LADIES' DEPARTMENT. * A Feminine Trick. A feminine trick, very common among foreigners at Rome, Italy, is described as follows : A lady goes to a milliner's and looks over lior stock of bonnets. She selects those which she thinks will suit her, and begs the milliner to send them to her the following morning that she may try them on at homo and soiect the one which suits her. The poor milliner consents. At 9 o'clock she sends the bonnets. The lady is not up. . Will the "young woman" call again a *r little later? The "young woman" con sents to leave the bonnets nntil ;i o'clock. What does my lady do then ? She takes tho bonnet she likes best to a little working milliner in a back shop of a back street, and bids lior make one exactly like tho model she leaves with her until half-past 2 o'clock, when she takes it bnck to the grand milliner, saying that she is very sorry, but none of them "suit her." Waere I'lump lire In lleiiuinil. Plumpness, such as would be consid ered exuberaut in the cold and critical north of Europe, constitutes tho popu lar ideal of female beauty in tho re gency of Tunis. Among marriageable young ladies of that province slender uess of form and delicacy of proportion are regarded with justifiable aversion, as disqualifications for the wedded state. The fatter a maiden tho better is her chance of makiug a good and early match. To be abnormally obese is to be certain of drawing a prize in the matrimonial market, and tho loveliest litheness remains nnwooed, while homo ly corpulence can pick and choose from among a throng of eligible suitors. How deep a root this predilection for capacious charms has struck in the Tu nisian manly bosom may be gathered ! from the fact that widowers, desirous to , marry again, should they haply, moved j by family or pecuniary considerations, select a bride whose dimensions are ro- ! ported to fall something short of those j to which their previous experiences had accustomed them, are wonted to send the " dear departed's" girdle and brace let to the parents of their too exiguous betrothed. On receipt of these articles, conveying a delicate hint that it might be expedient to make up for nature's shortcomings by some judicious treat ment, the bride's papa and mama pro. ceed to fatten her with assiduity and dispatch. P'or some weeks she leads the life of aHtrassbnrg goose, and when i she has attained tho necessary goodlv i proportions her nuptials are celebrated j to the entire satisfaction of evervliody concerned in them. A \\ niniin's Agf. A case has just been decided before the appeal court at Met/, which shows how a lady's age is a matter entirely within her own control. Fraulein Cath erine Mahl was engaged to a desirable partner to whom she had imprudently declared her ago at six years less than it really was. As soon as the moment arrived for producing the certificate of birth, she was aware that her little de ception woull bo discovered, and she feared that the match would be broken off. She, therefore, took the liberty o' altering the official document so as to make it correspond with the statement already made. Tho ceremony took place, and the hnsliand was duly united to a lady whom ho liolieved to ho qnite 1 a jeune ingenue. I'nfort.nnately the certificate, in passing throngh some of fice, Lappc.ncd to be minutely examined by one of tho clerks. The bride was charged with the offense of falsifying a publio document, and condemned to spand, if not her honeymoon, at least three of the first months other married life in prison. She had the courage to appeal from the sentence, and cause the cane to be argued out liofnro the court of Metz, which reversed tho decision of the inferior tribunal, and acquitted the lady on the ground that sho did not in tend to commit an illegal act, but had been actuated only by " female vanity..