rg,WitW 20 TEDS PrTTSBtTRG DJBPATOH, SUNDAY APRIL 8, 189a KsSKBHi I could fancr tie "sort of thing" they put en the presentation copies of their photo graphs, and I was sure they wrote a beauti Jul band. It ir odd how quickly I was sure of everything that concerned them. If they were now so poor as to hare to earn shillings and pence, they never had had much of a margin. Their good looks had been their capital, and they had good hu moredlymade the most of the career that this resource marked out lor them. It was In their faces, the blankness, the deep in tellectual repose of the 20 years of country house visiting which had given them pleas ant intonations. I could see the sunny drawing rooms, sprinkled with periodicals she didn't read, in which Mrs. Monarch had continuously sat; I could see the wet shrub beries in which she had walked, equipped to admiration for either exercise. I could see the rich covers the Major had helped to shoot, and the wonderful garments in which, late at night, he repaired to the smoking room to talk about them. I could imagine their leggings and waterproofs, their know ing tweeds and rugs, their rolls of sticks and cases of tackle and neat umbrellas; and I could evoke the exact appearance of their two servants and the compact variety of their luggage on the platforms of country stations. They gave small tips, but they were Used; they didn't do anything themselves, but they were welcome. They looked so well everywhere; they gratifiedthe general relish for stature, complexion and ''form." They knew it without fatuity or vulgarity, and they respected themselves in conse quence. Thev were not superficial; they were thorough and kept themselves up it had been their line. 1 could feel how, even in a dull house, they could have been counted upon for cheerfulness. At present something had happened it didn't matter what, their little income had grown less, it had grown least and they had to do some thing for pocket money. Their friends liked them, but didn't like to support them. There was something about them that repre sented credit their clothes, their manners, their type: but it credit is a large empty pocket in which an occasional chink rever- M f x T"-"e I'd Rather Look Oier the Stove. berates, the chink at leat must be audible. What they wanted of me was to help to make It so. Fortunately they had no chil dren I soon divined that. They would also perhaps wish our relations to be kept secret; this wa why it was "for the figure" the reproduction of the face would betray them I liked them they were so simple; and I had no objection to them if thev would suit. But, somehow, with all their perfections I didn't easily believe in them. After all, they were amateurs, and the ruling passion ot my life w as the detestation of the ama teur. Combined with this was another perversity an innate preference for the represented subject over the real one. The defect of the real one was so apt to be a lack of representation. I liked things that appeared; then one was sure. "Whether tuey were or not was a subordinate, and almost always a tiresome question There were other considerations the first of which was that I already had two or three people in use, notably a young person with big feet, in alpaca, from Kilburn, who, for a couple of years, had come to me regularly for my illustrations, and with whom I was still perhaps ignobly satisfied. I frankly ex plained to my visitors how the case stood; but-they had taken more precautions than I snpj-osfd. They had reasoned out their opportunity, for Claude Rivet had told them of the projected edition de luxe of one of the writers of our day the rarest of the novelists who, long neglected by the multitudinous vulgar and dearly prized by the attentive (need I mention Philip Vin cent?) had had the happy fortune of see ing, late in life, the dawn and then the full light of a higher criticism an estimate in which, on the part of the public, there was something really of expiation. The edition in question, planned by a publisher ot taste, was practically an act of high reparation; the wood cuts with which it was to be en riched were the homage ol English art to one of the most independent representatives of English letters. Major and Mrs. Mon arch confessed to me that they had hoped I might be able to work them "into mv share of the enterprise, They knew I was to do the first ot the books, "Rutland Ramsay," but T had to make clear to them that my participation in the rest ot the affair this first book was to be a test was to depend on the satisfaction I should give. If this should be limited my employers would drop me without a scrup!c It was therefore a crisis lor me, and naturally I was making special preparations, looking about tor new people, if they should be necessa-y, and se curing the b'est types. I admitted, how ever, that I should like to settle down to two or three good models who would do for everything. "fahould we have often to a put on special clothes?" Mrs. Monarch timidly demanded. "Dear, ves that's half the business." "And should we be expected to supply our own costumes?" 'Oh, no; I've got a lot of things. A painter's models put on or put oft any thing he likes." "And do vou mean a the same?" "The same?" Mrs. Monarch looked at her hesband cgain. 'Ob, she was just wondering," he ex plained, "if the costumes are in general use." I had to confess that they were, and I mentioned further that some of them (I had a lot of genuine, greasy, last-century things), had served their time, a hundred years ago, on living, world-stained men and women. "We'll put on anything that fits," said the Major. "Oh, I arrange that they fit in the pict ures." "I'm afraid I should do better for the modern books. I would come as you like," said Mrs. Monarch. "She has got a lot of clothes at home; they might do for cotemporary life," her husband continued. , "Oil, I can fancy scenes in which you'd be quite at home." And indeed Iconld see the slipshot rearrangements of stale proper ties the stones I tried to produce pictures for without the exasperation of reading them whose sandv ti'acts the good lady might help to people. But I had to return to the fact that for this sort of work the daily mechanical grind I was already equipped; the people I was working with were quite adequate. "We only thought we might be more like Eomecharacters,"saldMrs. Monarch mildly, getting up. Kcr husband also rose; he stood looking at mc with a dim wistfulness that was touching in so fine a man. "Wouldn't it be rather a pull sometimes to have a to hae ? He hung fire; he wanted me to help him bv phrasing what he meant. Bat I couldn't I didn't know. So he brought it out awkwardly: "The ral thing; a gen tleman, you knoy, or a lady?" I was quite ready to give a general assent I admitted that "there was a great deal in that This encouraged Major Monarch to say, fol lowing up his apneal with an unacted gulp: "It's awfully hard we've tried everything." The gulp was communicative; it proved too much for his wife. Before I knew it Mrs. Monarch had dropped down upon a divan and burst into tears. Her husband sat down beside her, holding one of her hands; whereupon the quickly dried