WITH LOVE'S LEADING. II Love'll only lead ms I'll never ask tho If Love'll only lead mo—will hear the pray way— era I pray, Or if It's wild with Winter or blossom-blown In even the darkest midnight my soul shall with May. dream of day ; If thorns —I shall not heed them—if roses— The thorn shall feel the blossom—the night well-a-day ! the morning's ray ; If Love'll only lead mo I'll never ask the If Love'll only lead mo I'll never ask the way. way. —F. L. Btanton, in Atlanta Constitution. IP At the Last floment. J Jj BY W. PF.TT IUPOE. F There are still people who talk of Wellington and 1815, but it is now generally understood that the real battle of Waterloo takes place every Saturday morning at the station of that name, when the special trains start for South Africa. It is a des perate struggle while it lasts, and the uniformed men have an exceedingly warm time of it, but they have al ways conquered before, and this en courages and gives them enthusiasm. Mr. John Beste—the name v. as on the leather label of his single portman teau—Mr. John Beste, down in good time before the real tussle began, looked on with interest. He was a tall, reserved-looking man, with a short beard and the brown complexion that comes to men who have looked at the South African sun. "No one to see me off," said John Beste. (A short mother was stepping on tiptoe to kiss a burly youth, and the sight gave him thoughts.) "Of course there is no one to see me off," he continued, argumentatively. "Why should there be?" Mr. John Beste placed his portman teau in the corner of a tirst-class com partment and laughed a little bitterly at his grumbled soliloquy. A light touch 011 his arm made him wheel round. The sound of a soft voice made him Hush. "Mr. Beste!" "Miss Langham! Are you here to say good bye to me?" "That was the idea, "said the young woman, brightly. "I suppose there are others. How long before your train goes?" "Only twenty minutes, Miss Lang ham." "Only twenty minutes? I am sorry that you are going so quickly. And you will see Mr. Charterhouse, I suppose?"—she stepped aside to avoid a juggernaut trolley of luggage "as soon as you arrive?" she re sumed. "I can't possibly avoid that. Is Mrs. Langham here?" "My aunt does not know that T have come down. Did you want to see her, Mr. Beste?" "Her presence," he said, gravely, "is not indispensable to my happi ness." "I'm afraid that you are inclined to be a little unjust to her. You don't know her as well as I do, Mr. Beste." "That is so. But Mrs. Langham has made quite a confidant of me (lur ing the time that I have been here, and and well, I think I understand her." "I should like to know what you talked about. It occurred to meat din ner last night that " "Upon my word, Miss Langham, I have half a mind to tell you." "Half a iniud is plenty, Mr. Beste. I have a special reason for wanting to know. My dear aunt has not always the best tact in the world." "That," he said, dryly, "occurred to me." "Was it of me that she was talking, I wonder? Was 1 the object?" "It was of you," he said. "And my aunt said?" "Am t bound to answer these ques tions, my lord?" A baud of Hebrew financial gentle men c.inie along the crowded platform, forming an entourage to some impor tant individual in their ceutre. With the enterprise of their race,they forced the other passengers aside, and Mr. John Beste and Miss Langham were separated in the commotion. "Yon are bound," said the young Portia, returning, "to answer all the questions that are put to you for the next fifteen minutes." "Mrs. Langham," said Mr. John Beste, shifting his rug from one arm to the other and bending a little closer to the bewildering hat and the charm ing face that it selfishly attempted to hide, "Mrs. Lnngliam was extremely anxious that I should convey certain information to Mr. Charterhouse. As manager of Mr. Charterhouse's valu able mine, Mrs. Langham seems to have thought that I should be a vari able—what shall I say?—a valuable fellow-conspirator." "Goon," she said,quickly and v ith great concern. "I wonder whether you can guess what I am going to say?" "I hope lam not gueSsing rightly. It is too terrible!" "Mrs. Langham was good enough to say that for anything I could say to my—my master, Mr. Charterhouse, that would assist the object she had in view I should be well repaid. This was, of course, very generous of your aunt." "Goon, Mr. Beste." The time was flying. Passengers were settling down in their compart ments, and at every window was a bunch of heads. There were tears, too, because some of those on the plat form—parents saying goodby to sons and wives saying adieu to husbands— were sufficiently old-fashioned to pos sess emotions. "And what I had to do was this: Mr. Charterhouse is, as you know, a bachelor." "Mr. Charterhouse may be an old maid for all I know or care," she said, hotly. "And I—l was to use my influence with Charterhouse—which is.l admit, 1 considerable—to induce him to come over here to—see Miss Langham." "And buy her, I suppose," she ex claimed, trembling with excitement, but not allowing her voice to raise it self. "To liny me and to sign the agreement at St. George's, Hanover square." "I think," lie said, apologetically, "that your aunt is very anxious that yon should make a good marriage." "These good marriages are all bad ones," declared Eva Langham, hotly. "Mr. Beste, you must help me. I cannot allow my aunt to make me ap pear shameful and ridiculous in peo ple's eyes. You must promise not to say a word to Mr. Charterhouse about me. I don't kuow him, and I don't want to know him." "He saw you once, I think, when you were a girl at school." "I beg of yon, Mr. Beste, to do this for me. I shall marry—when Ido marry—just whom 1 like, and I will not consider any one whom I don't like." "I am glad to hear you say so." "I should not dream of saying any thing else." "I thought, from what your aunt said, that you understood " "Indeed, indeed, Beste," she said, pleadingly, "you must not think so badly of me as all that." "I can't tell you how glad I am," he said, honestly, "to hear it. I shall, at any rate, take away pleasant memories now." "Thank you." "And,"he went on, with something of a hurry in his manner, "I shall thiuk of you a great deal, Miss Lang ham. Now that you have told me this, I shall look back upon this visit to England as one of absolute delight." "And —and you will come back again?" He waited a moment. "I wonder whether I might write to yon?" he asked. "I think," she said, locking tip with a pleased expression, "that there is no law against that." "I was afraid you would consider it an impertinence on my part." "You find that I do not." "There is something else to ex plain," he said, awkwardly. "I have been here, to some extent,in disguise. I think, perhaps, I ha 1 better write and tell you all about it." "There are still live minutes," she said,looking at the tiny gold watch on her wrist. "Why not tell me now?" "I suppose," he said, with some nervousness, "that under no circum stances would you marry Mr. Charter house. " "Under no circumstances," replied Miss Langham, decidedly. "He is very rich," he remarked, "and I«happen to know that he " "I desire," said the young woman, with much spirit. "I desire not to hear Mi - . Charterhouse's name again." "Your mind is quite made up?" "Quite." A porter stood patiently at the door of the compartment, holding it open for the passenger to South Africa. "There's nothing like a young en gaged couple," said the acute porter to himself, "for making traius late, They don't care." "But suppose I were to tell yen " he said, taking her hand and holding it, "that Mr. Charterhouse, who was a poorish man until three years ago, when this mine was found on his prop erty,has been in England lately? Sup pose I were to tell you that he has fallen in love with you " "Even that doe-uiot concern me, Mr. Beste." "And supposing I were to tell yon that, to avoid beiug pestered by finan cial people and to seethe little school girl who has grown so tall and so—so charming, he preferred to call him self, not Mr.Charterhouse, the owner of the West End mine, but Mr. Beste, the manager of " "That," said Miss Langham, her breath coming quickly, "would make all the difference." The porter jerked his head towa' d the compartment, to hint to his clieut that moments were valuable. The client had no need of this intimation, for he knew better than the porter how very precious the moments were. "Do you really mean that?" he asked, quickly. "I never say things I don't mean, Mr.Beste—l mean Mr.Charterliouse." She laughed a little nervously, "I shall always think of you as Mr. Beste." "But will you always think of me? May I come back here in three months' time and ask you formally " "Now, then, sir," said the porter, "you'll go and lose the special, that's what you'll do." "I