Professor Ed-ward Hull, an English scientist, estimates that about 58,- 275,700,000 tons of coal will remain within a depth of 4000 feet by the end of the century. It is estimated that in Paris one it eighteen of the population, or 150,- 000, live on charity, with a tendency toward crime. In London this class is ono in thirty. While the government is appropri ating money for the relief of the Klon dike "sufferers," hosts of other ad venturers are still flocking to that in hospitable country. Are they deliber ately counting on lAng similarly re lieved and brought home at the ex pense of the American people? nsks the Xew York Tribune. It would seem to the Xew York Times that Americans are rapidly re verting to old types of the Indian and the Asiatic, with a slight difference in dress, and are also going back to Greek sobriety of manner, with some attempt at sobriety of life, although as yet the latter is not so successful as the effort to build up a superficial soberness of manner. Southern cotton mills are running double time and increasing their plants, while those in New England are limiting production and reducing wagfes and inviting strikes as a pre text for closiug. Here nre plain signs, observes the Trenton (X.J.) American, of a great migration of industry which will have an important effect on the history of civilization in Amer ica. An expert in educational matters Fays that country children remember longer than city children. It would be well, adds tho Youth's Companion, if their superior memory invariably retained the story of failure of boys and girls who rushed into cities when their country home offered them sure, if moderate success. The examples of occasional good fortune are never forgotten; the disappointments lie come indistinct in the recollection, largely because the mind wishes to put them out of view. An amusing illustration of the fact that the agitutiou in behalf of the in crease of the navy has taken deep root in the German nation was furnished a few days ago. A wealthy Berlin manufacturer, Dorst, married a few months ago the daughter of Admiral Koester, and at first the union was quite a happy one. Then the hus band, who is politically a follower of Eugene Richter, the Socialist leader, discovered that his young wife is an enthusiastic supporter of the Emper or's naval plans, and she in turn dis covered that he was a violent oppo nent to those plans. She,besides, was a member of something like a German Primrose league, and he forbade her to attend those meetings. Hence marital disharmony; hence, also, di vorce suit, tried in a Berlin court. They both got their decree on the score of "political incompatibility." Kansas is famous for boy orators, boy preachers, boy financiers and youthful prodigies in almost every walk in life. There would seem to be no longer any need for giving years to the study of any profession how ever learned and intricate it may be, and as to experience, that does not count for anything in this age when there is so great a disposition mani fested to throw experience overboard as not being applicable to the present race of men. The latest boy wonder that Kansas has produced is an nounced in a dispatch from Topeka, to the effect that a boy lawyer, only seven years old, has passed a success ful examination and has been awarded a certificate by the supreme court of that state. The story, is as related in the Trenton (X. J.) American, is that the boy, accompanied by his father, appeared before the court a day or two ago, and satisfactorily answered the most intricate questions in law, without hesitation and without stum bling on a single question. The father of the boy, who is also a lawyer, says that his sou has for some time dis played an aptitude for legal subjects and has devoured profound legal works with eagerness. The chief jnstice at the close of the examination jokingly remarked that the boy was a better lawyer than his father, which might very well be true, and it might also be true that he was more familiar with law than the chief justice who ordered the certificate to be issued to him. Lawyers and judges are made of queer timber sometimes, even out side of Kansas. If this thing keeps on, however, there will soon be no use for men. The boys will fill all the responsible situations in life, and the men can go fishing. The latest project of the Danish government is to introduce an income tax of 1 1-4 per cent, a year, those having less than 700 crowns of in come being free. Oats form one of the principal Bel gian crops, with an average annual value of about $16,000,000. Yet large quantities are imported from the United States, Canada, Russia and southeastern Europe. Train robbing appears to have be come a permanent and prosperous in dustry in the Transvaal, the last ven ture in that direction having netted the perpertrators upward of $60,000. Thus, eveu in far-away South Africa, the wild western method of money getting is making steady progress. The price of rice has risen so high in various parts of China that the natives are growing to like corn meal. There is a chance for American corn in the Orient on the score of cheap ness which the Middle West can profit by when the Nicaragua canal is built. It will then be possible to ship corn from there to China through a Gulf port at a price which will with rice at average market rates and afford our farmers a steady and fairly uniform revenue. Says the