Three Burdens. Tho burden of T.ife. Hours of pain, Strong struggles for victories vain. Dull doom of dust to dust again. A ship of insecurity On stormy ses. The burden of Ixivo. A bright moru, That looks its loveliest at its dawn. Ah, better had it ne'er been l*>ni! For soon drive mists of misery O'er darkened sea. The burden of Christ Winding tears, A longing and love through long years; A firm, faithful front to ail fears - Then glorious eternity Of golden sea. Uaxl Word*. THE EKLHORN AFFAIR. Odr special <*r respondent forwards, us au account of the strango affair at Elkhorn on the night of the 28th. Of oonrso wo do not vouch for the truth of the story. The affidavits of tho par ties concerned are appended, and our readera are at liberty to draw their own conclusions. It will bo remembered that the west bound expross on the N. W. and A road providentially escaped destruction at Elkhorn creek, the trestle bridge having been wrecked by the storm. The train was due at the bridge at twenty minutes past twelve. At ten minutes past twelve the eastern freight train passed over it in safety* Thus the bridge must have been wrecked during the interval of ten minnt"B, with so little warning that the track-walker had not yet discovered the catastrophe when the midnight ex press passed his caboose. Tho track-man swears that when the train passed his house, which was a quarter of a mile down the road, the bridge light was burning white, which was the safety signal. The next in stant, hearing the engineer blow "down brakes," he ran np the track and saw the rid light showing. The light is set upon an iron frame, and the mechanism which turns it is secured in n box at tbe foot, which is kept locked. There is no poesitde way by which the light can be turned ex cept by the machirery, and the track man states upon oath that the box was fastened and the key in his pocket at the time. Ho further states that when he reached tbo signal, which he did in less than two minutes, the light was then showing white as before, the door still locked and exhibiting no trace of tam pering. In these statements he is borne out by the affidavits of the conductor, the engineer and the fireman. The story which the two last-named tell is so remarkable that it is ap pended below in full. The incident has occasioned much excitement, and onr correspondent did his utmost to get I at the truth of the matter. He was un able to interview the engineer, who i was absent on his wedding trip, having, i since his fortunate escape, resigned his position for a safer occupation, and married the woman of his choice. The fireman, however, was found, and was induced to make a statement, which we print in nearly his own words, as follows: "If it wasn't that people have beeu doing Dave Garnet grosi injustice in their reports of his action in this mst tr, I should refuse to utter a word. I am a plain man, and don't care to be thought a fool or a litr. But lam not the one to hear a friend slandertd with out saying a word in bis defense. "On the night of the 28th it was storming hard when we pulled ont of tho depot. The rain frozo fast to every thing it touched. Old heads like Dsve and I know what that means. At every •tart and np every hard grade your wheels are going to slide arbund on the icy trscks, and the engine is going to rack boraelf all to pieces—that is, if you don't sand her well. Band, yon see, gives the drivers a grip on the rails, and after the old girl gets started she can generally take care of herself. I filled the sand box before we started and pnt an extra bag in the cab in case of emer gency. "It VM Just after the holiday*, and the sixteen cars behind as were packed fall. The road *u in a bad state; snch a storm I hope never to see again. Tbo wind roared aror.n l as so that we oonld scarcely hear car own whistle. The rain poured doan in a flood atd became a sheet of ice as it felL " We conld not keep tho front win dows of the cab shot for a moment, for the ioe made a dense onrtain over them. We bad to let it rain and blow in upon as as it would ; for we bad to keep a bright eye upon the signal lights, moat of which looked like pale biota on the mist. "We went the first twenty miles without speaking to each other. An engineer may ran so engine hi* life time, and yet he never opens hie valves withoit a f-sling of anxiety. What with the storm and the heavy rain, neither of as fared to thick of mack be sides our own duties. " Bat Dave u unnaturally solemn, even for such a time. I oould aee hia face in the light of the steam-gauge lamp. It wan pale and anxious an I never saw it before. " 'What'a the matter, Dave?' J said. " lie turned and looked at mo like a man in a dream. " 'lt ia a fearful night,' he answered, after a while. ' Hoar the old machine groan and complain like a sick woman. Sho knows she's in danger, I verily be lieve. I wish the trip was over, Jim!' " 'Why, so do I," I itaid, for to tall the truth I was unaccountably depressed myself. 