beyond ex pression the thousand spectators there assembled. A boy ten years old waa driving an open wagon along the road by the aide, above the fall a con siderable distance. At points the road over which he was driving waa sub merged, but not to a great depth, and he had made several fords ancceaafnlly. A man walking along the road hailed him and asked for a lift; the boy took him in, and the two drove along to gether. Presently they came to a point where the lamp posts along the side of the rood were almost half buried in the water, bat the boy whipped aphis horse and drove in. All at onoo the two in the wagon felt the body of the same lifted an by the water, and they floated off, while the horse oontinued on with the wheels. The body of the wagon floated out on the broad pond that has been mentioned. The water was com paratively smooth, but still the current was strong, and the wagon body was earned with considerable rapidity in tho direction of the fall. Throngs of per sons were walking along the aide of the stream, and they saw the novel craft borne away. A hundred yards ahead of where the two were a bridge crosses the river, and jast beyond that oocnra a slight fall in the bed of tho stream, and from there on the water roahed like an arrow to the fall, only a short way dis tant. Aa the vagon liody drew on faster and faster toward the bridge its occu pents could see the spray of the fall and hear its roar. The boy was frighteued and tried to jnmp out, but the man held him tight. The screams of the little fellow could be heard by those on shore. Everybody rnshed to the aide of the water; a hundred directions were called ont, bnt nobody knew what to do. As the wagon body came nearer to the bridge, women screamed and ran away. The bridge waa reached, and the pair aeemed now beyond help, and then help came. A man driving over the bridge saw, as everybody did, the strange craft sweeping down,"and having bia wits about him, jumped from his wagon, nnstrapped the reins from his horse, and directed another driver to do the same. The two pairs of reins were strapped together and thrown over the rail of the bridge. The end fell into the water, and aa the wagon body, going now with immense velocity, came near, the man above cried ont to the pair be low to catch hold. The reins were held right in the ooarae of the wagon body, and as this swept by the man, holding fast to the boy, grabbed at them, and caught them, and the two were drawn safely upon the bridge, while the wagrn body dashed over the fall. Wonderful Narrative of • Rat While workmen were tearing np the old floor of a freight bonne at Auburn, N. Y., they came acroea an nnused scale box dome eight incbea deep, and abont four feet aqnare. It waa pned np from it* position, and aa it waa being raised, a rattling aonnd waa heard inside. The men broke it open, when ont daahed a monatroua rat. Ohaae waa given the rodent, bnt the aaimal managed to ea oape br running into a pile of freight The rat waa aa large aa a gnod-aised kitten, and ao gray from age that it waa almoet white. The bottom of the box from which it emerged waa found to be ooverod to the depth of an inch or more with peanut shuoka, oorn, corn oobe and the like. The only opening that oonld be discovered waa a ntnall hole abont an inch and three-fonrtha in dinmeter through which a rod had paaeed. When yonng and email, the rat, it ia enppoeed, crawled into the box, and after gorging iteelf with plunder waa unable to get ont and Uina became an involuntary priaoner. It gradually grew nntil it reached enor mous proportion*. The litter found in the box indicated that other rata fed it, and thna kept it from atarvation. The rodent waa nndonbtedly confined for several years, and the action of the other animala in supplying it with means of subsistence, shows a degree of intelli gence that the rat has never been giver credit for. How tha imprisoned rat ob tained water or other liqnida to quench its thirst, is a mystery ; bnt that it waa ia the box for several yean there can be no donbt. Had it not been for the accidental discovery, the nt would have remained in its prison nntil it died of sheer old age. It* long imprisonment did not seem to impair ita physical qualities to any extent, M waa evidenced by the sprightly manner in which it dodged abont to get away from the workmen when it waa released. The men oonld have killed it readily had they not been taken ao completely by surprise at the unexpected appearance of the rodent They did not deem it possible that even a rat oonld crawl through such a small aperture. The Bulk Hilver Hakes. The new vault in the United States treasury, in New York, which baa been prepared for the storage of silver dol lars, is forty-sight feat in length, thirty feet in width and twelve feet in