Hartford Post:—Xew York has expended $5,000,000 for a speed way for fast horses, and now it is prepared to spend SBO,OOO for a speed way for bicycles. Plans have been drawn for such a speedway along the road connecting the Bronx and Pel ham parks. Wheelmen number 600,- 000 in Xew York, or one-fifth of the the entire population. Carriage riders number about one per ceut. of the population. The wheelmen should have their speedway. There seems to be no question about prosperity in Chicago. Accord ing to the Inter-Ocean, the number of people in the poorhouse is less by 300 than it was a year ago. The num ber of applications for outdoor relief in Xovember was the lowest on record for many years. The estimates of the county agent for the poor fund are 810,000 less for 1898 than in 1897. No public appeal is likely to be made by the A-sociated Charities. These facts goto show, as the Inter-Ocean says, that there has been a general re vival of work. Money is the true king, exclaims the Philadelphia Record. The smart scheme of the German Kaiser to sell the Sultan of Turkey guns and build him war ships to be paid for out of the Greek indemnity—thus enabling the porte to build up its independ ence of European control on the basis of late victories in war and diplomacy —has been nipped in the bud by Rus sia and Austria. Russia lias de manded payment of the war debt of 1878, and Austria has putin a claim for indemnification for later indebted ness which the Sultan has been forced to comply with. Thus Ger many loses fat contracts and diplo matic prestige, and the Turks find their legs tied by debt. The reported extension for fifty years of the concession to the Casino company at Monte Carlo is a mattei of considerable interest to the world at large. "It means," explains the New York Mail and Express, "the further enrichment of stockholders al ready inordinately wealthy through the proftt of the gaming table. But it also means—which is of more im portance—the impoverishment of men and women born to luxury, the squandering of millions not the prop erty of the men who squander them, broken hearts galore, and incidentally Ihe self-murder of a goodly number of fools made desperate by ill luck. It's a great place, this Monte Carlo. The devil is extremely fond of it." Apropos of a statemeut touching the manner in wh. „h this country has per formed its duty towards Spain in the matter of preventing filibustering, we have made inquiry for the exact de tails from the navy department, states Harper's Weekly. The government has maintained a patrol fleet on the coast of Florida for the last two years, consisting of the following vessels: Raleigh, Cincinnati, Amphitrite, Maine, Montgomery, Newark, Dolphiu, Mar blehead, Vesuvius., Wilmington, Helena, Nashville, Annapolis, and De troit. Most of the time three vessels have been on duty, and the cost of the service has ranged from $15,000 to $60,000 a month. The best witnesses to the effectiveness of this patrol ser vice are the filibusters themselves. If Spanish troops and warships had been as efficient against the insurgents as our navy has been againg filibus ters, the insurrection would have been conquered long ago. If the world seams eolJ to yon, Kindle fires to warm It. Let their comfort hide from you Winters that deform it. Hearts as frozen as your own To that radiance gather ; You will soou forget to moan "Ah ! the cheerless weather." His Freshman Romance. > S BY ABBIE FARWELL BROWN. r Apropos of finding photographs,did you fellows ever hear about Briar wood's romauce. In our freshman yeav it happened. Briarwood was not exactly in our crowd, you know, but we all came from the same fitting school,and so at first we saw a good deal of him. I remember I went over to his room that first evening after he was settled and found him sitting in his big arm chair before the open fire. He jumped up quickly when I came in and laid something slyly on the man telpiece. It looked like a photograph, and I began to blow him about being homesick so soon and asked if he was looking at mother's picture. He flushed up quickly and said it was nothing to be ashamed of if it had been his mother's picture, but that as it happened it was no such thing. Then he changed the subject and asked how I liked the room. "Have you noticed my desk?" he asked, pretty proudly. "I bought it of Thorne, the fellow who had this room last. He was first marshal last class day and a first-rate fellow, too, I judge. Great, isn't it, Stockton?" It was a handsome desk—mahogany, roll-top,with brass knobs and all that. He unlocked and rolled up the top for my benefit. * "Thorne gave me the key himself, with his alumnus blessing, today," he said, "and when I asked if 'finding was having' he laughed and said I was welcome to whatever I found in the old ark, for he was pretty sure there was nothing but undergraduate dust in the cracks." "But you did find something after all?" I asked quickly, for though he is a good lawyer now. he never could keep a secret in those days. "Oh, well, not much, ' he said,care lessly; but I saw him glance toward the mantel. I guessed in a minute . what it was, and before he could stop | me I sprang for the photograph at which he had been looking when 1 en tered. He jumped up angrily. "Give me that photograph!" "Oh, ho! So it's a girl, is it? And : a mighty pretty one, too." The girl was evidently tall and dark, 1 with a splendid figure, a strong face— almost masculine, but perfectly feat ured—and great big, dark eyes full of fun. She had a huge shade hang- j ing by its ribbons and was smiling so ; as to show the prettiest teeth I ever saw. "Thorne was a lucky fellow. I wonder—ah, here's a name on the back," I went on,composedly. " 'Rose Thorne.' Pshaw! So she was only his sister! What a fake!" Briarwood had the picture by this time and after putting it away in the desk turned upon me indignantly again. "You had no business to meddle with it," said he. "She's a stunner,"l answered, "and if 'finding is having,' Briarwood, I ad vise you to hunt up the original pretty quick, old man." With this parting shot 1 hurried out of the room, dodging the curve on a Greek lexicon that came tumbling after me. After that I saw more or less of Briarwood,principally less, for he soon grew too popular to stay in our set. He was easily the man of his class and no wonder, for take him all around, he is about as fine a chap as I ever saw. It was one evening along about the first of June, I think, when one of the fellows—Goodrich, expelled the year we graduated—came running into my room all out of breath for laughing and threw himself into my chair, so weak he could hardly speak. "Oh, it's the rich joke on Briar wood," he gasped at last; "it's the photograph he always carries around with him—'Rose Thome'— oh, my eye!" And he exploded again. "That picture—it's Thome's owu photo, taken last year in the Pi Eta theatricals. Here's a duplicate of it. I found it in Van Ruyter's room today." And he pulled out of his pocket another like ness of the fair Rose Thorne. The joke was too good to keep. The idea of dignified old Briarwood being in love with another fellow—a shaven and bewigged "Pose" blossoming on the Thorne tree! "And he carried that thing around in his vest pocket next his heart!" roared Goodrich. "I saw it the other day at the gym. Oh, the soft meat! He'll never hear the last of this!" Then we concocted the fine scheme. We agreed that the crowd should meet around at Briarwood's rooms some evening, quite accidentally, and man age to bring "Rose Thorue" into the talk somehow, till he fired up, then we would give it all away and explain that his lady-love existed only as a strapping alumnus, and the joke would be on him for the benefit of the whole college. For we planned to get a ver sion of it into the "Lampoon," with portraits. We set one night just before class day for our seance, and all the boys promised to be there to see poor old Briarwood through with it. Well,sirs, that evening Harry was in his best mood. He had just finished his last examination and was feeling pretty fine altogether, for his year's rank was a sure thing; however, the profs might play the deuce with the rest of us. He did the honors in great shape ajd showed no sign of caring for any girl, let alone the photograph whose SOMETHING. If the world's a "vale of tears," Bmlle till rainbows span it. Breathe the love that life endears— Clear from clouds to fan it. . Of your gladness lend a gleam Ujto souls that shiver Show them how dark sorrow's stream Blends with hope's bright river! original he had never seen. The boys began to put up the game before long. Goodrich was the one to start if off. "I say, fellows," he called across the room, "don't yout remember little Thorne? Yes, you do, at Adams' spread a year ago—little Rose in the red dress?" We had all come on for class day the year before. "Oh, yes," said another fellow,with a grin; "you mean the girl who took too much champagne—" "And couldn't walk totlie carnage," chimed in Eddy, with his horse-laugh. "I remember that, fellows; I carried her." "She was more than a handful for Thorne, that little sister of his," said another. And so they went on with their jokes about "Rosie," as they called her, each growing more per sonal in his hits, which were received with roars of laughter and assenting grins of delight. Briarwood was all this time sitting glum and quiet by the window, with his head bent in his hands, pulling fiercely at his pipe without a word. Then Goodrich said, suddenly: "I say, fellows, how many of you have her picture? She only gives 'em to the ones she loves best, sweet Sozo dont! I got mine the night I took her to Marliave's for a little dinner after the theatre. How's that, Briarwood? Is that the way you got yours?" Harry jumped up quickly and stood facing Goodrich defiantly, with his eyes flashing. "Oh, you've got it there,we know," went on Goodrich, tapping his breast pocket. "I've seen it; isn't it like this?" And lie pulled the duplicate out of his own pocket triumphantly. But Goodrich overdid the thing—he always did. He was a coarse brute, and the faculty was all right to get rid of him as soon as they did. He made some other remarks which were quite unnecessary 112 r the purposes of our joke and which we were all of us ashamed to hear, and then he stepped forward as if to grab the photograph out of Harry's pocket. But Briarwood was thoroughly waked up now. With a gesture he flung away his pipe and then, planting his big fist squarely between Good rich's eyes, sent him tumbling back with a crash against the door. "It's a lie; it's all a—lie," he said, steadily and in a low tone. "She is Jack Thome's sister, and I know she is a fine girl. I'm not ashamed to wear her photograph, but I won't take it out for you fellows to see. If any of the rest of you dare to say that Goodrich spoke the truth, let him step out and say it,and then I'll knock him down." Just then there was a knock on the door. We must have made a terrible racket there with our laughing and jollying, and when Goodrich fell he made a big crash, for he was a heavy fellow—half-back on the team until he was expelled. At auv rate, as we all stood there looking sheepish enough, in walked Mr. White, the proctor. He stood holding the door-knob in one hand and looking first around at the crowd of us, then straight at Harry, who was still standing with his fists clenched, glaring down at Goodrich on the floor. Then Mr. White asked, sternly: "What's ail this row, Mr. Briar wood? Did you knock this man down?" "I did, sir," Baid Harry, firmly. "Why, may I ask." "He insulted a lady." "A lady? What lady?" Harry made no reply, and some of the fellows snickered. But Harry looked around quickly with a glance that made us all keep quiet. "This is the lady's photograph," he said at last, steadily taking the pic ture from his breast and handing it to the proctor with much dignity. "She is the sister of a man who is an honor to the college. You know him, Mr. White." No one said a word, even to explain the joke. Mr. White started when he saw the face, turned it over and read the name as if puzzled. Then, as if suddenly comprehending, he glanced around the circle of us with a qnisi cal look and a half contemptuous smilfc. "Briarwood," he said, "you were quite right. I excuse your action and thank you in the name of the lady be fore all these gentlemen. Goodrich, get up and out of here as quickly as you can." Then turning to Harry again, he said, pleasantly, as if noth ing had happened: "Mr. Briarwood, there are a lady and gentleman waiting outside who would like to look at this room, if you are prepared to receive visitors now." We all stood mute and awkward while the proctor, after receiving a puzzled, but gracious assent from Harry, turned and spoke to some one outside the door. "Mr. Briarwood." he said,re-enter ing, followed by the two strangers, "I think you have met Mr. Thorne before. He wished his sister to see his old college room. It is the first time she has ever been to the college. I assure Miss Thorne, it is not usually so noisy here. The boys were having a little frolic tonight." One by one we slunk silently out of the room, fixing our dazed eyes to the last upon (he feminine counter part of the unlucky photograph—a sweeter, far lovelier version of the handsome brother, by whose side she shood chatting graciously -with Harrj and looking coldly at as from under half disdainful eyelids. We said little more to one anotbAi that night, but we all wondered, and wonder still, how much of that racket she ever heard. She had come to C early for her first class day, for she had been studying abroad for the last three years and so had missed her brother's spread. But she had wanted to see his old room,now Briar wood's, and had stumbled upon our joke. No, it didn't get around the college. I don't know whether Harry himself ever quite understood it. You see, we naturally did not care to have it noised around much, for even Good rich agreed that the joke wasn't ex actly on Briarwood* Oh, yes, her name really was Bose. Thorn e had written it 011 the photo because its resemblance to her was so perfect. We saw it still more plainly on class day, when she wore a big legliorn hat as she walked about the yard with Harry, the lucky dog! We hung around them anxiously, the whole crowd of us, hoping for an in troduction, but neither of them paid any attention to us. That was only Harry's freshman year. You should have seen him at his own class day. What's that? Of course, he did. Harry always got whatever he tried for, in college and out. Besides,hadn't Thorne himself agreed that "finding was having?" I rather think that Harry found something worth having on class day evening. It looked so. —Woman's Home Companion. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. There have been thirty fatal termin ations of prize fights since 1832. Seven out of every eight loaves of bread eaten in London are made from foreign wheat. The number of shops dealing exclu sively in horseflesh in the Belgian ports exceeds thirty. Sea weeds do not draw nourishment from the soil at the bottom of the sea, but from the matter held in solution in sea water. In spite of the closest espionage, the diamond mining companies of South Africa lose, it is said, $1,000,- 000 a year by theft. Woman is a subject never mentioned in Morocco. It would lie considered a terrible breach of etiquette to ask u man about his wife. One of the stations of the railway which is to be built from the Bed sea to the top of Mount Sinai will be on the spot where it is supposed Moses stood when he received the two tables of the law. The Congregational church in Gil sum, N. H., completed ll!5 years of existeuce the other day. The damask linen cloth, woveu on a hand loom, about 1790, is still used to cover the commuuion table. According to the premier of New Zealand, a homing pigeon flew from Victoria to New Zealand in three days. The distance is about 1000 miles, and the bird must have llown without rest at a speed of about fifteen miles an hour. In one consignment a feather dealer in London received 6000 birds of para dise, 3(50,000 birds of various kinds from the East ludies aud 400,000 hum ming birds. In three months another dealer imported 356,398 birds from the East Indies. A large sunfish weighing-188 pounds was captured off the south side of Nantucket, B. 1., by a party of fisher men and brought into town, where it has been 011 exhibition, attracting large numbers to see this wonderful monster of the deep. The Manx cat is not the only tail less variety. In Crimea is found an other kind of cat which has no tail. The domesticated Malay cat has a tail that is only about one-half the usual length, ami very ot'teu it is tied by nature in a kind of knot which can not be straightened out. Herr Marpmann lias found microbes of various kinds in seventy-seven samples of ink—red, blue and nigro siue—supplied to schools, and some of the microbes were deadly enough to kill mice inoculated with them. He recommends that ink bottles should not be left open to the air in schools. French Secret Police Methods. I once spent an afternoon in a pleas ant little villa 011 the banks of the Marne, with the former chief of police in the time of Napoleon 111, up to the proclamation of the republic. No one would have thought, to look at the peaceful figure of the proprietor, a little man in sabots, with gray beard ala Millet, absorbed in cultivating the magnificent hortensiasthat covered his terraces, reaching to the water's edge, that his head had been a store house for all the machinations and turpitudes of that period of decadence which ended in a disastrous war and a revolution. It was on that afternoon that I learned how the fatal Ollivier ministry was decided upon by M. Thiers and his political friends one evening in the conservatory of a beau tiful French woman, living not far from the Opera. Two brothers, well known in the best Paris society,mean while distracted the attention of the gnestß in the salon by sleight-of-hand tricks and gymnastic feats on a Per sian rng. And when I asked the old man how he knew all this with such precision, "From a feinme de cliain bre," he answered, tranquilly, "all personages of importance at that time, r.t their own request, took their ser vants ouly from my haud."—Harper's Weekly. A sponge with the great circum ference of five feet six inches has lately been taken from the waters o' Bivsayne Bay Florida. A TEMPERANCE COLUMN. THE DRINK EVIL MADE MANIFEST IN MANY WAYS. Wanted-l.lttlo Tim an ties of the laboring classes. Working ir besotted by drink aro easily robbed of th rights. They forfeit in their folly th due share of the advantages that modi invention and industrial progress have w for them. Men whose faculties have bi weakened by excessive drinking are iu pableof defending their rights and una to preserve them. The victims of sale environment becomo easy victims oft delusive sophistries of socialism and archy. Slaves to the drink habit en:- become unconscious slaves of uuscrupuh masters who deceive and mislead tUemii believing that the avowed enemy of wen is tho poor mau's friend. Working ri whose earnings support the saloon -1 never be capable of maintaining tl rights nor of performing their duties. I solute habits will iufullibly oonsign people to debasing bondage, depend poverty, degrading slavery and self-c tempt. Sober men are at least capabk receiving salutary lessons, of giving in ligent consideration to tho vexatious pi lems that arise between organized wet and organized labor. There is always couraging hope that men who are not sotted by drink can bo guided safely in fence of " their right and in performanci their duties." No I.iquor at Sea. Whatever the deep-water sailor's incl tions and habits may be ashore, says New York Sun, he gets no liquor to d at sea, unless it comes from aft and is d out to him. When the men that tnak the crew go aboard, which they do jus! fore the ship sails,their traps aro searc and If whisky is found it goes usualiy the side. It might bo possible for asi to smuggle üboard a little whisky, enc to last for a day, but after that hew he most lil:ely a total abstainer until ship reached port. Work of KiiKliHh Temperance Ileforn Canon Hicks, of Kugland, declarci cemly in a public address that temper reformers were doing more than tore individuals, since they were lighting the liberty of the people, whose bodies souls, and whose homes and happi were virtually bought andsold by the ( brewer capitalists. This is a serious dlctment. but there aro facts which e be cited to support it. Generally Admitted. "The evil of intemperaneo is gene admitted," says the Itev. N. J- McMan the C. T. A. U. Convention in Sera: Penn., last summer. "Economically it poor investment. Socially It is an int able nuisance, condemned alike by pr and public Opinion. Unified public opi tho law of the State, has adjudged di enness a crime punishable by line am prisonment, and justly so in tho lutori public morals." Temperance New* and Note*. Temperance helps to remove ...Jipts Body and soul are benefited by abstii from liquor. Scientific temperanoo is taught In hoys* and girls' colleges at Coneej Chill, and tho young people are great terested. Temperance reform Is one of the urgent of national remedies, becaut temperance is one of the most dang of national evils. One's own self-interest demands tei ance; besides which, the good exc shown to others will undoubtedly infl gome In the right direction. Why should a man be discourage cause in the battle with his appetite: made cognizant of his weakness? I not the weapon of prayer to overconc enemies of his soul?