CLIPPINGS FOR THE CURIOUS. Sharks generally turn on their sides to eat. Tho razor-Ash, though it lives in salt water, seems to abhor salt. Tho ancients believed that tho lynx 9 could see through stone walls. Tho tusks in a full-grown male ele phant sometimes are ten feet long. A turtle's head that had boon cut oft' several days lately bit a duck's neck and * killed tho fowl, in Talbotton, (a. " Butter was tlrst made by the Scythians and Thrncians, and was at tlrst used as au ointment for baths and as a medicine. Whenever anyone of a herd of hyenas in their native state is wounded, its companions tear it to pieces and devour it. Iu the growth of all animals tlie v pass from tho simple to the complex. The young of tho higher animals repre sent tho full growth of tho lower ani mals. It is said on the best authority that a toad frequented the steps before the hall door of a gentleman's house in Devonshire for upward of thirty-six years. M. St. Pierre once saw a vast number of ants overcome a centipede. They seized it by its legs and bore it along as workmen would have done a large piece of timlier. An English baronet says that an im monse army cf " snow" geese flying against a Southern California sky pro sent a spectacle which is worth a year's voyage to see. A Ilea will eat ten times its own weight of provisions in a day, and will drag after it a chair a hundred times heavier than itself. It leaps a distance of at least two hundred times its own length. Suppose a sapphire as largo as an olive of ordinary French size. It would be worth here 91,500 ; an emerald of that size would lie worth SB,OOO, a dia mond $15,000, a ruby 940,000 ; an opal of fine color of that size would lie worth only SI,OOO. A Hungarian ehemist has been show ing in Paris some remarkable experi ments with a new light-giving substance that burns with so little heat that it will not set fire to the most inflammable fabric. The burning liquid can be held in the bare hand without discomfort. This new illuminating fluid is one form of that Protean substance, petorlum. Japanese auctions are conducted on a novel plan, but one which gives rise to none of the noise and eonfnsion which attend such sales in America. Each bidder writes his name ami bid upon a slip of paper, whieli he places in a box. When tho bidding is over the box is opened by tho auctioneer, and the goods declared the property of tho highest bidder. It is well known that certain fowls fill their digestive appiratus with grand and pebbles, which act as millstones in grinding up their food. Recent in vestigations show that other animals are addicted to similar habits 011 a larger scale. Seals swallow stones weighing from one to two nnd sometime* even three ponnds each, while one investiga tor found, not long since, ten ponnds of these boulders in the stomach of a sea-lion. The lion has often been seen to t despise contemptible enemies and par don their insults when it was in his power to punish them. Ho has been seen to s|re the lives of such as were thrown to lie devoured by him, to live peaceably with them, to afford them |>ar of hi< subsistence, and sometimes to want food himself rather than deprive them of that life which his generosity had spared. The lion is not nsually cruel; he is only so from necessity, and never kills more than he consume*. When satiated he is perfectly gentle. Manners. Manners are lietter distributed than they have been, the last century having particularly disseminated them. They are now less observed in tho East and more olmerved in the West, for the civ ilkd globe steadily tend* to homo geneity. Great cities are more polite aocimlly and less polite commercially thau small cities, the former holding that they have no time in business for superfluous phrases and hollow conven tionalism. This is a mistake ; no more timo—not so much,'indeed—is required to be civil as to be rude, and five seconds of civility is worth more than j h five hours of rudeness. All who have tried civility have found it remnnem tive, and they always will find it so. Every one discovers the fact in his own case. It is almost as much a law that people will ileal where they are well or politcdy treated as that water will gain its level. What man has memory so # poor or sensibility so small as to forget the place whore politeness goes with his purchase? I Joes he not invariably re turn thither? Will ho not put himself ont to liny again of the man who under stands his interest well enough to be uniformly courteous ? More business ■ we venture to say, based on polite news than on capital, for politeness is a sort of capital, with the advantage that ! it may be increased at will .