V She Jflrwi gcpiMiran. 18 rUBLWUKD KVKUY WKDNKHDAY, BT ar. X3. xvijjmij: officii in robinson & bonkkr-b buildlro. elm street, ti0ne3ta, fa, TERMS, i.50 YE Alt. Subscriptions received for n shorter p Hum Uiroo months. ("I'lTPHponilnnco sollcltofl ironi II prln ! Uio country. No notice will lio taken at anonymous communications. Rates of Advertising. Onr-Siuar (1 itich,)oiie insertion - J! OnoH'iiiaro " ono month - - 3 OneN-juate " Unco months - (Hi) OneNqimro' " nnn your - - 10 0i Two Suiiuro, one year - 1" 0 Quarter Col. - - - - ? " llaii- " " - - m One V . " - - " " 100 ' rt T.ogal notices at established rates. Miirringn and dentil notices, gratis. All bills lor vearlv al vorti.se meritH col lected quarterly. Temporary advertise ments must bo paid li- i advance. Job work. Cash on. tvlivciy. n n V 4 VOL. XIV. iNO. 5. , TIONESTA, PA., APRIL 27, 1881 $1.50 Per Annum, The I'cnnut. A large and healthy peanut Lay cozily abed, And it chuckled, oh, bo gleefully! And to itself It sulci: ' "Thorn's a groat bis world before mfi" And my mission yet to do; ? . And up I'll lo mid doing it, F.ro tlio bud has dried tho (low. " There are greedy Ikits to conquer, And hungry girls as well; What a world of power I've hidden Within this littlo shell. Though tlmy slay mo in the battlo, Though they crush mo like a worm, Though they balto and crunch my body, If I can I'llmnko 'era squirm." And the small ljoy grabbod that peanut And ho cracked it 'tween bin teeth, But when ho would have on-allowed it, It choked him o'en to death; And tho peanut's work was ended It had fallen in tho strife--It had done its mission nobly, Though tho doing coHt its life. AN APRIL FOOL. Helen was our beauty; there is no contradicting that. A haughty, high Bpirited beauty, almost dark enough for an Asian; but bo perfectly made, with such a glow on the olive oval, Buch a ruddy ripeness on the full lip, such a luster in the great dark eye. And, like most beauties, she felt as if the world . was made for Caosar. Of course, none of us in the little vil lage group ever thought of denying her. supremacy. In fact, we all admired her too much for that, although I doubt if any of us loved her. But we all took a certain pleasure in seeing her arrayed to suit her beauty; and many was the scarf and ribbon and rose given her, like timid offerings at a shrine, from Clara and me, and, for the matter of that, from Maria and Emily, and all the rest of our girls except perhaps Jane, who had not no much - to give and who never indulged herself in fineries a little Quaker-like body in her gray gown, with her light hair put back smoothly from her white forehead ; not pretty in mot eyes at all, but always so fair and pure to me. Helen, however, looked at Jane with a lofty disdain ; which Jane appeared to think all right and rjnhiral, for little Jane shared our 't.iUiOc3atfnff 'bat Helen's movements 'tuM Bomotliing'tdQ.with keeping the earth in equipoise. And, in fact, I have often noticed since that anybody with some one trait of pronounced mental or physical superiority, well sustained by a bad temper behind it, can rule all the vorld within reach, just as Helen did. We were, tho most of us, better off, as the phrase goes, than Helen, so fur as money was concerned ; for she was only Mrs. Knowle's companion, and, except little Jane, who was an orphan, and hod just enough income to dress herself mcagerly and pay her board at Annt Elroy's, we all had our happy homes. Jano had set out to fit herself for teaching. She played rather won derfully, and she could have spoken to you in one or two different languages, if she had not been always bo shamefaced. As for Clara and me, we were the hoi- dens of the village. Maria was the flirt and Emily was the religieuse. She and Mrs. Knowing used to have the most marvelous mornings together, talking of albs and chasubles and altar pieces and candlesticks, which somehow made Emily rather interesting to the rest of us, although Cousin Stanhope laughed at us about it, if he didn t laugh at her. ( Cousin Stanhope, be it understood, Was tho light of our eyes in that nioun- !am hamlet, so far as connection with lie outside world went. He was, in ono ilogree or another, the cousin of almost Jhll of us," for wo were all more or less Llistantly related. He had a position in (the state department at Washington that allowed hira some leisure : and, as wo were not a great way from his head - ouarters. ho often ran up for a Sunday hnd brought us news of that great world, Iind occasionally