In South Africa there is a great de mand for donkeys, as they are proof against climate, plague and flies. It appears that Germany is not the only bete noir of industrial Great Britain, though it is doubtless the chief. The "made in Germany" cry is now Hupplemcjited by another— "made in the United States." In other words, American manufacturers are invading English home and colon ial markets. Some time since an Englishman in Ceylon announced his conversion to Mohammedanism and immediately claimed the privilege of polygamy, taking unto him a second wife in the person of an English girl of excellent family, who also announced her con version. The lirst wife sued for a divorce. The man protested that as a Moslem he had a light to two or even four wives. The matter has come up in the courts, and it has been decided that his status in Ceylon is that of an Englishman upon whom the obliga tion of monogamy is binding whatever his religious belief, whether he be Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Mormon or Mohammedan. Says the San Francisco Argonaut: "The daily papers are not content with plastering pictures over their pages, most of which are superfluous and all of which are bad. They have now devised all sorts of typographic freaks with which to disfigure the pages already defaced by poor pictures. It has become a matter of extreme difficulty to pursue the windings of an article in aud out of the pictures and over to the inuer pages, where its ramifications generally terminate. For, according to the new 'journal ism,' it is necessary to begin all the news features on the first page with a whoop and a howl, allowing them to trickle out like stale treacle on the in side pages. But this desire to get everything 'featured' on the first page has brought about the condition which makes the daily papers look like pic ture puzzles. As if to add to the con fusion, some inspired editorial ediot has now devised a plan of inclosing in borders all sorts of stories, scraps of interviews, sayings of individuals more or less obscure and the flotsam and jetsam generally of the news of the day. There is thus made up a sort of journalistic remnant-counter or newspaper ragbag, which is surround ed with variegated black borders of varying degrees of hideousness, and around which must coil and curl and convolute the genuine news of the day. The hapless purchaser of a news paper is now forced to pick out the news, not only from amid the pictures which deface the pages of the dailies, but from these typographical mon strosities as well." During her first term in the White Hom.e, relates W. E. Curtis, in the Chicago Record, Mrs. Cleveland was always accessible to newspaper cor respondents and was the source of a great deal of valuable information concerning official and social affairs. The women correspondents were very fond of her aud appreciated her sym pathy and assistance, but during the second term, after the children came, she became more secluded; she seldom saw any of her old friends of the news paper profession, except on the oc casion of official functions, and even then she usually referred them to the president's private secretary or to Colonel Wilson, the master of cere monies at the White House. It is said that this change in her disposi tion was caused by a little incident that was resented by the president and herself as au unwarranted intru sion into their private affairs, aud caused them to take measures to pro tect their household against any fur ther attacks of that kind. At the same time the article they complained of was not only an interesting but a truthful account of au event which occurs daily in every well-regulated household that is made happy by children. A newspaper correspondent of some fame happened to call just as Ruth who was then a baby, was having her morning bath. The operation was being observed with great pleasure by the president, who invited his friend to join him. The latter of course was immensely interested in studying the demeanor af the president of the United States, and particularly a man of Mr. Cleve land's character and disposition in the midst of such a pretty domestic scene, and afterward took the liberty to write a description of the affair for his paper. The public was greatly amused, but the president and Mrs. Cleveland were indignant. That particular cor respondent was never received at the White House again, and he effectually destroyed their confidence in his pr4\ fession. \\ All over the country landowners and others are suing paper, woodpulp and saw mills for dumping refuse aud waste into streams and ruining them. Most of the suits are successful. An export pays that getting shot does not hurt any more than having a tooth pulled. The dissemination of this knowledge will not lessen the rash to get out of the way when bullets are flying around. Georgia people and