her eyes with the other, while I felt embarrassed as she looked at me. "There ish't a confounded job I haven't applied for waited for prayed for. You can fancy we'd be pretty bad first. Secretaryships and that sort of thing? You might" as well ask for a peer age. I'd be anything I'm strong; a mes senger or a coalheaver. I'd put on a gold laced cap and open carriage doors in front of the haberdasher's; I hang about a station to carry portmanteaus; I'd be a postman. But they won't look at you; there are thou sands as good as yourself already on the ground gentlemen, poor beggars, that hive drunk their wine, that have kept their hunters!" I was as reassuring as I knew how to be, andmy visitors -rere presently on their feet again, while, for the experiment, we agreed on an hour. "We were ditousilng it when the door opened and Miss Churm came in with a wet umbrella. Miss Chnrm had to take the omnibus to Maida Vale and then walk half a mile. She looked a trifle blowsy and slightly splashed. I scarcely ever saw her come in without thinking afresh how odd it was that, being so little in herself, she should yet be sonnuch in others. She was a meager little Miss Churm, but she was an ample heroine of romance. She was a freckled cockney girl, but she could rep resent everything, irom a line lady to a shepherdess; she had thefaculty.asihe might have had a fine voice or long hair. She couldn't spell, and she loved beer, but she had two or three "points," and practice, and a knack, and mother wit, and a kind of 'whimsical sensibility, and a love of the the ater, and seven sisters, and not an ounce of respect, especially for the h. The first thing my visitors saw was that her um brella was wet. and in their spotless perfec tion they visibly winced at it. The rain had come on since their arrival. "I'm all in a soak, there was a mess of people in the 'bus. I wish you lived near a station," said Miss Chnrm. I requested her to get ready as quickly as possible, and she passed into the room in which she al ways changed her dress. But before going out she asked me what she Was to get into this-time. 'It's the Bussian princess, don't yon know?" I answered; "the one with the 'golden eves' in black velvet, for the long thing in the Cheapside." "Golden eyes? I say!" cried Miss Churm, while my companions watched her with in tensity as she withdrew. She always ar ranged herself, when she was late, before I could turn round; and I kept my visitors a little, on purpose, so that they might get an idea, from seeing her, what would be expected of themselves. I mentioned that she was quite my notion of an excellent model she was really very clever. "Do you think she looks like a Bussian princess?" Major Monarclrasked, with lurk ing alarm. "When I make her, yes." "Ob, if you have to make her 1" he reasoned, acutely. "That's the most you can ask. There are so many that are not makeable." "Well, now, here's a lady" and with a persuasive smile he passed his arm into his wife's "whose already made!" "Oh, I'm not a Bussian princess," Mrs. Monarch protested, a little coldly. I could see that she had known some and didn't like them. There, immediately, was a compli cation of a kind that I never had to fear with Miss Churm. This young lady came back in black vel vet the gown was rather rutty and very low on her red hands. I reminded her that in the scene I was doing she must look over someone's head. "I lorgot whose it is; but it aoesnt matter, dust loos: oyer a bead. "I'd rather look over a 6toves" said Miss Churm; and she took her station near the fire. She fell into position, settled herself into a tall attitude, gave a certain backward inclination to her head and a certain forward droop to her fan, and looked, at least to my prejudiced sense, distinguished and charm ing, foreign and dangerous. "We left her looking so, while I went down stairs with Major and Mrs, Monarch. "Ithinklcould come as near to it as that," said Mrs. Mon arch. "Oh.yon think she's shabby.but you must allowtor the alchemy of art." However, they went ofi with an evident increase of comfort, fodnded on tbeir demonstrable ad vantage in being the real thing. I could fancy them shuddering over Miss Cliurm. She was very droll about them when I went back, for I told her what they wanted. "Well, if she can sit I'll take to book keeping," said my model. "She's very ladylike," I replied, as an innocent form of aggravation. "So much the worse for you. That means she can't turn round." "She'll do for the fashionable novels." "Oh, yes, she'll do lor them!" my model humorously declared. "Ain't they bad enough without her?" I had often sociably denounced them to Miss Churm. To Be CovUiutd Xext Sunday. A SIEGE OF SICKNESS. Bob Bnrdette Fights It Oat With a little Indisposition IT WAS A FIVE DAIS ENGAGEMENT Kobodj -Was Seriously Hurt, bat It Wasn't Pleasant, However. FW WI!fH THE CROWS AND ME CLOOtt rwarrrtx froa ntx Etsr-i.TCH.1 "Is there no hope?" the sick man said. Tne silent doctor shook his head, And took bis leave with signs or sorrow, Despairing of his Tee to-morrow. But it wasn't the sick man who wrote this satirical quatrain; oh, no; it was the gay man. The sick man never jokes about phy sicians and medicines. 'They are very seri ous things to him. For his part he cannot have too many of them. A few weeks ago, with the shallow idiocy which is a part of exuberant health, he laughed oyer the old fancy See one physician, like a sculler piles The patient lingers, and by Inches dies; But two physicians, like a pair of oars, Waft him moie swiftly to the Stygian shores. But he is sent to bed -with some slight sickness, and he believes that enough physi cians, should they pull together, could row him up Niagara, back to life, out of the very whirlpool of death. Beally, it isn't such an unpleasant thing to be ill, if one knows how to be. It has its compensations. For a hurried, busy man, who undertakes more than he can do, sickness comes as an angel of rest; al though when she flies into the room with her message, the terrified patient thinks he can smell brimstone on her wings, and hence is apt to mistrust the visitant. But that is his own fault , Driving in the Pickets. The time comes in your active life When your infirmity of temper warns yourself and the family that you have got out of bed on the wrong side. The cheery meal of incense breathing morn doesn't taste right. You find fault with the coffee in a tone that turns all eyes upon you. The egg they gave yon there are a thousand easier ways of killing one's self than by Wearily dragging one's sell to death, year after year, weak, BOhlng, miserable years Of self-immolation. More over, When you are really sick, conscience doesn't seem to be able to worry you any more than do the other things of life. Driven Inside Tour IntrOhchments. Downstairs you can hear the little mur mur ol voices which tells you that the family, si the manner of the family In all families is, has waylaid the doctor and Is catechising him with queries that never oc curred to you. You hear the front door, far below, slam its "goodby," there is a rush of wheels, and you are alone. Out of your windows you can see the tops of the trees, and