brought some one of he people figuring on its scenes now Imd then an attache of one of the lega lions : once in a while a traveling fur- feigner ; once, indeed, a South Sea island J chief, who boldly asked Helen to go bock with him to utaneite. a primitive savage Stanhope called him; but, if that were true, the primitive savage was a verv calm and noble gentleman. " I don't know how you can say so," Helen remarked, as we were talking him over on Aunt Elroy's piazza, our usual i place of congregation, ono bright spring ' morning, April Fool's day, as we had learned, to our cost, in a scries of Stan hope's jests through tho mail. " A great, 1 Rwarthv barbarian ? I BUitpose it is be i eause I am so dark myself; but I haw J no affinity with your dusky-skinned 1 neoiilo." (I saw Dr. Malatestata lower his book from his own dusky face and look at her curiously a moment. "Being a blackamoor myself," contin f ned Helen, "what I admire is my antipodes. " Little Jane, for instance," said I "No, indeed. That colorless mor ' eel ! A vellow-haired Norse, some de scendant of one of the old Cimbri; a blue-eyed and red-haired Spanish trrandee. He would like me, too," said Helen, laughing and putting up a great dropping curl, " on the same principle, I expect to fall in with him yet. Or fall out with him," said I. " Nothing less than a Spanish hidal go, with a string of titles as long as his rent-roll." " Then I suppose a poor, swarthy Roman doctor need never hope to find f;:vor with those of your way of think ing, Miss Helen ?" said Dr. Malatestata, in his smooth English, to which the slightest accent in the world was like sauce piquanto to flavorless meat. " Oh, said Helen, coolly, with her finest air of insolence. " I did not no tice that you were there, Signor." JJut you will notice the hidalgo, with the string of titles and tho rent roll? Well, hidalgos are often poor." Then I should have no use for them," said Helen. " Do yon mean to say, Miss Helen, that you would not marry a poor and untitled man? What is the matter with you American girls ? What better title is prince than doctor 1 Ian to see the secret of it. There is a legend in my land that once the Roman-purple was put-up at auction. Diavolo! Is all this beauty for sale, too, to the high est bidder?" Helen stared at him a moment, an swering nothing. Iiv the wav. Clara, then she said. entirely ignoring him and his remarks, " did you see the bpanish lace cape Mrs. Knowles gave Emily? I should have liked it myself; and, indeed, it was not expensive." " Sho made a real April fool of Helen with it," said Clara; " for when she un folded it, Helen thought, of course, it was for her. ' And I had just began to thank her, when she turned it over to tho nun. However, it is the only time that I ever ! was made an April fooL" said Helei. ,' with her most superiot gesture; "and I defy any one to do it again." " hv, Helen I How you lorget r J. exclaimed. " Little Jane has made you one every year since she has known you." Oh! Littlo Jane! Her fooleries! Sweetmeats under your breakfast-plate ! Yes, if you count that, little Jane has." "And will next year too, 111 bo bound," said Dr. Malatestata. "At least, she would if " And I was thankful that he wheeled his chair away and round the corner of the gallery, for a knew he was going to say, " if nature had not been before her; " and if he had said it Helen would have had her foot on all our necks before peace could have been declared. Dr. Malatestata was Cousin Stanhope's last importation an Italian gentleman who was visiting America, a graduate of some wonderful old university, who per haps might Bettle down and practice in America if he had inducement, uousin Stanhope said, with a laugh, and who had found his way to the Italian lega tion at Washington, where . Stanhope had met him. It was quUe unfor tunate for liiin that he fell on the slip pery pavement and broke his ankle; but Stanhope, who had taken a fancy to him, had brought him up to our village as soon as he could bo moved, and had installed him at Aunt Elroy's, where he was waited on by inches, Aunt Jlroy outdoing herself in fancy dishes, and littlo Jane now and then venturing lest he might be homesick to let him hear his native tongue again, while she spoke little of her timid Italian with him, half sure that he was laughing at her, but willing he should laugh if that di verted the poor gentleman any from tho pain in his ankle. "As if it wouldnt maiie him home sick," said Helen, high and mightily. But it didn