papers are pluming themselves greatly upon the fact that the new capitol of Rhode Island is being built of Georgia marble, in preference to all the granite and marble of New England. It comes from Pickens county, and is represented to be remarkably white white and strong. The ingenuity that has been ex hibited of late years in the discovery and application of explosives for min ing purposes has really beeu remark able, and not less so has been the growth of the trade in explosives dur ilg the period of twenty years since the English act of 1875 came into operation, says the Trade Journals Review. Not only has the number of factories more than doubled, but the number of persons employed in them is now over 10,000, which shows an increase of nearly 3000 even during the last ten years. Professor Bryce declares that the one conspicuous failure of American institutions is the government of our great cities, which every intelligent mau knows to be true. The state limits the liberties of its cities. It does not dare to trust them with full autonomy. We have for years relied upon the country vote to hold the cities in check, but the time is soon coming when the cities will take mat ters into their own hands. If the rate of growth from 1880 to 1890 con tinues, in 1920the cities of the United States will contain 10,000,000 more than one-hiilf of the population. The city will then control state and nation. The plague continues to spread in India, in spite of all sanitary eft'orts for its extirpation. Its progress is slow in comparison with most epi demics, but it is the hardest of them all to uproot entirely. It is several years since the present malady started on its course from China, and the his tory of previous visitations justifies the conjecture that it may have a long road to travel. Russia's plague of 1878 hovered about the countries of Western Asia for a decade before it advanced northward. In 1867 it ap peared at Bagdad; in 1870-'7l Kur distan was invaded; and in 1873 Bag dad suffered anew. In 1877 it appeared at Recht, an important city of North ern Persia, near .the port of Enseli, from whence it was carried northward in Caspian ships and planted in the populous but malarious and unwhole some deltas of the Volga. Russia did not get rid of it for a number of years, and stray cases of it appeared in other European countries, to which it has been a periodical visitor since their history began. It may come again, but it is not now armed with its old terrors. • * Disgraceful scenes have been wit nessed more than once in American legislative chambers, recalls the New- York Times. Our statesmen have oc casionally resorted to the argument j of fists vigorously swung, aud in just j a few instances the course of debate j has been interrupted by the violent insertion into it of knives and revol vers. These lamentable facts are not to be denied, but the humiliation they have caused in sensitive minds is much mitigated by the thought that ! never, even amid the agonies of"re- j construction," did the most uncouth ! of our lawmakers display for more than a few minutes the reckless black guardism by which for weeks past the members of the Austrian Reiehsrath have shaken the foundations of the empire and classed themselves with savages. Democracy has its scandals, but monarchical institutions,apparent ly, do not develop in all who live un der them unvarying reliance on cour teous and legal methods as the only al ternatives to out-and-out rebellion. However, we should remember that the government of the United States is an ancient one, compared with those of Austro-Hungary, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and most of the minor Continental nations. Indue time, no donot, the residents of Europe will attain to our present high average of self-control. It would not be fair to expect as much from people to whom constitutional rule is still only an ex periment as from those whose fences tors have been free for many a gen eration, and who have l«rneu from long experience when tv fight and when to malt". aarli&»'.e#-4i'jr A SONG OF HER LOVE. There's a song of a bird in a blossoming Is tho dear little song of my love, tree, Of red li[ is that kiss mo And songs In wind-trebles above; Aud tenderly bless mo. But th» *<«uig that is ever the sweetest to And arms like a necklace that clasp and ea rn*. ress me. Is a dear little song of her love ! Like fairy bells ringing Sing over, ye birds, to the blossoming tree Where roses aro springing, And. winds, pipe your music above ; Is the song of her love that my glad heart is Her brown curls aro brighter than blossoms singing! to me. And I'm singing a song of lior love ; O the bird in the blossoms with melody Like fairy bells ringing charms Where roses are springing. And the winds sing tile blue fields above ; Is the song of her love that my glad heart is But of rosy-red lips