—Chicaqo Tribune. THE FAMILY DOCTOR. If a child Imh u bad earache, dip n | plug of cotton wool in oil, warm it and place it in tho oar. Wrap up tlio head and keep out of draughts. Hick-headache can oiton ho greatly , relieved, and sometimes entirely cured, 1 by tho application of a mustard piaster at the base of tho neck. Tho plaster should not be kept on more than a | quarter of an hour. Blooding at the nose can bo stopped by vigorous action of the jaws, as if in progress of mastication. In the case of a child a wad of paper should be placed iu the mouth and tho child instructed to chow hard. It is tho motion of tho jaws that stops the flow of blood. To cure corns, take one measure of coal or gas tar, one of saltpeter and one of brown sugar; mix well. Take a piece of an old kid glove and spread a plaster on it tho size of tho corn and apply to tho part affected ; bind on and leave two or three days and then re move, and the corn will come with it. The following is said to bo a euro for hoarseness: A piece of flannel, dipjied in brandy and applied to tho chest, uml covered with a dry flannel, is to bo worn l at night. Four or si\ small onions boiled and put on buttered toast and eaten for supper arc likewise good for a cold in the chest, j Each inhalation of pure air is returned i j loaded with poison ; l."> 0 grains of it j | added to the atmosphere of a bedroom I every hour, or 1,200 grains during the ! i night. Unless the poison-laden atmos phere is diluted or removed by a con stant current of air passing through the rooms, the blood becomes impure, then j circulates sluggishly, accumulating and ' pressing on the brain, causing frightful I dreams. To cure ingrowing too nails, one au- ! ; thority ways: I'ut a small piece of tallow i j in a spoon, heat it until it becomes very 1 i hot, and potir on the granulations. Pain | and tenderness arc relieved at once, 1 and in a few ilays the granulations are j j all gone, the diseased parts dry and ; grow destitute of all feeling, and the j edge of the nuil excised so as to admit !of being pared away without any in- j i convenience. An exchange says: That painful af ! flietion, a felon, can readily lie prevent | ed by moistening the finger with the ; I tincture of lobelia in the early stages !of the attack. If allowed to progress j too far lo ! conveniently obtained, rook salt pul j veri/.ed, after being dried in an oven , and mixed with an equal part of turpen tine and applied frequently, will destroy a felon in twenty-four hours. Tire following is said to lie a cure for : hydrophobia: Take two tnblesjtoonfnls of fresh chloride of lime, mix it with t one-half pint of water, and with this wash keep the wound constantly bathed ami frequently renewed. The rldoridc gas possesses tho |iower of decomjiosing the tremendous poison, and renders mild and harmless that venom against whose resistless at tin k the artillery of medical : science has lieen so long directed in vain. It is necessary to add that this wash must lie applied as soon as pos sible after the infliction of the bite. For neuralgia in the face or otlur acute •affcTing elsewhere, the following , remedy has lieen tried with good effect: Ont a thick slice of bread all across the loaf—fresh bread is liest. Soak one side tor a minute in lioiling water, and rapidly sprinkle cayenne jiepjior over the hot side. Apply while still smoking hot to the i*aiufnl surface. The bread retains the heat long enough for the cayenne to begin to act, and cayenne doi-s not affect delicate skins as mustard docs. It acts as a mliefacient, but not a blister. Another excellent remedy for congestion from cold is to apply a ponltice of flaxseed meal and cayenne pepper. By keeping a bit of oil silk on the outside of the ponltice cloth it will retain both heat a.i.i moisture for a long time. Russia ant! Its Rulers. The area of the Russian empire is 8,012,055 square miles. The population, including Poles, Finns, Caucasians and Asiatics, is H5,<185,045. The area of Uus- 1 sia proper is 2,012,801 miles, and the population 65,704,650. No other coun try in Europe lias as large a territory or as many inhabitant*. The Into czar ascended tho throne March 2,1855, after the battle* of llalaklaraand Inkermann, and in tho midst of the siege of Holms topol. His reign was exactly twenty six years and eleven days induration His father, Nicholas reigned thirtv years (1825- 1855), and his great nncle, Alexander 1., twenty-four years (1801 i 1825). There have been but throe czars of Russia in tho present century. Alex ander 111., now on the throne, was thir ty-six years of ago March 17, and will, aides* ho meets an untimely end, live 1 to complete the century in four genera tions. The last czar of Rnssia who met hi* death at the hand* of an assassin