note, what you would hot have noticed had you been well, how the red buds of the maples are swelling. Before vou went to bed there were robins and bluebirds- oh the I4wn, and you idl; wonaer What they am came on. You didn't 1 BANE OF BURGLARS. Electricity Seems to Be the Only Thing They Cannot Hasten THE TRANSMISSION OF POWES. X Kir Theory as, to the Interior of the Earth and Its JlotlOn ting l3o,000borse power ' 340 miles at COO, 000 volts through three wires about as large as a good Sited knitting needle, fend to tend this underground, too, through a small pipe, using only Cotton and cheap oil as the insu lators. He also proposes to supply the central stations of a eltv with cheap electrl cal power instead of "with expensive coal. Mr, Tesla, on the other hand, makes the statement that there will be ho necessity la the future to transmit power to great dis tances, because we shall be able to get cheap power at any place in the universe. when the blizzard ; know this room could PKESH APPLICATIONS OF BCIBNOB Queries That Never Occurred to You. HiiMlllllrtll'iliiJIl'i tlti liwSmw ,j fir Can't Lie on the Flat of tour fiack Without Hotdins On. SHE HADE THE GOO A CAP, Carious Japanese legend as to the Crnolty of Silk Production. In the book called Jizo-kio-kosni, this legend is related of the great statue of Jizo, of Japan. Formerly there lived atKama kura the wife of altonin named Soga Sadaj oshi. She lived by feeding silkworms and gathering the sik. She used often to visit the temple of Ken-cho-ji; and one very cold day 6he went there, she thought that the image of Jizo looked like one suffering from cold; and she resolved to make a cap to keep the god's head warm, such a cap as the people of the country wear in cold weather. And she went home and made the cap, and covered the god's head with it, saying: 'Would I were rich enough to" give thee a warm covering for all thine august body; but, alas! I am poor, and even this whichl offer thee is unwortliy of thy divine accept ance." Kow this woman died very suddenly in the COth year of her age, in the twelfth month ot the fifth year of the period called Chisho. But her body remained warm for three days, so that her relatives would not sutler her to be taken to the burning ground. And on the evening of the third day she came to life again. Then she related that on the day of her deatb she had gone before the judgment peat of Eunna, King and Judge of the Dead, and Eunna, seeing her, became wroth, and said to her: "You have been a wicked woman, and have scorned the teaching of the Buddha. All your life vou-have passed in destroying the lives of silkworms by putting theminto lle.it el wi4:r. Now ycu snail go to the Kwukkto-Jlgoku, and there burn until your sins shall be expiated." Forthwith she was seized and dragged by demons to a great pot filled with molten metal and thrown into the pot, and she cried out horribly. And suddenly Jizo Sama descended into the molten metal be side her, and the metal became like a flow ing oil and ceased to bum, and Jizo put his arms around her and lifted her out. And he went with her. before Kine Eunna, and asked that she should be pardoned for his sake forasmuch as she bad become related to him by oue act of goodness. So she found pardon, and returned to the Shaba world. It is not lawful, according to Buddhism, for any one to wear silk, and by the law of Buddha priests arc foibidden to wear it. Keiertheless, nearly all the priests wear silk, Buddha or no Buddha. A Hew Fire Extinguisher. A new material, which has been intro duced in England under the name of "vulite," has given some remarkable re sults as a fire extinguisher. For this pur pose, although it is a liquid, it is much more effective than water, inasmuch as it freezes only at a very low temperature and exercises no injurious effects on fabrics or timber. A large fire made with highly in flammable materials was extinguished almost immediately by a small charge of the pre paration. It is also likely to come into use as a protector for the skin for persons who are exposed to intense heat A very con vincing feature of the merits of vulite is that after it has been applied material that was previously combustible will not ignite. w is "limed," you can't be deceived on that. There hasn't been a "store egg" in the house in five months, and the "egg compelling" hen who turned out the one you are finding fault with, for this especial breakfast, would be justified in learning to crow, if she should hear your criticism. Plainly you are "offvour feed," a bad sign in horse or rider. But you say you "are all right," and keep up and make everybody and everything else all wrong all day. Night comes and you go to bed early. Somebody anxiously suggests that you should "see the doctor." You utter an ill natured snort of derisive contempt and fierce refusal, with your foot on the stairs, that may be heard clear down into the cellar. This is your cheerful "good night" to your anxious and loving family, who make gentle exenses for you should there be visi tors in the parlor. Horning finds you in abed that suggests a night in a centrifugal drying machine. Your surroundings do not look restful. You make one or two ineffectual efforts to dress and come down to breakfast. But you decide that you don't care whether you ever get anything to eat again in all this world; you lie down again and wait for somebody to come. Oat on the Skirmish IJar. Someone comes, taps at the door; vou say "Come in" in the sickest tone you can in vent. If you are going to be sick, you pro pose to let people know it. So you strike a melancholy whine, pitched on a quavering lalsetto and say feebly a startling contrast to your gooa nignt snort is your gooa morn ing pipe "Come in." Someone peeps In the drfor. "Why for mercy's sake 1 I thought you were dressed 1 Areu t you coming down to breakfast That just about breaks your heart. "Com ing down to breakfast !" you, a dying man I Well, for lust about a minute you have a great mind to get up and go down and die at the breakfast table. But then yon remem ber just in time how many notices there have been in the papers the past few weeks ot people choking to death on pieces of meat stuck in their windpipes and one place and another, and it would be just like the reporters to get that off on you. That would never do. And, beside, if you are really too sick to get up, you don't harbor feelings of resent ment very long. You decide not to die for several days anyhow; you lie still and ex plain things. You abandon the querulous whine ot the amateur invalid, finding that your natural voice has pitched Itself to a quaver that is a little strange to yourself. You take little interest in the task of re Constructing your room, which is going on without your co-operation; you find your self listening for the doctor; in your con stiained position you bathe your hands and face awkwardly; the water runs up your arms and trickles off your elbows without appearing to surprise you very much, although you can't remember that this is its usual custom; you arc a little irritated that you upset some things and drop others so easily, and when you are out of breath at the close of your toilet you are out of pati ence ith yourself. Certainly you are going to be sick and you are not used to it, nor very sure that you shall like it. The General Takes (he Field. The doctor comes. Happy invalid that you are, you have a personal friend and phvsiciau in the same man; cheery, quick, confident, a man to whom you dare not lie; whom vou are convinced knows more about yourself than you can tell him; to him your extended tongue Is a mysterious parchment, written over with characters that are Sin aitic hieroglyphs to you but plain English to him; he is on easy, familiar terms with your tonsils, and knows by name and sight all the Greeks residing in the region of vour diaphragm, and all the Latin fellows on both sides ot the road between your pharynx and stomach. You feel a little better even be fore you have the prescription filled, and you hear, with a sigh ot satisfaction, Bince it must be so, his parting injunction, fired backward over his shoulder as he passes out of the door, "Stay in bed." 