Torprdo Warfare. The weapons used for under-water warfare are called "torpedoes." There are two kinds of torpedoes : those that are anchored in one place and those that swim about in the water. Of those that are anchored there are also two kinds. One kind consists of great iron boxes tilled with dynamite and sunk in the water at particular places. They rest in the mud, or on the sand or stones, till they are ready to be tired, when they blow up or explode with terrible effect; and if a ship happens to he passing over one of them she is sure to be torn to pieces. The other kind have a tloat anchored just out of sight under water,, while the torpedo rests on the bottom. ' These, too, when they explode, destroy i anything that happens to he near. There are two ways of firing these ground torpedoes; In one there is a ! wire carefully protected from the j water, leading from the torpedo to the shore. Tho soldiers in charge of it can send electricity through this wire i and set fire to the dynamite, and t HIIH | fire the torpedo. The torpedo is lost and destroyed, but tiro broken wire can be pulled ashore, and used again on another torpedo. The second method is to fasten to the torpedo a wooden j float. If one of the enemy's ships passes over such a torpedo and happens to strike and push aside tho tloat that is anchored just over it, this will also fire the torpedo, for the chain or rope that anchors the float is connected with tho torpedo, and any strain or pull on the rope discharges it. In tfiis way the ship itself may fire the torpe do, and thus become an agent of its own destruction. The swimming torpedoes are of two kinds. One of these swims like a fish, and, if it strikes its nose against a ship, explodes, and sinks the vessel by tearing a terrible hole in the bottom. Another kind can also swim, but it carries fastened to its tail a long wire which it drags through the water wherever it goes. By means of this wire, the soldier who stands at the end. on the shore, or the sailor on board ship, can make the fish turn to the right or left, dive, turn around, go backward, or come home again when it is wanted. Besides this, the fish will blow up if it strikes against the enemy's ship, or whenever the man at the wire wishes to fire it. The govern ment will not tell usjhow such a won derful thing can he done, but you may bo sure that these lish-trpedre 1 an I swimming torpe does there is another kind called spar torpedoes, so named because they are placed on th sea Is of spars or booms that run out under water froin the bows of small boats. Tne boats ruth up to the sid of the big ship, in tic dark, an I explI) the t >rp 1 under neath, thus sinking the vessel.— Ht. Nicholas. A Terj Voumr Lieutenant. The following anecdote of President Lincoln's youngest son is taken from "A Boy in the White House," by Noah Brooks, in Ht. Nicholas : One day Tad, in search of amusement, loitered into the oflioe of the secretary of war, and Mr. Stanton, for the fun of the thing, commissioned him a lieutenant of United Slates volunteers. This elated the boy so much that he went off immediately ami order-d a quantity of muskets sent to the White Huuse and then In- organized and drilled tin liouso-servants and gardeners, and, without attracting anybody's atten tion, he actually discharged the regu lar sentries alxmt the premises and ordered his unwilling recruits on duty as guards. Robert Lincoln soon discovered what hail been done, and as ho thought it a great hardship that men who had been at work all day should ie obliged to keep wat h during the night to grat ify a boyish freak, he remonstrated. But Tad would listen to nothing from hiseldt-r brother, and Robert appeab-d to Ids father, who only laughed at tne matter as a good joke. Tad soon tired,, however, of his self imposed duties and went to bed. The drafted men were quietly relieved from duty and there was no guard at the President's mansion that night, much to Mr. Lincoln's relief He never approved of the precaution of mounting guard at the White- House. While Tad sported Ids com mission as lieutenant he cut quite a military llgure. From some source lie procured a uniform suitable to hi* sup posed rank, and thus proudly attired he had himself phot 'graphed. A striking subject— The hammer. " Lady " Washington. That celebrated woman, whom our Revolutionary sires, in spite of their re publicanism, called " Lady Washing ton" was a homebody. She used to speak of her public life in New York and Philadelphia as her " lost days." She preferred tho comfort and seclu sion of Mount Vernon to the guyety and publicity as tho wife of the Presi dent. A lady who visited her there draws this pen and ink sketch of Mar tha Washington's room at her hus band's farm : "On one side sits the chambermaid, with her knitting; on the other a little colored pet, learn ing to sew. A decent-looking old woman is there, with her table and shears, cutting out the negroes winter clothes; while the good old lady direct them all, incessantly' knitting herself. She points out to me several pairs of nice stockings and gloves she has just finished, and presents me a pair half done, which she begs 1 will finish and wear for her sake." Mrs. Washington's granddaughter, Miss Nellie t'ustis, who lived with lier, was required to practice on the harpsichord four or five hours daily. Miss t'ustis being young and roinan" tie, was fund of wandering alone by moonlight in the woods of Mount Vernon. Iler grandmother thought it unsafe, and scolded the young lady un til she promised not to walk in tho woods again unless accompanied. But one night, her habit being too strong to be curbed by a promise, she was again missed and a servant was sent to recall her from her favorite wanderings. As soon as she entered the drawing room, her grandmother, seated in her great armchair, reproved her severely. Nellie admitted that she was alone, but offered no excuse for her trans ' gression. As she was leaving the room | she overheard General Washington, 1 who had been walking up and down | the room witli his hands behind him, ■ say to his wife; -• My dear, I would say no more; perhaps she was not alone." j Instantly Miss Nelly returned, and walking straight up to the general, I j said: I "Sir, you brought me up to speak the truth; and when I told grandma I was alone i hope you believe 1 was j : alone." The general, making one of his most courtly bows, replied: "My child, I beg your pardon." To think and Not to Think. Improve your time, my Ixiy. Put in every minute in hom-st hard work, j or tranquil meditation, or healthful recreation. That is all 1 ask yon to do. Oh, "you believe you'll select meditation as a profession," then, do j you? It strikes you that it is easy work to sit and think, eh? Now, my Imy, if you want something easy, yn j had much better stand and chop wood. ' it isn't easy to think. Wedon'tthink i half so much as we want to make people believe we do. In fact, we don't think nearly so much as we think we do. Busy thought and aimless idleness are often very similar in external appear- ' anre. Edison sitting Is-fore his fire- ' less forge, with his hands folded list- 1 | lessly in his lap, looking at nothing, ! may be apparently as idle, even idler, than the man perched on the end of a Cottonwood log, watching his cork bob lazily in the yellow water of a sluggish creek. But the results are in one instance the telephone and the electric light, and in the other, the ague and a soft-mouthed suekei and a rat-fish four inches long. The one dreams out mar-' velous inventions that thrill the world with wonder and multiply commercial activity, and gives them to the eager, waiting world ; or at least he sells them to Jay Gould and Jay Gould j s -lis thein to the world, and the other contracts a malarial fever and gives it to his family. It is not easy to think we waste more time than we use, aud the hours slip away so noiselessly ami easily we don't know w here they have gone.- Hurlington Hawkey*. Extraordlna j footprints. The Virginia City Chroniel • says that Professor Le Conto recently vis ited the State prison quarry at Carson. Nov., where fossil footprints were dis covered not long ago. A stream of water was introduced on the quarry floor, at tho western side, where the walls are alxjut thirty feet high, and was rewarded by more than a dozen new footprints. Coming west are the prints of the feet of a man who was apparently dragging a heavy load after Jiim through the mud. The traces are turned sideways, as if the man had sought the strongest purchase to pull along behind him his load. On the east side of the qnarry a little tunnel was run in about six feet In tbe pres ence of Professor Le Conte, and three fresh humatf footprints were disclosed. Evidently the owner of the feet was plunging through deep and thick inud, for around isvih track was forced up a I ridge several inches iu height. W '■ 0 I'KAIII.S (IF THOUGHT. If every person would be half as good as he expects lils neighbor to be what a heaven this world would be. Never be above your culling, or be afraid to appear dressed in accordance with the business you are performing. Pack your cares in as small compass as you can, so that you can carry them yourself and not let them annoy oth ers. No man is more nobly born than an other unless he is born with better abilities and a morn amiable disposi tion. The triumph of a woman lies not in the admiration of her lover, but in the respect of her husband, and that only can be gained by aconstant cultivation of those qualities which she knows ho most values. It is much easier to reconcile an enemy than to conquer him. Victory deprives him of his power, but recon ciliation of his will; and there is less danger in a will which will not hurt than in power which cannot. The power is not so apt as the will, as the will is studious to find out means. Mediocrity raised to a position bo- Fond its desert finds itself humiliated when placed beside those humbler in rank hut equal to the duties of tho office to which they were raised by merit alone. These waifs of favoritism dwindle by comparison and stoop to every suggestion of tneanncss and malice to sting their humbler but more deserving and more successful asso ciates. In the lives of the saddest of us there are bright days when we feel as if we could take the great world in our arms. Then come I lie gloomy days when the lire neither burn on our hearths nor in our hearts, and all without ami within is dismal, cold and dark. Kvery heart has Its secret sorrows which the world knows not ; and oftentimes we call a man cold i when lie is only sad. SOKNTIHU SCIIA I*S. Of the *220 asteroids now known, ; forty-one were discovered by l)r. Peters and thirty-six by I)r Palisa. It is reported that the telephone is j now in successful operation as an ex* pedient for communicating with divers engaged in difficult and dangerous work. It is observed that trees in the peach gardens of France, grafted <>n plum j stock, ripen their fruit at least ten days earlier than the same variety graftisl on a peach stock. The assertion is made that from an annual cotton crop of 6,600,000 bales simsl can be obtained to yield SIOO,- 000,000 worth of oil. It is assumed i that every 400-pound bale gi\cs 1,200 | |Hiiinils of seed. Thermometer*, like prophets, says the A ruriran have no renown in their own countries. France has adopted the thermometer of the Swede ! Celsius; (iermany, Austria and Kus -1 *ia that of the Frenchman lteauinur; 1 F.ngland and America that of the Ger i man Fahrenheit, and Sweden, discard- I ing that of her own son, is measuring heat with the thermometer of the Scotchman Leslie. African exploration is to be taken up at the point w here Livingstone laid it down, by Lieutenant Oiraud, who has sailed front Marseilles to Zanzibar as the leader of aFrench expedition. His probable route will he by the north shore of Lake Nyassa to the Cham bcze river; thence to itaoutlct in Lake Ilangweolo, which he proposes to cir cumnavigate. He proposes then to gc in canoes down the Luahaha-Congo, to its mouth in the Atlantic ocean—an ambitious programme, interesting to ill geographers. SnufMtoxre. Lord Petersham had the shelves of a favorite room completely fitted with tin ?anisters, snuff-boxes and snuff-jars. When a friend one day praised his ight-blue Sevres snuff-box hi* lord' ship said, in his dainty tip-toe sort of way: "Yes, it's a nice summer box, hut it really would not do for winter wear." Such was the extravagant foppery that distinguished the gentle men of the regency. It has been record ed of Mr. Norris, a well known snuff- Ikix collector, that he had so maiy tnixes that he never required to take a pinch twice from the same receptacle. A party of distinguished men were once comparing snuff-boxes, when it was found that one hail been made from the deck of the Victory, another from the table on which Wellington wrote the Waterloo dispatch, a third from Canova's footstool, a fourth from the sign of the Hear at Device's, be neath which Sir Thomas Lawrence be gan to paint, and so on. Orabbe's cudgel, the Slddon's desk, and, of course, the mullierry tree planted by Shakespeare, were all preserved in the form of snuff-boxee.— Jieljrama. i ' TOPICS OF THE DAY. The New York Finuwial Chronicle notes the faet that the United States government has paid of the national debt more than one thousand millions of dollars in seventeen years. The gov ernment debt was at its highest point August 31, 18(>. r . It then amounted to $2,756,000,000, On October 1, 1882, the debt of every description was only $1,044,120,22:1. General Terry is convinced from his success in working the Northern Chey enne Indians on their farms until they are self-supporting, that this is the cor rect way of disposing of the Indian . question. On three farms tho men are j manly, the women chaste, and all are i anxious that tho children shall be edu cated like the whites. He insists that i cows will do more than soldiers in civ- | illzlng the red men. lleports from South Africa tell of a financial collapse arising out of the mania for ostrich farms, which took j possession soine time ago of all sorts of members of thecommunity. Those who could not pay cash gave bills, Milch were discounted by the banks, but the lulls fell due before the feath ers were grown, and birds bought for SSOO a pair were sold for $l5O and less. Hesides ttiis, heavy sums have been lost in diamond speculations. The report of the United States commissioner of Indian affairs shows seventy-four Imarding and one hun dred and one day schools attended by Indians. The number of schools is substantially the same as a year ago, but the numlM-r of pupils shows con siderable increase. Fair progress has also been mod" in agriculture. The report shows that the work of civil izing the aborigines is making encour aging progress, and is fu l of promise. The treasury department has decided to act in accordance with the decision if the circuit court oi San Francisco re'ativo to tho right of Chinese sule jeets to visit the United Slates under the recent act of Congress. This de cision was substantially that the statute must be made harmonize with the Chinese treaty, an i that the law cannot be construed as forbidding the landing of merchants, travelers, students, etc., they not being laborers. Geological examination of the delta of the Mississippi now shows that for a distance of iilmi it .'!'*• miles there are buried forests of large trees, one over the other, with interspaces of sand. Ten distinct forest growths of this description have been observed, which it is believed must have suc ceeded each other. (If three trees, known as the bald cypress, some have liecn found over twenty-five fed in diameter, and one contained 5,7'U rings; in some instances, too, huge trees have grown over tlie stumps of others equally large. From these facts, geologists have assumed the antiquity of each forest growth at 10,000 years, or 100,000 for all. The Cincinnati Current has putlislifsl a peanut mimticr, and gives some interesting stat isties as to the cultivation of this docile fruit. Few people, says the Prinr Current, have any Idea of the extent of the peanut business or its increai* in the United States. The consumption in 1877-8 was 1,066,000 bushels, in 1878-70 it was 1,080,000 bushels, in 1870-80 it was 1,927,000 bushels, and last year 2,108,000 bus)iels. The available su|>- ply for the winter, according to Mr. Murray, the editor of the Prim Cur rent, who is a good Ju lg of peanuts, is 2,280,000, ont of which there are 130,000 bushels from Virginia, 500,000 bushels from Twines sec, and 150,000 bushels from North Carolina. The national government has won its suit against the city of Alexan dria and the Alexandria Canal company, involving the ownership of the aqueduct bridge across the I'otomac at Georgetown, I). C. In 1837 the government loaned Alexan dria $350,000 to aid in the construction of a canal. The defense was that while the money was technically a loan it was really a gift. Judge Hughes, in the circuit court at Alex andria has decided otherwise, and directed the city of Alexandria to de posit with the sivretary pf the treasury three thousand five hundred shares of the canal company's stock. The de cision amounts to a delivery of the canal and bridge to the government, and it is anticipated that t hq,bridge on which tolls are collected will be made free. i i—— i ii I * Taking all tlm world, t|i United States in 1878 hail the great est mileage of railroad in propprtion to the popu lation, having a little over twenty-one milre for each 10,000 persons. In Eu rope, Sweden led with six ami one half miles to every 10,000 of her popu lation. PERILS OF BTKEPLE-CMMBING. A Kurgir Hmrmpe of a Prnrraaloaat < II rBr Aocrndln* Tall I klanrx. "The longer you live the more you lilid out," remarked Mr. Joe Weston, the steeple eliinher, t > it number of new,paper men lately. " I had an ac cident lately which taught me soine thing. It wan a curious one. You Bee 1 was on top of St. Paul's Hpire, in Spring street. We had rigged ropes to remove the planks of the scaffold ing. The way we do that is to fasten a block to a post or tree? on the other side of the street and another to the steeple, and splice the ends of the rope together to make an endless rope of it. I had tied the last plank to the rope, and it was going down. I wore a handkerchief tied loosely around rny throat. The wind blew out an end of it and it caught on the removing rop" and wrapped around it. It was im mediately caught up, first the hand kerchief and then my tieard passing into the block. Now, if I had had an assistant in the street la-low he would have noticed the plank stop when i was caught that way, and, as he could not see anything wrong above, he would have pulled the rojsi. Then I should have been choked to death by inv handkerchief, and my beard and part of my face would have been torn off. Persons in the street Mow would have noticed, perhaps, that I was very quiet, hut they would not have sus pected that I was hanging by the nerk. "That pull stretched ine eighteen inches. As soon as I realized the trouble I reached lielow, and taking hold of a rope pulled back on it until rny handkerchief came out of the sheeve, and I dropped onto the hooks of the scaffold below. I could barely touch them with rny feet. 1 called to •Frenrhy,' who was on the other side of the steeple, and when he came around I told him how it occurred. Neither of us will wear handkerchiefs around our necks again when we ar<- about such jobs. Wi' were about 220 feet above the street." " What is the highest you have ever • limbed?" asked a bystander. "Three hundred feet. During the Centennial I was engaged to place a streamer on the top of St. Paul's church, in Fourth street. I got a mast up there aliout fifteen feet long, fVt • aed it to the big hand and a flag to it. I "ha l a truck' on top <>f the JH>IC, and I rliiiilwxl up to that and stuck a fishing pole in the truck' and stood !on the top of the mast. I was then 30" fee t abo\ e fhe pavement in Fourth street, Hy means of the fishing pole you can steady yourself anywhere you ■an stand at all, if you can < rily put your hand on something tolerably -toady. K\* nif you only touch your linger to a pole or something of that sort it will help you." •• I>o you only work in Cincinnati ?" " No, I am sent for from different ' part s of tha country around h> re. The way we have of ascending tall chim neys would interest you. We put up a ladder and 1 go up to the top, where I fasten it by a rope passes] around the chimney. In tying the rope I leave a loop in it for the liottom of the next ladder. Hy this time my assist ant lias brought another ladder up, which I pass through the loop until the Ixittom rests firmly on the first ladder. Then I walk up that lad der with the help of another rope passed around the chim ney. No matter if the lad der leans away over from the chim ney, or to either side, you must not touch it As I lift my right foot to the next rung I lift my right hand. I working the rope up. Then the left hand and foot, depending for steadi ness all the time on the rope. When I reach the foot of the laid* r I draw it close to the wall by pulling on the rope, and tie it there, Hy working the rope up so that it is higher than the top of the lalder on the opposite side of th chimney you are enabled to throw the weight of ra -h la Ider on the chimney, and any weight on the ladder is a strain on the chimney, not on the lad der lielow. " Our men, when they are new to the work, never fall. They hold on mighty tight. The only trouble we have with then is aliout the tools. They are apt to.lay them on projecting cornices, or other such tempting places, where a rope sometimes catches a heavy bar and sends it down into the stfeet. If one of those tools struck a man befow it wAmld go clean through liiin. Why, one man dr<>p|>cd a heavy chisel, with a blade two inches broad, from the latheiitai spire one day. It struck two heavy joists which were lying below, ahd tha Made passed through both tunlsc*. Where would a man have Wn If lie find stood be low. 1 * —iic/o tmtl Knquirtr, Holroke, Maw., Is tocmpl w 100 men and #100,1)00 in the manufacture of s sealskin so n< nrly like the natural fiir that a seal itself couldn't detect the I difference. Rest, Ont from the groat world's crash sad diat I Oat from the pain, and wrong, and slat ! I Hit from ambition's cruel strife; Out from the bitter r.veof life; ' Out from its honors and affairs; j Out from its horrors and its cares, Again, a child, Ist lay at rest, > i In holy peuce on his ucdher'a breast. Her gentle hand toyed in his hair; Her sweet, lierir voiec dispelled his oere; Iter b/ving eyes shed light divine; i Her very presence mode a shrine; His throbbing arteries ceased to teem; The madding world a sod, past dream; i Again, a child, he lay st rest. In holy jxsace on his mother's -'J reset. PUNGENT PARAGRAPHS. November 30— Autumn leaves. It's c.'tsy finding reasons why otheu jieojile should he patient. Hanged heads are fashionable arrionj ladies and the prize ring only. A statistician has estimated tiial courtships average three tons of coal each. In trade what article is usually COD sidered an occupying the foremost rank? Strong butter. Tliis season's vesta will furnish patches for next year's trousers. Sweet are the uses of diversity. ' And now has mine the wintry breeze And ktop{4-d as sure as fate. Tins swapping taffy unath the trees, And chinning o'er the gate. This is a hurry-cane in earnest thought the boy as the oid man rained the blows upon his shouldem with lightning rapidity. A man with a plugged half-dollar in his pocket is troubled by the pangl of conscience until he drops it in tha' contribution box at church. Lava from Vesuvius is said to make the best pavement in Europe. The i paving apjx-ars to have been a trifle overdone in the case of Pompeii and llerculancum. A fashion exchange says ; " There w ill be no change in skirts during the winter season." This will send the gaunt wolf how ling to the door uf the I jKr washerwoman. "This decorative art business is being run into the ground," quietly observed a practical farmer as he drove'down a hand-painted croquet stake for a tethering post, i Mrs. Howe* says women do not fall in love any more. This may t>e true women may me better for l>oth of 'em." These were a few of the expressions that fell from the lips of the boys as they eagerly crowded around Fogg. "Yes," said Fogg, "the Frowns have separated. I > saw Hrown kiss Mrs. B. good-bye at % the depot just now. He said he would l>e liack to-iuorrow." A Sharp est lon toth- Hi-hop. When Bishop Whitaker was in Can delaria, Xev„ he took a stroll in the outskirts of the camp with a party of ladies and godly gentlemen. A man was seen laboriously turning a wind lass which hoisted from a shaft a bucket filled with rock The only thing remarkable about the man at the I windlass was his hat, the crown of | which was cut clcsn off. allowing the j hot sun to pour down upon a perfectly Uald head, some waggish friend hav recommended this arrangement as sure to produce a crop of hair. | The bishop and his party stood watching the man toiling and grunting at his heavy labor for several minutes, and the kind hearted clergyman spoke up with