LADIES' DEPARTMENT. Women Clerk** Of late years the employment of women clerks has greatly Increased in England as well as in France, and in both countries it is generally agreed that the system works satisfactorily- At the Hank of l-'rancc there are now 1 160 female clerks, who receive three francs a day to commence with, and whose salary, after a year or two's ser vice, rises to 1,800 francs, and at the ♦ Paris offices of the credit fonder, where also there is a large staff of women, the remuneration, beginning at three and a half francs a day, rises r In some cases to as much as 1,000 francs, or $BOO a year. In Ixith esta blishments the hours of attendance aro from nine to four on six days of the week, and the male and female clerks sit in different rooms the wom en being superintended by ollicials of their own sex, and thus enjoying the greatest possible degree of privacy. Carina for Ihr ilalr. A lively old lady, who died far ad vanced in her eighties, and was proud In extreme old age of her beautiful dark hair, was accustomed when a girl to hang up her night-cap every morning tilled with salt. This was shaken out into a Japanese dressing box every night on retiring, but enough salt remained clinging to the Cambric to secure, as she thought, the remarkable preservation of her hair. Dr. Holmes has sung or gossijH'd about | the "widening part," which is one of the tell-tale tracks of passing years; but until lately the prevailing fashions of dressing the hair did not make any parting to show. Those who wear the hair in true classic style, with tne pure white line from brow to crown, may find some use in the following recommendation of the New York Ev ening Post for strengthening the hair and renewing thin spots: "To a quart of warm water allow one tahlesjioon tful of salt, and just Oefore retiring for the night wet the heal thoroughly with thi>, not along the widening seam alone, but the entire head. Ke [ peat this operation for one or two nights each week until giaal results are apparent." It is likely that the vigorous rubbing which this treatment I makes necessary afterward is of :ls much use t<> the hair as the saline treatment. —l'/til //>/, in T* the raising of tine stock. Johanna Wagner, niece of the great composer, has been ap|>inted a pro fessor of singing at the Munieh Con. servatory. She is the first woman ever chosen for such a professorship I in Germany. Naomi, the daughter of Knoch, de | clared that she wmild not marry anv i one who was not "just perfect." and 1. 3 he did nut get a husband until she II was 580 years old. Those large but light parasol hand \ les, so useful for summer travelling, are made uut 'if cabbage --talks, grown in the fields of Hrittanv. A particular kind of long-stalked cabbage or collar.! is left in the ground to grow higher and higher for two or three years, the leaves lieing carefully stripped from the stalk, which, becoming very tough and strong, is often used for the stick of one of those large parasols called the Jersey sunshade. Two new eccentricities in ilr*<- were ■oticed at a recent hail in London. 1 One lady wore a crimson dress, and the same color was carried ..lit in every detail, even to long crimson gloves- Another, whose costume was pale blue, followed up the idea to pale-ldtie kid- I ailon Xolo The shell-shaped straw-hat meets with only a limited amount of popu larity. >h'>rt oodies with long |x>irit -< bark and front, grow more and more num erous. Jerseys are much worn, but only for fatigue, shopping and travelling costumes. i Very low cut slipjiers with a tie ' across the Instep are the favorites this summer. Flower lionnets are as popular as ever, and tie under the chin with white lace strings. Sateen dresses in large floriated de. ' .signs should lie trimmed with a pro fusion of white lace an l a little dark velvet, to look well. . Large collars, (lchiis, and shoulder L**capes are worn with almost every toilet at the sea-side. Mack stockings are worn with dress es of any color, and on all occasions by both Indies and children. It is suid that thero will bo as many positive colors worn in the fall as in termediate or mixed shades. Parasols, sunshades and umbrellas aro in general large and of every pos sibles silk or cotton material. Tim newest French dresses have narrow skirts for the foundation ii|M>ri, which are superimposed full draper ies and flounces. Soft twill plaid silks mako elegant skirts worn under crepe do Chine or Indian cashmere polonaises or basque and draperies. Pointed and basque waists, which