previous to the late emperor was Paul, the son of the famous Catharine (17516 1801). Spite of the repeated attempts upon the lives of the rulers of Russis, the average length of reigns in that kingdom has been greater than in most other countries of Europe. LADIES' DEBARMENT. A Wort) of Ailvlrr. Why are girls so injudicious in their toleration of dissipated young men ? It is very often the case that a thoroughly good girl will deliberately marry a man who makes no secret of his hail habits. What can she expect but misery to ensue. A life partnership should not be entered into without at least as much caution as men display in making busi ness combination for limited periods, No man selects his bnsincH partner from among men who drink much liquor or have other hail habits. As for mere manners and the ability to make one's self agreeable, they have not themselves influence enough amongj'men to secure a dollar's worth of Credit or to justify any one in . holieving'thoir possessor on oath. A girl who is not old enough to have learned what are the standards by which men are tested would bo far surer of a happy life if she were to let her parents select a husband in the prosiest manner imaginable, than if she were to make her own selections in the manner peculiar to girls. A life partner ship is not easily dissolved. (It-mum (Jit-lit. Tlieir life is far different from that of American girls, and we could hardly fancy anything more prosy than the home life of the high and well-born German girl. They are educated pre cisely alike, the range of study being limited. The common branches, l-'rench and sometimes English, and a few small ornamental accomplishments complete the list. The statement that American girls study the sciences and sometimes Greek and Latin causes from them man ifestations of surprise. The traditions and prejudices of their class are care fully inculcated. Any woman who does j think or act in opposition to the con ventional standard is looked upon with j distrust. Hut tin ir domestic education is carefully attended to ; whatev4 tlieir rank, they master all branches ami steps of housekeeping. Their wedding trims, scan and outfit in bod and table linen is generous in quantity and Wutiful in texture, ami usually made by their own willing hands. An engagement with them is as solemn ami binding as a marriage contract, and unfaithfulness in either sex is an exception that meet* In-arty eond em nation. Tlieir simple ness ami quietness of life is a reproach ; to the lives of the idle, ease-loving, friv j oloua girls of many other countries. Nrww rtml \*tr frr \%"nrn. The Baroness Burdett Contts is not coming to this country, as was re|orteil. She ha* recovered from her recent ill | no**. Carlyle though* worm n were especial: ly titt. il to IK- doctors. The Massachusetts society for the ■ higher education of women lias a bal ance of eighty-two cent. in its treasury. " There isn't spirit enough in a score of Mormon women to make one bright, wide awake New England wife," writes one who boa recently settled in bailing distance of Sidt Lake. According to the Washington cor respondent. Mrs. Garfield looks more like other ladies than any other woman in the United States. She constant It reminds them all of notnelxxly clc. Women of the world never use harsh expressions when eondemring their rival*. Like the savage they hurl ele gant arrows ornamented with features of purple and azure, but with poisoned point*. A lunch given by a New York lady to four of her friends cost 8110, or $22 a plate. I-ady Walter Campbell and Mis* Hal •lock, though not professional beauties, are gaining celebrity as among the pret tiest women in IW with tasseled ends on the top. Some of the summer bonnets are to be exquisitely simple, having no trim ming but a spray of roses und a muslin scarf. Riblmns shading from rod to yellow and looking as if cut from the up|M-r half of a rainbow are used on black j lionnets. India linen with hair stripes of bright I color is used to make summer suits. I he tinted strijHis are in hair lines and | are silky. Tin- outside of the |>ara*ol is chosen ' to match the suit and to please the l world in general, the inside to lu-come the wearer. The stuff which is calli-d nun's veil | ing, but is not, although it is very pretty, is now produced in plaid patterns , for street suits. A coarse woolen toweling, *trij-d with hair lines of bright color on a dull ground, is combined with plain stuffs for summer gowns. Tin- new collarettes hnic a pointed opening at the throat and many are without any niching al>out the ni*k. being finished with simple sliirrings. The coral-pink rose* and other flowers, beautiful as they are. are so very unbe coming tlmt they can