t seem to do so. He used to watch little Jane a good deal. Per haps it amused him. When she came back, with her basket on her arm from Aunt Elroy's errands among the poorer people of the mountain (and she was always sure to have one or two cases of want in reserve as her own property), he would ask her a swarm of questions and apparently derive infinite entertain ment from her answers. But he was occupied the most part of the time with notes that he seemed to be collecting and arranging for a book; Singular person! said Helen, m her sweetly scornful tone. "What could Cousin Stanhope have been think ing of to bring him here He hasn t even the manners of a gCntloman." " W hy, nelen ! ' came a chorus. "I think heia a consummate gentle man," said Aunt Elroy. "Just about as much of a gentleman as Jane is a lady," continued Helen. Look at her now, bringing in the eggs, one hasn t a soui aoove ner hens." " She gives every egg to the poor and sick people up the hills." 'Goody! goody I Just my ideal or an old maid. Scanty gown, puritanic collar, plain hair, generally drab. Well, there must always be one such in every circle." " One such !" I cried. " I wish there were a dozen such." ' Oh ! well," said Helen, wo won't quarrel over little Jane. She s tco small, dear." It was lovely April weather up our hillsides. Everything was blossoming into May. All life and the future seed ed to our hearts as bright as tho bloom ing world was. We passed the time in one long picnic Mother and Aunt Elroy and Uncle John and Mrs. Knowles and all climbing the mountains, catch ing the brook trout and broilin; them on our wood fires, and coining back with our arms full of flowers. At least, we all did but little Jane. She iaid she had not the heart to leave their lodger alone in his condition to the mercies of Old Sally ; and she used to do her little gardening around the house, ard carry her pensioners our flowers of the day be fore if wa had left them with her, and be back again at short intervals. And the last I saw of her one day she had her davenport on the piazza and was writing away at his dictation, as if there were no such thing as May breezes and flowers and mountain rambler., and lit were good for nothing except to make it pleasant to his swarthy, lean, ill favored foreigner. But it was only Jane's way with everybody. "That is one of the troubles with her," said Helen. " She hasn't any identity. She forgets herself in the next person always. A bit of white glass that is all she is." And there was such an assumption of authority in Helen's sayings that, after a few repe titions, one was apt to take them as gospel. Only Dr. Malatestata never did; and his polite way of looking over her and through her as if she were a transparency or did not exist at all, was the only way he had of rrtovirg nelen. And that did move her. Iresently I thought I saw that Helen had deter mined to change it; and although she did not care a sou for him himself, ske could not brook a rebel within her dominion, and she meant to make him care for her. In the full flow of admiration long received her pride hod sailed upon a smooth cur rent, without an obstruction. This ob struction of the oblivious Italian doctor caused a disagreeable commotion in the tide. What made me first think of it was Helen's picking- to pieces a bunch of yellow blossoms she had brought in from the woods, and as she passed the doctor in his chair scattering a rain of them all over him, and then looking back with a laugh that ' showed her glittering teeth and brightened all the carnation on her olive cheeks and the luster in her eyes. Well, she was too beautiful for anything but dreams. The doctor must have seen what I thought where I sat in the window-frame, for presently he said to me: " Too brilliant for use, is it not ? As for me, I prefer What was it Miss Jane read to me to day?" " You mean " 'A creature not too bright and good For human nature's daily food V That would bo Miss Jane herself," said I. "St. Jane," said he. " I suppose," I said, " tliat one sees a plenty of such faces in Home r " As Miss Helen's ? Plenty." " I always thought Helen looked like a Roman lady. " Like a Roman peasant girl," said he. But I knew better than to repeat his words. " So your peasant girls have that golden tinge under the carmine?" I asked him. " All of them." In a day or two Helen, who often came over to Aunt Elroy's. where she saw a group of us, when Emily and Mrs. Knowles were having one of their seances, was standing by a pillar of the gallery, twisting a budding vine about herself, and a humming bird came dart ing along, and hovered a moment, just as if he took her mouth for a blossom. We all exclaimed and laughed, even the doctor; and when the next moment a saucy robin in the black-heart cherry tree gave forth a burst of his music, and Helen opened her lips and answered it in delicious trill on trill, we felt as if the scene was sometlung ideal. ' You could hardly do better than this in Italy," said I to the doctor. "The robins take you for one of themselves, Helen," said Aunt Elroy. " It is one of tho wise birds," said the doctor. " He wants another song from you, Miss nelen, as I, indeed, do too, And then Helen sang again. She had been chary of her songs before; but after this you always knew when Helen was coming by the music that ushered her, and where she was going by the sweet sounds that went dancing after her. " How can he help falling at her feet ?" said I to Cousin Stanhope, on one of his Saturdavs with us. " He is lame," said Stanhope. " Nonsense!" "And then I should have fallen in love with her myself long ago, if it had not been for her temper." " You, Stanhope ?" "Yes, I; and if " "If what?" " If I had not fallen in love with somebody else." But juist then the doctor, who had so far improved as to be able to use a crutch, came down the garden-path and took Stanhope off with him. I saw lit tle Jane gaze after them intently a mo ment; and I wondered vaguely if she were too fond of Stanhope, and I felt vaguely disturbed and unhappy, and went homo and practiced a sonata till I was tired out. How fair and sweet Jane was in those June days, as they came ! There was such an unspeakable tranquillity about her. I never looked at her without thinking of perfect, placid dawniugs. " What a complete lady Jane is," I said to Stanhope once, as wo were walk ing in the wood. " That is because her temperament is so quiet. It gives her manners repose," he answered. ' All her ways are pleas antness and all her paths are peace.' " And I knew I had no right to be vexed with him for speaking so. Who could be blamed for loving Jane ? " Only I never could see," added Stan hope, " how any man could fall in love with Jane. I should as soon think of kissing a statue. But then, I suppose," he said, looking half askance at me, " when one is in love with somebody else" And he stopped, because two people were 6lowly coming through the wood, although they were not observ ing us. It was Dr. Malatestata, who could now walk tolerably with his stick, and Helen, whom he had met. " Ye . was saying, " I have quite rec res.., u so far tliat 1 shall be able to yiy journey in a short time. And, Miss Helen, shall I tell you ? When I go home I hope to take a wife there with me." "Why in the world should Helen think he means her?" whispered Stan hope. "Look at her ! l or Helen had suddenly averted her face, and, thrust ing her hands out before her in a beau tiful forbidding gesture, had cried: Oh, no, no, no ! I could never leave America !" Dr. Malatestata stopped short in his walk, in blank amazement. " I beg your pardon, Miss nelen, ho cried. "You misunderstand mo," he said. " Believe me, I had no thought of asking you." And then he drew himself up proudly. " I was about to tell you," he said, " that I am the promised hus band of Miss Jano." But at that time Stanhope, who had been in the secret for some time, could not forbear a moment longer, and burst into a roar of laughter. And then such an angry man as Malatestata was may I never see again, when he began adjuring Stanhope in foreign tongues, while the latter leaned against the tree and laughed on. " At any rate," said Helen to me.that night " the fact remains that I refused him. He didn't misunderstand me." Well, it was the loveliest little wedding that we had two weeks later on Aunt Elroy's broad gallery, with all the flowers and vines and birds. And a grand Italian gentleman came up with Stanhope, too, who treated us all like nobles, and delighted Emily and awed Maria. The doctor would have his wheel-chair present, for he declared it had been the best friend ho ever had; and he looked at Jane in her white muslin and jesamines, as if it were too much that any of us should touch her. And then he took her on on the journey over the comment; " for we will see America before we go back to our home in Italy," he said. So letters came to us from Niagara, from a shooting season in Colorado, from Mexico, from Calif ornian ranches; then from the islands of the Pacific seas, from Japan, from India; and Jano was going to her home by way of the Red sea and Egypt and the Mediter ranean. " Just think of our little Jane !" said I. " She is putting Marco Polo in the shade." " It's about time he settled down to his practice now, though," said Aunt Elroy, not meaning Marco Polo, but the doctor. "I declare, what a gap it makes in life 'io have Jane gone; and now Mrs. Knowles and Helen too. wonder if Helen is having the triumph ant time she hoped for in Rome." For Mrs. Knowles had gone to Rome, and Helen had been buoyant with expecta tion. " Are you speaking of Helen ?" said Emily, coming up with an open letter from the post. "She has seen some very pleasant people. She has been guest at a grand villa, been present at a 6uperb festival in the country and been received by a prince and princess. Do you want to read about it ?" And this was what Helen had written on that page: " It was just a morning of mornings, this April day; and Mrs. Knowles end I, having left the city and come up here on the Apennines, were taking our stroll a stroll where we crushed the violets at every step when we saw that the vil lage was all aflame with flowers and banners, and the people decked out like a scene in a theater, and there was music, and there were throngs of children, with garlands, and I don't know what and all. It was the home-coming of the prince and princess, they said. And we had time to hear no more; for, as we stood just inside the gates of tho lovely gar dens, we stepped aside, to let the low car riage, with its four cream-colored horses, dash by. And all of a sudden there was a cry, and the horses were pulled up, and two people sprang out of tho car riage. And oh, Emily ! I had reason to remember, all in n rush, that it was April Fool's day, and I tho merest fool that ever was I, who had actually re fused this man ! For who do you think the prince was but Prince Malatestata ? And the princess was our little Jane !" Independent. As an illustration of the enormous in crease of the use of opium and morphia in the United States the following sta tistics have a painful interest, and it must be remembered that this is no ex ceptional case. In one of our large cit ies, containing twenty-five years ago a population of 57,000, "the sales of opium and moi-phia reached 350 pounds and 1)75 ounces respectively, or about forty three grains of opium ami three grains of morphia yearly for each individual, if the consumption was averaged. Tho popu lation is now t) 1,000, and 3,500 pounds, of opium and 5,500 ounces of morphia are sold annually. While the popula tion has increased fifty-nine per cent., the sale of opium has increased 800 per cent., and morphia 1,100, or an average of 20(1 grains of opium and twenty-four grains of morphia to every inhab itant. But there are additional sales oi from 400,000 to 600,000 pills of morphia, which would give us 170 ounces more of the drag. One fourth of the opium sold is consumed in its natural state, and three-fourths are made into opiates, the principal one being laudanum. The imports of opium into the United States for the years 1879 and 1880, tiding the thirtieth of June, were 633,451 pounds, valued at $2,786, 606. Since 1SW5 9,000 divorces have been granted in Italy, Milan being set down for no less than 3,000. Since 1870 Homo has had tJOO. FOR THE LADIES. .1 Broom Drill. A new Hea in amusements this, and its inventors were some girls in Lowell, Mass. Twelve young ladies, com manded by a captain, gave a public drill of their proficiencv in handling the broom. The girls were uniformed in red, white and blue. The brooms were decorated with colored ribbons, and as tho young women marched with the streamers behind them they looked very martial and were warmly applauded. A voung lady, dressed in the national colors, was the " drummer boy" of tho broom corps. A fan drill is performed in somewhat the same fashion, only the fan can be used more gracefully and effectively than the broom. But, after all, perhaps, the best broom drill is the one that takes place m the kitchen, where there is only ono broom and no streamers. " , . IIowuu Enipi-e.a (cta TlnounU a Hay. Empress Elizabeth, of Austria, begins the day's work and amusement with a cup of cold chocolate, taken at 7 o'clock. Then she goes to the stable to see her hunting pet; then receives her steward and makes arrangements for presentations, interviews, etc. At one she. takes a beefsteak and a couple of glasses of Hungarian wine, after