'Sow, this begins to be something like being sick; your conscience reproaches you, a little; tells you really this is a luxury that you can't afford. A woman wouldn't give up and go to bed in this easy fashion. But then you reflect that it would be 100 per cent better for the woman if she would, and you are not going to commit suicide just because she does. And if-you should, be so quiet; you are out of the world Up here. The sense of silence and rest Is punctuated with an ache here, and a pain there, it isn't all so restful as it looks to be. Mattresses should be made with a hump across the middle to fit the small of the back. You construct tin artificial one. Ah, that's comfort! Straightway you invent a mat tress ot that kind. 'You turn over; the "hump" .doesn't answer so well when vou lie on your side. You have to invent a new mattress with an automatic hump. Too much trouble; you will let the doctors attend to that. You "are not sleepy, but it isn't easy to keep your eyes open. The Frosress of the Siege. You trace the course of a crack in the ceiling; you discover rather artistic designs and most expressive pictures in the natural tracery and knots of the furniture; the foot board ot the bed is a panorama; Wonder, you never noticed it before; when you get well you wyi copy Some of the picture?. Which you never do. You hear wheels; they stop at the door; it is soniebody to inquire after you; you arrange yourself for callers In a little touch of Importance and complacency. They do not come upstairs. Ah, not permitted to do so! Evidently your case Is more serious thah you sdppose'd; you are quarantined. Somebody comes to give you your medicine. "Who was it called this morning?" "That was the meat wagon." "Profound impression on the part of the patient, who doesn't say anything abont it, however. You guess what time it is by the shadows on the wall, missing it only a few hours. You hear the clock tick, but the high back rocker stabds So as to bide the dial. The clock never ticked that way be fore. You notice, especially during the night, that it doesn't tick evenly; it limps a little; and at intervals there' is a little metallic, bell-like ring to the tick. Once in a while it chokes, and sometimes it stum bles. It goes! "tick, took: tick, tock; tlok, tock;" you get tired of this and try to head it off and make it go "took, tick; tock, tick," You can't do it; the effort makes you tired. A Sortie by the Garrison. Everything makes vou tired. You will just look out ot the window and not think of anything. You can see the Crows fly over the tree tops; that is your universe away up under the roof the sky. You have halt a mind to get up and open a window. You have seven-eighths of a mind, however, to lie quite still. You find yourself laying little bets with yourself, not too high, which way the next crow will fly. When you win you are passively elated. When you lose .you are strangely depressed and wonder if you haven t gone into this thing a little too deep. By and by you lose heavily, doubling your bets three times in succession. You make up your mind that somebody has "seen" your mind, and that racing is just as uncertain in the air as on the ground. Beside, it isn't right to gamble even for fun if ycu're going to be soitt out by your own crows every time. You wish you had a book. You can't go' downstairs after one, and you are atraid to atk for one lest someone should ask the doctor next time he comes to forbid your reading. You wish you had kept why, there did used to be some books in this room; someone has taken them away. In which sdrmlse you are quite correct. The wandering aimless eye of a sick man which eventually finds everything, sees one, after a while, partially concealed over there be hind your shaving case. It looks like a re ligious book. It it isn't too religious it will do. If it is the "Memoir of John Mooney Mead" vou would prefer another heat or two on the crow track. Youget up, and with guilty stealth start across after it. Negotiations lor a Surrender. Help, oh mighty Hercules! Your legs are made of knees, that work both ways. A man might as well walk on a pair ot "lazy tongues." You didn't know a fellow could get so weak and wabblev before death. How ever, by the aid of a lriendly chair you get there. The book is not "John Mooney Mead." Hardlv. It is oue of Bret Harte's tracts, entitled, "Two Men of Sandy Bar." Somebody is coming up stairs; you toss the book back and get to bed, so weak that you can't lay on the flat of your baok without holding on. It is luncheon. You chew and swallow something, but you do not eat. Everything tates ex' Jtly alike, and nothing tastes like anything. "When someone goes away the "Two Men of Sandy Bar" mys teriously disappear. You pile your pillows up into an easy back rest; you will change your position a little; you lie down and the top pillows come tumbling down over your lace. You pitch them out on the floor with feeble strength, but strong utterance. Then you remember that you may die before you get well, it not sooner. You feebly fish in the evicted pil lows and compose yourself in the popular old "Crusader attitude" feet crossed, hands crossed on your breast, eyes closed, tranquil, serene, silent. The shadows fill the room, somebody Is reading aloud down stairs; the lamps are lighted, then; the voice goes murmuring on, a perfect imita tion ot a running brook; you hear the sleet dash against the windows, the weather has changed, then; the voices and the dashing sleet blend confusedly and the morning and the evening are the first day. Boots and Saddles at Last. When you open your eyes, the unbroken silence tells you that you died about a week rwaiTTSN xon tzhe DUPATca.l At a recent lecture in Berlin on ''Eleotrlo Appliances for the Security of Property," an interesting incident was the exhibition of the tools ot thieves. The modern equip ment of a safe breaker takes up but little space, and can be conveniently stowed away. The most Important Instrument, and at the same time the fulcrum for most of the other tools, is a carefully wrought Compound breaking lever with whioh very great force Oau be exerted. An "advanced" burglar has at his