'But, so far, everything is all right.' "'Yes,'ho answered, 'so far. But I have a kind of presentiment that wo are going to have trouble before we are done with it. I have been thinking of Mary, too, for the past half-hour.' " 'A very good subject to think of,' I said, laughing. "'Don't joke, Jim,' he replied, sol emnly. 'lt's a serious thing to think that with the fulfillment of a man's hopes of happiness only two days otT, ho is liable to be hurled into eternity any minute.' " 'lt's a reaction,' I said. 'You have been too happy and too excited wjth thinking of your wedding and all that, and now, what with the cold and the rain, you are looking at the darker side of the matter.' " 'Maybe,' ho said, then he uttered a loud cry: 'Great Godl look I look!' " Ho was pointing out of the window with a trembling finger, his face as wh.tc as death. I followed the direc tion in which be pointed, and—how shall I describe what he saw ? ' I was well acquainted with Mary Warren, the girl Dave was going to marry in two days. She and I wore old friends, and if it had not boon for Dave's better education and fine figure, we might—but that is nothing to the point. As sorely as I see you before me now, I saw Mary Warren then. "The steam was pouring in a thick white cloud out of the stack, some times shutting out our view of the track ahead. The headlight made a sort of reflection upon it like the sun in a fog, and there, right in the center of the misty glow, I saw the figore of Mary Warren. "We were going at top speed, but the shape glided along liko a shadow, always hanging in the midst of the steam. "The strongest part of it was that, while (he looked like a real living woman, suspended in the steaui, I conld plainly see the glow of tbo headlight through her figure. " She appeared to be looking fixedly at Dave, with a wild expression of ter ror, and kept wringing her hands and waving them toward ns, as if she wanted as to stop. " For the space of half a minute we j >K>th (tared at the shape, dumb and breathless ; then the steam dispersed and the figure was gone. The whole thing was like the stereopticon views of men and animals which they show yon reflected on smoke, and it disappeared exactly the same. " Whin it was gone Dave slowly turned and looked at me with a terrible expression in his face. "' Marv is dead,' he muttered : 'that was her spirit come "to bid me fare well.* • 'No,' cried I—'no, Dave. If it was Mary at all, she came to warn yon of danger ahead. Hbe -es you well j enough to be able to come out of her body to save you. Cheer up, old boy, and keep a bright lookout.' " Whether Dave took my view of the myatery or not, he kept very quiet, with his band upon the bar and his eye on the track ahead. " Nothing happened for the next honr to alarm us ; nor did the spectral shape appear again. Just before r< ach ing Elkhorn bridge there is a nasty curve in the road, and you are almost on the bridge before you can see it It was here I expected trouble, if any were to come. Evidently Dave was of my mind, for, as we turned the curve and 1 leaned out to catch sight of the bridge light, he said, in a low tone : "'What is it, Jim?' " 'White,' said I. "Even as I said the words we both uttered a cry. Driving right before us, like a cloud of steem, we again saw the figure of Mary Warren. This time she seemed to move rapidly ahead of ns, and disappear near the bridge light, which suddenly turned red. "Engineers are like the enginee they manage; pull certain liars and tbey start, shnt certain valvee and they stop. When we saw that danger signal, terri* fled and unnerved as we were, we did onrdnty as naturally aa if wholly at our ease. "When we first saw the red light we were within two hundred yards of the bridge. It the road bed been dry we conld bare stopped in tbst distance, Bnt though we blew brakes and re versed the drivers the train seemed to more on almost as rapidly as before. Dare and I exchanged looks. " 'lt's all over,' said he, 'We'll stick by her, Jim P i " 'Of oonrse,' said L "I take this much credit to myself. I could have jumped and telt pretty sure of saving myself, but I did not once think of it. Nor dhl Dave. lie reached over with one band on the bar and grasped mine with the other. "'Good-bye, old man!' " 'Uood-bve, Dave. God bless you!' "The seconds that followed seemed like hours. We could feel the engine jump and shake as tho reversed wheels revolved furiously under her. Still wo slid on, though more slowly now. I conld see where the bridge had been, the broken beams and the dark water rolling between. " Nearer, nearer to that horrible gulf which seemed to yuwn for us and onr living freight. I could see the bright light glaring down at us with its blocdy eye ncd not a soul near it. " The wheels turned faster, the jar was heavier. Wo staggered like drunken men with tho shock. Every now and then the drivers seemed to catch hold of the track and the engine would bonnd like a spurn d horse. We were going so slowly now that we could almost have stepped