have been of long duration, aro begin ning to l>e gradually modified the basques are becoming shorter. Houquets are not now worn on the corsage, but at the waist. They should t>e large and loosely put to gether, and only of one kind of flowers. A pretty travelling dress for a bride can be made of French gray bastite, and embroidery <>f the same color, with lows of French gray and scarlet ribbon. Ribbons are used in every possible way on dresses. They are fashioned in rosettes, long looped lows and ends on dresses and bonnets and on the neck drapery. Arab, Persian and Tunisian mus lins, worked with colored silks and gold are in high favor to drape over white silk gowns. When color is pr<>- ferrisl to white the tint chosen is, for the most part, aurora pink. The newest handkerchiefs have narrow hems, about four-fifths of an inch wide, surmounted by a very narrow border, either of embroidery or open work. The hem is edgisl with tine Valenciennes, a finger wide, and very slightly gathered. Fawn is the prevailing hue in many of the new canvas plaids, and large fawn spots, slanted into spheres or moons in their third quatrer, are strewn over whitey brown or fiax blue muslins and mousselino de lain'-s. They are made of fine kid and arc lined with white, blue or pink kid. A Trulr Strange Coincidence. "Speaking of strange coincidences," said Dooflickor, "I ant reminded of a thing that happened to me once. I was standing on the breakwater here in Chicago one day in the summer of H42, when one of my cuffs dropped into the lake and a big fish came up and swallowed it. 1 mourned a g'ssl deal oxer it, because the sieve button in that cuff was made of gold that i dug myself in California in IS4'J. Well, time ran along and I for got all about the sleeve-button Soon after that I haout that. Well, you ec I found that I was losing my hair. It didn't come out by the r-xits, but it seemed to be broken off near my head, and yet, al though I lost considerable every night, there never was any loose hairs in the lied in the morning. I finally got a friend to sjt np and watch me one night, and in the morning he explained the whole thing. I had bitten it off and swallowed the hair. "Hut. to get back to my first story, une day alamt seven years after I lost that cuff I was walking on Manhattan beach, arm in arm with Mr. Selig inan, when he picked up something that was buried in the saml, "Why. that's silver." said he. 'So it is," said 1. and sure enough it was solid sil ver. Hut what is further, it was the indent ic.ul sleeve-button 1 had lost thirteen years before in Lake Michi gan. Now, what puzzles me is to know how that fish got way round to Manhattan beach from Chicago." There was a short silence which Thcophilus interrupted. " What puz zles tne, paw. is how the fish changed a gold sleeve-button int v a silver on".' Itootheker thought lie beard one of HIP liens cackle and went out to See if she had laid an egg. f'hii •/<, Ifrrnhl. Mints and Assay Oilier*. The t'nited States government has coinage mints in Fhilailelphio, San Francisco, New Orleans and Carson City, and a mint at Denver used at present merely as an assay officp. This last and the assay offices at Hoise City, Indian Territory. Helena, Montana Territory, and Charlotte, N. are lim ited by law to melting and assaying gold and silver bullion and paying for the same from treasury funds. There is an assay office at New York for the testing of foreign coin or bullion lmiight by the government to he coined or reeoineil. All the precious metal purchased for mintage is computed at the value given it at these assay offices. The single letters, 0., S.. C., etc., stamped under the eagle on the Amer ican coin, indicate the place where the piece was minted. THK VIIIOIXIUH MASSACRE Tk< Tlirllllna Kp®rUc of Captain Million liru. Captain Simon tiratz, one of the few men on hoard the Virginias who es caped being shot, recently gave a thrilling account of his narrow escape, lie suid: "In the fall of IH7I we were ready for another expedition, and 1 left New York on the British steamer Atlas, hound for Kingston. There were ISO of us, all citizens, having sigmxl no papers or made any agreement. At Kingston we found the Virginias, the old confederate blockade-runner. "The history of our chase and cap ture by the Tornado is well known. We were taken ushore at Santiago and locked up in prison that day, the last day in October On the 4th of Novem ber the butcher, liurriell, began to shoot the prisoners. The batch shot on the morning of the 4th were march ed into the prison chapel on the eve ning before, and -separately askisl questions, and insultingly taunted with their certain death while priests were saying mass for their souls. They were kept there nearly all night in this mock trial and religious exercise. Ilvan Varona, Cespedes and other offi cers and prominent Cubans were in the lirxt lot. Ryan gave an assumed name, but his long hair gave him away, and he acknowledged his identi ty. Captain O'Callihan was one of the Spanish officers engaged in the butch ery. He was in the Confederate army, and made an effort to save Ryan, but Hurriell would not listen to it. At six in the morning t lie squad was man-bed out and chained in pairs, two soldiers between every two prisoners and a tile of soldiers on each hand. They were made to kneel upon a bank of dirt by the side of a newly dug trench fac ing the ditch. A platoon of soldiers marched up, and when within a few rods of the km-eling figures lirtsl, shooting them in the back, the bodies falling into the ditch, and the soldiers wheeling and man hing away, while the hands were playing and Hags dy ing The trench was immediately tilled up, and all the military and hands marched over it to lively airs. The next morning another large squad w as shot in the same way. On the 7th the Virginias crew was brought ashore and shot. Captain Frye and Colonel Harris were among that squad, which num- Ix-risl thirty-seven. The purser was not kilbsl by the flr-t lire, and he rose up. turned around, and shouted "•You cowardly, bar) .iron butchers, have the decency to nhix>t your victims ■ lead • "A second volley was |iur'd into him, and bis laxly rolled into the trem b. "The next hatch was thirteen in numltcr. to Is- shot on the morning of the xth. 1 had U-cn in two hatches which had been shot, and had ls-en re -pi t'sl for a siiort time each morning on account of there Is-ing a wrong number or some superstition. I'rayers for the repose of my soul had already ls were taken to burn the w hole town if the prisoners were not released. Governor Hurriell then smuggled the prisoners off in the night to Moro castle, and conllned them in foul, wet and vermin-infested dungeons out under the sea A few day* after we were put almard a steam er for Havana to la* shot there. The v essel put in at St. tjuargus. whore the captilin communicated with the gov ernor of Havana, and received order* not. to land his charge in the pro vince. We were then taken hack to the Moro dungeons. There we re mained for two months Itefore our release." THK HPOOPEIfDTIKH. A Tumullunui Tlma Over ■ Nor* root* "My dear," whimpered Mr. .Sjioopen dyke, hobbling Into hitt wife's room and throwing himself into u chair with a desolate exjiresslon of despair on his Visage. "My dear, there in something the matter with my foot, ami I can't make, out what he trouble is." "I know!" exclaimed Mrs. Kjioopen i dyke, hovering over him with afTec- I tionate Interest and solicitude. "1 ! think it's rheumatism." | "So, it ain't rheumatism, either!" j growled Mr. Kpoopendyke. "It is I something worse than rheumatism, and if it goes to my heart it may kdl me!" May be It's a stone bruise," sug gested Mrs. SjMHiperidyke, not realizing that a great deal of the sentiment and ; most of the danger are taken out of a malady when it is definitely ascertain jed what the malady is. "All you want is some liniment and y<>u will be all right by to-morrow." "That's all you know about it." grunted Mr. Kjmopondyke, who was not to be put off with so small a disas ter as a stone bruise. "I tell you, that 1 have got some trouble with my foot that threatens my lite, and you tand around there like a cork in a bottle, and talk about it as though I hadn't got one leg into my eollin as far as the hip. Here 1 am kicking at death's door with a game foot, and all the in terest you have in the matter is to shoot off a \ ast amount of intelligence About stom- bruises. I tell ve, it's something that ain't to be triib-d with. Now, what're you going to do alsiut it ?" "Are you sure it isn't a corn?" hazarded Mrs. >joopcndyke, timidly. '•Siinetlines corns hurt wor-e than anything else; but I never heard of jtooplc dying of them." "No, it isn't a corn"' howled Mr. Spoopendyke, nursing his foot and glaring at his wife with a mingled ex pp-ssion of rage and pain "What d'ye think this f..t is, anyway; an ag ricultural district'* When did you ever hear of a corn that P-.U !X*l from the heel to the knee ' Winch of your friends ever had a corn that hurt clear to the ear'*" and Mr Kjumpendy ke touched his foot carefully to the tW.r and eyed his wife narrowly to -ee if she notienl the ex predion of agony Oil his face. "If it arts that way it must W a bunion!" rxrUuusl Mrs. Sjiooj-rndyke triumphantly. "All you have got to do is take your IHMM off and put your slipjx-rs on." "That's it"'yelled Mr. *>|onj>en.