which her lady-in-waiting tells her the news and reads to her paragraphs from divers newspapers. She dines at six, and then dons her riding habit and goes to the large circus which is connected by a covered -passage with her private apart ments. Here she mounts some mettle some horse and trains him with wonder ful skill and boldness. When some ani mal usually wild and spirited is to be conquered a few appreciative guests are invited to come and look on at the dar ing empress' proceeding. A Queen's Kobe. A fashionable modiste of San Francisco had her parlors crowded one entire day with guests inspecting an. outfit which she had just completed per order for Queen Kaprolam, the wife of King Kalakaua, of the Sandwich islands. Among the many handsome robes was one which is intended for a grand state occasion. It is made in the native stvle of the Hawaiian islands.and is termed the "holoku." The design is the same as is known in the South, especially in Now Orleans, 'as the " volonta," the robe being in one piece and gathered into a deep yoke that covers the shoulders. The material is of the very richest velvet, of a Marie Louise blue, striped with gold and combined with plain velvet of the same shade. Another was of embossed velvet, of the most delicate peach-pink shade, which constituted the train and corsage. This was over a petticoat of plain Turk satin, also peach-pink, and was richly embroidered with white jet. The half sleeves and high-rolling collar were of the satin, and thickly covered with jet embroidery. Handsome white jet ornaments fastened the corsage, which 1 was pointed in the front and back. The most beautiful of the lot, however, was a marine blue satin combined with ecru satin and finished,, with a heavy garni ture of crimson-crushed roses. This gown was also made in the " holoku " style, with long, flowing sleeves open at the shoulders and extending nearly to the bottom of the gown, and were lined with crimson satin. Each suit had two pairs of slippers made of the same material as the dress they were to be worn with. Japuncxe Factory (iirU. The Japanese have just made another advance in their imitation of European customs. Up to the present time popu lar prejudice has greatly restricted the field for women's labor. In the interior, indeed, the weaker sex take part in agricultural operations, but at the great centers of industry men have monopo lized almost t lie whole area of remunera tive work. This system appears to be doomed, as some of the more enterpris ing manufacturers are offering employ ment to women, and so far as the ex periment has yet been earned theso philanthropists havo no cause to regret the venture. Tho i'eminiue employes are content with considerable lower wages, and yet work tho same time twelve hours as the masculine monopo lists. Whether they turn out the sume quantity is not stated, but in quality the result of their labors is said to compare not unfavorably with the average of men's work. So great has been tho success of the experiment that several new factories, chiefly for the manufacture of cloth, are about to be built exclusively for tho employment of women. A factory act will soon be needed, if it be true that tho feminine hands now in employment are kept at work without intermission from 5 a. u. to 5 r. m. Japaneso women are not, as a rule, very robubt, and such prolonged labor as this must necessarily impose a severe strain even on the strongest. Va.hioa Notes. The new dolman sacks are shorter at the back than in front. Batiste embroidered in colors is im ported to trim summer gowns. Robin's-egg blue will be much worn by young girls this 6ummer. The summer pilgrimage costumes have a watteau plait in the back. The short street dress seems to have come for a long vitit this time. Irish point-lace wrought with gold thread is used to trim cotton dresses. Basques are to be 8 little longer this season than they wero in the winter. White muslin petticoats are the only garments that are mode fuller than for merly, ' Pink tidle, trimmed with holly hemes without leaves, is a new fancy for ball toilets. The lace used on the summer bonnets is very deeply tinted, and is arranged in flutings. The newest jackets have no hoods, but collars that cross iu front and make a pretty trimming. A New York bride recently went to the altar with her veil fastened by a horse shoe of orange blossoms. The littl lnntles for summer are of all sizes, f coachman's collar to a small Moti nbbard cloak. The eheari st materials for really handsome underskirts is satin, which can be bought in all the bright colors. Daisy chains, with a fern foliage mixed with the blossoms, are among the flow ers prepared to trim summer bonnets. Fashions in every detail of the toilet change so rapidly that it is diflicult to say what is and what is not fashionable. Many folds of ombre satin straight across the crown is ono favorite trim ming, while others cover but half the crown, and are finished with lace on the edges. A handsome dress of black grenadine, with half inch stripes pf satin and of some open meshed design, his each of the sides covered with a jabot of black Spanish lace, the jabots being a half yard wide. Shirrings and ruffles ore seen in all pails of costumes of cotton printed goods, where trimmings can be used. All dressy suits are composed of two or more fabrics which usually match in color, but contrasts in effect. Weather Prophets. Speculations about the weather are not wholly useless it we are to- accept the testimony of Professor J. Hyatt, who has boon engaged for a long time in sudying the relations between the phases of the moon and .the rainfall at certain stations. It has long been known that when the moon is full the sky is most likely to be clear. This is not only the testimony of sailors and farmers, but also of eminent astrono mers and scientific men.. It appears that the rays of the full moon have the power to dispel clouds, and it therefore seems not unreasonable to suppose that the moon exerts an appreciable influ ence upon the weather. Professor Hyatt's observations have led him to divide the lunar month, of about twenty-nine and a half days, t into eight pe riods, or octants, of three and two-third days each, and he has found that every lunation is apt to acquire its character as regards rainfall within the first oo tant, or within throe and two-thirds days from tho time of the new moon. It also appears that the same kind of weather, as regards temperature, cloudi ness or rain, is apt to occur on or about the same day of the week, or more ac curately, at the same stage in the lunar quarters. A number of instances are given, extending over a considerable period of time, which seems to bear out the truth of these conclusions with re markable accuracv. and it would seem that if seven-tenths of an inch or more of rain falls within three and two-thirds days of the new moon, the entire luna tion is very likely to be a wet one ; but if very little rain falls during that timo the remaining seven-eight3 of tho luna tion will probably be dry. These ob servations verify the old saying that the first three days rule the month. As a result of observations conducted at two localities, extending over a period of three years, tho rule has been found to hold good in at least eleven cases out of twelve, and they would doubtless hold good for all places in the hilly country between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, not too near either the sea or tho mountains. Such conclu sions ar only reliable for places simi larly situated, since peculiarities of location, elevation, the prevailing di rection of the wind, etc., necessarily affect tho result, and those character istics must be studied for each place. The distribution of rainfall is very ir regular throughout the year ; two or three dry or two or three wet lunations are apt to bo groupod together. Thread from Wood. The manufacture of thread from wood for crochet and sewing purposes, has, it is said, recently beeu started in the mid dle of Sweden. It is wound in balls by machinery, either by hand or steam, which,' with the labeling, takes ono min ute and twelve seconds, and the balls are packed up in cardboard boxes, generally ten iu a box. Plenty of orders from all parts of Sweden have come in, but as the works are not in proper order, there has hardly been time to complete them all. The production gives fair promise of success, and it is expected to be very important for home consumption. The Chinese are said to believe that tho reason why those who road the Bible become Christians is due to the stupefy ing power of the ink, which takes away his reason and leaves him ready to be lieve false doctrines. Warnings against the purchase of foreign books are fre quent in consequence of this bupersti tion. In some cases striped grenadine is confined to the basque alone, while th seirts are of plain iron grenadine, or else the smooth sewing silk grenudine. with some of the striped goods used, for retrotihses and border.