only bo employed on the outside of l>onnet*. Black cashmere mantles lined with satin are made up with four rows of gathering on the shoulders, a sat in i lined frill in the neck, fastened y a bow with long ends. "The Cricket" is the name given to the little stringless lionnetsof jxin njiine straw, trimmed with loops and fold* of shaded ribbin and a hunch of b-11-like flowers. The New Function of the Pre-.. The wonderful growth of the news paper press, says the J'lumbfr, is one of the marked features of the country. The \a*t circulation of every class of journals is phenomenal. No intelligent |H-rson can help taking one ]>spi-r, while nro-t persons read several. Steam and electricity have ab>li*hcd time and space, so that the jonrnnlist now records the world's daily history on the date of its occurrence. We sit down to breakfast with a feast of news from Bombay to the Golden Gate. The reader'* breath is almost taken away by so much matter. It is tiewildcring, and few without the aid of the omniscient editor can take it all in. As a fact, the man who write* the head lines or the editorial summary and com ment really guides public intelligence and opinion. To attempt to grap the whole of the contents nt a sitting is a vain task. Few |ersons have the time to do it. and each reader pick* out just what sjiccially interests him and merely skims the i rest. There is hence a natural liking for the pa|>ers that eschew verbiage and padding anil lioil down the news into a presentable shape. Bnt something more is neciswary. We need to have the m-ws sifted as well as condensed, the chaff and error a* well a* the verbi age thrown out. and nothing printed that isalmurd, or willful, without empha aizing this fact. Colored Horse 1 Flesh as Food. The latest horror from England, says an exchange, is diseased home flesh treated with red ochre to give it a healthy appearance, and then moon factor oil into l>eef sausage. A meal e.>m|iosod of this, with breod made from chalk, potato flour, alum, etc., duly i lubricated by oleomargarine, rounded 1 off with Chicago cheese, that is, trans mogrifled lard, and washed down with a decoction of burnt beans, softened by a preparation of calves' brains and chalk, byway of milk, and sweetened by an extract of old rags and sawdust, bleached by acetic acid, might not as tonish the stomach of an ostrich, bnt certainly would fail to restore the ex hausted physical strength of a tailoring man. Yet it can hardly be doulited now tliat many a toiler makes jnst snch a meal, and pay* the price of wholesome j food for it. • MORAL AMI RKLIBIOFK. ■ Tin* KilHiiiir ol Mnrrlsici-. A true marring! i* always a religious ai l in itself, because religion mean* the j binding of ono to another in a pun- and j tnie union. Ho the Scriptures never 1 command thin relation HO far an I can remember ; they only recognize and j guard and bless it. The man and woman in a true wedding become bun. 1 band and wife because their Cri-ator made them for each other, just OH he made Adam for Eve and Eve for Adam in the garden. I say the true match in the rule, and in the vast majority of in stanceH those who come to the husband and wife were made to be husband and wife. Yes, and very often in the faee of our sins and follies, and not nt all by our discernmg, the great sacred gift is given which makes a heaven for tis when we would make jx-rdition for ourselves. To Itclicve, as some do, that disapgioint mcnt and misery come of most mar tiages is very much like believing that in this world the devil has dominion ' over most soub. Thomas and Marv sit in their home and womh-r how John and Susan manage to get along on so small a stock of esteem, ami Thomas and Mary shake their heads over John i and Susan. Hut you timlthat somehow there is better with the worse, as there is worse with the b-ttor Very tender and true they are apt to be when sickness takes the children very i *re. They weep together over the lit- I tie graves. We see only the surface, | w<- note only the dissonance. It is like the chimes of Trinity which fall so ! sweetly about the life below, that those to whom the*, are but the oci-omjiani ! incuts of life do not heed them and arc j hut dimly aware tlu-y are pulsing | through the bus-, marts. Hut let them ■ strike a harsh discord and a thousand S faces will IK- turned to Triniti spire in wonder. They hear that, and that in the truth almut our life Still i goon to say that what you an-saving to -our selves j fist now is quite true; there is a great deal of trouble in this land of ours, rising directly out of this relation j of husband and wife, and trouble that i cannot be brought within the lines that I have trh-d to draw , but breaks out and flames up in quite