SULLIVAN JSIFC REPUBLICAN.
W. M. CHENEY, Publisher.
VOL. XIII.
It is said that Canada has never had
ft general panic.
Nearly a million tons of butter are
manufactured in tho United States
every year.
Thcro is a steady decline in the
number and tonnago of steam and
sailing vessels launched In Great
Britain.
According to Printer's Ink, it would
cost 812,150 to put a ten-line adver
tisement in all tho newspapers in this
country.
More than GOO plans havo been sent
in for the construction of tho Paris
exposition of 1900, and it is proposed
to have them exhibited in the Palais
d'lndustrie, which is the only gallery
largo enough to contain them.
Competition between Eastern and
Western farmers is yearly growing
less, declares the New York Tribune.
In years past the Western man had
the advantage of cheap lands; but the
Eastern farmer has tho advantago of o
near-by market.
Tho San Francisco Chronicle feels
that Alpine climbers will read with
disgust of the proposed railroad and
elevator to tho very summit of the
Jungfrau. Timo was, and it was not
so many years ago, that this mountain
was regarded as a dangerous peak and
the feat of climbing it was notworthy.
Since then tho Matterhorn and other
Alpine peaks havo taken its place in
tho ambition of mountain climbers.
With a railroad to the summit and a
hotel perchod on tho topmost point
of this historical mountain much of
the romance will go out of Alpine
climbing. The Cook's tourist is fatal
to the enthusiasm of travel.
James M. Glenn, President of tha
Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce,
writes in the North American Review:
"The South this season has boon fa
vored v. ith an enormous crop of cot
ton and an exceptionally largo pro
duction of corn, with also an excel
lent yield of tobacco, and although
market prices may be low, especially
as to cotton, the fact remains that tha
co3t of production, taking into con
sideration not only tho question of
labor, but recognizing tho completo
utilization of tha by-product which
was formerly wasted, is now greatly
reduced, and the net result is a favor
able one. Tho sugar interest, it is to
bo hoped, may steadily continuo in
advancement, accompanied ultimately
with remunerative results. The pro
duction of rice in the South is extend
ing, and will undoubtedly assumo
vjry greatly enlarged proportions ia
tho near future. Tho lumber re
sources of the South are being
brought more and more into promi
nence, attracting capital for its prepar
ation for market, widening the em
ployment of labor, and adding to tho
available wealth of the community."
Devotion to the old Shinto faith is
not extinct in Japan, and a great tem
ple at Kioto, on which ten years and
many millions have been expended, is
still incomplete, and work upon it not
suspended even in tho timo of tho
greatest war which the country has
ever had upon its hands. The women
of that country give sign of their pi
ous zeal in this work by contributing
portions of their hair, which are
braided into cables and used in tho
transportation of material to be em
ployed in the construction of the
building. Of these a large number
have been worn out in the work ac
companying tho structure at Kioto,
but more are forthcoming, showing a
spirit of zeal and sacrifico among the
women thero which the New York Tri
buno believes not to be outdone by
any of the missionaries among them,
or by tho builders of shrines and
temples anywhere. Shintoism is tho
old faith of Japan bofore tho introduc
tion of Buddhism and the Confucian
philosophy, and does not now absorb
a large part of tho religions inspira
tion of the country, but still preserves
a measure of vitality enough to build
a new temple now and then amidst
the ruin of its old ones, and supply
testimony that in spite of tho infiltra
tion of newer fuiths tho lamp of its
older one is still trimmed and burn
ing. It has no theological sehetno
and specific codo of morals, iueuleat
ing in general obodieuooto and rover
euro for tho Mikado, who in that
country is tho direct representative of
the gods; and religion really
amounts to littlo, not enough to junti
fy the «*re<'tioii to it of su<-ii a bpaoioaa
iiml costly tabtruaele. Japan is go
ing on ul HUJU a paou in the adoption
of modern nsajM-S that sho will no
doubt have a President before long
afti-r the Aim riean p>itt< rn, and then
tin rt' will be nob )d> tlin n w Kio
to altar to burn lla lU;'<'l» • to.
LOVE'S PARTING.
"Farewell, farewell!" We breathe the word
That tells us where our paths must part.
Our breasts with deep distress are stirred,
And fondest tears unbidden start.
But though the world shall roll between,
With boundless seas and mountains high,
Though death Itself shall Intervene,
Our hearts can never say "good-J>y.".
We have so twined the sigh and song,
So closely wreathed the thorns and flow
ers,
That to our souls conjolnod bolong
The shine and shadow of the hours.
So wedded we in sight and sound,
In dread and dream, in earth and sky-
Each life has so the other bound.
Our hearts can never say, Rood- by."
The happy fields, the brooks, the birds,
Tho lilies white and roses red,
Ah 1 they have listened to our words
As from our eyes the truth has sped.
And now wo roach tho moment when
Our heavy hearts In anguish sigh
"Farewell until we meet again 1"
But thoy can never say "good-by."
—Nixon Waterman.
M ODD NEIGHBOR.
BY CHARLES C. ABBOTT.
HERE was n
'|V% strange silence
everywhere, as is
not uncommon in
" the month of
August, for now
l the promises of
summer have been
made good, and
* * I r i world is at
JtV rest. Not a leaf
stirred, and, except the plaintive note
of somo far-off bird, I could hear only
my own footfalls. The trees and fields
and shaded winding lane were as I
had seen them last, when darkness
shut them in, but now, in the early
morning, it seemed as if the sun had
brought sad tidings. It has ulways
appeared to mo that August days are
days for retrospection, and that the
mind is supersensitive at such a time.
It takes notice of those things which
in the hurry and olatter of June are
overlooked. This is no mere whim,
and on this occasion the effect was to
convince me that something unusual
had happened or was about to occur.
It is not an uncommon experience.
Premonitions are too frequent to be
lightly treated as mero coincidences.
It was this clearly premonitory aotion
that made the world seem to me com
pletely at rest. Thero are matter-of
fact folks who would t»stily remark,
"Dyspepsiathere are people of ex
cellent intentions who persistently
blunder.
I had heard of an oaken chest, with
huge brass olamps, and to-day set
out to find it. There was not a
■wagon to be seen when I turned
from tho lane into tho township road,
and so I had the dusty highway to my
self, a furthering of my fancy. Even
more lonely was tho wood-road into
which I turned, and of late it had
been so little used, it was as much the
meeting-ground of bird-life a3 of hu
manity. Everywhere it was shaded
by codars of groat ago or by elms un
der which the moss Lad grown since
colonial days. Along this ancient way
the rambler has little to remind him of
the changes wrought in the passing
century. What few houses are pass'ed
in the course] of a long walk are old
time structures, and more than one
has been abandoned. The reason was
plain; the land is poor, and whatever
inducements were held out to the orig
inal settlers had not been continued
to the fifth and sixth generations.
Still, not all tho tract had reverted to
forest. A little garden-plot about
each of the cottages that were occu
pied was still held back, by spade and
hoe, from the enoroachments of wild
growth, and in the last cottage to be
reached, surrounded by every featnre
of an old-fashioned garden, lived Silas
Crabtree. As a child I had feared
him, and now I both disliked and ad
mired him; why—as is BO often the
case—l could not tell.
The man and his house were not un
like. The cottage was a long, low
building, one and a half stories high.
A window on each side of the door
barely showed benoath the projecting
roof of a narrow porch extending tho
full length of the front. There was a
single step from the porch to the
ground. From the roof projected two
Bquat dormer windows. The shingles
were darkened by long exposure, and
patches of moss grew übout the eaves.
Silas was like this. The windows and
door and long low stops recalled his
eyes, nose and mouth, overtopped by
low projecting brows and unkempt
hair, that were well represented by
tho cottago roof with its moss and
dormers. So far the house and its
solitary inmate; but the open well
with its long sweop, tho clump of li
lacs, the spreading beech with initials
cut long years ago—these were a
poem.
Whilo tho day was yet young, I
passed by, and Silas was sitting on
tho porch. The quiot of tnis month
of day-dreams was unbroken. Tho
(—♦bird hopped about the grass, but
was mute ; a song-sparrow was perched
on the topmost twig of a dead quince
bush, but did not sing; a troop o!
crows was passing overhead in perfect
silence. Feeling more strougly than
over the moodiuess of the morning, I
strove to break the spoil by shouting,
with unnecessary emphasis: "Good
moruing, Unole Silas." With a sud
den start the old man looked up and
stared wildly about lam. Straight
way the catbird chirped, tho sparrow
Ming, aud from ovor the true-tops
came the welcomeeawiug of tbu rroWK.
Kvt<u a black eat euiiio (rum the house
and rubbed Us arched baok against
Silas's klii-es. TIK N|H<II was broken,
and the old man growled ((or he coilld
not talk as oilier UK-UJ ; "I'm glad
you've come."
LAPORTE, PA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1895.
"Oh, I was only passing by; were
yon asleep?"
"Sleepin' or not, I was thinkin* of
yon. Come in."
Stepping rather reluctantly into the
yard, I sat down on the floor of the
porch near Silas—for he did not offer
to get me a chair—and waited for him
to speak.
"As a boy," said Silas, in softer
tones than I had ever heard before,
"you had a grudge again' me, as your
father had again' mine, and your
grandpap again' mine, and so on away
baok. It never showed muoh, that I
know of, but the feelin' was there;
and yet we started even, for my folks
came from England as long ago as
yourn. I know now how it all came
about. It's down in some old papers
in the desk that I've had a man oome j
and go over. It's plain now why folks
never set store by the Crabtrees; but
it's all right, and soon the ground will
be cleared for something better than
Crabtrees to grow on."
"Why, what do you mean?" I asked,
purposely interrupting tho old man,
thinking ho might be merely working
off the effects of too frequent pota
tions—a no uncommon occurrence.
"Cun'tyou wait till you find out?
I've had a man here, I say, who could
do tho writin' and read tho old papers.
That's enough for that. Now, it was
this way. Away back, tho old Crab
treo of them days had a notion of
thinkin' for himself, and, foolish-like,
sayin' what ho thought. So tho
Friends, as they call themselves, made
him write out why he did this and
said that, but it went for nothin', and
they turned him outo' meetin'. You'll
find the same in tho meetin' records
as you will in there." And Silas
pointed his thumb over his shoulder,
towards the house. Even this slight
movement was made with some effort;
but it was evident that Silas had not
been drinking.
"Beforo all this happened," the
old man continued, after a long
pause, "tho Crabtrees were all right.
Away back, they were looked at
for their shade and shape and sweet
smellin' blossoms and all that; but
after tho racket, thon it was only the
sour crab-apples that people could
see, and this worked again' tho young
folks and pulled 'em down. Perhaps
you don't see what I'm drivin' at,
but—"
"Don't see!" I exclaimed: "Uncle
Silas, you're a poet, a regular poet."
"A what?" Silas asked, with a faint
attempt (it smiling. "You've called
mo many a name in your day, like all
tho rest of 'em, but never that afore
this, that I know."
"I mean to bo complimentary," I
replied, but with somo confusion, see
ing, as I had often done before, what
mischief lurks in ill-timed polysyl
lables.
"Worso and worse, with your long
words ; but let mo do tho talkin'. My
folks didn't oleai out after the fuss, as
thoy ought 'a' done, but held on and
worked their way, as they'd a right to
do. Perhaps it was a bad thing thoy
didn't goto church whon they stopped
goin' to meetin'; I don't know ; but
they lost headway, with the Quakers
again' 'em. It soured, of course, the
first of the Crabtrees, and the later
ones got a deal more gnarly and bit
ter, till it come down to me, with lit
tle more'n human shn.pe; and now it's
the end of us. There's no Crabtrees
besides me, and I wanted to get things
in shape, for there's some would like
the old cottage that ain't goin' to get
it. I don't know that there's any
more to tell you." And Silas looked
out towards the road and into the
woods upon its other side.
I kept my scat. I could not do
otherwise. The Silas of to-day was
not he whom I had known in years
past. Although there was mo evidence
of it in tho old man's words, I was con
vinced he had reference to me as his
heir; but what of that? He might
chango his mind a dozen times, for he
was not so very, very old—not much,
if any, over eighty; and what, indeed,
had lie to leave?
Many minutes passed, and then, as
I made a slight movement, merely to
change my position, Silas spoke in the
same strangely softened voice. "Don't
go, don't go; there's one thing
more—" He suddonly paused, and
stared, with a wild look, directly at
me. Tho silence was painful; his
strange appearauco more so. In a
moment the truth flashed across me;
ho was dead.
I was not surprised to learn, im
mediately after the funeral, that I
had been left tho solo legatee of the
man whose death 1 had witnessed;
but it was not an altogether pleasant
discovery. I had learned, too, that
it was my own ancestor who had been
most active in the sonsoloss persecu
tion, and it was with no ploasure that
I recalled the past as I took formal
possession of tho cottago and its con
tents, entering tho house for the first
time in my life. To cross the threshold
was to step backward into colonial
times. How true it is that it needs
at least a century to mellow a houso
and make it faintly comparable to
out-of-doors I
Tho hall-way of tho Crabtree cot
tage was neither short nor narrow,
but you got that impression from its
low ceiling aud tho dark wooden walls,
which time had almost blackened.
Lifting a stout wooden latch,
I passed into tho living-room, with its
ample opon firoplaoe, long unused, for
little air-tight stove had done duty
fc» both cooking and heating for
many years. This was tho only inno
vation ; all else was as when its first
occupant hail moved iuto tho "new"
houso and given over tho log hut to
other uses. The high-backed settle,
the quaint, claw-footodohuirs, a home-
I made table, with bread-trough under
j neath, seemed never to have beeu
i moved from their places since Silas's
mother died. These made less ira
-1 stoii than would utherwise have
| beeu the ease, because with thew WM
(he old desk to which Silas had r®«
ferred. It wan a bureau with fiva
brass-handled drawers, and above
them the desk proper, concealed by a
heavy, sloping li<L The dark wood
had still a fine polish, and the lid was
neatly ornamented with an inlaid star
of holly wood. It, with the three
plumed mirror on the wall above it,
was the eclipsing feature of the room.
All else, well enough in its way,
seemed commonplace. Drawing a
chair in front of the desk, I sat down
to explore it, but was bewildered at
the very outset. Lowering the lid,
the many pigeen-holes, small drawers
and inner apartment closed by a
carved door, took me too much by
surprise to let me be methodical.
Everywhere were old, stained papers
and parchments, some so very old the
ink had faded from them; but there
was no disorder. At last, knowing it
was no time to dream, I drew out a
bundle of papers from a pigeon-hole,
and noticed in doing so that a strip of
carved wood, which I had taken for
ornament, slightly moved.
It proved to be a long and very nar
row drawer, and this again had a more
carefully hidden compartment in the
hack, as a narrow line in the wood
showed. Peering into this, I found a
scrap of paper so long and closely
folded that it fell apart when opened ;
but the writing was still distinct. It
was as follows: "It is his Excellency's,
General Howe's, express order, that
no person shall injure Silas Crabtree
in hisporson or property." It was duly
signed, oountersigned, and dated
December 9, 1776. So Silas, the
great-grandfather, had been a Tory!
I was prepared now for revelations of
any kind. To look quietly over
papers, one at a time, was too prosy
an occupation, and the suggestion that
there might be more secret drawers
was followed until every nook and
cranny had been laid bare, and there
wero many of them.
Silas, in anticipation of just an
occurrence as I have described, had
placed a roll of papers so prominently
in the desk that 1 naturally took it up
with a serious purpose. The modem
red tape with which it was tied gave
it an appearance of importance abovo
the others. These time-stained sheets
contained his ancestor's version of the
trouble with his coreligionists, and I
soon found it was most unpleasant
reading. My own ancestor had been
an unrelenting persecutor, and, in the
name of religion, the cause of all the
Crabtree troubles; and now tho last
of his race had taken this strange
revenge, telling mo the unwelcotno
story why his people had been no
bodies of the backwoods and mj
people dwellers in fat land. It was
some satisfaction to know that tho
two families wero not related, but,
reading on and on as fast as the crude
writing permitted decipherment, I
learned that a marriage, generations
ago, had been contemplated, and suc
cessfully thwarted by tho father
of the would-be bride. Nothing
but ill camo of it, and the
rest we know. Tho wit of the Crab
trees had not quite died out, but
smouldered like tho burning of damp
wood, never receiving tho quickening
of education, and ever struggling
against the curse of alcohol.
It was a sad story; too sad to con
template, this dreamy August clay.
Closing the desk, I sat by tho open
as if watching the blazing
logs oi midwinter. As silenc now in
doors as out, and every object about
me suggesting myself as the cause of
infinite trouble, I grew desperate, and,
for more light, a bit of sunshine, threw
open the solid shutter of the little
south window. The bright yellow
beams wore magical. What a strange
little window it was! Three of the
eight small panes were roplaced by
paper, and the others were all dimmei
by decomposition that made the glass
prismatic. Through them no object
could be plainly seen. Every tree anil
bush was broken aud distorted. The
world was all askew as seen through
the oracked and warped glass; as much
gone wrong as in reality it had been
to the Grabtrees.
Though not half explored, I went
from tho house to the porch, that I
might return from the past to the
present. How hot and steamy were
the far-off woods and the one single
clearing in sight t The sizzling rattle
of the noontide cicada was the ouly
sound. I gladly returned to tho old
fireplace, although it was mid-August,
and then to the desk, putting on some
; show of rationality, for Crabtree's
lawyer was expected. I eveu
fire in the little stove to warm the
lunch I had brought, and, after an
attempt at eating, awaited the man's
1 coming, with pipe aud collee.
A rattle of wheels, a click of the
rickety old gate's latch, and a knock
' at the door, quickly followed each
other, and without corenony the
' lawyer appeared. With a coolness,
' precision, and dry-as-dust manner
that soothed my fretted nerves, ho
' proceeded to business, and did what
1 little was to be done. Some papers
1 which he had taken away he roturned ;
1 and then, his whole manner changing,
he actually smiled, lit a cigar, filled
with a true lazy man's twist the single
1 easy-chair, and handed mo a bit of
1 paper, saying, "This Silas asked me to
1 hand to you, fcariug it might bo over
looked if left in the desk."
I took it with Homo distrust, but
1 could not fathom itn meauiug. The
characters had been printed by Silas
aud the worda phonetically spelled.
r It was a puzzle, and I was in no humor
to guess its meauing.
| "What is it, auyway?" 1 asked.
'•That's plain enough," tho lawyor
1 replied; "it roads, 'Do as you'd be
1 done by.' " —Lippiucott's iu<>.
i In Italy theHonate consist* of princes
i of royal blood, and an unlimited until
ber of members appointed by the King
• for life, lu 1 s:H tlu-re were 335 uieiu
* b«r*
THE SAND HILL CRANE.
A GREAT OAKS BIRD IV THB
NORTHWEST.
Shy and Pugnacious, it Affords Much
Sport to tbe Hunters—An Un
equaled Table Delicacy.
e / "TV "T" O member of the feathered
I I kingdom is keener of
% sight, scent or hearing
" G than the sand-hill crane,
said a New York sportsman whose
range is wide. "At rest this great
bird stands fonr, and even five feet
high, and in flight he smites the air
with wings eight feet in spread. In
the newly settled prairie regions of
th great Northwest, where he makes
his home, he ranks in the estimation
of sportsmen above the wild goose
and duok, not only in delighting the
eye and heart of the hunter, but as a
provider of a table delicacy unequaled
in exoellenoe by either duok or goose.
"The visitor to those apparently
boundless prairies, fringed with the
wide farms of the pioneers, may well
wonder how the farmers manage to
house even a small portion of their
crops, for from the time the wheat be
gins to ripen until the corn is cut the
fields are not only constant prey for
the cranes that como down upon them
in countless thousands, but to the
daily visitation of such myriads of
wild geese and ducks as no hunter who
has never visited theso regions ever
dreamed of in his wildest imaginings.
The sand hill crane is several minutes
later than the geese, and, as the early
morning is the favorite and surest
time for bagging this over shy and
suspicious bird, the crane hunter must
either resent all inclination to lay low
the tempting gooso or mallard or give
up hope of gotting a shot at tho ex
pected cranes. The single report of a
gun between the advent of the wild
geese and the time the cranes would
appear will destroy the sportsman's
chunocs for a shot at the long-legged
game for that day.
"The hunter either fo» sand hill
craneß or wild geese and ducks may
always be sure of a warm welcome
among the prairie farmers of tho
Northwest They spend all their
sparo time themselves banging away
at tho marauding birds and in devis
ing ways and means of dispersing
them, but the greedy flees nre so
numerous and persistent in their raids
that it would require a small army to
keep them on the move.
"When the corn is ripe and tli9
nights grow crisp and frosty, toward
tho end of October, sand hill craue
shooting is most enjoyable. Along
tho edge of every cornfield there are
always wide spaces where tho long
prairie grass has been mowed away.
The dried grass ,lies in bunches, and
with it the hunter makes his blind,
close to the border of tho corn. Tho
blind must be made in a loose and
scraggly form, as if the wind hod
tossed it there, for the crane is tho
most suspicious of birds.
"The cranes do not plump blindly
and unconoernedly among tho corn,
as tho geese and ducks do, but alight
on the further edge of the mown spot,
between tho field and tho prairie.
From that vantage ground they re
connoitre tho field, carrying their
heads high in the air aud advancing
cautiously, step by stop, toward tho
coveted corn. They soem instinct
ively to keep as far apart from ono
another as they can. Before the days
of repeating guns this peculiarity of
the cranes kept the hunter in great
suspense, even after the flock or the
advance portion of it had oomo with
in easy range. He knew that two
shots were all that ho could by any
possibility get at the flook, and he
was naturally anxious to moke these
two do the best execution possible.
"A prairie cornfield after a gun has
been discharged in or near it in the
early morning is a sight to see, and
its sounds are something to hear. For
half a minute after tho report the field
will be black with geese and ducke
and cranes rising in frightened flight
from among tho stocks, the noise of
their great wings boing like rumbling
thunder, and the various harsh cries
making pandemonium of tho previous
ly peaceful scene.
"Frequently a sand hill crane will
bo wounded so that he cannot fly, be
ing otherwise uninjured. Away ht
will go over the prairie, his long, slim
legs carrying him at a surprisingly
rapid rate. If the hunter has plenty
fof bottom and wants an exciting
chase and a lively scrimmago at the
end of it ho will follow the wounded
crane. He will have to bo a good
sprinter if ho overtakes tho big bird
in less than a quarter of a mile run.
When ho does come up with tho crane
he will find a fight waiting for him
that will put him on his mettle. A
wounded sand h!ll craue brought to
bay is a fiery antagonist. It can use
its powerful six-inch bill with telling
effeot, and a stroke from ono of its
wings is sufficient to kuook the strong
est man off his feet. Tho prudent
hunter who gives ohase to a wounded
crane with the intention of ruuning it
down and risking a fight with it will
haro his revolver with hiin. I have
known more than one presumptuous
sportsman to undertake the task of
conqnering a crane under suoh cir
cumstances without having his pistol
to aid him, and to como baok from
the prairie not only without his game,
but badly usod up as woll."—New
York Sun.
Electric I'ooklnjr lor lljj .tltjr.
Queen Victoria will use electricity
for cooking purposes, Tho necessary
apparatus Las been installed at Os
borne, in tho Isle ol Wight. It is,
however, only usod for thu most deli
cate dishes. —Atlanta Constitution.
A woman of Caln>Me., ban won re
nown by mendiux a broken iloorhinjii
with a haircut.
Terms---* 1.00 in Advance; 81.25 after Three Months.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
Schnebile, the new explosive, ia
composed cliiefly of chlorade of pot
ash.
Hiram S. Maxim has already ex
pended $85,000 upon his flying ma«
chine.
Astronomers claim that thore are
over 17,500,000 comets in the solar
system alone.
A bat can absorb and digest in one
night three times the weight of its
own body. Bats never have more than
two little ones at a time.
General Mercier, French Minister
of War, has authorized the use in the
Fronch army of the recently dis
covered anti-diphtheric serum.
The width of the Atlantio could be
reduced one-half by lowering its depth
8564 feet. By lowering it three miles
one could walk from Newfoundland to
Ireland.
A soientist proves that typhoid and
cholera bacilli or germs will live many
weeks in a vacuum, and can endure
some five or more months of complete
dryness.
There are ten miles of pneumatic
tubes in the stroets of Chicago. They
are used to deliver messages from the
telegraph offices and office of the As
sociated Press to tho newspapers and
City Hall.
Simultaneous photographs at points
distant from each other have already
yielded information as to the height
of meteors above tho earth's surface,
this being shown to bo from sixty-five
to forty-five miles.
According to Dr. Chalmers's re
searches, tho mean duration ot life at
birth—based upon tho mortality ex
perience of Glasgow during the ten
years 1881-'9o—is 36.4 yours, 35.2 for
males and 37.7 for females.
Professor Agassiz indicates the
growth of reefs at Key West, Fla., at
the rate ot six inches in ono hundred
years, and adds that if wo doubled
that amount it would require seven
thousand years to form tho reefs in
that place, and hundreds of thousands
of years for tho growth of Florida.
Of the hundred thousand plants
catalogued by botanists only one
tenth part have appreciable odors. Of
fifty specimons of mignonnette, that
of our garden is the only sct'.nted one,
and, of a hundred varieties of tho
violet, only twelve havo the exquisite
perfume that is so popular. In gen
eral the proportion of fragrant to
odorless flowers is about ono per cent.
Any one living exclusively on pota
toes would consume forty grammes of
potash salts per day, whioh explains
why we always require salt whenevor
wo eat potatoes. All vegetable foods
are rioh in potash; and it is a fact
that people in the country districts
use more salt than tho inhabitants of
towns and cities, where more m6at is
eaten. In Franco tho country people
use three times moro salt than the
town people.
Impromptu Maps.
Tho "cat" and the "pig" books, de
signed to record people's impressions
of those interesting animals (each per
son to draw his own without being al
lowed a glimpse of any one else's
work), has an amusing companion in
a geography sketch book.
In this one's friends are to record,
in a rapid, off-hand drawing, their
best recollections of certain very fa
miliar outlines, such as the coast of
Massachusetts, or Italy, or England,
or North America. To be even fairly
correct is difficult and rare, if one is
long past daily geography lessons.
The five great lakes of North Amer
ica is one of tho best tasks to set, this
to be drawn in outline with at least
the larger bays and connections indi
cated, all to be done without seeing,
first, any other sketch or map. A cor
rect map should accompany the book
for easy reference ana comparison
with the amateur work. Tho curiously
vague, droll, mental maps that one's
friends carry about with them, thus
revealod, are funnier than even the
sea serpent's portraits in the "sea ser
pent His Album."
I have known'moro than one person
to stop short at a mere "round O" for
the first lake which seemod to lead
nowhere, the other four having
neither shape nor substance iu the
puzzled artist's vision.—Washington
Star.
Submarine Torpedo.
Seymour Allan, a resident of Syd
ney, has invented a submarine torpedo
boat, which, he claims, is capable of
sinking to any depth, and of traveling
rapidly under water without revealing
its presence. A working model of the
boat was tried in the public baths at
Sydney, New South Wales, in tho
presence of the Earl of Hopetoun, tho
governor, tho naval commandant, and
a number of naval and military officers.
The experiments were a complete suc
cess, the model rising, sinking, turn
ing, reversing, or remaining stationary
in obedience to the electric onrrent by
whioh it is worked. The inventor
claims that a full-sized boat would bo
capable of remaining undor water for
three days. It would oarry torpedoes
on the bow and stern decks. —Scien
tific American.
Dancing by the Mile.
An average waltz takes ono over
three-quarters of a mile, a square
dance makes you eovor half a mile,
and a galop equals a good mile. Count
up fpr yourself how much tho girl
with a well-filled progrumme traverses
in an evening. Twenty dances is the
average, you know. Of these about
twelves are wal/.e*. There at once are
nine miles. Three galops ami she has
gone twelve miles. Five other dances
at a half a mile apiece briug her to
fifteen miles, to «aj nothing of the in
teriuthaiou stroll and the trips to the
t resMiigroom to renovate oue's gown
and coiuph'xiou. Appletou I'ost.
NO. 14.
DON'T FRET.
Arc 'your enemies at work? '
Don't fret. . •
They can't injuro you a whitj
If you heed them not a bit
They will soon be glad to quit.
Don't fret. ,
Has a horrid lie been told?
Don't fret.
It will run itself to death, 1
As tho ancient adage saitb,
And will die for want of breath. .
Don't fret.
Is adversity your lot?
Don't frot.
Fortune's wheel keeps turning 'round—
Every spoke shall touih the ground,
AH in time shall upward bound.
Don't fret.
—Barn's Horn.
HUMOR OF THE DAY.
In 'golf society people think they
have found the missing links. —States-
man.
A genius is a man who does some
thing that others say cannot be done.
—Barn's Horn.
Most people eat as if they were fat
tening themselves for the market. —
Atchison Globe.
It sounds rather odd to read in th«
hardwaro market report that cutlery
is dull.—Truth.
Woman is always pleased with tho
last now wrinkle, provided it is not on
her own face.—ruck.
Cashier —"We never pay bills on
Saturdays." Shorts —"But my nam#
is not Bill." —Chicago Becord.
The trouble with most people's
economy is that they don't save any
money by it.—Atchison Globe.
A man should havo no secrets from
his wife except surprises he is getting
up for her birthday. —Atchison Globe.
If somo men wandered as much as
their minds do they would bo great
travelers. —Hartford (C> nn.) Journal,
ghe looked a perfect poem
With that witching face of hers;
But, when I trie;t to kiss her, she
Proved not at all a verse.
—Pack.
There is a certain kind of charity
that would attach balloons to birds of
tho air, that they might be saved from
fatigue.—Puck.
A girl always likes to find a man af
ter her own heart; because what is
the good of a fellow who is after some
other girl's heart?—Truth.
Caller —"Can I seo Miss Snuggle?"
Servant —"Shu'sengaged, sir." Caller
"Of course she is, and I'm tho man
she's engaged to."—Vick's Monthly.
Tell us not in moarnful numbers
Life is but an empty dream,
When to paythocoal and gas bills.
All the wlntor wo must scheme.
—Chicago Inter-Ocean.
It is more romantic and better for
tho digestion to sleop with wedding
cako under the pillow than to try to
sleop with it in tho stomach. —Atchi-
son Globe.
Caller —"Do you notice any differ
ence since the doctor treated your
eyes?" "Yes; I can see a fifty-dollar
bill without my glasses now."—Chi
cago Inter-Ocean.
"This is my first experience as a
steeple chaser," murmured tho Kansas
farmer as he whirled through the air
just behind tho fragments of tho vil
lago church.—Yale Becord.
Friend—"Well, Ethel, how do you
like married life?" Ethel (enthusias
tically)—"lt's simply delightful.
We'vo been morried a week and have
had eight quarrels, aud I got the best
of it every time."—Fun.
Mrs. Strongniind—"lf women would
only stand shoulder to shoulder they
would soon win tho suffrage." Dr.
Guffy—"But, madam, that is some
thitjg they can't do, with tho present
styles in sleeves."—Harper's Bazar.
Employer—"How did you break
that vase?" Office Boy—"1 had it in
my hand when I heard your bell ring
and dropped it, because you told mo
yesterday to drop everything and
answer your bell whenever you rang."
—Harper's Bazar.
Applicant for Situation as Zoo
logical Keeper—"May I ask why you
think it necessary that, candidates
should be married men, 6ir?" Secre
tary— "My good man, how on earth
do you expect any ono else could
stand the continual row?"— Hal
f
Relorined Ills Mustache.
When J. C. S. Blackburn, the Ken
tucky Senator, camo to Congress,
writes Moses P. Handy from Wash
ington, twenty years or more ago he
wore the greatest mustache, except
General Logan's, ever seen in this
country. Now he has one of moderate
dimensions and keeps it well trimmed.
The transformation was effected somo
years ago by his daughter. She was
very much annoyed by the caricatures
in tho newspapers which mado her
honored father all mustache. Seeing
one of these caricatures in a Chicago
newspaper ono day while they were
riding on a train en route from Cin
cinnati to Chicago, she too'; a pair of
scissors and, against his protest,
clipped his hirsute adornment to the
conventional proportions. The Sen
ator caught a bad cold, bnt when ho
came to look in a mirror ho liked him
self so niuoh better that he hss never
gone back to the old style of mustache.
—New York Mail and Express.
Wheat Cheap, Out liread Dear.
Referring to tho oontinned fall in
the.prioes of wheat, an English paper
remarks: "Both hero and in tho
United States large quantities of the
inferior kinds will l>e used for feoding
purposes. Wheat has never lieen so
cheap before within the memory of liv
ing man. Tho odd thing is, wo da
not And our bakers' bills any smaller,"
—New York World.