hcighth. If every available inch should be packed solidly with 412} grain dol lars it would not hold far from forty million dollars. Kvery one knows that silver is bulky, but few persons are aware bow bulky it is. A bag of 1,000 Il2t grain dollars weighs 50 8-16 pounds averdnpei*. Accordingly 100,000 of these dollars weigh not far from three tons. If a merchant or banker having a payment of |60,000 to make is com pelled by oirouDistances to pay with silver dollar*, be won hi need a vehicle as strong and as large as an ordinary coal "art (mads to carry a km of coal) to transport them, and if this should be heaped op no morn than 82,000 silver douan oouid be loaded on it. SHIPWRECKED HEROES. TwwlDfamatwrs ml Ihw Hwa KeeallM-.Vfaalr Hwll.Usalal la flat mi Parti. It was at two o'clock on the morning of the 26th of February, 1852, that the troopship Birkenhead, having on board a large number of aoldiers, with the usual proportion of women and children, 631 souls in *ll, struck on * rock near Point Danger, Cape of Good Hope, and filled. Captain Halmond was in command of the vessel ; Lien tenant-Colonel Beton, of the Beventy-eighth Highland) ra, of the soldiers. Of course the pins of the davits had rusted and the larger boats con Id not be launched ; but two cutter* and a gig were got out and manned, and the women and children placed in them. Tho oolonel " summoned his offloera to a consultation and impressed upon them the necessity of composure aud of pre serving discipline among their men to the very last." At this moment the ahip parted, and the foro part went down, and the word waa passed that fur ther effort was in vain ; let each do the bent he oould to secure hia individual safety. A few men jumped overboard, but the remaiuder collected on the poop, soldiers and seamen alike, " steady, quiet and resolute." The captain retained hia post, cool and collected, aa if there waa a ship under him, and Col onel Beton, with his drawn sword in hand, stood in the gangway to cut down any one who might endeavor to force hia way toward the boats. When tbe ahip reeled and quivered ere going down, Captain Balmond shouted, " Let all who can swrim now try to save them selves." One man exclaimed, " Make for tbe boats I" as he threw himaelf into the waves, but " the oolonel and hia officers entreated their men—and not in vain—not to attempt an entrance into tbe boats, which were already frilly load ed with women and and children.' Tbe officers now shook hands and took leave of one another, when, on a sodden, the vessel broke again crosswise, abaft tbe mainmast, and the poop, heeling over with a lurch, plunged beneath the water," only twenty minutes from the time she struck. The captain was brained by a falling spar ; the oolonel was drowned, and of the hnndred* so mdely awakened only 184 lived to tell the atory of the Birkenhead; but among them were all the women and all tbe children. In the other instance to be recorded the men who died lacked tbe example of superiors who had long commanded them, and to obey whom was socond nature; but the circumstances were even more tragic, tbe agony was infinitely longer, and the heroic triumph perhaps even greater. The story of the Central America waa once in everybody's month, yet to how many folk of this generation does Herndon's name recall Herndon's deed ? The Central America nailed from Ha vana for New York, Bepteml>er 8,1857. with a crew of 101 men, besides 491 passenger*, many ol them miner* return ing with their gold or for their farailiea, ami many of them women and children. " Many were possessed of large sums ; and them were but few whose wealth did not number hundreds, while many reckoned their gold by thousands of llara." When aba was twenty-four hour* out a gale sprang up that anon increased to a hurricane ; by the morn ing of tbe 11th the captain waa apprehen sive ; anon after the vessel sprang a leak, and though all bauds were set to work the inflowing water put out the Area and the ahip fell helpless into the trough of the sea. Once again by bail ing she waa freed so that they could start i the fires, but the pumpa became disar ranged and the water gained on them terribly. Tbe captain cut away the fore mast so aa to make a drag, bnt when it fell It was dragged beneath tbe bull, and pounding the ship's wounded aides, made the leak worse. By paying out a hawser they extemporised a drag and i brought the ahip head on, bnt it anon (Muted and left bar at the mercy of the sravea. The water had gained till the women and children were driven to take refuge in tbe men's cabin ; there there waa sneh a scene aa not even the annals of shipwreck can parallel. Gold lay abont, minted, in dnat, in ingots, by thonaanda and thousand* of dollars. Borne men bound it round their bodies with belts and in