|yke. hauling off Ins shoe and tiring it across the room. "When a man is dying of inflammatory rheumatism, it's only bunion' You've got it' A pain that start* at tlx* toe, runs to the back of the neck and tie* in a hard knot oxer the *pine is a bunion' show me the bunion!" he continued, sticking his leg out straight and (minting In* linger at the offending f**t. "Take this digit in your lily white hand and place it tenderly on the dod gasted bunion before I die and forget what kill**! me! Pick it out of the surrounding anatomy!" he yelled, wriggling Ids foot and Iniuneing up and down in his rhair in a delirium of rage. "Hark the bunion from its mountain fastness on the hoof of Kpoopendyke and hold it up hi the gaze of the same!" "Doc* it hurt ?" commenced Mr*, bjx*tpendyke. soothingly. "Hurt'" roareo Mr. S|**q>endyke, springing from his chair and dancing around the room. "Of course it don't. It tickles' Hurt! It's a picnic! *ay. my dear." and hi* voice was low and tender. "Kay. my dear, instead of going in the country this summer we'll lay in a stock d bunions and wear 'em around for our health and recreation! Hurt !" he shrieked, break ing out in a new spot. "Hurt! it feels like n hand of music! That's what it is. a bunion! It took you to hit It! When I get time to fit you up with a full heard and a Ixottle of whis ky I'm going to start a dispensary with you! If you'd only improve your mind until you reached the standard of in telligence of a moderate donkey, you'd only need a stolen corpse and a bad smell to le a first rlas* medical college!" "Say, dear." observed Mrs. B|>oopen dyke, who had been carefully explor ing her husband's boot; "Say. dear. 1 think I have found out what the troutde is. It isn't a bunion, after all. Here is a peg sticking out here alxmt a quarter of an inch. If you will have that taken out I don't believe you will suffer any more." Mr. Spoopendyke jammed his hat over his eyes, shoved his feet into his slippers, grabbed the obnoxious l>oot and started for the door with a wither ing look at his wife as he went out. "I don't rare," murmured Mrs. Spoopendyke. as the front door slammed vindictively; "1 don't care. If he has it taken out he has to admit I that I was rtght, and If he doesn't i' will hurt him till he die*. I don't know which will lie the worse I r him hut he will have to do one or tlx other." And with this crowning triumph still in her mind, Mrs. Kpoop endyke began to scare tin* f!b*s out of the room with a sheet, wondering why a fly who has been half smashed against one window frame will insist on coming iri at the other window tc Im; smashed over again. PKAKI.B OF Til IMJIJIIT. Nothing is so g *! as it seems be forehand. All those who know their mind dv not know their heart. Iho more nature is sad, tlx* mors the hearthstone Is dear. He will easily Is; content arid at peace whose conscience is pure. I here is a fellowship among tlx* vir tiles by which one great, generous passion stimulates another. There are houses where people ar< bright without mistrusting it. tlx-ri are others w here people are stupid HI spite of tliemseh i s. in great cities we look the world in tlx- face. We shake hands with sterr. realities. We see ourselves in others We become acquainted with the mot ley, many-sided life of man. Life, in its xcry essence, is move merit and transition. Not what w have, hut what we gam or lose . not what we are, hut what we are Ix-eom mg ; not wlx re we stand, hut whence we come and whither we go, constitute its real interest and worth. I'ost yourself as to w hat is going on around you. L'-ok out for such men as you think you would like to be, and sis- what it is that makes them w hat they are. Note tlx* difference between tlx-ir way and the way-of tlx-orx-s you do not like There is alway a reason for a j>cr* >n's being w bat he |*. The Artful Oriental Itaee*. Though tlx-annals of artfuln<-ss - an lma*t -if mourning households where eothns haxe ima-ed -tob-n plat** in stead of corpse*, and of particular r.v e-hor.se* painted to resemble certain other* and -ent on long journey* m order that intending hackers might be misled, xx- can not. .is a nation, div jo te the j .Urn <>f trickery, mental or manipulative, xv it L some