off; yet we slid on, and now there was not fifty feet between us and death. I "Blower and slower we moved, and then, just as our forward trucks touched tho broken beams of tho bridge, we stopped. I looked up and saw that the signal light was white again, bat I was so grateful, nervens and altogether so shakeu, that I thought nothing of it. "We conld gather nothing from Mary Warren herself, exoept that she had an indistinct recollection of a dream, in which Dave seemed to bo in great danger, which she was trying to avert. This is the story, sir. I offer no explanation of it. It may lie that onr souls can louvo our bodies to watch over those wc love. I believe it. And I believe, too, that I owe my life to Mar Warren's love for Dave Garnet." Arsenal in the Vor!d. The groatost manufactory and store house of cannons and war materials i* Woolwich araenal, England. It hat within it-, iuclosnre two hundred and eighty acre* of land, of which some one hundred and sizt/ acres are covered with lmildinga. When in full operation it employs eighteen thousand person*. The amount of ammunition stored there is immense, and cannon can l>e counted br the hundred. In the storehouse a stock of twenty thousand cavalry sad dles are kept constantly on hand, with a corresponding amount of horseshoes, nails, hslters, tract, collars, harnesses for transportation trains, etc. One o' the most interesting sights is the manu facture of rifled cannon, the very pro cesses of which are going on in dif ferent shops all the time. Those range in siee from threv-poun lers tj one hundred tonners, and the machinery re quired to make aDd handlo them is very heavy, the largest forging ham mers having six hundred tons force. Ths steel coils of the cannou are made fiom steel liars, the largost of which are three hundred feet long and one foot thick. These are coiled in a spiral by a heavy bnt nicely-working machine, and are welded together by the hesry hammer* as perfectly as an ordinary piece of iron in a blacksmith's shop, and with comparatively few blows. The machinery used is some of the l*tt in the country, and much of it was made in Manchester. One lathe-room has over an acre of space, closely filled in with two thousand lathes, and a busy sight it is to see them all in motion. One machine for the manufacture of fixed ammunition turns out two hundred cartridge molds every revolution, and has the capacity of two hundred and fifty thousand daily. The several shops and buildings are connected with rail ways for moving material. These ag gregate a great many miles. Fishing iu i torn-Flc-hl. Id Colorado ia a ten-acre field, which it do more nor less than a subtersnnean lake covered with soil about eighteen inchea deep. On the soil ia cultivated a field of corn, which produce* thirty bushels to the acre. If any one will take the tronble to dig a hole the depth of a epade-handle he will find it to fill with water, and by timing a hook and line flah (oar or five incboa long may be caaghi. The flah have neither | acalea nor eyes and are perch-like in 1 shape. The ground i a black marl in 1 nature, and in all probability was at one time an open body of water, on which accumulated vegetable matter, which has been increased from time to time until now it baa a crust suffi ciently strong and rich to produce fine < orn, although it has to be cultivated by hand, aa it ia not strong enough to bear the weight of a bone. While harvesting the bands catch strings of fish by making holes through the earth. A person rifling on his heal and ooming down suddenly can see the growing corn shsko all around him. Any ona having suflleient strength to drives rail through the cruet will find on releasing it that it will disappear altogether. Strange, isn't it, (ha*, notwithstand ing the immense crop made there, that ice is always high at the North pole ? CLIPPINGS FOR TIIF fURIOrts. Elephants always disturb the water before they drink. The albatross, the largest of sou birds, flies with tho velocity of 100 miles an hour. As late as the time of James I. the disposal of the hand of s young orphan heiress lay with the king. It is estimate 1 that there are at least ten brakemen killed throughout tho United States in a single day. • An earthen projectile has been suc cessfully used in pigeon shooting as a substitute for the living birds. The blast furnace is supposed to have been first used in Belgium and been in troduced into England in 155 H. In one hand of a corpse the Lap landers place some money to pay the fee of the porter at tho gate of Para dise. Bnffon said that a pair of herrings, if undisturbed, would produce in twenty years a bulk of herrings the sixo of the globe. By the law of King Etbelbort, for breaking a man's front tooth the fine was six shilling for a molar one and a canine, six. Notwithstanding England's indebted ness to her mechanics, but one working man has ever been buried in West minster Abbey ; this wss Grslium. the clockmsker. In New Zealand are frequently found the bones of