handkerchiefs to carry them down more swiftly when tbe fatal plunge came | "others', unwilling to be weighted in tbe atruggle by their bur den of dross, were neattering it wildly abont the cabin floors. Full pouches lay untouched upon the sofas. One of ! the passengers, who afterward escaped, flung about tbe cabin $20,000 aod bade wbo would satisfy hia thirst for gold, but it was passed by." Terrible as the prospect was, the courage exhib ited waa marvelous, and not even tbe women shed a tear. On the afternoon of Baturday they bailed the brig Marine, of Boston, which had suffered cruelly in the a term, bnt promised to do her beat to relieve them. "Until her hopeful appearance," wrote a woman passenger, " not a tear bad been abed that I am aware of on board the steamer. Till the moment we first espied the nail which we believed brought na relief, we bad remained passively awaiting the result. Them seemed to be a perfect calmness, which I could not have be lieved it possible for so met a number of persona to exhibit under aneh fearful circumstances. Bat when the brig bore in eight there were tear* of joy, and the men Worked with renewed energy and hope. The women beeooght them to work with all their might and aaid they would themselves assist in the labor U the men did not do their beet. In feet some of them were so eager to help that they even tried to pat oa men's cloth ing in order to go and work at the pumps." It was 8.80 when the brig oame under the Central America's stern, and, without any unneoeeeary delay, be gan removing the women and children. The task was not easy, for the smaller vessel drifted slowly away, and the boats took longer and longer at each trip ; be sides, so heavy was the sea, they aonld Shot a few at a time. •• The men no attempt to save themselves until all the women and children were saved. Again and again the teat re amed ; again ami again die made for the brig with bar precious freight; yet not a murmur waa heard ; no exclama tion of eel fish despair arose I A| length every women had bean securely trans ported to the brig: then catne the turn of the otww sou the male Dgsygagmu. About forty of these reeobM Murine before the ship went down." Moet of the crew ana many of the paasnuger* were still toiling at the ineffectual pumpa, and the captain atood by the wheel, airing ordern firmly and ottering cbeerfnl eihortationa. Hehsd dcc'nred thathe would not quit the abip. "Thank God," he raid to a friend, " the women and ohildr* n are aafe ; do yon lake the next l>ont." He attempted to charge bin friend with a farewell mengage to hia wife, but hia emotion oeeroame him ; after a few momenta he reoorered him, aelf, and continued to direct affair* at the boat returned from the brig. It waa juat eight o'clock when a groat ware amote the Central America and neut her down with eome five hundred men. When Mr. George, a aurriror, came up from what he thought an unfathomable depth, there woe in the water "a crowd of heads." But the weaker Boon went down, and the waves began to no par ate the dee pairing oompany. " Many were desiroua to iaolate themaelrea aa much aa possible, leat they ahould be dragged down in aome deeperate atruggle for life. Others, afraid of the lonelineaa, cried to their neigh bora to keep to gether." One by one they went down and only four of their number were aared aome houra later, aa if by a mira cle. " I waa forced by the wind," writea the captain of the bark Ellen, "to sail a little out of my course. Juat aa I bad altered it a email bird flew acroaa the ahip once or twioe and then darted agaioat my face. I, however, took no notice of this circumstance till praciaely the name tiling occurred the seoond time, which canned me to think it some what remarkable. While I waa thus re flecting about the incident, the name mynterioun bird, for the third time, made ita appearance and went through the verrname extraordinary maneuver*. Upon this I waa induced to re-alter my courae into the original one in which I had at first been steering. I hail not gone far when I beard ntraDge noiaea, and on endeavoring to dinoover from whenoe they proceeded, I found I was in the midst of people who had been shipwrecked." Richard the Third. Wi ham Winter, the well-known New York dramatic critic, given the follow ing graphic pen picture of Richard Them are authentic portraits of Richard 111. One depicts him as at tired in a close suit of soarlct, over which hangs a robe of cloth of gold, aud on his head a black cap adorned with a pearl. Another present* him in a black cap, a body suit of cloth of gold, and a black robe, with black and red sleeves. He was below the ordinary height, but muscular and very atrong. His frame waa thin and compact. One of his shoulders waa slightly higher than the other. Hia neck was