mustn't do that, my man. Good bye, Eva. I must take my seat,l sup pose." He stepped into the coreipartmeut, and the porter, shutting the door, re ceived a tip that made him whistle with delight. "And you won't give me an answer now, then?" he went on, anxiously. "I wish there was time to persuade you, dear, to say 'Yes.' But I sup pose I must wait until I return, and we'lllllßl talk it over then, and I must try to induce yon " "I think," said Eva Langham,look ing up and drawing lier giay veil care fully up from her lips, "I think that, considering how very badly you hav* behaved, the wisest thing yoa can do is to—is to kiss me." There was just time. "And that means?" he said.delight edly. "It means," she said, "that lam very, very happy." Out you go, special train to South ampton. Go slowly for a space, mind, because there are folks in the train who are reluctant to leave; go slowly, because there are hopes and ambitions among your passengers, and this start of yours is the first step toward their realization of their disappointment; go slowly, because a bearded man,with a look of content, is straining his sight to miss nothing of the picture of hia future wife. "Well," said Eva Langham to her self, shyly, "this has been a busy twenty miuutes."—Woman at Home. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. A ton of pure gold is worth $002,* 789.21. Marriages in India during the year ended June 30 lust, numbered 23,090 aud the divorces 3080. The great nstronomical clock at Strasburg is the most intricate piece of clockwork in the world. Over 4,000,000 frozen rabbits nre annually exported to the London mar ket from Victoria, Australia. A consignment of sixty-five tierces of corned horse meat has been sent from Linton, Ore., to Rotterdam. Queen Victoria rules more people than ever before acknowledged the sovereignty of king, queen or empress. In the Franco-German war every third German soldier had a map of the country through which he was travel ing. The atmosphere is so clear in Zulu land that, it is said, objects can be seen by starlight at a distance of seven miles. A Kansas City hardware firm re ceived nn order from a country town for a case of iron tonic. It was turned over to a drug house. Figures have been collected in a suburb of Berlin showing that 44 pei cent, of all the children work two to three hours at home before school hours. The oldest city in the world is Nippur, the "Older Bel" of Babylon. The foundations were laid 7000 years B. C. The ruins have lately been un earthed. The British Institute of Public Health will be styled in future the Royal Institute of Public Health, and Queen Victoria has accepted the otlice of patron. Chicago, in the past eight years, has spent the huge sum of $32,225,- 730.83 for street paving, and is still one of the worst paved of the large cities of the world. Bonaparte's house at Longwood, St. Helena, is now a barn ; the room he died in is a stable, and where the im perial body lay instate may be found a machino for grinding corn. At Munich there is a hospital which is entirely supported bv the sale of old steel pen nibs, collected from all parts of Germany. They are made into watch springs, knives and razors. la 1877 Falcon lslaud, in the Friendly Group, began as a smoking shoal; ten years later it was a volcanic island about three hundred feet high and over one and one-half miles long. Now it is disappearing. Greenlanders get their growth when about twenty-five years old. The old est persons known are about sixty years of age. Every person has a sack for telling his age, aud each sun rise (once a year) a bone is put into this sack. Three miles from the village of Krisuvik, in the great volcanic district of Iceland, there is a whole mountain composed of eruptive clays and pure white sulphur. A beautiful grotto penetrates the western slope to an un known depth. Many well-dressed London dandies have contracts with West P2ud florists for the supply of button-hole bouquets. As a rule, the charge is about £1 a week, and this includes two button holes daily, one for wear during the day, aud the other for the evenings. The authorities in the government of Samara, Russia, have recently been actively engaged in tho criminal pur suit of kidnapping children whose parents belong to heterodox sects. The police usually make their visits in the middle of the night, take the chil dren out of bed and carry them oil' in