those large, wingless birds, called by the aborigines " moa " The largest representative known was ten and one half feet high. To make shoe-pegs enongh for Ameri can use consumes annually 100,(XX) cords of timber; t; make Inciter matches, 800,000 cubic feet of the best pine are required every year. The total area of land available for wheat culture in the United Htates is not lees than 470,000,000 acres. The entire wheat crop for one year would not suffice to sow so vast an area. The Emperor Augustus was so pleased by a cure effected on himself by his doctor, Autonius Musa, that he raised him to the rank of knight and relieved the whole profession from taxation The ancient Hindoos, attaching no importance to events, had no reliable chronology. The only date of which there is any certainity is that of King C'bandragnpta,contemporary with Alex ander, reigning 315 I). C. Among the Aranragian* in Chili,when a young man thinks of marriage, he go' s to his friends, and if ho is poor they make a contribution toward bis expenses. One gives a fat ox, another a horse and another a pair of silver spurs. The eroton aqueduct of New York surpasses all modern constructions of this kind in extent aDd magnificence. It wa constructed in IM2, having been five years in building, under tbo super intendence of Mr. John B. Jorvis, chief engineer. The whole expense, includ ing $ 1 ,HQO,OOO for distributing pipes and amounts paid for rights-of-way and other incidental charges, was 810,275,- 000. Including interest and commis sion, whole cost was $12,600,000. The whole length, from it* source at Oroton river to the distributing rcaervoir at Fifth avenue and Fortieth street, is forty and a half miles. The Newspaper Pre**. The wealth of newspaper literstnre is purely tho possession of civilisation, but it is astonishing to contemplate the enormous number of people in the world to whom a newspaper must bo as rare aa an Arisona diamond. Recently published statistics ahow that while tho circulation of newspapers throughout the world aggregstes the enormous number of over 10,000,000,- 000. it only averages six and a half copies per year to each inhabitant of the globe. This is assuming that only 1 one paper goes to each purchaser, but since it ia no uncommon thing for one , man to buy several, the proportion of theme who never buy one is greatly increased. Europe publishes 10,537, while this wonderful section of the world classed as "North America" in the statistics follows with 12,400. The whole of Asia can only show 775, a contrast the more striking beside the benighted South America, which runs cloaa upon that vast continent, with 090. Africa lags behind with only 182, the modern settlements of Australasia in its limited aiea owning 601. Dividing them into languages there ara 16.500 printed in the English lan guage, 7,850 in Garnun, 8.850 in French and 1,000 in Spanish. The an nual aggregate circulation in the United States is 8,000,000,000, as compared with 2.200,000,000 in Great Britain and Ire land, giving na the position of being the most voracious devonrers of news paper literature in the worML—JFvw York 7rtaJL Satin-wood is a species of the ffklo rosy lon strut?nit, a native of tha East Indies. The wood receive! its name from its silky aspect. It ia very oloae gra*ned, haevy and durable. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. Professor Bcblager, of Vienna, in re sponsible for the statement that bin® light bM a quieting and soothing influ ence on the insane. The qnantity of alcohol containod in rain, snow and sea water may be esti mated from one to several millionths. Gold water and melted snow contain a greater proportion then tepid waters. Water is not the only substance which expands in solidifying; tin, r.inc, bismuth, antimony, iron and copper exhibit the same property. With lead and cadmium the results are indecisive. Goal tar products lrave been utilised in tho production of artificial indigo. This is a great chemical triumph, but it is impossible to say whether the new product will supplant the natural dye. Celluloid is a combination formed by mixing gun-cotton and camphor, and may be made to imitate tortoise shell, coral, ebony and tnrquoiso, although dangerous in domestic use from its combustible nature. Erioson's torpedo boat destroyer will carry 350 pounds of dynamite—enough to destroy the largest iron-clad. The gun sending it, which is discharged by electricity, has s force sufficient to cxrry the projectile from .MX) to J7OO feet through the water. Last snmmer, says tho Jourwti • f •Science, some common hive bees built a comb against the Hat wall of a house in Dorsetshire, England. A few piecs of the comb were exhibited at the No vember meeting of tLo Entomological society, London, and they had evidently contained bee grabs. This is an unex ampled departure from the habits of the species. The number of varieties of insects is vastly greater than that of all other living creatures. The osk supports 450 species of insects, and 