Life's Mirage. Sad would the suit waves be Aud oold the aiuging *ea, And daik the gulfs that echo to tbo aoven ttriuged lyre, 11' things were what they aeom, If earth had no fair dream, Ho mirage inmlu to tip the dull aou lino with Are. But on the shores of time, Ileuiing tho breakers chime, FUllng by day and night along our human Mild, The poet aits and sees, Borne on tho morning breeze, He phantom islands float a furlong from tho land. Content to know them there. Hung in the shining air, He trims no looliah suit to win the hopeless coast. His vision ia enough To teed his aoul with love, And he who graapa too much may even him telf be lost. Kdmund Gout. IF THEY HAD KNOWN. "So you've come back again, Jerome?" said old Mr. SewelL "Well, we heard you was tbinkin' of returnin' to Elm Mountain. Had pennies always come back—ha' ha! ha! And you didn't make such a big fortune as you calcu lated. eh ?" Jerome Clay leaned over the old zig zag rail fence and rubbed his eyes- Had time stood still all these years while he had been in tho South? For here w as Farmer Sew ell in t he same old blue-checked overalls, with tho same battered straw hat, the same wrinkles between his brows, driving the same old red cows home through the twilight lane, where the scent of trampled spearmint came up. and the melan choly notes of a distant whip-poor-will sounded faintly on the purple silence. And yet—and yet it was twenty odd years since he had left Elm Mountain, with all his worldly goods balanced in a bundle on his back. He had la-en a dashing lad of twenty-ono then: there were silver hairs in his black locks, now. and he had left a dead past buried under the sweet magnolia groves. And here was Moses Sewell, just the same JUS ever, only a triile yellower and more dried up. "Yes," Clay said, quietly, "I've come back. And you are right when you say fortunes don't grow on every bush." "Goin'to your uncle's house?" said Mr. Sewell, leaning over the bars. "He's dead and bttried, poor fellow. Always hail a weak chest, you know, i And the gals ain't no younger—the three old maids we call 'etn—ha, ha, ha'" And again the old farmer chuckled himself into a state of semi-suffocation. "Come in and see us," said he. "My daughter Aurilla she's come hack a widow and does tailorin' and plain sewin'. The old woman's stone deaf but she's dreadful quick at catchtn' a person's meaning!" And ofT he trudged over the bruised patches of sweet-smelling spearmint, his broad figure vanishing into the gloom like a shadow. "Three old maids, eh?" repeated Jerome Clay to himself. "Clara and Bess and little Kate, the golden-haired beauty, the soft-eyed poetess, the bright little sprite who was a mixture of I'ndine and Queen Mab. Then, surely. Father Time h:is not stood still!" The light was shining out, as of old, from the red-curtained casement, the great tire of logs was blazing on the hearth, and the three cousins greeted the returned wanderer with unaffected warmth. They were changed, of course. What else could have been expected? Tbe Beauty had grown sharp and freckled, and her lovely hair had lost its burnish, and she was not quite as tidy as she used to be in tho old days al>out her ribbons and frills. Soft eyed Bessie's sweet voire had degener ated into a whine; she had grown round-shouldered and hst one of her front teeth; and little Kate was a stout, middle-aged woman, who reminded one of I'ndine no more. But they were his cousins still the girls who had romped and flirted with hitn In due arithmetical progression. And there still existed a bond of stead fast friendship, and he told thetn the story of the southern wife who had been buried for live years under the magnolias, and they all sympathized, and Beauty even cried a little. "I have brought my three children to the North," he said. "I left them in New York, and if I can get somo gen uine, whole-souled woman to take charge of my home, I'm thinking of settling here in Elm Mountain. Clara, dear, you used to bo fond of mo in the old times! What do yon say to tinder taking this charge?" The Beauty seemed to grow smaller, ■harper, more business-like, all in a second. If Cousin Jerome had come home a millionaire, she would have jumped into his arms. But Clara N'eely was not romanti cally inclined. To ht*r, love in a cot tage possessed no charms. "I couldn't, Jerome," she answered quickly. "I'm not very strong, and I couldn't assume any responsibility of this arduous nature, llesides, I'm not fond of children. I'm greatly obliged to you, I'm sure, but I'd rather not." Jerome Clay bit his lip. "(if course," ho said, "it Is for you to decide. Hut If Hessie—" The poetess shrugged her shoulders, and laughed a light, shrill-sounding cachlnnation. "Cousin Jerome," said she, "it's just as well to be frank about these matters. I wouldn't marry a poor man—not if I loved him like Homeo and Juliet. It's bad enough to scrape along as we do here, with only half what one requires to live on decently. Hut to plunge into poverty, with two or three children belonging to another woman—no, I thank you!" For time, as may easily be perceived, had eliminated a great deal of the poetical element from Bessie Neely's soul. The quondam I 'ndine did not wait for the question, as far as she was eon- j cerned, but added, promptly, that she | quite agreed with her sisters in all these matters. "It's such a pity you didn't stay here where you were well off, Jerome," said she, in the pitying, patronizing manner which your genuine man most abhors. "Dear pa, you know, always disaje proved of your going South. And you ' might have got the situation of agent to the White Castle place, at eight hundred a year, and cottage found, if you'd only been here on the spot. I'a used to know the old agent, and could , have mmended you!" Jerome smiled. "White Castle?" said he. "That's the big house on the hill, where we children used to peep at the rosea and white grapes through the glass sides of the great green-house. A grand place, as I remember it." "And the position of agent is most responsible and Idghly considered,'' broke in Hessie. Jerome Clav went away, feeling rather depressed. It is not the lot of every man to be thrice rejected in one evening. "They think I am a failure in life," said he. half smiling, half sighing. •'Well, perhaps they are not wrong. People's ideas differ." Aurilla Haven, the old farmer's daughter, had been a wild hoyden of a , school girl when Jerome Clay went South. She was a silent, pale woman of three-and-thirty now, who did the "tailoreas" work of the neighl>orhixsl. and had hard work to get along. Hut her dark-brown eyes lighted up when Mr. Clay spoke ,f his far-off home, anf White- Castle-, to tin velvet lawns in front <>f fin- colonnad ed portico, w here statues of (Vre-s and Proserpine stood in e your hand that is t--r hotel, in New ork," he; an-w e-ri-el. "The boy is soon to enter college-, the girl- are both en gaged to In-married to southern gentle men, and after a brii-f visit here, will return to N> w < >rl< an* with tln-lr aunt. >o, my darling, \oiir tend<-r solicituelo was not required after all!" Aurilla aigh<-d softly. She hrel somehow lunged f. r the touch of little chilelren's hanels in ii<-r own, the; sound of small, shrill voices in her ear. But she looked into .le-roine's loving eyes, ami was satisiiexl. Heloved lie-r—was not that enough? Ami the three old maids are sharper, inure- untidy and shrill-voiced than e.-ve-r since-the-y have re Ui/ed the fatal mistake- they made- in re-jecting the overtures of their cousin Jerotne. And a maneuvering, managing creature is tlie tenderest ap|eeliation tliey apply to Mrs. Jerome < lay. things would have been so wif a tornaelo, drenching the farms in the-ir path with rain and shattering trees and hayricks with lightning, and leaving adjoining farms untouched. In any hroad rive-r valli'y skirtesl bv hill range*, affording exten sive views, the phenoim-noii of a pass ing thunder-storm moving at right angles to the oleserver's line of sight, can lie frequently witnessed in tho summer. It is like a distant view of a battle, any this time growing very hot the Main Resiles engage, ane! then nothing is to Ik- hcarel hut i< Thundering Noise, with continua l-dashes of Lightning, and elreaelful Showers of Rain, falling down from the broken Clouds. Anil some-tiiiu-s ran elom shots flie aleout, kill iKith Men anil Beasts,fire and throw down Houses, split great Trees and Rocks, anil tear the very Earth." Although the rhances of any partic ular man being killed by lightning are very small, yet the actual number o persona thus killed in a summer h sometimes start ling!