Russia has the most rapidly increase iug population of any country on the globe. Eeports froui China say that the women of that country are rapidly ac quiring the bicycle habit. Oriental progress has evidently been fitted out with pneumatic tires. The governmental report that only one person in fifteen was able to earn a living last year in Alaska ought to have a deterring effect upon people contemplating going to that country in the spring. The gold craze will probably prove too strong, and thou sands will go there, only to find un timely graves or to return home broken in health and purse. The twenty-second annual report cf President, Arthur Von Briesen, of the Legal Aid society of New York city, tells of legal assistance given during 1897 to 5350 persons, of $35,979 actu ally collected iu the office of the so ciety, and §30,839 recovered by settle ment outside the office. At least 3000 other applications received attention, but did not require actual legal ser vice, and were not recorded. The society's business is to give legal as sistance to persons too poor to engage counsel. It undertakes many cases where the claims would cost private counsel more to collect than they are worth. The recovery of a sewing girl's four dollars, or an artisan's five or six dollars, honestly earned but withheld, comes within the scope of society's good offices. It lias come to be the habit to give the whole name of a benefactor to a university. We have Johns Hopkins, Leland Stanford, Jr., and now the John B. Stetson university of l)e Land, Florida. On February 10th, which was presentation day, President Harper of Chicago university, and the Hon. J. L. M. Curry of the Peabody aud Slater funds, were present, and gifts were announced for a new chapel and library, erected by Mr. Stetson at an expense of 850,003, provided with valuable organ and a collection for a museum of natural history by Mrs. Monroe Heath. The announce ment was made of SIOO,OOO additional endowment, half of it having been conditional, given by Mr. Stetson, who also transferred real estate to the value of $15,000 to the trustees. The day thus added something like SIBO,OOO to the property of the col lege. Nature seems to be able to regulate the births of males and females with out the help of German savants, as serts the New York Times. It may be remembered that Buckle found that the average birth rate the world over was twenty-one boys to twenty girls, thus giving every Jill a chance for a Jack, after allowing for the greater death rate among males. The Springfield Republican is authority for the assertion that in Massachu setts for forty years the male birth rate relative to the female has not noticeably changed, the number of male births to each 1000 female birth? iu the last twenty years being 1053 as compared with 1059 for the preceding twenty years. In Europe, observa tions covering ten years indicate an average of 10G0 males born to every 1000 females, England being at one extreme, with 1038, and Italy at the other, with 1071. A corn convention held in Chicago recently developed several schemes for extending the use of the great American grain. It was resolved, re ports the Atlanta Journal, to make elaborate exhibits of corn and the many forms iu which it is prepared for i'ood uses at the Omaha exposition, the Buffalo exposition and the Paris exposition of 1900. The present high price of wheat has done much to im * prove the prospects of corn as a food product. Already a large proportion of the flour used in this country is made largely of corn. This flour is cheaper than pure wheat flour and quite as nutritious. More corn is being consumed as food in this coun try than ever before and the quantity •will increase. Our corn is also be coming more popular in Europe. The prejudice against it among the masses of Europe is being destroyed. They are learning by actual experience that corn is good as well as cheap; that it may be prepared in many palatable forms, and that it has excellent quali ties as a food substance. This is the main reason why our exports of corn have increased so rapidly. Corn is already our greatest crop both in size and value, aud will continue to hold the supremacy. The movement to extend its use in foreign countries is timely, and will conduce to the inter est of nearly every section of the country. Great Britain controls twenty-on< out of every 100 square miles of the earth's surface. Only twenty per cent, of the mur ders committed yearly in America and Europe are ever found out. The funniest story of the result ol paying bounties for animals' scalps comes from Kansas. Sumner county offered three cents for every rabbit's scalp brought in. The farmers loaded up their double-barreled howitzers, sallied forth, killed 158,514 rabbits, and broke the county. One hundred and sixteen thousand, four hundred and ninety humming birds were sold at a recent sale in England, and a corresponding num ber of other birds. With regard to the lyre-bird an eminent ornithologist