the cold night ai •. Only l(all IMuyers on Hoard. During the nightof the terrible hnr ricance in the harbor of Apia, Samoa, Lieutenant Carlin was the executive officer of the Vandalia. In shipping the crew at Mare island he had given preference in the selection of sailors to those who were baseball players, as he was an enthusiast in the game. While in this port on a previous voy age his baseball team of the ship's men had been badly beaten by the Hono lulu team, nud he determined to meet it again with a better set of men. The Vandalia, however, left this port for Samoa. After the vessel struck the reef and the men were clinging to the rigging, and the surf was making a clean sweep over the deck,and many of the men had been washed overboard, Lieutenant Carlin determined to make a desperate attempt to carry a line from one part of the vessel to the main yard. He shouted out in the howling wind; "I waut some volunteers; good sailors." A voice out of the dark tempest re plied: "Lieutenant, there ain't no sailors here, but plenty of baseball players."—Pacific Commercial Adver tiser. SERMONS OF THE DAY. RELICIOUS TOPICS DISCUSSED BY PROMINENT AMERICAN MINISTERS. fflnr Te»t«rrlnk Habits of the Various Nation* —Most Drink Consumed is Mail* In the Country Where It Is Absorbed, [The Arabs have this proverb to warn against letting bad habits begin: "Bewar« of the camel's nose."] Once in a shop a workman wrought With languid hand and listless thought, When, through the open window space, Behold, a camel thrust his face! "My nose is cold," he meekly cried; "O, let me warm it by thy side!" Since no denial word was said, •Jn oarne the nose, in came the head; Assure as sermon followed text The Jong and shaggy neck came next; And ti«en as falls the threatening storm, In leaped the whole ungainly form. Aghast, the Vrwner gazed around. And on the rudfc invader frowned, Convinced, as still he pressed. There was no room n. or such a guest; Yet, more astonished, l>' ln sa >'< "If thou art troubled, go thy 1 For In this place I choose to stay." O, youthful hearts, to gladness born, Treut not this Arab lore with soorn! To evil habit's earliest wile Lend neither ear nor glance nor smile! Choke the dark fountain ere it flows, Nor e'en admit the camel's nose. Some Statistics on Nations' Drinking. The country owes thanks to Sir Courte nny Boyle. Most blue-hooks nre dry, ami few of us care to master their contents. Sir Courteney Boyle hns succeeded, however, in producing one thut almost might be de scribed as fascinating—the drink statistics of the civilized world, or, to give it its official and rather long-windod title, "The Production and Consumption of Alcoholic Boverages" (wine, beer, spirits). A study of tho paper leads to one con clusion, namely—that not only will people drink as long as they can afford to pay for it, but that they will drink. Franco pro duces ten times as much wine as Germany; it also exports ten times as much; and yet more German wine is imported into the United States than French wine. The answer is obvious: There are In the States many successful German settlers, and they, having the money, will have the hock of tho Fatherland, no matter what they pay for it. Thus also in prosperous Belgium people put scarcely any limit on them selves in the matter of drink, and whether it bo beer or spirits Belgium stands at tho lieud in the mutter of consumption per head, while even as regards wine, although it is not a wine-producing country, the in habitants consumo as much as do the Ger mans, whoso country is wine-producing. One point that is brought out very clear ly in these tables is the fact that the drink trade is almost every w hero a home indus try, i.e., that by far tho greater portion of the drink consumed is made in tho country consuming it. We in England import so much wine and brandy from the continent that vro are perhaps not altogether in a position to realize tho fact, and yet even in £ England by far tho greater part of thu> drink consumed is home-made. This is proved by the relative proportions of the customs receipts from imported and the excise receipts from homo-mudo liquors. Tho customs receipts umount to A' 5,500,000, and the excise receipts to X' 27,090.000, or in the proportion of seventeen per cent, to eighty-three percent, in favor home made. Perhaps very few hoyv great an extent Franco is the gi * winrj produeing, nnd also the great