200 are found in the pine. Hnmbohlt, in I*4o, calculated that between 150,000 and 170,(XX) specimen* were preserved in collections, but recent estimates place the present number st about 750,000 distinct species. Ili.tanee* in Siberia. A writer on .Siberia in Frn*r's Maga *nt says: Few have an idea of the dimension* of that enorm• Market In a ttriirr f.'aaAlilon. Mr. Alfred D. Tingley.of the Humane L.ivo Htock EiprMt compuij, New York, has invented a oheme which he thinks will pat a stop to the present inhuman system of sending cattle long distances without food or water, and slaughtering them while in that unfit condition caused by this treatment. Formerly ho invented a feed car, which was tried, but was not a success. The grain and water were placed- on the roof, and passed down pipes when re quired; but the troughs in the crowded cattle-cars got dirty, and the animals refused to est out of them. An attempt was then made to substitute oars wit h compartments, so as to keep the cattle separate, >qt this rendered the cars un fit for any other purpose the return trip and was abandoned. .Mr. Tingley's present scheme is s simple one. It is to establish s num ber of " cattle restaurants " along etch line of railrotd that transports live stock. They will be 1!00 miles apart, and the cattle can be fed and watered every twelve Lours. When a train with a load of cattle on board g< ts within twenty miles of one of th'-se restaurants a telegram will be aent to the officer in charge, and when the train arrives everything will be in readiness. Great iron cups, about as large as an 1 something the shape of a good-sized kitchen pot will contain food and water, run into them through rubber pipes from tanks above. Tlw train will stop between two rows of troughs, those on one side containing water and those oil the o.bcr holding four quarts of a mixture of ground corn, oats and rut hay. Kich car will have sixteen openings on each side, all of which can be easily closed when the car, which need t>e nothing more than an ordinary cattle car such is at present used, is required for other purposes on the return trip. Into eadb of these openings s trough of food or water will lie pushed by means of a sliding t>ar U|on which it rests. It will more for wan! to the ear direct or sideways, as may be required to reach the opining, the side motion being accomplished by sliding it along another bar ext>viding the whole length of the restaurant, the bar by whicL it is pushed forward ac companying. The flexible rubber tulws through which the food aad water passes will, of course, offer no resist ance. How a Catamount wa hillri. " I don't inind telling bow 1 did it," said John Q. Smith, who recently abot a catamount near Frenchtowa, N. J., weighing twenty-ai* pound*. "Yon we. m barn i* only a short distance from a stretch of weod* which lie* be tween hero and Stockton. The other morning I went into the barn to get a robe for the wagon. My shotgun rested against the wall in the bsrneea-room. Jnat aa I went in f( r the robe, I saw a head at t be back window, which wasn't an ordinary bead. Grabbing my gun, I started around tbe barn. The animal got to the corner before I did, and jumped ont at me. 1 had no time to shoot, for tbe catamount— that'* what it wan—had it* claw* on me before 1 could do anything. I yelled like a trooper, and, revemng my gun, struck the critter on the bead with the bntt. Tbe catamount wa stunned for the moment, and >ort of let go its hold, giving me a chance to move back a few yard* and bring tbe gun to my shoulder. Jnat then my wife appeared on the scene, and I yelled to her to run and bring out a pail of hot water—the hot teat she bad. Then I tired, and bit the cuaa square between the eyas. It ought to have settled him. bnt it didn't. It only him mad, and he crunched down to jnmp on me. I dodged, and got in another blow on the animal's head, lay ing him on hi* back, bnt not killing him. My wife bad then returned with u pail of boiling hot water, and she threw it at the catamount. Fart of it scalded the animal, but the most of it struck n>(, and took tbe skin clesn off of one of my legs, from the knee down. I dsnoed around with pain, add the cata mount raised up as though he meant to show light again I gave him soother blow on the head, which settled him. This ia the first dsy I've bees oat sine*" The White HOBS* Clock. President Oartield had a great mri oeity to kaot the history at tbiag •boat the Whtto Bonw, and M there vaa DO tradition about an alabaster clock aonaouotod by a statuette of tho mnae of history, a ok ok which baa ticked in the White House time out of mind, be set Secretary Blaine to rum maging through the ancient documents of the White House. The search waa amply rewarded, disclosing aa it did that the timepiece, one of the moat beautiful in Washington, waa a present from Bonaparte to Lafayette, who gave it in turn to Washington, who deter mined that it thonid be handed down to his snoresaora in the presidential office.