} large. Fortunate ly, lightning can lie guarded against, and those who do not expose them selves out of doors during a thornier storm are not in much danger. Is large cities, too, with tho exception perhaps, of the suhurlis, eiisastrous ae cidenta from lightning are leas frequent than in the country.— Tfrtn York Hun, They are never alone that are ac couipanied with nolile thoughts. TOPICS OF THE DAY. Official reports show that railroad accidents are steadily incre-asing in number ami fatality In the United States. British government figures estimate; that onollfth of L'X. >o,ooo,ooo e-arnesl by the British workingmen and women yearly goes for beer ami liquor. It Is said that the Bible re-vlse-rs flml the "ravens" which fed Elijah were gypsle-s, according to tho original, ann<- barrel. I'e-arson never rex-ejved any reward for his invention. A little-tw e-1 ve--ye-ars-old girl in Knox ville, lowa, was frightened to death during the night by a severe thund ' storm. She t ail Im-.-h fjuite we-11 t.<• day be-f-ere, hut awoke during the storm and besought lu-r mother to take her t - her 1-ed, " for she* w.t* afraid eef tliuniier." Her supplications were un he-e-desl. an I s < I with a light she funnel her dying, an-1 in a f-w minutes she- hreatheel her last. The Japane-se authoritie-s are al-out to eie-ve te- ; ial attention to the raj a bilitie-* and j-r *j><- Uof Jajean as a tea producing country. In re-sponse to numerous aj-j-h ations from tea culti vstors. they have decided to invite del-gate-* from the various tea growing elistricts throughout the country, who will meet at Kobe next October. The Japan Moil adds that, if possible, tlie authorities will take the opportunity of holding at the same time- and j>lare an exhibition of the different varieties of Japanese tea. ami of objects con nected with their production and prej parntlon. There i a man employed in the Philadelphia gas-works whose fidelity for almost half a century deserves re-- cognition. He is a hale old man of eighty years, and Irs name i* Tim othy Keating. Forty-seven years ago he was brought fr->m Knglaml to teach the manufa-ttire of gas in Philaelel phia, and he ha* never once been al, • . 2,100 South A me- tics, 7.003 _____ Cor.s ... S 600 firs ml total, 253,000 These figures, says the Chicago liufl fpay Ayr, arc not claimeel to lee exact. It Is absolutely impossible to obtain official returns for the same perioel within a year or two after date, and so it is neee**ary to use the latest available statement. aniiMh<-lH of corn from <*ach of tlie oilier ijiciiiln-: * of the club. J'.ach selecta his own a'-ro anl manures and cultivates it to suit himself. Sup there are t werity me-iuhers of the club; the lueky one will receive nine ty-five; hushe-ls of corn, which will Ix; a handsotne; pre-mium. Kve;ry member will be; Ix-iu-lit <-<1 by the; increase-d yiclel anel the; practical experience of all See; u re-el by the; conte-st. The; elaiige r of uncovering the head at the; grave-on (tie oee-asion of a fu m-ral, is causing e-onselerablediscussion in the; pape-rs here and in Englan'l. The Lomlon Turlng in on he r, f-ntr<-ating In rto come-to them i "send other wise- women from America" Fa-tern women of rank eli<- with olescure eli-i-asi-s rather tlian submit to i ; ork trade is entirely in their liamls, anid the doctor eve r have on a new suit and try to get i out of the way of a watering-cart? Guesa not "Ve," she said to the gorgeous youth who was her devoted slave, "I I k-s j this gilded new five-cent piece in my j ket, and I never see it without thinking of you. "Ik* t■ r," aske-1 Z. of a witty physi cian, "why do you and your brethren never go to funerals?" "Because we should have the air of taking our wTk home." When you see a man sit down in a barber's chair, pin the newspaper around his neck and begin to read the _ towel, you may put him down as absent-minded. Origin of Thirteen at Table. Says the Milwaukee Evening Wis. mrutin: There seems to lie a universal and widespread superstition against thirteen persons sitting down at table together. Indeed, so prevalent and string is this feeling, tha' a hostess ar ranging for guests is sure to provide against the contingency and es< hew, if possible, the fatal numlter. We have known ladies to rise panic stricken from a table where the number was inadvertently discovered, and the omen is popularly believed to denote either trouble, sorrow