says,"This wonderful bird will soon become a thing of the past, and with it will disappear the sole survivor of a very ancient race before even its habits and structure are wholly known." There has been a great and general improvement within fifteen years in the phrasing of obituary resolutions, maintains Harper's Weekly. Persons, still pitiably young, may remember when almost all the obituary resolu tions that appeared in the newspapers began: "Whereas it has pleased an inscrutable Providence to remove our late neighbor, James Smith, Resolved, that we submit," etc. This form seems no longer to be in general use. The resolutions of the day take some things for granted, and are a good deal more tersely and simply con trived. In a western town the other day a man committed suicide on being ap prehended in the act of stealing a dictionary from a street bookstall. He had just purchased a bottle of laudanum, presumably for the tooth ache. He drained the bottle before a hand was raised to save him. What makes the tragedy more pitiful is the fact that the dictionary was a Latin lexicon. It is hard to find an expla nation for his rash act; possibly he knew the people with whom he had to deal, and feared the mad-house more thau the prison cell. He might have been a stranded wanderer from Bos ton. The following surprising story is told—as illustrative of one phase of the character of the Russian peasant —in a recent magazine: During the last Russo-Turkish war, a Russian regiment marching from Philippopolis to Adrianople overtook the Turkish refugees; whereupon the terrified Turkish women threw down their in fants in their flight. The Russian soldiers, while pressing on as rapidly as possible, stooped and picked up the babies, until nearly every man in the regiment was carrying a child, and the general was absolutely obliged to stop the march aud find carts and men to transfer the children to a place of safety. The New York Tribune estimates that our pension list exceeds all Ger many's army costs by more than $40,- 000,000 a year, and is $30,000,000 more than that of France. Only Russin's military expenditures upon her giant army, patrolling Europe and Asia from the Baltic to the Yellow sea and the Indian ocean, exceed the sum which, thirty years after the close of the war, we still annually pay over to our pensioners. Russia's military burden, all told, is $176,942,600; our pension list is not quite equal to this, but, with the cost of our small army of 25,000 men added, the aggregate exceeds it. Our military expenditures are thus greater than those of any country in the world." An interesting exhibit at the Ten nessee Centennial was a library of five thousand volumes writteu exclu sively by women of every country where there is a literature. There were four books written by a Chinese woman, A. D. 25. They were sent by the empress of China. The Chinese woman wrote about the manners and customs of women, and recommended obedience to husbands. The emperor of Japan sent one hundred and twenty-six books written by the women of his realm. There wore twelve modern Greek books sent by Queen Olga. There were books from Armenia, Persia, Hungary, Roumania, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Aus tria, Portugal, Spain, England, Ire land, Scotland, Norway and Sweden. All of the South American countries were represented. Many of these books were the only ones by women ever published in the country from which they were sent. This was the case with the volumes from Honduras and Guatemala. EASTER FLOWERS. I Tho roses were the first to bear— The roses trelllsed to the tomb; lMng roses—bide the marks of spear And cruel nails that sealed His doom The lilies were the first to see— The lilies on that Easter morn; Bring lilies—crowned with blossoms be The head so lately orowned with thorn. The roses were the first to hear: Ere yet the dark bad dreamed of dawn, The faintest rustle reached their ear; They heard the napkin downward drawn; They listenod to His breathing low; His feet upon the threshold fall. Bring roses—sweetest buds that blow, His love the perfume of them all. The lilies were the first to see: They, watching in the morning gray, Saw augels oome so silently And roll the mighty stone away; They saw Him pass the portal's gloom; He brushed their leaves—oh, happy dowerl Bring lilies—purest buds that bloom, His face reflected in each flower. The roses were the first to hear. The lilies were the first to see; Bring fragrant flowers from far and noar To match tbe Easter melody! "Rabbonl!" be ou every tongue. And every heart the rapture share Of Mary, as she kneels among The roseß and the lilies fair! —Clarence Urmy, In the Century. ooooooooooooooooooooooooos | MARIAN'S § | EASTER LILY. | O BY MARY E. CL'LLINANE. X 00900000000000000000000000 THEBE, mamma, I've lost the prize!" said Mar ,"K ian ]3 11 woo d , bursting into the sitting-room one V\ i, bright sunny af . Vd-Lr / \|/|,// ternoon in Oct- U Jli/ oher - "A lice (MM IM; Bobbins won it, and