abort, and hia head habitually dropped forward. Hia face was short ; hia complexion pale olive, and hia hair dark brown ; his eyes were dark and very fine ; hia cheeks sunken, and hia features regular and aquiline. Hi* fore bead massive and majestic ; and hia voice was remarkably sweet. He had a habit of playing with the handle of hia dagger, and ol alidiug a ring on and off one of his fingers. Tbe character of Gloster ia that of the worst of human monsters —a wicked man of genius. Tbe nglineaa of hia soul iasymbolixed by the nglineaa of hia body. Bitter, fiery, arrogant, cruel, crafty, impelled by an energy which never baits nor flags, he ia determined o rule a world which he despises and contemns, and by which be ia feared and bated. Ilia intellect ia towering and royal. He look* down upon human passions, and make* them his play things. He usea all men, and be trust* no one. He ia alone, aud he walks alone in hia blood-stained, haunted pathway to imperial power. He known himself, and i never fooled. His hypoc risy deceives others ; it never deceives him. But he ia human, and hear* a conscience, and through that the ever watchful Nemesis strikes him at last During the earlier and larger part of hia career—although the subtle inter preter of him will indicate that bia re morse and hia miserable suffering* are almost coincident with bia ontnrs, and are all the while slowly gathering way— not Niagara itself ia more steadfast in ita courae than ia the current of hia tremen dous will. But, when hia crimes and his remorse are at their worst, a moth er's curse smiles him. through crown, aud mail, ami royal robes, and from that moment bia genius begins to with er. Hia awfnl deeda rush back upon him. The grave give* np it* deii to haunt him. Fear—a new phantom, more hideous than the rest—appalls bin sou! ; and he leaps, in fiend-like fury and viper-like malignity, to a deep< rate and bloody death. Female Clerks at Washington. The first female clerks in the national treasury, aaya a New Tork paper, were appointed in 1862 by Secretary Ob see, who placed them in the office of the comptroller of the currency at SOOO a year. Tbey out ami trimmed the United State* notes issued in sheets, and did tbeir work very well Aa soon aa tbey bad been appointed there were many other applicants, and their number steadily increased, many of them securing places through the peculiar energy and perseverance which will refuse to take no for an answer. There are now more than 1.800 women in the departments at Washington, the majority employed in the bureau of engraving sod printing and in the gov ernment printing office. Tbey excel aa counter*, their slender, *en*itive finger* turning notes with greet rapidity and exactness. Tbey detect counterfeits, it is said, quicker than men, though they do not suooeed eo well in accounts, the average feminine- mind baa litUe natural love of figures. Counter* and copyists receive s'■* l a year; other wo men f1,900 to $1,400, several of them 11.000, and one in the internal revenue SI,BOO. Most of the clerks are well educated and refined, and many have seen more prosperous daya A number btj widows and daughter* of army awl naval officer* who lost their lives in the civil war. Very few of the young women or widows marry or resign, and consequently the hun dred* who are ooostaatly seeking places in Washington have very slender prow peeta of eucoeea. Tim most untiring, obstinate place seeker* at the federal capital a— wain. % m i*| : . Jugglers and Jagglrry. Speaking of the late Robert Heller, a New York correspondent cava: Thia man waa a very accomplished juggler ; and vet hia feata never eqnaled those ..f the Orientala. The popularity of aoch exhibitiona in found in the success v/birh attends ita le-at practitioners. Both Bignor lilit* and the Pakir of Ava left large estates, and Heller alao was rich. One of the oldest referenoee to jugglery la found in Porphvry (A. D. 260), who speaks of those " who showed apparitions of tba goda in the air." Jugglery lives age after age, and yet there are no schools for instruction, nor do we know how theae wonderful tricks are acquired. As a general rule the practitioner must be adapted by nature to the business and take to it from in clination. It is said that jugglery origi nated in Egypt, so famed as a land of mystery, whenoe the art spread to Greece and Rome. Americans never have excelled in it, and our best practi tioners are foreigners. The most famous juggler of modern daya waa Robert Hondin, wbo com bined great skill in legerdemain with rare knowledge of mechanics. He waa a native of France, and waa intended for the bar, but abandoned legal studies for the study of a juggler. After thia he went to Paris and beoame absorbed in mechanical wonders. At the age of forty he waa the m