of the Orient al rail-*, whose merit undoubtedly raic*< them to that hail eminence. Possibly in the *|H-rial branch of for*c. stealing tlx- **uith A men an Indian might receive an i-qual certificate of proficiency xvith the Arab; hut as hold and c\jri general thieves the Hin doo* and ' birx-se stand uririxaled. At liinaman has Won known to ■ooze a genth-man'* finger and < ut it ■ b-an off in tlx- midst of a crowd to obtain jo*-'-**ton <>f a ring and cseajx* detection. I In* immunity is due j*-r -hajis to tlx- great resemblance which the fares of a Chinese tnob War tc one another in Kurojiean eye*, render ing individual* absolutely indistin guishable at first. a* well as to an in genxoi* artifice for disguising a broad lil.xlisl knife in tlx- semblance of a elosisl fan such as all Chinese carry Hindoo* "*ill swiiii or float cautiously along a rixer at dusk xvith an old basket or empty gourd oxer tlx* head, whirling or twisting lazily xxitli every eddy, and braving the crocodiles, to gain an entree to the bungalow they desire to plunder, under the very nose of the proprietor. Iletter than Million*. IhiWrt Hunlette talk* in his pater iial way to young men who have theii living to earn. Ileginners in life can not have too much of that kind of en couragement: .lames Fair is worth ♦l_'.*Ni.is*i i and the whole #12.000,000 of it, tny dear l*y. can't make him a* hajtpy as you are with the ilexx of youth in your heart. If you enxy him. if you. with your brown hand* and your bright young face with the down just shading your lip, with not a gray hair in your head or a gnaw ing care in your heart, with the morning sun shining on your u|v turned face, with thevelxct turf under your feet and the blue heavens alxove your head, with the blood coursing through your veins like wine, with fifty or sixty years of life before you. with mirage after mirage of bright dreams and beautiful illusions and pleasant vanities making the land soape beautiful about you; if you envy this man his gray hairs, and his wrinkles, and his old heart, you are a fool, my boy; and you an* scattering ashes on the roses that grow in the morning. There i* lightness in your step, mj son. and color in your Moral, and th* dreams in your heart, and all the love and tieauty and freshness of the sun rise, the $42,000,000 cannot buy. DlflLlHtKVft DOLUS*. "Nalhrr'l lira r Malar*." Iti* kilcbmi i* cluao and wy. And bright with the •utxhiiHi ga jr. Ami "Mother'* Paring |K/to>ni, and thirikioK "lt' humdrum work U> do," Hut little Mien Comfort i willing and quirk, Ami the (uiitntin* ore helping her Ui rough for mother ut *irk *;> d ia deeping, Ami baby i* quiet at Inet; Ami feiber 'll be wanting but dirio<-r we, Th# minute* are flying no feel. Oh, ehe know* he will kin* her, an 1 lore uer. Ami call her hi* "Biwy Bee;" But mother'* |>et name m Uie trueat ot all, Kor "Mother'* le*r Comfort" ia he. line Joe) Hai < >uhl, Josey like.l fj keep office for hit "Uncle Doctor," as he called hint. But the ijirctor *i envious, thinking of her house But as no one seemed to remark her, she U-gan to le discontented with her bar gain. •• I toes every liody have a house ei ept me?" she said to herself, crossly. I wish 1 had Itought something •Ise"* Presently -lie met a man carrying a small jar of oil. "This is what I want," exclaimed the old woman; "anvliody can have a house, but only the truly rich can have nil to light it with." S> she bartered her broom for the oil. and went on more proudly than ever, holding the jar so that all could we it. Still she failed to attract any particular notice, and she was once more discontented. As she went moodily along she met a woman with a bunch of large flowers. "Here, at hist. I have what I want," the old woman thought. "If I can get these, all that see me will tielieve 1 am just getting my house ready for a bril liant party. Then they'll lie jealous, I hope." So when the woman with the flow, ers came close to her she offered her oil tor them, and the other gladly made the change. "Now I am indeed fortunate!" she said to herself. "Now 1 am some body!" But still she failed to attract atten tion. and. happening to glance at het old dress, it suddenly oernrred to her that she might lie mistaken for a ser vant carrying flowers for her toaster she w as so much vexed by the thought that she flung the bouquet into th ditch, and went home to her tree cmp ty-handed. "Now I am well rid of it all." ah* said to herself.— St. Xvhola* A quart of good milk should weigt nearly two pounds and two and one h.ifr ounce#. *