I will never forgive her, be cause she told me last week I may as well give up the contests as she was sure I wouldn't obtain the prize. I know Mary Brown of the senior class must have helped her, and that was not honorable, as tho teacher said we were not to receive help from any body ou our essays." The contest in question was for tlie best written essay on "Nature," and was to be entirely origiual. The prize to bo given was a volume of Long fellow's poems, a much coveted book by Marian, as she was very foud of reading "Evangeline," and now to see it slip from her was indeed too much, really exasperating. Always having received a high mark for her essays, Marian was confident in this case that her work excelled any she had previously writteu. Alioe Bob bins, too, was also a good essayist, and the contest had been supposed to be a tie between them. But the judge iu the matter had prononnced in favor of Alice. All this was very humiliating to Marian, who was fully conscious of her own ability, and who declared that evening that she would be even with Alice yet. Her mother, on the contrary, tried to instil into her little daughter's mind how beautiful it was to forgive and forget, aud how much better it was to have that little inner voice telling her, "You have done your best," rather than have it constantly repeating, "You have been dishonest, Marian, aud your essay belonged to somebody else, not to you." But Marian could not or would not overcome her chagrin, and went to bed that night in anything but an enviable frame of mind, declaring to herself over and over again that she would never again speak to Alice Bobbins. The next day she went to school, her ill-humor liavingin noway abated, and at recess obstinately refused to speak to Alice, who, to the surprise of Marian, did not seem to be elated with her prize as it would naturally be sup posed she would be under tho circum stances. The winter passed on and Easter was fast approaching. To meet it the girls were planning for an entertainment to be held at the school on Easter Monday night, to which parents aud friends were to be invited. In the preparation the girls were having a merry time, but one thing alone jarred on their thoughts, and that was the difficulty between Alice and Marian. These two girls were the two most accomplished ones in the class and to get along without them the rest could not. But finally at last'an excellent scheme was deci ded on, tho effect of which, it was hoped, would be a reconciliation be tween the friends, and it was deter mined to try it the very next day. Therefore it was that the following morning the girls, eager to execute "LISTENING TO THE CHur.cn BELLS.' their well laid plan, entered the school room chatting merrily. In their midsf was Marian, and they also expected to find Alice in the room; but lo! Alice, who was usually very punotual, was not in her accustomed place when the bell rang. All the morning the girls wondered what had happened to Alice. At last word came to the teacher that she was very ill with diphtheria. It was very prevalent in the neighborhood and great oonsternation prevailed among the girls at the announcement, for Alice, with all her short-comings, was beloved by every scholar. But how had Marian taken this startling piece of news? Did a voice whisper, "Now you are revenged; she cannot eolipse you now at the enter tainment?" No, the better nature of Marian as serted itself on the instant, and a great wave of sympathy stole over her, and she uttered a short prayer for Alice's recovery. Then she vowed to herself that if Alice were to be able to come to the entertainment she, Mar ian, would procure for the occasion the handsomest Easter lily to be found, and present it to her in atone ment for her past harshness. At home she entreated of her mother to be allowed togo to see Alice, saying that she feared her dear companion might die and spend her Easter in heaven. To this her mother sternly objected, pointing out the risks her darling would run of getting sick herself. "I think, though, you might write., her a nice letter," her mother said, "and ask her to forgive you." And the next morning Marian did, after listening to the church bells from her open window, and how happy Alice was when she received the glad message. Crying with joy, she made the resolution when she ended its reading that she would con fess all, and give up the prize which she hail so dishonestly won, and give it to Marian. "Two days more, and it will be Easter Monday. How happy I am," exclaimed Marian Ellwood excitedly, as she waved a small envelope over her head. "I have just received this note from Alice Bobbins, and she says the doctor told her yesterday that she would be well enough to come to our eutertainment." Alice and Marian had at last become fast friends. The old love for. each had returned once more. Alice had confessed everything; she had told how Mary Brown, being in a senior class, had written her essay for her. Sweet presence of our rls