disposal two such crowbars. At one end of the bar there is an arrangement which allows of a hammer being attached, while the, other end admits of the insertion of a series of other tools. If it is required to remove the door pillars met with in many safes, a pointed and ourved iron is attached, With which the pillars can be easily grasped. If they resist this attack a kind of claw is screwed on, and with the help of the crow bar even the strongest pillar may be burst off. If it is intiaded to tear away the angle hooks at the corners of the safe, a forceps Is fitted Into the lever, and if a lever is applied at each corner, and the two levers pressed together, very strong walls maybe forced in and connections be loosened. The first step in the foiling of these simple but e fleet ivo methods has been to manu facture safes which afford no point of attack for claws and pincers, and thus safes have been produced welded in one piece. The attempt to make boring and filing Impos sible by the use of steel plates which resist every boring tool has also been made, but as these plates are so brittle that they can be broken in pieces with a hammer, the steel plates were next welded together with plates of wrought Iron, and thus the attack with the hammer has been rendered impos sible. But still another mode- of attack had to be guarded against. The experienced burglar carries with him a melting lamp, With whioh, in the course of 10 to IS min utes, he can operate upon ordinary plates so as to produce a hole through which he can creep into the safe. More massive struc tures, however, ofler considerable resist ance, and require the work of hours. It has been found that the use of elec tricity is the only means of successfully meeting the attacks of the burglar. A Ger man electrician has lately produced an electric safety signal, Which depends on the well-known principle of thread contact. The apparatus is placed within the safe, and the current is introduced through holes. These holes, however, afford new points of attack, and M. Berg, who gave the lecture on the subject in question in Berlin, em phasized the necessity of a different prin ciple of construction. He places his appa ratus free and open on the safe, ond exposes the wires connecting it with the signal ap paratus in the watchman's room. In view of the tact that many burglars have been found to possess considerable practical knowledge of electrical devices, this con struction has one great advantage, it makes it impossible even for a trained electrical 1 cum of tMtsship Working. The cost of working steamships is, iu comparison with many industrial, exces sive. iJurinaj last .year six of the steam ships of a large company earned a gross profit of $300,000. Out of that sum there was first paid lor the wages and provisioos of the Cfew, (09,000. Port charges Came nest in amotlnt, and over &0,OOO was so paid, while the cost of insurance was $45,' 00ft The bunker coals cost $35,000; the cost of loading and discharging was $40,000, and the commissions paid to merchants and brokers, with dispatch money, aggregated $20,000. When deck and engine stores, the cost of docking, painting, etc., and the cost of management is added, the total expen diture is brought up to $315,000; so that only about one-tenth of the original gross profit remains to be divided among the owners of the vessels. It is easy to say that the cost of working is excessive, but it would be much more difficult to point out how it eau be reduced by the efforts of the owners. Insurance and dock charge! are two items that admit of little modification. In the cost of coals there is always a fluctuation, as it varies not only with the actual price, but also, in some degree, with the nature of the trade in which the steamers are engaged; and there is also a decrease in Wages, be cause during recent years the employment of men has not increased concurrently with the increase in the size of steamships. Speaking generally, the cost of fuel is being decreased by more perfect machinery, and also by the increased development of coal mining. Still, when allowance has been made for all this, the cost of the working of steamships Is very heavy, and should freights keep low, the attention of those in terested will need to be given to the reduc tion of that cost THE LAUD OF LACES. Bare Fabrics That Queen Marguerite Will Send to the Fair. UlflQUB STILES OF BOOKKEEPER. Improving- the Memory of Figures. The fault 'with most artificial memory systems is that they are too elaborate, and breakdown from the impracticability of their conditions. For the purpose of im proVibg the memory of figures, a little trouble and eommon sense will go further than most of these so-called mnemonic sys tems. It is beyond question that some people have the inestimable boon of a good memory, but in many cases a poor memory is mainly the result of carelessness and want of attention. By the exercise of steady determination the power of concentration necessary for improving the memory can be Gradually gained. The mind must not he oaded too much, A little everv day is qtiite enough, but that little must be well and earnestly grappled with. If this is done conscientiously the results will soon be most gratifying. The amount of money spent daily, no matter how Inconsiderable the items may be, may be written down at night from rec ollection. If a note is given or taken the amount of it, the time it was given and the date of its maturity, together With the rate of interest, can be held in mind with little difficulty. The number of a street in which a friend lives, and such things as the num ber of apple, peach and pear trees in yolfr orchard, it you are lucky enough to have ode, and Innumerable other items of daily life can be utilised as memory lessens. The main point is that there must be no shirk The Agitation in England Against Custom of Handshaking. the 1 H15 WHO IS FAMOUS A3 AN 0BAT0S IWBITTZIf FOB TlUt blSrUTCtt. It is announced1 that Queen Marguerite of Italy will send an exhibit of lace to the t . World's Fair. ThL should prove an Inter esting and instrnctive display as the Italian qUeen has always been an enthusiastic patron of the lace industry. It was mainly through her patronage and the efforts of two of her t-tr country women oi A noble birth that the Queen MargueHU. manufacture of that iovely and most perfeot of laces, Venetian point in relief, was revived at Burano, one of the little islands that cluster around "Venice. Venice, as it is well known, was the home of the lace-making art. No pre cise date can be given as its first appearance, but It was some time in the fifteenth cen tury, and It was either the result of an effort at imitation of the embroiders in gold, silver and colors brought to Italy by the Greeks or is the direct descendant of the magnificent Saracenic ornaments left by the latter people In Southern Europe. But no matter what the origin, Venice was the first to attain perfection, notwithstanding France and Flanders claim the honor. The Frenchman, Colbert, endeavored to imitate and rival the Venetians, but was at last compelled to suborn women from Venice and distribute them among his workshops. The result was the superb French laces of the seventeenth and eight eenth centuries, which are really, as a matter Of course, Venetian laces transplanted. Point d' Alencon is an exact imitation of Burano point, and, to be honest, it has never equaled the original. Among the import ant pieces which Qneen Marguerite is likely to send to the country are the reproduction of Pope Clement XIII'S laces. Her Majesty is also the owner ot the originals. It took 15 work-women two years to make them. One piece, which was exhibitedsiat Paris in 1676, is valued at 6.000 francs, although it is only three meters long and 55 inches wide. Another piece, which may be excluded, is a copy of the wonderful collar made for Louis XIV on his coronation. This masterpiece of Venetian point required two years to make, and cost 250 pieces of gold. These few facts will serve to show how important the Italian Queen's exhibit may be made. ym-rB &fx a&s. Z&1 XKSaWKf 'IS HV Tffl ln ffHiA vav. f JV:i!4t.J . J fJ- $.".2 !' 