an infernal way Ikv fore the world, so that we have to ask sometimes what w- are coming to and whether there is not a threat in the air of a disruption of this sacred social order— liberty running to license, love driven from her throne by lust and this new world of ours threatened with ruin through the vilem-ss which destroyed the old. It i natural also to try and find where the reason lies for these ap palling evil*, which d<> not merc|\ threaten us, but are on us, and whether they max not b" met. J{r.r. }',•>!, rrt r.41,/rr. Keliflau. NFWI AND Sales. Ihe liondon religions tract society has circulated nearly Ml.dOtt.ttOO books and tract* in HtO different languages. T1 ic English Presbyterian church con sists of '.171 cout fOO. There are 1.578 ministers among the Tunkers, or German Baptists. Of these dtsi are in Pennsylvania. 21* in Indiana. 227 in Ohio, 112 in Illinois and LCI in lowa. The denomination js representesl in twenty States. The American Sunday-school Union reports for the year just closed 1,415 new schools organized, in which there arc 52.118 Scholar*. In the previous year there were organized 1.277 schools, with HJ.728 scholars. There arc now supposed to la- in Paris 7"i,tHKi Protestants, among whom arc .to,(N si Rcfonneil, DO.tMHt Lutheran and 1 m,mm > of other denominations. This is an approximation. Abuit aeventy-five pa-tors attend to the spiritual want* of the Protestant population. The governor of Kansas denies the rejKjrt that the new prohibitory law of that State interferes with the adminis tration of wine in communion services. He s„ya the law has bi-cti pronounced constitutional by the supreme court. Tin-associated executive committee of Friends on Indian affairs met recently in Baltimore, delegates from eight yearly meetings Wing present. Reports showing gratifying progress of the Indians at the various agencies in civil ization, education and religion were presented. It was stated that two of the fighting Modoes of the Lava Beds had died exemplary Christians. The Rev. Newman Hall, in speaking of flic need of "revivals" in I<*ndon, says that, taking a rough estimate, it is con sidered that in round nuniWrs london haa four millions of )>eople, of whom one lialf might at one time W at churjh; but of these two millions there is only church accommodation for one-half, and of these cue million of eoato, only half a million an- at any one time occupied. The Methodist* of the United States nnmWr .1,321,(100, and are divided into fifteen organizations, though the great bulk of the niemWrship is included in the Methodist Episcopal, the Methodist | Epincojwl South, and the African Met ho dint Episcopal. The division Wtween the first two was made in 1843 on the slavery question, sad the last was sepa ; rat ■litiv the 8< nate or House of Represents i tives, and generally performs all such service* relative to the finances as he is directed to perform: controls the erection of public buildings theeoinag and printing of money, the collection of commercial statist. the marine hospital*, the revenue-cutter service, the life-saving serv ice. I'nder his superin tendence the lighthouse U>ard dis charge* the duties relativ, to tlie con struction, illumination, inspection and superintendence of lighthouse*, light* ! vessels, lxwcons, buoy*, sea-marks and their apjx-ndages; makes provision for the I ray merit of public debt under enactments of Congress and publishes statements concerning it. and submit* to Cxingren* at the commencement of each session estimates of the proliable receipt* and of the required expend itures for the ensuing fiscal year. The secretary of war performs such duties as the President, who is the com mander-in-chief, may enjoin njsin him, concerning the military service, and ha* the sujiornitendenoe of the purchase of army supplies, transportation, etc. The secretary of the navy has the general superintendence of const ruction, manning, armament, equipment and employment of vessels of war The secretary of the interior i charged with the *npervin n of public business relating to patent* for inven tions. ]tensions and Ixjunty lands, the public lands, including mine*, the In dians, toe census, when directed by law, the enstody and distribution of public documents, and certain hospitals and eleemosynary institutions in tin district of Columbia. He also exercise* certain 1 (tower* and duties in relation to the Territories. The )x>st master-gen era, ha* the direc tion and management of the postoffice department. He appoints all officer* , and employes of the department, except J the three assistant postmasters-general, who are appointed by the President, by and with the consent of the Senate : ap (Hunts all jost masters whose coni(