and two little white singing ! urms —F. L. Stanton, in Atlanta Constitution. \ Creed and BTVWWVWVWV" The Rev. Wetherby Smiles was rec tor of St. James' and occupied a rose embowered cottage not far from the church. The cottage, with its atten dant garden, was a dainty, pretty spot, which looked as though a woman's hand had planned and cared for it. But no woman had anything to do with the rectory. The Rev. Mr. Smiles' only servant was a dod dering old man; the rector prepared his own meals, except when he was invited to tea by some old lady who pitied his lonely, indigestion-breeding existence. Not that the Rev. Mr. Smiles was a woman hater, but Mr. Smiles was very high church indeed. Unfortu nately, St. James* and the parish and the people were very poor. The good people liked the Rev. Mr. Smiles and tried to follow his suggestions upon high church usages. But there are people, you know, whom you couldn't make high church with a jackscrew. The communicants of St. James' were mostly farmers and -small tradesmen. The rector felt that the clergy, to be able to give their whole time and thought to their work, should live lives of celibacy. He hod felt at times a strong drawing toward some ecclesi astical order in which such vows would be necessary. Then he would wear some outward sign of his vows, and the young women of his parish would not fall in love with him. The rector was young and good looking; he had been in his present pastorate six months, and he had already had an experience. The young rector lived with his books, occasionally taking a little rec reation in the garden. The roses dis appeared, the leaves fell and left the clinging vines bare, aud the snow cov ered the prim little beds in the rectory garden. Thus a year of his pastorate closed, and the spring drew near. The Rev. Wetherby Smiles, from his study window, could look across his garden plot and see the brown earth warming in the spring sunshine and the trees and bushes slowly burst ing into leaf. Nature is always most attractive in the spring, and nature in a thousand ways, with byd and leuf and warming earth and wliite-tlccked sky and sweet air, wooed liiin from his books. He looked across his garden, I say. And across the garden, beyond the low hedge, was another garden, which in summer was full of color. He had noticed the brilliant-lined beds the year before, but now the only bit of color was a pale-blue morning robe that flitted about the iuclosure. To tell the truth, the rector had seldom noticed that morning gown or the little woman inside it before. But it pleased his fancy now to look across the hedge and watch his neighbor. He recalled that his old major-dorao had told him the cottage next the par sonage was occupied by a widowed lady—a lonely creature who had taken up her abode there but shortly before the Rev. Mr. Smiles was settled over St.Jaines'. He remembered the little figure in black in one of the side pews, pointed out to him by the clerk as "Mrs. Scorritch," and probably had not given her a thought or a glance afterward. However, he saw so much of the pale-blue gown that first warm week in spring that he looked for the little widow iu her pew the next Sabbath. She had laid aside her weeds and was dressed in some soft, clinging, fawn colored material that made lier look like a very demure little moth. And she liftd the sweetest face in the world —as least, the sweetest face in the Rev. Wetherby Smiles' world. On Monday morning the clerical black appeared in the rectory garden almost as soon as the pretty morning robe appeared over the liedgo. The demure little face dimpled and smiled under its garden hat at the rector's approach, and tho widow nodded brightly. "You are early at your gardening this spring, Mrs. Scorritch," he said. "Yes; but it is so warm," she re plied, in defense. "I am expecting my crocuses to appear any day now." "I'm afraid we shall see some frost yet, Mrs. Scorritch," said the rector. "Now, don't talk that way, I beg!" tried the little woman, clasping her sands, inclosed iu long-wristed and particularly well-fitting gauntlets. "Just suppose my crocuses should jome up and be frost-bitten! Oh, the ;hought is too awful." "I sincerely hope yon will not be iisappointed, but this climate is un jertain." After that the young rector often found it quite necessary for his Health to work in his garden while the blue gown (flitting like a butterfly from rose tree to vine and from vine to hedgerow) was in evidence in the neighboring yard. Really, aft«r por ing over musty theological tomes all winter a man must get some freshness >n his soul and new blood in his aeart. The gardening went on apace,and the treacherous warm weather continued. Many were the conferences held across the hedge regarding the proper prun ing of rose trees.the planting of hardv Crocuses. > WWW VVWVVVVv^ seeds and the preparation of the beds of earth. The rector had never sus pected there was so much detail to the business of gardening. One morning, just after a warm night rain, the Rev. Mr, Smiles was called to the hedge by a litttle cry from his neighbor. "They are coming!" she cried, in delight. "See! here is the dearest little blade of green pushing up through the mold—aud there is another —aud another! Just look at them!" The rector found it necessary to leap the hedge (he hod been some thing of an athlete at the university, and certainly this spring weather was sending the blood coursing through his veius quite like old times) aud look at the crocus bed near to. "They are such lovely ones," she said, earnestly. "I don't believe you noticed them at all last spring" (lie pronounced maledictions upon him self for having been so blind as to miss so much beauty the previous sea son), "but they will be even better this year—if we don't have that horrid frost you huve been prophesying." She looked at him roguishly, and it suddenly crossed the young rector's mind that several yellowish-green points of crocus blade, breaking the damp soil, made a far prettier picture than the finest rose bush in full bloom which he had ever seen. It wan a strange fact and one he had never dis covered before. But when he had returned to his own lonely domain and entered his study, he stopped and thought seri oifdy for a minute. Then he cast his flat-crowned ministerial hat upon the floor with great emphasis and ex claimed : "It's my creed, I tell you, that a man in orders should not marry." Now, there was no one visib'e to argue the question, and yet there seemed to be argument in his own mind, for the Rev. Wetherby Smiles smote his palm with his clenched fist angrily and kicked the flat-crowned liat to the other end of the room. For two days the rector of St. James' rigidly stifled his interest in crocuses; his interest in creeds, however, was not entirely satisfying. On Sunday, after vespers, he overtook on his way home a little figure in a fawn-colored gown. "You must see my crocuses, Mr. Smiles," she said, "l'hebtuls will be open before Sunday." The rector glanced gloomily at the darkening sky and thought that prob ably there would he a frost that night. But ho could not long think of frost and other unpleasant possibilities under the skillful manipulation of his charming little neighbor. He hesi tated at her gate, and again crocuses triumphed over creed. The crocuses were flourishing finely; the creeds took a back seat—indeed, a very un obtrusive seat—in the rector's mem ory. His interest in the crocus continued that evening to so late an hour that his old servitor really thought he wns not coming to supper and cleared away the repast. "Nevermind," said the rector,kind ly, "I am not hungry,''anil when the old man had doddered ott' to bed he sat down before the opeu window of his chamber and stared out into the still night. He sat there for an hour. A light burned behind the curtain of one of his neighbor's windows. That was lier light he knew. Finally it dis appeared, but he sat on, his arms folded upon the sill, liis eyes glaring tixedly into the darkness. Creed was making a stroug fight for life. It grew rapidly colder,and suddenly the Rev. Wetherby Smiles awoke to the discomforts of the outer man. He shivered and drew away from the win dow. There was no breeze and no clouds, but au increasing chill made hiin close the casement. Theu he slipped on a smoking jacket aud went to the door. There was a light haze upon the river and a shim mer of frost in the air. "A bad night for the farmers and fruit growers," he thought. Then his miud reverted to those crocuses. "They will be black by morning," he said. "Too bad! and the little woman thinks so much of them." He hesitated a moment and then went in again reappearing shortly with an old mackintosh. "Just the thiug to spread over the bed to defend them from the frost," he muttered and with long strides crossed the rectory garden aud leaped the hedge. Feeling a good deal like a night prowler who had no business in the place,he crept through his little neigh bor's garden and approached the cro cus bed near the porch. He started at the slightest sound and glanced about fearfully. Suppose anybody should see him—one of his parishion ers—even his major-domo! He forgot the night was dark; it seemed to his excited imagination that anybody pass ing along the road could see him— the rector of St. James'—prowling abont beneath a lady's window! Suddenly, just as he spread the cov ering over the crocus bed aud was turning hastily to flee, be heard a sound on the porch. He started, and his eyes became fixed upon the vision before him. A figure, all in white, and motionless, stood upon the lower step. The Rev. Wetherby Smiles was startled, but he was not superstitious. For some seconds, however, he stared at the apparition before he recognized it. Then he stepped quickly forward aud began to make excuses in a low voice. ".Mrs. Scorritch Lydia—l beg your pardon, but I thought " He got no further in his faltering remarks. With a shuddering little cry the figure tottered and would have fallen to the ground had he not sprung forward and caught her in his arms. "Good gracious!" muttered the Rev. Mr. Smiles, the perspiration starting on his brow. "What a situation. Suppose anybody should see me now. To think of me—a clergyman—in a woman's garden at night,holding that woman in my arms!" He was tempted to lay her down upon the porch and run. But he looked down into the little white face, revealed by the faint sta: light. The pale lids were drawn over the great eyes, which he thought so glorious. The pouting lips had not entirely lost their redness, but the cheeks were without color. He looked upon her, and then did not lay lier down and flee. Instead he stooped lower and—lifted her more closely against his breast and carried his burden into the house. There was a couch in the reception room. He laid her down and lighted the gas. She opened her eyes languidly and saw him. "I have frightened you, Lydia," he said, stooping above her. "Really,l had no intention, you know. I only remembered the crocuses " "I—l thought you were a burglar," she admitted. "And when I heard your voice " "Didn't you recognize it?" he asked. "You—yon had never spoken to me in just that way before, and " He bent lower and took her hand. "I was only thinking of the crocuses, Lydia," he said, which was very true. He had quite forgotten the "creed." Chicago Record. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. In India the natives, when a bicycle comes along, fall down and mention the name of the Deity. A lady in Hirain, Me., lias cucum ber pickles which have been in her possession for more than forty years. Whistling is practically unknown among the Icelanders who regard it as irreligious, and a violation of the divine law. The first forger of a Bank of England note was Richard AVilliani Vaughan, a linen draper of Stafford, hanged in 1758. Miss Florence Hudson of Baltimore, Md., has a tooth of solid gold, with n diamond in the centre of it. The orna ment cost her over $l5O. The long tails of the Shah of Per sia's horses are dyed crimson for six inches at the tips—a jealously guarded privilege of the ruler and his sous. If Chinese children do not obey their parents, and the latter whip them to death, the law has no punishment for them, as obedience to parents is me cardinal virtue. W. T. Woodward, the Kentucky horse breeder, is going about telling his friends that he has been cured of rheumatism by carrying old electric light carbons in his pockets. Among the many devices to assist tho blind one of the best is a type writer in which the keys have raised letters and which punctuates the paper with either letters or the dots con tained in one of the blind alphabets. Experiments testing the compara tive values of salt aud fresh water in street-sprinkling are being made in San Francisco. It is said that salt water does not dry so quickly as fresh, and that it binds the dirt together, so that there is less dust. The people of Sharpsburg, Ky., en gage in diverting contests on Saturday evenings. Forty men are each sup plied with a dozen eggs, and range themselves in two parties, twenty on each side. They then begin throwing the eggs at their opponents, and at its close they look like omelets from head to foot. The largest lobster that has been seen in New Haven, Conn., in years was on exhibition at the Tontine hotel. The big shellfish weighed twenty-eight pounds, and was very old. It re posed in a dish on the office counter, aud was kept cool by pieces of ice. The lobster was alive, and lazily moved its great claws. A Virginian has invented a tree pro tector which kills insects and worms which try to crawl up the trunk and eat the leaves, the new device con sisting of a pliable receptacle to su round the tree and hold the inse> killing liquid, with a felt pad at bottom to prevent insects from ing tip between the tree and tl tector. Seven Feet of Hair on Mr. Lm Mr. Legrand Larow of Lf has a beard which perliajis est worn by any man in His beard is seven feet i* has measured seven and Mr. Larow was born county, N. Y., iu 1852 tives are noted lor lit not of extraordinary G feet in height, pounds. When st beard down it exter the floor. He has 20 years. He wear and wound around wrapped and lodgi St Louis Qlobe I A TEMPERANCE COLUMN. THE DRINK EVIL MADE MANIFEST IN MANY WAYS. tlow to ITelp—Alcohol Appetites—'They Are Not Caused by Natural Cravings But Jlesult From nn Education Which is Abnormal and Ends in Disaster^ Yon suy you can't talk about tempernnce, But to help it one way may bo found; iou can closo your lips and keep them closed When the glass goes 'round. If ou no time for doing tw i ""1 mU( '' 1118 your neighbors can do; But ltp 8i an( j by keeping them Then wo'll'know you are true. You say you don't think your example Is potent for good or for harm; But one day you may find that the lips V which were closed Hold a magical charm. And wo know that the throne of the tempter Would at onco bo hurled down ana liu low, If only all lips that now open would close, And each voice would say, "No!" —Faith Chiltern. Alcoholic Appetites. The desire for alcoholic stimulants is commonly spoken of as appetite, but wo deny that its nature is the same as the cravings of n hungry man for food. The latter comes alike to every healthy man 1 as one evidence of health, but the former must have other provocation than the calls! of nature, and it represents disease. We do not deny that liquor cravings may come by inheritance, but the example of a'drink ing father gives a sufficient explanation of the son's drink habit without touching thol question of heredity. Without denying the theory of hereditary appetite, many years of observation and! study have convinced us that we must lookj to other causes than that for explanation! of most of the cases of slavery to drink. While we do not object to the expression "drink appetite," wo insist that In most cases the drink habit represents not a nor mal, but an educated appetite, and, there fore, we attack tho educators, and say tnat such disastrous education ought to be sup pressed. These educators are chiefly in two classes, viz., first, those who educate young men into the pnth of doath for the sake of the money that can be gained thereby, and, 1 second, the devotees of fashionable drink ing, and tho cowards who dare not resist or antagonize such fashion. As to the ilrst named class, no sensible man can believe that tho elegant saloon, resplendent with paintings and mirrors, is called for by the slave appetite. A jug and tin dipper answers his claims, and he will not even insist upou the dipper. Tho saloon is created as nu educator, and ex ists in that capacity. Go whore the saloon is unknown, and the young men give llttlo evidence of alcoholioappotite. The saloon system is u humbug, as well as an outrage. As to fashion as an educator into tho drink appetite, as we have said before, it is the worst obstacle to public sobriety and should be held responsible accordingly. Tho men of influence who defend it rest under a fearful responsibility. Let us not be deluded by tho current sophistry about natural or inherited ap petite for alcohol; these causes are but as drops in tho ocean. The causes of drink appetite are mainly controllable, and therefore ought to be suppressed. They have been practically suppressed in many localities, and by pa tient attention to duty can bo largely re duced everywhere.—National Temperance Advocate. The Masses, the Boys and the Saloons. The Lutheran Observer says: "Tho I church will never reach the masses until it llrst reaches the saloons." This is as true as it is pithy and pointed. Before "the masses" can be brought to Christ they must be brought away from the saloons; and tho only way to gain that point Is to destroy the saloons. You can no more keep tiie boys and young men out of the licensed and legalized saloon than you can keep flies out of an open molassos barrel on the street In August. Close tho barrel and roll it iuto tho collar, and then tho flies will keep out of it. So closo tho saloons and keep them closed, or a certain number of your boys nnd young men aro as surely doomed each year to be lured by them Into u drunkard's grave and a drunkard's liell as are flics certain to be lured to their death by tho open molasses barrol. Sun day-schools and young people's societies, and V. M. C. A.'s and churohes, muy do all they can to draw tho boys and keep them away from the saloons, but it will bo of little or no nvuil so long as the legalized saloons exist. Into them tho boys will go, despite the tears and prsyors of pareuts and tho efforts of Christian people. How do we know? By having watched tho drift of things in that direction forty yoars. In all those years u regular stream of boys have been going out of Christian homes, out of churches and out of Sunday-schools into the saloons, down to drunkards' graves, and tho samo stroam is going on still, bigger and stronger than over. Yes, Christian people, If you would save your boys and reach tho masses, first reach and close the saloons. —Religious Telescopo. • A Good Stimulant. Yes, I admit tlint whisky is a stimulant. It stimulates abnormal and vicious appo tite. It stimulates unholy passion. It stimulates the death dyed traffic iD human virtue. It stimulates poverty. It stimulates disease. It stimulates depravity. It stimulates crime. It stimulates divo T It stimulates th pitfall. It stimulate It stimulr surroiuiding: It stimulat It stiir"' It stir It st' Its tho 1< It flr