'f '.r .."" """" " ""j."" .!" Mn only be overcome hv resolute -will power, until it has been toned up to healthy ago and have now been buried four days. You don't mind it very much; it isn't so bad as vou thought it would be. But the dim'nieht lamp and grotesque shadows it limns on walls and ceiling, tell you that yon are still in the service, and the clock announces that it is ready to help you pass the night. And go, in the usual manner you get through it. "Weill" you manage to say, when you've thought over the heartlessness and Ingrati tude of the old world that runs right away from vou after you've lived in it so long; cancel your lecture engagements, for you couldn't stand on your legs half an hour if you were wired with lightning rods: tele graph the editors that you can't come, and you'll crawl around to the typewriter and tell The Dispatch why you can't write a letter this week. And this is the reason. BOBEBT J. BUBDSTXE. to any agitation, or as a blast flame acts upon it, or as the circuit is interrupted, the alarm bell is at once set in aotion, and the thlet thus betrays his own presence. Care of Snake Bites. It seems likely that by the time all the venomous snakes have been killed oft the face of the earth science will have discov ered a means of neutralizing the effect of their poison. But, in the mean time, every remedy that does this even partially means a saving of hnman life. A child who was bitten in Queensland by a "death Udder" has just been saved from death by the ad ministration of strychnia. The child on being bitten was taken to the nearest house, the end ot the finger In which the fangs of the snake had been fastened was removed, the stump being sucked and drenched with ammonia, the ligatures being applied to the arm. In three hours the child was almost comatose, the body and the extremities cold, pupils dilated and insensitive to light, and the pulse rapid and irregular. The child was then wrapped in hot flannels, heat was applied to the limbs, while tour minims of liquid strychnia were aMministcred hypo dermically and a strong faradic current ap plied to the nape of "the neck and along the spine. Fifteen minutes later another four minims of strychnia were injected, and almost immediately a change began to mani fest itself in all the symptoms. In a short time the child recovered con sciousness and improved so rapidly that the next day she was apparently well, and hone the worse for her dangerous experience ex cept for the loss of her finger. It is stated that hypodermio inJe'Ction of strychnia has been adopted in many similar oasis, with almost unvarying success, and it is now re garded by the medical profession as a most valuable remedy for the deadly pohon of snakes. When Doctors Differ. A solution of the problem why the mag netic needle, instead of pointing due north ward, inclines to a greater or less degree to one side, and why the region to which it is directed keeps slowly shifting, has been offered by Henry Wilde. Mr. Wilde be lieves that the outer shell of the earth and the great mass within rotate somewhat in dependently of each other. The interior portion, still in a liquid condition, he con ceives as continuing to revolve about the axis which our planet bad in its infancy; that is, one perpendicular to the plane of the elliptic. He thinks that when the moon was thrown off from the earth the crust of our globe was skewed over to one side about 23u, and this part, therefore, re volves about what we call "the geograph ical pole." The inner mass, like the other planets and tbe sun, he regards as electro-dynamic, while the shell is electro-magnetic. Mr. Wilde's demonstrations are worked out with great care and ability, and he claims that, "irom the various movements ot de clination and inclination needles, correlated with each other in direction, time and amount on different parts of the earth's sur face, the theory Of a fluid interior may now be considered to be as firmly established as the doctrine of the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis." On the other hand, the notion that the earth is solid to its core is still stoutly maintained by a large number ot eminent physicists, and no less an au thority than Sir 'William Thomson has ex pressed the belief that the whole globe Is as rigid as glass, if not as firm as steeL The Transmission of Power. The successful long distance transmission of power by the Lauflen-Frankfort plant has given a decided impetus to operations in this field, and the results of the present st,eps toward utilizing the Niagara Falls for this purpose are being eagerly anticipated. There has been a good deal of wild talk on the subject ot asing the power of Niagara in New York City, and a leading electrical paper wisely, says that It is vastly more within the bounds ot likelihood that New Yorkers will have to drink the water of Lake Erie instead of running their factories with it. There are two new ideas on the subject of the electrical transmission of power which, from their source, deserve special attention. ProfElihu Thomson f peaks of transmit- and vigorous action. The discipline is not axbugetuer jjicosaiib, uufc lb paa- Unjust Mallfmlnc of Domestic Birds. The maxim that a certain gentleman of unsavory reputation is not so black as he is painted would seem to apply to 'the charges which are preferred against many of onr do mestic birds. The meadow lark, for in stance, for which the farmer has nothing but abuse, is accused of pulling tip shoots of young wheat It is now found that the food of these birds is mostly insects, and that therefore they do a great deal more good than harm. How little they deserve the odlnm into which they have fallen is shown bv the fact that in the stomachs of 30 larks 100 seeds, 25 caterpillars, 67 grasshoppers and 67 beetles were found. The robin and the blueiav have no character to sneak of. yet two of the former birds have been known to take to their young 50 cutworms within an hour, in a country where berries were plentiful, while the bluejay is one of the most voracious insect feeders known. It is estimated that two javs and, say five young birds, require for food in 100 days 20,000 in sects that are