^' ►'■•► lion Nairn. Fans grow larger. Jerseys are revived. Shaded fans are much nsed. The long hasqne is moribund. Tailor-made dresses grow in faror. Long faces look best with low coif fures. Traveling costumes are made very short. Tall women should not wear high coiffures. Heliotrope is revived as a summer ■ Color in Paris. j| Chnddab squares are the favorite sum mer shawls. Very little jewelry should he worn with summer toilets. A new device for a lace pin is a cow jumping over the moon. Both high and low coiffures are woro, hot low ones are preferred. White dresses of soft, crashable silk are worn more than ever. Bage green striped tweednovelty Navy blue flannel is on the list of popular materials for traveling suits. The wide belt and suspended pocket are indispensable for a traveling outfit. Cretonne and Wattcau fans tako tho precedence of Japanese fans this sum mon Shaded grays, browns, and garnets are tho colors worn by older women this season. The fashionahlo dust eloak takes tho form of the ulster or tho Mother Hub bard cloak. 1 ltlnck velvet bracelets, fastened by , tiny buckles of old French paste, are | again fashionably worn with delicate , evening dresses. Long lace mittens in black, white, i cream, or tho colors of tho costume are worn with sleeves of short or medium i length. ! The popular halayonse is of muslin, embroidered in the designs of (,'arriek maeross lace, and is used laid flat inside the skirt. Jersey webbing, sometimes called 1 stockinet, resembles tho elastic texture of knitted work, and IH used for the new Jersey basques. Mauve-tinted Hpanish laoc bonnets ! are trimmed with short ostrich tips, 1 powdered with gold, and pale pink TOHCS 1 held by large gold buckles set with ' pearls. The designs of some of the new bro- | caded gauzes, which come in colors of , lilac, ciel-blne, corn and sea-shell pink, , are outlined with fine threads of silver and gold. Spanish jewelry showing large leaves j and (lowers tinted in colors of palo pink ] and emerald green nnd studded with fine sparkling gems is just now : n great ( demand. Tho small old-fashioned shawls of white china crape embroidered with ' heavy silk flo s in each corner, and I ' edged with white nettled silk fringe, I are again in vogue. 1 Pretty breakfast caps are comjiosed of small squares of mull, edged with lace rn files. Beige, kersey, chevoit, flannels nnd i lady cloths arc all nsed for traveling costume*. A novelty for 1 >ot)net strings is tubular riblwn, woven double without anv visi ble seam. Shoulder capes and large mantles of net chenille are the wraps of h'gh crc monv for summer wear. The most fashionable low coiffure is broad, describing a figure* horizontally in the nn]>c of the neck. The Ways of Harbors. To any one who is familiar with the barber shops of some cf the European j countries the difference in manner must > seem odd. The Parisian barber, though j perhaps a trifio morn civil than the j American or Americanized, is still very j quick and curt in his ways, just as the Parisian waiter is; and in the huge' barber shops of London, conducted on ! a mammoth scale which is unknown hero—such as the establishment in j Tichliorne street, employing in various ! seasons of the year fro v. 'hirty to sixty | men ('hesterftchlian manners are i hardly to be expected. But the Ocr j man, Austrian and Italian shops afford ! amusing oontresl i loffcowof RrYork. I What American who has been in Cier- i \ many has not been diverted by the : reverent attitndo of the I>arler and by i the profound bow and " obedient ser- I vant " (gehorsamer dienert with which he signalizes tho conclusion of his task ? The insinuating, persuasive ways of Italian "artists" and tlm delightful ingenuity with which they "stick" | foreigners with all sorts of costly and useless toilet articles at absurd prices ' are known to every traveler. But perhaps tonsorial suavity reaches its snblimest heights in the two gay Aus trian capitals, Vienna and l'esth. There, as the customer enters, instead of meet ing with a silent and indifferent stare, and a rude, loud " Next!" shouted out l in a stentorian tone, perfect chorus of i soft and subdued voices greets him with 1 a cheerful "Gntcn nr.orgen, ergbenster dienert" (Most devoted servant), and " Meine hoehachting!" (My highest osteem). It is inexpressibly comical to , hear the knights of the razor mechani cally sing out all together these three j exclamations one after another as if ; they had learned them by note, and to I hear tho similar chorus of ejaculations nttered in the same sing-song, mechani cal voice at the enstomer's exit of "Meine complimente!" (My compli ments!) " leh babe die ehrc!" ff have the honor!) " Ich empfehlo mich !" (I commend myself!) etc , to all of which the lofty client only responds with a short " Gntcn tag" or a slight touch of the hat. The ineffable and silent con tempt with which the aristocra ic offi cer, glittering with gold braid and liv ing on 820 a month, clinks his silver spurs as ho enters and leaves (.ho shop without deigning even a nod or reply to all this ontbnrat of extravagant civil ity, affords a striking illustration of the continental manner of treating the luck less operator on .hirsute china.—AW 1 ark IfuraicL ' * 'W -d 4ft '* & ASSASSIN ATI O.N OF RULERS. I A 111*1 orlm I l(cmiiitic of Sun•••*•!uI nnf I n mu-<(*■ iil \ Illicit* oil I,III*. It is a curious fact that no king of England or emporor of (lerrnany has ever fallen a victim to an assassin, al though several attempts have been made ' on tho present monurchs of these coun- £ tries. There are murders enough of a very brutal sort on record in English history of both actual occupants of the * throne and heirs to it, but they were all done openly before the world, as if tho ' perpetrators scorned to conceal their ' deeds, or as if they felt that they had ' the right to perform summary execu tion. Tho only cuso in English history in which the really guilty party sought concealment is the murder of tho two young princes in the Tower of London, the circumstances of which have been ' told to every visitor. Several popes 4 have fallen victims to the daggers of 1 assassins, and Henry of Navarre, one of France's ablest monurchs, met the same A fate. Tho killing of Murut by Charlotte 1 (lourday was also an assassination in the ' true sense of the word. Russia has the ' longest record of crimes to show so far, 1 but the United States seems to be in a 1 fair way of taking at least an undisputed !! second place. The attempts at assassins-' f tion havo been parti* e.L '• numerous ' during tho past third of u< > ntnrv, or ' since the use of firearms and the scicn- : * title use of gunpowder have been per- j' fectcd. A list of these, successful and ' unsuccessful, is at this time particularly ' f interesting: j 1 I*l*-November 2b The life of the j * Duke of Modena was attempted. IRPJ—Inno 21—The Crown Prince of Prussia was nttaek'sl at Minden. I*sl May 22 Hefoloque, a workman, ' shot at Frederick William IV., Ling of ' Prussia, and broke his forearm. 1850 June 2s—Eol>ert Pate, an f Austria was grievously wounded in the heal while walking on the rampart iat Vienna by a Hungarian ' tailor named Libzens. 1859—April lb—An attempt on the life of Victor Emmanuel was reported to the Italian Chamber. Ihs3 July s—An attempt was male to kill Napoleon 111. as he was entering the Opera Comiqtio. 1855—March 20— Ferdinand Charles 111., I)tike of Farma, was killed by n unknown man, who stabbed him in the abdomen. IRss—April 2* Napoleon 111. was fired on at the Champs Elysees by Gio vanna Pianeri. I*so—April 28—Raymond Fnentes was arrcHtod in the act of firing on Isa bella, queen of Spain. )s.V. December B—Ago*ila* Milano, a soldier, stabbed Ferdinand 111. of i Naples, with his bayonet. 1857 August 7—Napoleon 111. again. Itarcnletti, (ribaldi and Grille were -.on ! tenced to death for coming from Lon | don to assassinate him. I*s*- January It Napoleon 111. for the fifth time, i tr-ini and his associates j threw fulminating bombs at him as lie was on his way to tho opera. l*iil- July 14—King William of Prussia was for the first time shot nt by Oscar Decker, a student, at Raden -1 Had en. Reeker fired twice at him bnt j [ missed him. 1802—December 18—A student named Dossios tired a pistol at I AmaliA, of Greece (Princess of ohlen nrg), at Athens. 1863 —December 21—Four more con spirAtors from London Against the life of Napoleon 111. were arrested at Paris. 1865—April II President Lincoln was shot by J. Wilkes Rootb. lHbfi—April 6—A Russian named j Kavarsoff attempted Czar Alexander's life at St. Petersburg. He was foiled by a peasant, who was ennobled for the deed. 1867—The czxr's life was again at- I tempted on Jnno f>, during the great cx ! position, at a review.injthe Roisde Bon ! logne, at Paris. 18(17—Jnno 19—Maximilian shot. 1868—Juno I(l—Prince Michael, of j Serbia, was killed by the brothers Rad ; warowiteh. 1871—The life of Arnadens, then | newly king of Spain, was attempted. 1872 —August—Colonel Outieriez as sassinated President Ilalta, of tho re public of Pern. I*73—January 1 President Morales, of Bolivia, was assassinated. 1875 August President Garcia Mieno, of Ecuador, was assassinated. 1876 —Sultan Abdnl-Aziz killed in his I*l ace by order of bis ministers, June 5, 1877—.1nn0 -President Gill, of I'ara gnav, was assassinated by Commodore Molas. 1878— May 11—The Emperor William, of Germany, was shot at again, this time by Emilo Henri Max iloedel, alias Lchmann, the Socialist. Lehmann fired three shots at the emperor, who was re turning from a drive with the Grand Dnchaas of Baden, bnt miaaed him. 1878—June 2—Emperor William shot at by Dr. Nobling while out riding. Mo received about thirty small shot in tho nock anil faro. 187'J April 14—Attempted assassin ation of tho czar at Ht. Petersburg by one Holojew. Ho was executed May 9. 1879—December I—The assassination of tho czar attempted by a mine under a train near Moscow. 1879--December 90—Tho king of Hpain was shot at whilo driving with jho quoon. 1880—February 17—Attempt to kill tho royal family of Russia by blowing up tho Winter palace. Fight soldiers wore killed and forty-flvo wounded. IHBI March 19 The Czar Alexander 11., killed by a bomb. How to Catch a Polar Hoar. " I do so pity those men on tho Rodgers," remarked Mrs. Mux, passing tho Major tho honey, which he always insisted upon having with his rice cakes. "Yes, indeed,"replied the Mujor, who was a trifle cynical that morning, hav ing burned his mouth with coffee. "Yes, indeed, my dear, the life of an Arctic explorer must bo hard. They are so isolated from the world. Just imagine, if you can, the horror of living for three years out of tho dust and wind and fog and rain of our gloriouß climate; of not meeting all that time the man at your club who thinks the oftener a story is told the better it is; o' being without the consolation afforded you by the busted stock operator who knows you are glad of an opportunity to lend him a twenty; of being where millinery and Japanese decoration stores do not daily entrap one's wife; of Is-ing—" "Why, Major, how you do talk! I was only thinking of the horrid things the Rodgers' crew will have to do to get their bear steaks." "How's that?" asked the Major, in stantly interested over the object of steaks, which he holds of milch greater importance than the Irish land troubles. " What 1 know alsmt it," resumed 51rs. Max, " I read in a fashion paper, and it ought to be true." "It certainly ought to be, Mrs. Max, if only on account of its old age." "Well, the article said," continued Mr.. Max, pretending to ignore the Ma jor's slur on her favorite reading, "that Arctic explorers, when they want to kill a polar lu*r, plant a big knile in the ice with the blade sticking up. They daub the blade with blood, and the bear comes along and licks it and cuts his tongue. It is so cold that ho don't feel the cut, but, tasting his own blood, continues to lick the knife until his tongue is all frayed, and lie bleeds to death. Isn't it dreadful!" " (,uict your fears, my dear," said the Major when his wife had finished "That is the way they killed the bear when that story was first published, but in the la-t twenty years an improvement has Wen made, which I will tell you abo.it, if you will kindly give me just a drop more of coffee, with cold milk, this time. Tho tray the thing is done now is as follows; When Captain Berry, of the Rodgers, wants a polar bear for dinner, he gives a midshipman a copper Ihsl spring and a chunk of salt pork. Tho midshipman compresses the spring perfectly fiat, wrapping the pork around it tight, and holds it so until it freeze* •olid. Then the frozen pork, stuffed with the 1 >od spring, is thrown out to the nearest iceberg, win re it i* prompt ly swallowed bv a polar bear. When the heat of the War's stomach thaws ont the pork it releases the spring, which flies ont, and the War soon dies from a pain in his side." "Major," said Mrs. Max, with ranch warmth, "I don't Wlievethat story is true." " So, my dear, and yon won't, until, j in a few years, yon see it in some fash- ! ion paj>er, and then yon will swear by it." Flower Farming. All the natural scents now nied in this country are imported st high prices, but within a year the cultivation of flowers for perfumery has been started in Hants Barbara and Alameda counties, California, and as the climate of that (State is well adapted to the raising of flowers, there is a good prospect that a large share of the scents consumed in this country will soon W produced at home. In Europe 150,000 gallons of handkerchief |>erfnme are annually dis tilled. The profits of flower farming in some portions of the Old World are shown in the following figures: An acre of jaamino plants, 80,000 in numWr, will produce 5,060 jmnnds of flowers, valued at 81,250; au acre of rose trees, 10,000 in numWr, will yield 2,000 pounds of flowers, worth $975; :t0() orange trees growing on an acre will yield, at ten years of age, 2,000 pounds of flowers, valued at 8220; an acre of violets, pro ducing 1,600 pounds of flowers, is worth $800; an sere of acacia trees of HBO will, at three years of age, yield iKKI pounds of flowers, worth $450; an acre of geranium plants will yield some thing over 2,000 ounces of distilled attar worth 84,000; an acre of lavender, giving over 9,500 ponnds of flowers for distil lation, will yield a value of 81,500. Burglars are evidently great rail road speculators, because we always hear of somebody being on their track TOPICS OF THE OA V. Yusif Arbeely, who, with his wife and six sons, came to this country from Da mascus, Hyria, nearly three years ago, is delighted with the change. He ex plains that more of his countrymen do not follow his example because the Turkish government not only discour ages emigration but takes measures to prevent it. The United States geological corps has in charge the first census of the Indians ever taken in this country. The work was to be made an imjwrtant part of the present census and was placed in charge of Major Powell of the survey. The work was to be accomplished under ♦he direction of special agents, four in number, sent out by Major Powell. The work has been in progress nearly u year, and it will take fully a year longer to complete it. Horsewhipping is an expensive luxury in England. A noble marquis has been flned"s2,soo and costs and bound over to koep the pcacojfor a year for lashing another noble lord, who had been so inconsiderate and imprudent as to alxluct the noble marquis' wife. Two of the noble marquis' friends who took undue interest in the sport were also fined. In fact everybody concerned seems to have been heavily mulcted except the noble lordwhogot the noble lady into trouble. Anjinh resting contribution to the lit <• nit ure of Nuieidc in in ail e in a pam ]>hlet recently published in Rerlin. Tile suicidal mania i spreading HO rapidly in the Herman capital that the authori tieK are earnestly considering in what manner it cr.n best be checked. The pamphlet above referred to states that in the years from 1875 to 187*, 2sO oases of suicide were registered JUT million inhabitants in Rerlin, 285 in Vienna, ■l5O in Lcipsic and only eighty-five in Ixmdon. I'ariH, with 400 suicides, nenr ly appr oache e* startlingjfigure of L/eipsio. Tlie dejiartment of agriculture at Washington from July 1, 1877, to June .'to, 188], incln ivi , h.v "published 7,17 '. PAGCH of 1 IOOWH and pamphlet*, more or less valuable. The numlx r of these printed was 2,368,525, and the total jsige* printed were H58,381,t;75. Taking the population of the United States at 50,000,000, here ate nearly eighteen pages of ]irint<-d information for every man, woman and child in the land. Nor is this all. The department during the same period has distributed 4.4'!2, s 7h package* of seeds and 073,832 valuable plant*. Archer, the jockey who won the I>erby for Lorillard, is quite aln ln 187i lie is said to SPo.OOO profession ally. he won 172 races ; in 1870 07; in 1877, 218 ; in n I H 7J, 107 : and in lsso, ts pelted like a prima donna, and is the companion of sporting lords, lb- travels from one race meeting to another in a first-class carriage, has only to ride his appointed horse, and keeps a valet to assist him in changing his dr. s. His yearly income is gn at< r than that of a prime m ini tor. A patriotic correspondent quotes the old statement thaiVuecn Victoria is the | only sovereign on whose dominions the sun never seta, and patriotically pro j ceeds to show that the sun never rets on the j>n*°essions of the United Btatea; that when the sun is alssnt expiring on i the confines of Rohring' sea it is already learning brightly in Maine and in the i-astern part of that State is an hour high. From the farthest eastern part of onr country, at Hast port, Maine, to the farthest end of the Aleutian isles the distance is 197 dogTcosof longitude, or seventeen more than half way around the glolie. The arrivals of cmigra ,ta at Castle Garden, X<-w York, during the tlrst half of this year have lteen unprocedentodly large. The total arrivals since January 1 have Wn2H,925-*n increase of 00,- 00° over the same period last year. The re nationalities represented by ll vrp: Germany, 24,142 r*. <• a. t ; Sweden, 7,2tP.; I'.ngland, 5,(160 ; .i istna, 11,300 ; Nor way, 2,005 ; Scotland, 2,007 ; Switrer land, 1,405 ; Italy, 1,239; Denmark, 1,159 ; Holland, 1,135 ; I\>land, 021 ; Rnssia, 004; Hohomia, 515; France, 800; Hnngary, 305; Belgium, 130; Wales, 84 ; Spain, 27 ; other countries, 03. Following arc some interesting and instructive figures given in connection with the workings of the United States postoflloe departmont: One letter ont of every 300 sent in unclaimed in the office to which it givn. One letter in 'iH3 rent, turns up at the dead letter of fice. One letter ont of every 3,100 sent in held for pontage at the office of mail ing -and thin amounta to near 300,000 in a year. More than '200,000 lot tern every year are insufficiently addroaned. Ten thousand lettera thin year bear no superscription whatever, and these let tern often contain remittances of great value, More than 200,000 foreign let ters fail to reach the perwon* to whon they arc idilmwed. An astronomer nay a that the earth mersons escaped alive, and of these forty were more or less seriously injured, many fatally. Efforts to rescue the imprisoned victims were useless, and the dead and living were consumed by the remorseless flames before the eyes of the survivors. The bridge was not only weakened by recent floods, but seema to have been irnj*rfeetly constructed by incompetent Mexican engineers. No such casualty ha* ever Is-fore occurred in Mexico, and the effect njon the ignorant and snj er stitious people undoubtedly will lorted from Turin, mixed with printing ink, renders the letters luminous iti the dark. A daily paper is to be published there with the luminous ink. The crow is the most inveterate enemy of the singing birds of New England. Bobbins, plovers, larks, and nearly all the birds of smaller site, fail vieti ms to his ravenous appetite. Thcro is little or nothing known with certainty in regard to the inrention of glass. Home of the oldest specimens are Egyptian, and are traced to abont 1,500 before Christ (by some 2,.'100 B. C.) Transparent glass ia Wlieved to have been first used abont 750 before the Christian era. The credit of the in vention was given by the ancients to the Phir-nicians. The story ia a familiar one, of the Phoenician merchants who rested their rooking pots on blocks of natron (snh-cerhonato of soda), avl found glass produced by the union, 1 a der heat of the alkali and the sand'on the shore. A witty New York society woman was standing before Kola's greatly admired picture of Is* and his daughters, which was on eshibitioo in an art store on Fifth avenue. "Oh T remarked a friend. I dolorously, "what do you suppose Lo* i thought when he beheld his poor wife turned to a pillar of naltr "I suppose," > | replied our wit, with admirable gravity, "he thought how he eonld get him- II self—e fresh one."