STUDENT AND EXECUTIONER. A Hll.l Kknuilnnlluti Horrors ol Ihr I'm.. Kxcrullon (.round, Ucv. Selah Hrown, in hi* travels through China, thus describes in u letter to the Troy Tinwx, two places of interest in Canton. On tho eastern side of Canton is "Examination Hull." a place of extraordinary interest and excitement. Here an enclosure of about twelve acres, entirely surrounded by a high wall, is set ajuirt lor a triem nial eompetitive examination in the Chinese classics. Every third year al>out lO.OtK) students, young and old, who have already passed a lirst exami nation, assemble here to pass the rigid erdeal of a second trial. So great is the excitement that sometimes students are crazed, some even commit suicide, and others die from sheer nervous ex haustion. AV hen one dies in his cell a hole is cut through the w all and the i corpse put outside, as it is considered unlucky and unlawful to carry the corpse through the door. On these grounds are large buildings for the ex aminers, and nearly 10,(XX) little brick ' cells only three feet wide and live feet ' long, for the students. No furniture is allowed in the cells except a rough l>oard seat, and a rough lioard shelf on which to write. Each student has one of the cells, in which he is guarded as though a prisoner. He is searched as he enters, lest he have some papers to help him in his assigned task, then he is closely watched, day and night, by policemen, and the jxilicetnen .ire watched by other guards. During the two or throe days and nights in which the student is confined he must w rite an essay on which de pends his promotion. The subject is given after tho competitor has enteral the roll. Each student is provided with pen, ink and paper, and a little food and bedding, but is not permitted to have any books or helps of any kinds. Ilis memory must be his only dc|>cnd once. N'o friends or servants are al lowed to accompany him. and he must not even speak to his fellow -students. The student who passes a successful examination meets with great congrat ulation, and splendid ovations, for he is on the highway to fortune and honor, both for himself and his friends. Only about l'R) in 10,000 succcsl in getting the "degree;" the other y,9i)o must wait three years, then try again. Even the successful ones must pass a third ex amination at I'ekin, the capital. In this competition there are three exami nations, and three degrees given. The firs-t examination is in the district college. The second in the provincial college. The third is in the irnj>erial university at I'ekin. The first degree ts 11. A., which does not mean, as in America, bachelor of arts, but l*auti ful ability. The second degree is A M., not master of arts, but advanced men. The third degree, LL. I)., can only be had at the capital of the empire. The few who pass a successful three fold examination, and gain the three fold degrees, stand very high in the estimation of the emperor and the gov ernment, and from their number all appmntinents for public office arc made. So great is the honor of success that men will try front youth to old age, failing and trying again a score of times. Sometimes a father, son and grandson are found at the same exami nation. This system has been olmerved for many centuries in China, and has a very important place in the social and political economy of the empire. From Examination Hall we went to that terrible aceldania, the "execution ground." in the southeast corner of the city. One can hardly look without a shudder on the spot where so many thousands have been beheaded. In a little open space not more than twenty feet wide and 100 feet long morn hu man blood has flowed than on anv other place of the same size round the world. From ten to fifty are generally executed at a time. .Sometimes the executions amount to several hundred annually. During war times .100,000 have been liehcadcd on this Golgotha in a single year. One missionary said he had seen 200 headless bodies lying here at once. The victims are ordered to kneel down, the heads are stretched ' forward, then ono blow of the short, leavy, sharp sword of the executioner cleaves the neck, and the guilty wretches lay weltering In their blood. 1 The bodies are given to friends, the government keeping the heads, which 1 are sometimes exposed in public places, ' but generally they are put in stone jars, 1 sprinkled with quicklime, then scaled :! up with plaster. On going up to a ' row of these Jars, a Chinaman ven- ' tared to open one for our inspection. 1 One glance at the ghostly gory he.-uls 1 within was enough. From among the 1 human Nines that lay around I picked 1 up and brought away a complete low or ' jaw, which plainly shows the gash of 1 the sharp sword of the executioner. ' Leaning against the wall of the execu tion ground were several rude crosses, i on which criminals of great iviorraity I < I are tied, naked, while their bOdlM are I cut to pieces with sharp swords or - knives. A sliee is taken from each | arm, then from each leg, and from the H breast; finally a mortal stab is given 1 to the heart. Hibernating Animals. The badger, dormouse, porcupine, I hamster and many others enter more or less into this strungo condition of ( hibernation, while the eases of partial ,! hibernation are extremely common, ( bares having been found buriisi in the . snow for weeks, and even sheep have sharisl the same fate without injury, i Tho dormouse erects its winter home of various grasses four or live feet from the ground, and so skilfully are ; they interwoven and joined together that the closest discernment is neces sary to distinguish the entrance that, indeed, is only known to the animal ( itself. Soft mosses lino the home, among which the sleepers lie until i early rpring, often awakening while j snow is yet upon the ground. From now until warmer days they merely ( sleep, awakening from time to time to ! feed from a store of nuts laid up for the occasion. In southern countries, where the intense heat is as fatal tu animal life as the lowering tempera-! ture of the far north or south, asimilarj condition is enterisl into by many' animals, known as (estivation. In rolJ looting about liahia lil.tnea, in Scjh temjier, Darwin unearthed spiders, lizards, and toads, all in a lethargic condition. A week later they Is'gan jto appear of their own accord, and ! thris- days before the equinox all nature was prepared to greet it. Many aliga ; tors and crocodiles pass the dry periods l in a similar manner. The mud eases of the marsh crocodile are often found in Ccylm, and have been taken out j perfect easts of the animal, telling the ; story of its hileen the cause in various countries, especially Ceylon, of ludicrous incidents. In one, an English 1 officer had retired to hi.s tent, which j suddenly rose in air, with all its fur- j niture, out of the wreck of which a|>- pcarisl an awakened crocodile that was here hibernating, the lire built without having, perhaps, disturlnsl its rejiose, to the astonishment and confusion of campers-out. The yellow snake of Jamaica, that attains a length of twenty feet, excavates a burrow for purposes of partial hilernation. while our snakes of the north are well know n top ass the entire winter in thedeopest sleep. Among the vertebrate sleepers j of tlo- south is found the tanree of j Modagavas, that, burrowed in the sand, sloops away three months of the year. With hardly an execution, the mnllusks <>f the Mcditerancan provinces lie dor mant throughout the summer. Many i fishes are perfect hiliematnrs, lying in i the mud during the cold season, or. iu the south, passing the season of drought in sun baked rasi-s, in almost jMTfts t sleep. Not only during one season is this kept up, but several and, in India, ponds that have leen j dry for extended periods, when tilled, were, as if by magic. |>opulatcd with the awakened finny sleejiers. Arc not our trees in winter sleep ing? The sap has ceased to flow, their grow th has stopped, and all their functions are at rest. Seeds lie dor- ] mant for years. Corn taken from the Aztec torn let has N-cn awakened ( ?) in the present decade, a process analogous to the awakening of animal life from summer and winter sleep. .Yetc York Kttniny Prmt. Sixty Tears of Serx ice. A little old man wearing the jwvstal uniform may lie seen daily at the rail road station in Louisville, Ky., busily sorting the tnail. His name is Charles Green, ami he has Ns-n in the jx>stal service since 1824. His interest and share in the distribution of the mail began, however, in 1815, when he heijirs! to deliver to his father's neigh- Nrs printed slips announcing the hat tie of New Orleans. "We have all heard," he said the other day to a re porter, "that a battle had Ns>n fought hut had no particulars. On a certain bright, clear morning, when the snow covered the ground as far as the eve could reach, wo awaited the coming of the mail carrier with his pack-horse. Before he came in sight the stillness of the air was broken by cries of '(iotsi news! Good news!' I'eople were waiting all along the road for the ap proach of the bearer of the news. There hail been printed at the office of the old Lexington (imttu a number of slips of |taper containing the details of the battle, and the mail carrier was distributing these broadcast I was commissioned by iny father to carry a number of the ncighlmr* living around. I hail never worn a pair of shoo* then, and I tramped about the neighborhood that day in the snow, my trousers roiled up to ftie knees, with never a thought of discomfort." Manila, and the province of which It is the capital, had 20,000 deaths from cholera last fall. THE LAJfI> OF THE AZTECS. 1 \ I'm Plrluro or ihr- Vlmlrnit ( niiilol Niroot Nomrnrlaitrr, Hlorr*. IJir. A r-itv of Mexico letter to tlie New •r leans Demwrut, says: Nothing can lie more beautiful than the .situation of this eity, which, with its magnificent (liailem of mountains, stands crowned j the queen of the* Western continent, hook on every side and you will see only a different axpeet of the same ! grand panorama, with not one item that is low and commonplace, but all planned on the same gigantic scale. At the end of almost every street there is a vision of mountain and cloud, with sunlight tracing its magic figures upon them, and even in the most squalid parts of the city you have only to look a little Is-yond and the eye is sure to rest upon some 1 ,-vcly cmlxsli- \ mentof nature. The plan of the city j is worthy of the great conqueror who ' laid it out and win seems to have left the impress of his iron character upon its solid edillcies. As I'rescott says; "The massive grandeur of the few buildings that remain of the primi tive perils) and the general inagnifi cenee and symmetry of its plan attest tlm farsightcd jxdicy of its founder, which looked lieyond the present to the wants of coming generations." It is built in the form of a square, the principal streets radiating from the Xoculo or I'lu/.ude Armas, and so regu larly do they run that the eye can follow their course almost to the ex treme limits of the city. There are very few winding ways and narrow, dingy looking alleys, and even the un sightliest quarters are rcdis-mcd from ugliness by a certain air of pictures queness, which is (lightened by the romantic and historical associations connis'tisl with nearly every sjs.t. The main objection to t ho strc<*ta is the narrowness of the sidewalks ; on many OIIH can comfortably walk abreast, and in order to avoi.i tin. press of the crowd, one is often obljgisl to step out into the.strict , ami trot along w.th the hurras. There is another ri*s|ect in which the stris-ts might ls imprnvisl, and that is in regard to their nomencla ture. hurli block hears a separate name, and as they are all selected at random, to rctnrmlicr them is a t,vk too great for an ordinary meinorv. For instance, w hen you have once fixed m your mind that a certain dry good.s store in Caflede >an Franeiseo, if vou wish to recollect the position of a mil linery establishment a few steps fur ther on the next hlork, you must asso ciate it With the new title of t'llllc de I'lateras, and so on. until it is a mira cle if you do not end l>y forgetting On position of your own dwelling. SjH-ak ing of storm reminds us of another jo ruliaritv. which is that tin- great ma jority of shops, instead of U-aring the names of their owners, are adorned with fancy appellations, some of them more romantic than appropriate. A pulqueria, or pulque shop, for example, rejoices in the title of the "Sun of Mav," a grocery storeliears the announcement that "The Sun Shines for All." while the principal dry goods emporium is known by tin- double dmignation rf the "Surprise and Spring." Such names as the "Uupuldic," "Progress,'- "Destiny," etc.. are met with on every ' hand, while you may stiimide across a I butcher shop ilevoti-d t* "Providence," a bakery to the "Holy Spirit." or a lulceria to the "Hope of Mary." \\<- must confess a feeling of disap- I pointinent in regard to the general appearance of the stores, for they are exceedingly small and cramp's), the largest Is-ing but pigmies compared with such mammoth establishments as those of New Orleans. The windows display tempting wares arranged with great skill and taste, particularly in the lineof jewelry and silk, but everything seems to be on a diminutive scale, and we have been puzzling our brains to know why the Mexicans should insist upon calling their city the Paris of America for it must require a vivid imagination or a magnifying glass of great |Hiwer to detect in the one-storied ls>x-like buildings devoted to merchan dise. any resemblance to the magnifi cent stores in that fashion center of the tvorld. * It i.s a relief to turn froin these haunts of traffic, and to let your eves rest U]Kn the abodes of men, for Mexican dwellings have a character peculiar to themselves, an indvid uality that distinguishes them from anything belonging to America or Europe. You could hardly call it beauty, for from the outside you only j see flat surfaces, which would iw> monotonous were it not for the in numerable little balconies that pro ject from lieneath each window. And yet like certain faces which, though homely in feature, exercise a kind i of fascination from their originality of expression, these long lines of gray ! stone mansions grow u|>on you until you are forced to acknowledge that no other style would lie so appropriate to the grand tyjw of the place. Mur.-ihino i iu>d shallow seem to struggle In the peculiar color of the stone of which | the houses are constructed, and their squareness gives an Idea of strength and solidity impossible to describe. Strange to an Aim-rii-un are the ter rains! roofs and the absence of chim neys, that in our own land (day so prominent a part in marring the land scape, I here are no trees along the streets except on the I'UMOO, and the want of thcrn is scarcely felt, for you imagine somehow that they would lx out of place beside the massive monu ments that fasten the attention on all sides. Success In Life. Without unremitting labor, success in life, whatever our occupation, is impossible. A fortune is not made without toil, and money unearned comes to few. The habitual loiterer never brings anything to pass. The young men whom you HIS- lounging alsiut waiting fur the weather to change before they go to work, break down before they begin get stuck be fore they start. Ability and willing ness to lain>r are the two great condi tions of success. |t is useless to work an electrical machine in a vacuum, but the air may be full of electricity, and still you can draw no spark until you turn the machine. The Ix-autlful statue may exist in the artist's brain, and it may also !*• said in a certain sense to exist in the marble block that stands liefore him, but he must bring both his brains and bis bands to bear upon the marble, and work hard and | long, in order to produce any practical ■ result. Success also dc|M-mLs in a good measure upon the man's promptness to take advantage <4 the rise of the tide. A great ileal of what we call "luck" is nothing more nor less than this: It is the man who keeps bis eyes >j•••ii, and his hands otU of his pockets, that suc ceeds. -I missed my chance," exclaims the disnp]>inted man, when he another catch eagerly at the opjmrtu nity. llut something more than alert ; m-ss is needed; we must know how to i avail ourselves of the emergencv. An elastic temperament, which never seems to recognize the fact of defeat, j or forgets it at once and begin* thn ! work over again, is very likely to en sure success. Many a great orator has made a terrible break-down in bis , maiden speech. Many a men hant loses one fortune only to build up an other and a larger one. Many an in ventor fails in >iis first efforts, and is ! at last rewarded with a splendid triumph. Some of th<- most jxipular ! novelists wrote very |KST stuff in the Is ginning. They wi re learning their trade, and could not exjxs-t to turn out first-class work until their apprentice ship is over. One great sern*t of stie eevs is not t-i Income discouraged, but 1 always I-* ready to try again. A ( orran Metropolis. Describing Wonsan. a leading city of Corea, a Hritish officer says: One main street, of some ten or twelve feet in width, winds through it from end to end, and into this opens numerous narrow and crooked alleys. The ("or cans dislike our entering these lanes ; no doubt, localise in passing along them one is apt to surprise their woman whose delicacy is shocked by the near approach of a foreigner. In only two jorthris- shojis were there any Euro pean goods expisosl for sale. Ko.vl making at Wonsan consists in filling up the hollows with soft earth, and there seein to I*> no arrangements whatever b-r cleaning the streets. There are numerous pig-styes in front , of the houses in the main stn>ot, and the passenger is constantly in danger .of stumbling over their occupants. Almost the only pleasant thing to lk at is the luxuriant growth of melon and pumpkin with gray fruit and white orange blossoms, show ing amid a mass of green leaves, which cover many of the houses. The clothing and per sonal appearance of the inhabitants contrast favorably with the aspects of the tow ns. Nearly every one isde centlv dressed, and a really well-dressed Coroan, in his broad hat and white rolies, has an eminently respectable, well-to-do appearance. The Japanese settlement of Wonsan is on the western side of the bay, opposite to the island |of < hangdodo, and almut a mile from the western end of the native town of Wonsan. The settlement is infested with t'orean thieves, who rob the god owns of the Japenese by picking the locks or removing the foundation stones, and the markets at Wonsan are also said to swarm with them. Tigers abound in the neighboring mountains, and last year two (Weans were carried off by these animals from the itnmed iate netghlsirhood of the settlement. fhicagn, with sixty square miles of territory and 000,000 people, has only 444 policeman, nl-iut 250 lieing avail aide for night service. Forty-nine electric light companies, with $81,000,000 capita), were Bet agoing in Urent llritaiu last year. TOFIFH OF THE DAY. He heapeth up riches and another man shall gather them. The youngest bank president in New Vork, worth ♦•'1,000,000, recently died at the age of thirty; and a man named John Hay, who set up a drinking saloon along a Colorado road of lifty miles, which previously had none, NDOII fllh-d a big tin lxix with gold; but the other morn ing he was found with half-a-dozen on neon of lead in his head and his gold all gone. An association has been formed in New Vork city for the purpose of promoting by legislative and other measures the restoration and improve ment of the scenery of N'iagra Falls in accordance with the plan which was approved by the State assembly in IW I , but failed in the senate. It is pro poscd to have the State purchase enough land about the Fall to preserve the natural scenery, and to eo-ojcr.ate with ( an.ida for that purpose, I here is a soldier m England who has been able to observe nearly all the lighting in which his nation has been engaged since the present century i came in. He is (ii-ncral (!eorge Mc- Donald, still in the service as colonel of the Jleilfurilshiri' regiment, and lias just passed his ninety-eighth birthday. In the year of Trafalgar, I*os, lie was an ensign, arid 1"12 saw him at tin siege uf Tarragona, in Spain. Two years later he was in Canada, but got back to Kuriqie for Waterloo, where he took thri-e wounds, (luring the peace tliat followel ho tilled civil offices in the colonies, and in the recent cam paign he has taken the lively interest of the veteran who can tull "how fields are won." Philadelphia has a co-operative store with a present capital .f ip.b.b.Vi and n-al estate worth s2o,u*). It pays an annual dividend toils shareholders of six per cent, and return, quarterly to customers from lour to nine JUT cent. !on their purchases. The manager says that th e w hole secret of success rn co operation is to start on a small wale and j extend the business slowly. To this rule he attributes the success of the vinture. It was ls-gun eigiit years ago by several men who worked in a factory, ami thought it would Is* a good idea to cheap n provisions by liuving iii lots and then dix iding. They formed a little si u*ty, and kept their | stock in a room of a iiu-mtier's resi dence. Next they hired a small store, and from th.it the business has grown to annual sales aggregating When Mr. Hitt, American secretary ,of legation at Paris, introduce) tjov. ernor Hendru ks to (laml>etta as his ! go<-l friend, the French orator and statesman greatly puzzled. ••Why,'* said he. "you belong to different "J'iw,"said Mr. Hendricks, some of my warmest personal friend ship* are among my political oppon ent.*. "And that is con iinon in your countryasked (JamUdta. "Nothing more so." remarked Governor Hen dricks. "There, said CJarnlx'tta. "is the ideal republic." Gamlietta's apprecia ' tion of a political state of affairs in which political oppments can express their difference without shooting one another's head off or running swords through one another's My, bctravrd itself m his own growing moderation of tone and his good sense in subduing the passionate radicalism of his party. Mr. Gunderson, vice-consnl for Swe den and Norway, at Bordeaux. France, has hit upon a novel way of sending messages from the sea. The ancient liottle is alw ays liable to hr oak age, and the recent pretty inventions of tin ships or buoys are found too expensive and trouhlVsoine in practice, Mr. Gun derson employs the small colored bal loons made for children, which cost only a shilling a dozen and ran be carried empty. Me puts the message inside, and throws the in'lated balloon overboard. It travels rapidly lefore the wind, keeps the message perfectly dry. and is a striking object at some distance a great advantage as regards the chance of l*>ing picked up. One was recently tried, with a letter inside, off Dover, w here one of the inventor's ships was aground, and two hours afterward the letter was posted in Do ver by an unknown hand. Two locally famous dogs died a short time since. One was an Enghsh pointer that caught in it* month a en nary on the fly (out of its cage) by ! leaping four feet into the air. but with out hurting the bird or ruffling a feath er. The other was a Philadelphia watch-slog that attacked every police man he saw, once damaging one very seriously by taking a big piece out of him. and chewing his calf. He was , owned in Disston's saw factory, and if , he found the men loafing around out- , side of their workahops he would drive i them back. lie knew the steel uielteri j I i from the other workmen, and bad a special grudge against them. He caught two of them in the warerrjoms one day, chased them cm to the coun | tern and kept them there. He got a Idte out of two men who leaped tbe fence tf> see the factory when it caught fire; went for the cashier of the estab ment whim he ame down stairs After hours one evening; the caahier fought him with a chair untii there wan only j one round left in his hamls whereas the dog wan g'xxi for several roumls more, but waa very luckily, driven off by the watchman; while a countryman who came into the warehouse one flay vvhenno one waa there^inddraped kin hat, haf any animal except the elephant and the larger whales, but in no other .iniiual is there so (rreat variation in brain weights of different individuals as in man, and it is perhaps a < urious fart that the higher the civilization the wider the variation. That is to say. the brain weight in savage races is more nearly uniform than in enlightened nations. While in a general way the average weight of the brain is greater in civili7cd raew.it does not at all follow that the siw of the brain is an indication of the degree "f intelligence. The average weight "f the adult European male brain is forty-mine to fifty ounces. That of the female is forty-four to forty-five ounces, the difference U-ing fully ten percent. Statistics for America very nearly coincide with this result. There are examples of men of remarkable in tellectual attainment* whose brains have largely exceeded the average, as t'unrier. sixty-four and a half and Dr. Al>ercmmbie, sixty-threw ounces. Daniel Webster also had a very large brain. That of Agassi * weighed fifty-three and a half ounces, not very much above the average. On the other hand, high brain weights have also }