harmful to fruit and food plants. The woodpecker, which is looked upon as decidedly outside the pale of ornithological respectability, Subsists on insects and grubs that injure fruit, and the sparrow hawk, which no one will say a good word for, de stroys great quantities ot snakes, mice and insects. Tne only birds which appear to be hopelessly mischievbns and destructive, for which no saving clause can be entered, are the crow and the sparrow, and these fully deserve all the abuse that has been heaped upon them. The Electrlo Motor In the Industries. It was prophesied not many yeara ago that the electrlo motor would be the means of eflecting a very considerable modifica tion of the factory system, by the ease with which it would enable the artisan to work at his own "home. There are many signs that the fulfillment of this augury is ap proaching. Already 3,000 people in the city of Bochester use electric motors in making their living. Many of these people live in the outskirts ot the town, and do their work at their homes. So much has the utilization of the electric ' current for sewing machines been taken advantage of that a local company has extended lines to 275 tailoring shops, nearly all of which are in the rooms of the 'owners' homes. This number includes several that have been adopted by seamstresses and workers on a small scale. Tbe company has 800 motors in different parts of the city, varying from one-eighth to 25 horse power. There is quite a demand for them among dressmak ers, small printing offices and dentists, be sides other industries. So thoroughly have the inhabitants of Bochester begun to realize the advantages of electricity that it is believed before another year has passed street cars and many small offices will be heated by the electric current. J Cencia Bcarpagliota. Electric Express Locomotives. The idra of running express trains on trunk lines by electricity is not confined to this country. M. Bonneau, engineer of the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Bailway, has published a striking paper on the future application ot current to the traction cf heavy express trains. M. Bonueau consid ers that it would be a comparatively easy matter to build an express locomotive which would perform the journey between Paris and Marseilles in nine hours, or a lit tle more than half the time consumed by the present fast trains. He is in favor of generating the current in stations placed at suitable distances along the line and con ducting it to the locomotive through the rails. America will soon have some very practical information on this subject, which M. Bonneau may find it to his advantage to utilize in the construction of his prpposed line. Experiments are now being con ducted in this country which promise within the next year very remarkable de velopments in this field. Bio buss, little bugs, all kinds of buxs, especially roaolies and bedbugs instantly slanxhteied by Bngine. 23 cents, at all dealers. Stories of the Early Lace. A very pretty story holds among the Venetian laceworkers of the origin of Vene tian point A young sailor, retnrned from distant seas, bringing to his love a specimen of the sea plant known as "mermaids' lace;" in science, Ealimelia opuntia. The girl ob serves with sorrow the pretty plant wither ing and losing its beautiful symmetry, and endeavors to imi tate it witbneedle and thread. The fabric thus produced was des tined later to be counted among the world's most beautiful art works. Equally Inter esting was the revival of Venetian lace making about a store of years ago. The art reached its greatest perfection in the seventeenth oentnry, and tben the knowl edge of it and the trade gradually died out, Until about 30 years ago, when the Buranos scarcely retained a tradition of it During the winter of 1872 famine almost depopu lated the little island. While aiding the people, the Countess Adriano Marcello found in the possession of an old woman named Cencia Bcarpagliola several speci mens of old Venetian lace. She had made them in her youth. Although of great age, she was immediately placed in charge of a lace school and workroom. The reincar nated industry throve beyond expectation; Burano'S lace is known all over the World, and when the art was a secret bound deep within the brain of one weak, decrepit old woman a score of years since, now hundreds are practical workers and find a demand for the lace beyond tbeir ability to supply. Odd Ways of Keeploe; Books. Everybody has heard of the storekeeper who Unable to write kept his books by drawing rude symbols of the article sold on his slate or book. For instance a circle in dicated a cheese, the same circle with a lit tle square in the center represented & grind stone, while a repetition of the same circle inclosing radiating lines stood for a wagon wheel. There are other original methods that have been invented by uneducated persons to keep track of their business, and which are too well known to require recapitulation here, but the most curious of all books of the kind I ever heard of was that found among the effects of a bankrupt storekeeper in the West of Eng land recently. It was not the article that were oddly designated, but the names of customer to whom credit had been, given. One wa3 the Woman ou. tbe Key; then there was the Coal Woman; Old Coal Wo man; Fat Coal Woman; Market Woman; Pale Woman; A Man; Old Woman; Little Milk Girl; Candle Man; Stable Mao; Coach man; Big Woman; Lame Woman; Quiet Woman; Egg Man;Little Black Girl; Mrs. In a Cart; Old Irish Woman; Woman in Corn Street; A Lad: Man in the Country; Long Sal; Mr. Irish Woman; Mrs. Feather Bonnet; Blue Bonnet; Green Bonnet; Green Coat; Blue Britones; -big Britches; The Woman That Wa3 Married; The Wo man That Told Me of the Man. ethics have to some extent shrouded her record as a novelist, yet she wrote several works Of fiction before a she was 30. Shoy writes for five hours each day still, or was" doing so a year or two ago, and the papers and magazines must have published hun dreds of her articles in the last 20 years. It is her epigrammatic style that makes her popular. The public like big thoughts in small compass. For instance in one of her recent papers upon "Wild Women" she says: "The" Unsexed woman pleases the unsexed man," and hits off in a phrase the sympathetic relation between morally un healthy people ot both sexes. The Man Who May Nominate Hill. It is a rather interesting and withal un fortunate fact that among the statesmen of ot tne united States there are at present but few brilliant ora tors, and not one who could really be termed great. Blaine has tbe ability, bnt he cannot at present be classed: among the speakers. . inasmuch as he has not : been heard irom in a long time, nor, from indications.is he likely to be heard in the fu ture. Leaving Blaine Seaborn Wright. out of the case, to whom can we turn as a representative American orator? Of the Congressional debaters there are qnite a number able to present masterly arguments on any question that may come up, but ther are usually read irom a manuscript in a dry, hard manner that lulls a few of the talker'3 colleagues to slumber in their seats, and drives the remainder to pleasant seclusion in the cloak room. Happily for ns, however, the promise of the future is more encouraging. If the "young eagles," who are pluming them selves in various parts of the country just ify present expectation, the coming genera tion may find successors to Patrick Henry, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Charles Sumner in the Bryans, Dalzells and Wrights who are making themselves heard oratorically both in and out of legislative halls. Probably the most Interesting figure at present is Seaborn Wright,, of Georgia, a young speaker who is electrifying the peo ple of his native State with his magnetic eloquence. Men wbo have heard some of the greatest speakers of the time say Sea born Wright has no equal on the rostrum to-nay. nis speeches glow with all the warmth and fervor of the South; his lan guage is of the best, while his argumenta tive ability is always great It is to this Southern Demosthenes that the" Hill wing of the Democratic party has turned as a banner bearer of the Chicago Convention. He is to be asked to make the speech that will nominate Tammany's favorite, and already the enthusiasts look forward to a stampede to the famous David B., induced by Seaborn Wright's eloquence. Mr. Wright is a young lawyer who has achieved considerable fame in the South. His reputation extended into the Northern States last year as one of the leading conn sel in the celebrated Winpee Dietz-McKre murder trial, a Georgian case which at tracted much attention at the time on ac count of the intricate law paints involved and from which Mn Wright emerged tri umphant, although arrayed against him were the flower of the Southern bar. She H.is Written Ont Her Z.lrlne There is not much of shrinking woman hood about Mrs. Xynn Linton, the English woman whose articles upon Zspkssf especial interest te her own sex bave attracted so much attention both at home and abroad. She is essentially a work- ng woman, lor since since Bhe wa 23 and she is now 70 when she lost by unfortu nate investments the ilrt. K Lynn Linton. insa estate left her father, a clergyman in the lake country, she has earned her own living with her pen. As one so often finds in the case of these fiery writers upon women's wrong. Mrs. Linton is separated from her husband, AY. J. Linton, 'the reformer, writer and en graver, who has for many years made his home in this couutry. Perhaps this is why she writes of divorce with such zest But she does not spare her own sex. In her last article on "Decay of Modest' in Women" she rides rough-shod over her sisters in the London drawing rooms who wear "skirts so tizht as to be little mre than an anaaue film molded to the figure, and bodices with only a shoulder strap tor a sleeve and so tow as to leave no impression oi a oaaice at alL'V I Mrs. Linton's later polemics upon social ' . . u .. . . - v . ,- , , -. I . -vftw. . : . ,uu jsaaaJaiMiuto -.MtL I -. ... h ,r m lt( .m, - trim The Custom of Hamlihakinff. According to some of the English news papers, the custom of handshaking, the old familiar salutation, is falling into disuse, for no other reason apparently than that to the civilized person it is entirely super fluous; that one can greet one's friend cor dially enough without going through the common every day formality of shaking hands. There may be something in this but any tendency in the same direction has not been observed in this country. Ac quaintances and friends still hold to the ancient Eastern custom of cordially "wring- Unfit to write, draw or do any work with for hours after. However, the mere laek of signs that it is going ont of fashion here, is no retson why there may not be more truth ih the reports published in English journals that it is going out of fashion in their conn try, and if it is there is hardly any doubt that the same tendency will manifest itself in this country as soon as it is proved to be the English idea. X suppose no one would welcome such an innovation more than the American politician, whose campaigns are often for the most part miule up of "hand shaking bees." I dot not think it probable, however, that the custom will becom: obso lete soon. If it should, some other method of salutation would take its place, for good good friends will insist on some manner of showing their pleasure at meeting. To retrain from doing so would be like the behest of Elista when he sent his servant, Gebaci, to lay his staff on thefsceofthe dead Shunamite child: "If than meet a. man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, an swer him not aain." What then may be the form of salutation that will likely take the place o! hand shaking? We borrowed that custom from the orientals, and it is not only interesting to conjecture what the new fashion mar ba, but also the source from which it may bo derived. If trees and plants were more plentiful in the cities we might adopt the beautiful custom of the New Guinea people, who place a garland of leaves on tbe heads of those to be saluted. If any token at all is to be presented, the above must be given the preference over the 8outh Sea Islanders fashion of casting a jar of water on the head of your friend; the aueisntPersian's opening of a vein to efferadnnk of blood, or the other South Sen Island notion of spitting on the hands and then robbing tbe face of the greeted one If none of these methods should be satisfactory, the negro idea cf snapping and cracking lingers or the clap ping of hands might be adopted. Again, if none of these is expressive enough we have the Australian custom of sticking out the tongue, the Turkish kissing of the hand, the Gond's pulling of the cars, the Esquimaux' rubbing of noses or that most charming of ail customs designeu, ana it is to db nopeu copyrighted by "the Chitlagongs, the smell ing of each other. For our Western people who dwell in unsettled parts the salute of the Moorish horseman might be adopted. It is a custom that is strangely illustrative of the suspicion engendered by Hying In dis tricts where one is as likely to meet a deadly enemy as a frieod. At the top of his speed the Moor rides at the stranger, then sud lenly pulls up and fires his gun overthe stranger's hrad, as if recognizing him to be a friend instead of a foe. All frivolty aside, what could be more ex pressive than the custom which Herbert Spencer traces to the movement which would be likely to occur if two persons de sired to draw the hands of each other to their lips, and each at the same time en deavored to withdraw his hand in depreca tion of the submissive salutation, but which others, and I think more reasonably, derive from an' ancient usage that the offer and ac ceptance ot a weaponless hand inferred peace and brotherhood. W. G. KAUFMAN. ..-.,.---.-.--... RHEUMATIC PAINS r Stop anointing, C and apply to the ', spot thzt aches WOOD'S PENETRATING phXacSr 1 .ninnrill!v ItS PI AQTFI? fPecial powcr to ' rLHO I f dilate the pores, . penetrate deeplyandstcppam, renders it far superior to ordinary porosis plasters. ; I "I k OF DRUCCIST3 1 N.Y. Depot, 92 William St-J &6&H iliWAfllf ' 'T1"" ."""I''-. TV l mM4 WwiiiiwwEPiii
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers